“Actives”: Skincare Ingredients That Actually Do Stuff
As much as I like all this beauty stuff, I'm aware that most of it is marketing bullshit. With skincare, there's already a pretty good consensus on what works, and it's mostly stuff that's been around forever and is very unsexy from a marketing perspective. But capitalism is a bottomlessly hungry machine. Consumers crave constant innovation, which is how we end up with 500 dollar creams that are basically just cetaphil in prettier (unhygenic) jars. The vast majority of skincare products don't do even half of what they claim to, and effectiveness often has very little to do with price point. In order to get the most out of your skincare, you need to know what ingredients are actually proven, by peer reviewed research, to make a difference for your skin. Unfortunately, they're aren't that many of them, but at least that's more skincare products you can convince yourself not to buy.
Obviously, you don't need to use all of these. You don't need to use any of these. The built-in disclaimer of this blog is that all of this stuff is totally bullshit and you will get old and die regardless. But if you wanna look pretty in your coffin and make people at your funeral think you died tragically young instead of at a normal, boring age, I have some recommendations.
Retinol (aka Retin-A, Differin, tretinion, adapalene, retinoid)
Retinol is crazy. It's a form of Vitamin A and it does basically everything - slows the aging process, helps calm down acne, boosts collagen levels, fades scars (even stretch marks!), and lots of other things. Basically, retinol works by increasing the cell turnover of your skin. Unfortunately, when you start using a retinol, that means your face kind of just starts starts flaking off. Your skin gets dry and it can make everything look a lot worse before it looks better. You need to introduce it very, very slowly. I started with a low concentration applied twice a week and worked my way up, and my face still looked pretty gnarly for a month or two. I had a few people ask me if I'd gotten a chemical peel. But if you stick it out, moisturize heavily, and make sure to protect your skin from the sun (retinol can make you extra photosensitive, so it's best to use at night), the results are definitely worth it. Your skin WILL eventually adjust and stop falling off, I promise.
You can get some retinoids over-the-counter in small doses(The Ordinary is probably where they're available for the cheapest price), but usually it's something you need a prescription for. I get mine through Curology, and I can't recommend them enough. It's a 20 dollar a month service for an online dermatologist. They send you a custom formulated bottle every few months and they're on call 24/7 if you have any questions. Their prescriptions can include retinol as well as a lot of the other actives on this list. Mine has azaleic acid and clyndamycin in it. Considering I used to pay 100 dollars for ONE bottle of just retinol that would last me maybe a month or two, Curology is more than worth it. Use retinols in the evening, after you've washed your face and before you've put on anything else. Make sure your face is dry when applying the retinol. Don't exfoliate at the same time as using a retinol unless you know your skin can handle it - it's too harsh for most people.
EDIT: Since writing this post I've learned that retinol actually doesn't make you more photosensitive, but it does degrade in sunlight, so it's still best to use at night.
Vitamin C (aka L-ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbyl phosphate, ascorbyl palmitate, retinyl ascorbate, tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate, magnesium ascorbyl phosphate, ascorbyl glucoside)
Vitamin C is arguably the most basic bitch vitamin. So mainstream. For skin, it's a strong protective against photoaging (aka sunspots and wrinkles) and lightens already existing areas of hyperpigmentation. It works as an antioxidant ("oxidiziation" is basically the mechanism of skin aging, so anything antioxidant is gonna be great to put on your face. I sort of know how antioxidants work, but this wikipedia page explains it better if you're interested).
The annoying thing about Vitamin C is that it's a really sensitive ingredient. As an antioxidant, you really don't want to expose it to air if you can help it, and even if you don't, if it isn't formulated correctly, it can go bad quickly. That's why I like the Drunk Elephant C-Firma Day Serum - it comes in an airtight pump and the company claims it will last two years. It's insanely expensive, but it lasts a really long time because you only use one small pump per day. Paula's Choice and The Ordinary sell C serums for cheaper, but since they're in dropper bottles, they don't last as long. If you're in the market for a Vitamin C serum, look for one between 10-25% concentration. If you buy one and it starts to turn orange, that's how you know it's oxidized and no longer particularly useful (the Drunk Elephant one is orange from the get go due to the pumpkin in it, though). You use Vitamin C in the morning, after you've washed your face, directly on clean skin. You can exfoliate first if you do that in the morning, but make sure to put it on before anything else.
The Acids: Alpha Hydroxy Acid (aka lactic, glycolic, mandelic, azaleic, lots more) and Beta Hydroxy Acid (aka salicylic)
Alpha Hydroxy Acids (AHAs) and Beta Hydroxy Acids (BHAs) are used to exfoliate the skin. Remember when I said to throw out your St Ives? This is what you should be using to clear out your pores instead. Different skin tends to favor different acids, but generally speaking, BHAs work well for the oily, as BHAs are oil soluable, and AHAs work well for everyone else, as they're water soluable. Additionally, BHAs tend to be more effective for breakouts, because they actually get into the pores and clear them out, while AHAs are better at exfoliating and sloughing off dead cells on the surface of the skin (which means they help refine skin texture and lighten hyperpigmentation)
The most commonly used BHA is salicylic acid, and the best way to find out if your skin likes it is good old Stridex pads. Remember those? Turns out they actually do something.
