What Happens When You Mix Skincare Brands - Merindah Botanicals

What Happens When You Mix Skincare Brands

Is it safe to mix skincare brands?

Mixing different products and brands in your skin care regime can either mean layering products, or alternating frequently (say, one day to the next) from one brand to another.

This may be fine if you’re using basic glycerine-based moisturisers. But for products with active ingredients - and if you want optimal results - it’s another story.

Here's what you need to know if you want to mix and match products from different brands:

You shouldn’t mix brands, ever, and especially if they contain active ingredients like retinol, vitamin C, glycolic acid, salicylic acid or peptides.

You can’t be sure which ingredients are compatible with each other as overusing them can irritate the skin and upset the delicate PH balance. Especially sensitive skin, as you run the risk of breakouts, irritation, redness and rash.

You could also risk becoming very dry or, at the other end of the spectrum, over-oily. So if you’re not an ingredient expert, it can be tough to pre-emptively know this.

Other signs that your mix isn’t working include clogged pores or milia, the teeny tiny little white cysts that are hard to remove.

Products made by one brand have been specifically designed to be used together, particularly if presented as a regimen.

Care has been taken to ensure the ingredients of one formula won’t interfere with the effectiveness of the ingredients of another. It's far too easy to go overboard with strong ingredients if you're not careful.

For example, you may be using a cleanser that contains a salicylic acid, then applying a moisturiser with some kind of alpha-hydroxy acid (AHA), and not even know it.

This kind of overlap and excess can unintentionally cause serious irritation. For this reason, using a skin care system is a rational way to go.

A line of products that is made to work together harmoniously is simple to use and will prevent the possibility of exceeding the limit on active ingredients.

For someone with sensitivity, this is especially important, because you don't want to keep introducing new ingredients and chemicals to your skin.

Give products a chance to work

Switching often doesn't give a product with active ingredients a chance to work. Many cosmeceutical ingredients (such as Retin-A or retinols) can take six weeks to take effect.

Just because you don't see a noticeable effect overnight, that isn't a reason to try something new.

Many people get impatient because they don't have realistic expectations for their products, and they switch them for another and expose themselves to a new group of chemicals and actives, setting themselves up for problems.

An advantage to staying with a particular brand is knowing that all of these products have been formulated to be used with one another or layered over one another, they’ve been tested on skin to give optimal results when working synergistically together.

I can attest to this as a Skin Therapist, that the clients who achieve optimal results with their skin, is when they use the range as their complete skincare routine.

The thing is, it’s not laid out for you which products are going to be good for your particular skin if they’re not specifically meant to be used together.

Get glowing skin in 21 days with our Complete Skin Care Kit - or your money back! 

complete skincare routine

About the Author:

Carol Hazimarcu is a qualified Paramedical Skin Therapist with over 25 years’ experience in the industry. Carol taught Beauty Therapy at a private college in Melbourne for 15 years and had her own salon business for 7 years. Carol has been an Arbonne Independent Consultant for 6 years.

Her passion is to show others how to free themselves from the 9-5 grind or create a ‘side hustle’ to build a social commerce business that is global and mobile. You can contact Carol at: carylhaz@gmail.com 

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