What is purging?Updated a year ago
Purging is a breakout that can occur when someone with acne-prone skin starts using skin-renewing ingredients like retinoids or chemical exfoliants. It presents as a slight increase in blemishes, usually in the areas where you normally break out anyway.
Dermatologists are generally aware of the phenomenon, especially when it comes to retinol purging, but to date, no researcher has posited a clear reason for it. It’s often conflated with irritation, which is common after starting prescription tretinoin (i.e., retinoid acid).
Since acne is an inflammatory condition, irritation does have the potential to exacerbate breakouts, especially at the outset when the skin is getting used to the new product. However, this type of flare-up caused by irritation isn’t necessarily purging.
In the skincare world, we’ve noticed that a small increase in breakouts can occur even when the skin doesn’t seem irritated. While the phenomenon hasn’t been studied, the logical conclusion is that any ingredient that stimulates the shedding of dead skin cells can cause purging.
Basically, by removing dead skin from the surface layers of the skin, we encourage the lower levels of the skin to regenerate more quickly. Any clogs below the skin surface rise to the top before your new skin-renewing ingredient has had a chance to clear away existing blemishes. What follows is a temporary situation where (and forgive the cliche) your skin looks a little worse before it gets better.