There are a lot of different AHAs, and different skin tends to favor different chemicals. Lactic acid is usually considered the most gentle and a good starting point. The cheapest lactic acid formulations I've found are from The Ordinary. Are you sick of me talking about The Ordinary yet? Sorry, they're a goddamn miracle for poors like me. I use the 10% formulation. It smells awful but it works.
You want to be careful with AHAs and BHAs as they are irritating to the skin and can make things worse if overused. Introduce them slowly, maybe once a week at first, seeing how your skin will tolerate them, and increase from there until you're happy with your results. Some people have skin that LOVES acid, and they can exfoliate twice a day, while others might only be able to use an acid once or twice a week. AHAs can make you more sensitive to the sun, so they're best used at night, but you can use a BHA anytime. Just be sure to do it on clean skin, and for either AHA or BHA products, wait between 10 and 30 minutes depending on how patient you are before moving on to the next step in your skincare routine to let them do their work. These ingredients are ph dependent and need to sit on your skin for awhile by themselves, so it's best to use a product specifically made to exfoliate rather than a moisturizer or face wash that includes an AHA or BHA.
Niacinamide (aka vitamin B3, nicotinic acid)
Niacinamide is a goddamn miracle. I don't really know how it works. It just does (and peer reviewed studies suggest it does as well). Not only does it do a bunch of great anti aging stuff like firm the skin and encourage collagen production, it is REALLY effective at lightening hyperpigmentation, reducing irritation from breakouts, and most amazingly, it's the only thing I can think of that actually makes your pores look smaller. It's so good. Again, The Ordinary sells it for insanely cheap (like 6 bucks).
You don't want to use niacinamide and Vitamin C at the same time, because it'll cause your skin to flush. Some people say it makes both products ineffective, but the jury is still out on that one. I think if you use it a couple steps apart in a routine you're probably fine, but use your Vitamin C in the morning and your niacinamide at night if you want to be on the safe side. Niacinamide is one of the few ingredients listed here that's generally pretty stable and doesn't need quite as much protection from light and oxygen. You can use it at any point in your routine as long as you haven't put on anything super heavy and occlusive yet.
Humectants (aka hyaluronic acid, glycerine, butylene glycol, honey, fun stuff like snail slime, propolis, and chaga mushroom)
As I've said in a previous post, Humectants are just things that draw water into the skin. You need them in a moisturizer, but this is where your skincare can get less sciency and more fun, because a lot of weird things are humectants. A very hip Korean skincare ingredient is "snail mucin" aka snail slime. I've used some snail products and find them very soothing and calming - if you have sensitive skin you should give it a try. This gel cream from Mizon is sort of the OG cheap snail product. Really though, a lot of these buzzy plant and animal extracts that sound so exciting are really just moisturizers. Some of them might end up being proven to do other things, but at this point, there just isn't enough solid research to know for sure. They're PROBABLY not gonna do anything beyond hydrate, but your skin needs hydration, so if they sound fun and you think it'll make you more excited to take care of your skin to put some exotic botanical extract on it, go for it. Maybe they'll turn out to do other stuff, too, or maybe your skin will take a special liking to them.
You can use humectants at really any point in your skincare routine, but if you're going to use them earlier in a routine, make sure they don't have any occlusive ingredients, because those will form a barrier and keep the next steps in your routine from absorbing. For a mid-routine humectant dose, I like this hyaluronic acid toner.
Occlusives (aka oils, basically)
Your moisturizer also needs occlusive properties if you're putting it on as a final step in your skincare. These are what hold the humectants in and keep them from just evaporating out of your face. Occlusives are usually oils. Every few years the beauty industry gets super hyped on another ~miracle oil~: awhile ago it was jojoba, then it was argan, now it seems to be marula. They all work pretty much the same, although certain oils have other properties that are allegedly good for your skin in non-occlusive ways - sea buckthorn oil has a lot of antioxidants, and coconut oil is an antifungal, for example. This is cool, but you're not really going to see dramatic differences based on these properties. You really just have to try a couple out and see which ones feel the most comfortable on your skin and don't break you out. An oil is pretty much an oil. No need to overthink it if you don't want to.
A Note about packaging: It's fine if humectants and occlusives come in a jar instead of airtight packaging or a dropper bottle, because you aren't using them for their antioxidant properties. Pretty much everything else I listed here (with the possible exception of niacinamide) needs to be protected from light and oxygen as much as possible to remain effective. Airtight pumps in opaque or sun-protected packaging are best. Make sure if your product comes in a jar that you at LEAST wash your hands before sticking your fingers in it, or better yet, use a little spatula or spoon to get the product out.
"But what about (x ingredient)?"
There are a few other "skin actives" that allegedly do stuff that I didn't write about. There are a lot of ingestible antibiotics that work great for acne, for example, but they're mostly available by prescription and not something that's going to be marketed to you, so I skipped them. Some newer skin actives that are showing promise have really cool mechanisms of action: there's this awesome new peptide based on snake venom that supposedly encourages collagen production by mimicking broken collagen bonds, for example. Arbutin is supposed to be a really effective hyperpigmentation lightener. Caffeine has a temporary tightening effect that can make it good in eye cream. There are some fun herbal ingredients my skin seems to respond to well - ginseng and green tea, for example, but there's not really scientific evidence to back that up, they're more just fun for me to try out as a skincaretainment enthusiast. There's a slew of other stuff that shows some promise but hasn't been used long enough to be without a doubt skin-changing. The ones I covered here are the ones with the most research behind them and the longest history of effective use in skincare.
