How long should I go through the ''purge'' before I decide to kick the product out of my routine?

[MissLollie]

Sunday Riley's UFO Oil is ruining my skin and life right now! I had some congested pores and I've struggled with acne for 15 years now. It's been fairly good except hormonal breakouts but now I've got these GIANT RED PAINFUL acne all through my chin and cheeks! I was told this was a purging phase but wtf! How long should I give this ''phase'' PLEASE HELP 😩

[mella900]

If you're getting "giant, red, painful" acne, then I wouldn't consider that being what people refer to as a "purge". That product is probably not right for you and your skin is reacting badly.

There seems to be controversy over whether "purging" exists or not, and you can find a bunch of articles supporting both sides (but honestly, virtually every topic in science has some controversy lol). Personally, when I started to use Good Genes/Luna oil, I experienced tiny white pin points on my forehead for 4 weeks until they disappeared and my skin was great. I suppose that was a "purge"....whatever it was.

For more skincare explanations, I like to go to Lab Muffin's blog. She's a chemist, and me being in science..I'm biased towards liking science-based explanations. But it is by no means the only resource out there.

[k617]

I agree with you @mella900.

You might be able to call my experience with adding AHA and BHA to my routine as "purging" as well, but really, I think I actually irritated my skin by adding those products too quickly. Instead of giving up, I took a step back, removed those products completely, and reintroduced back slowly. Those things are still in my routine today.

When it comes to products with active ingredients, it's always a good idea to introduce slowly to minimize irritation so that you can actually tell whether your skin is irritated because 1) you used it too quickly or 2) the product is actually not for you.

[MissLollie]

@mella900 I LOVE LUNA & Good Genes and my skin was instantly radiant with those products. I do believe in purging butttttt I don't believe purging should be hard cycstic acne. It should be clogged pores that come to the skin and then are exfoliated off all the while quickly healing. I am stopping this product bc my face looks HORRIBLE and I don't think it's purging I think it's pissed that I put this green s*** on my face lol

[Anonymous]

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head.  I never have pimples of any kind, but get me a contest for those small trapped, unextractable, deep little bumps.  My skin felt gross and the texture ( okay it as a magnifying mirror) was dull, bumpy and I felt either those little rice looking things or the white bump of the week ( as we change the names ) oh, I’m purging, it’s stres, blah, blah blah.  

I purchased the Sunday Riley space age kit two weeks ago.  Now my thoughts of those stubborn but so aggravating little closed clogs were the result of **not** exfoliating regularly, properly and the dead, sticky skin covered up every pore trapping all kinds of deep evil trapped evil crap.

Enter Sunday Riley space age kit, Good Genes, although i think I prefer Drunk Elephant baby facial as well as Framboos..two weeks in the dead skin just rolls of as I work the products in.  What was trapped is now at the surface and slips out with an extractor or better yet is so loose it just rolls out!,, 

stick withit, exfoliating is the secret to clean pores, smooth skin,   Im 53 years old and my skin has never looked or felt better!

peace out and stay beautiful!

-Robin

XoXo

[Naomiela]

I messed up such a great thing! I decided at 44 it was time to take my skin care up a notch - followed the directions and started with luna oil, then adding GG as a mask and rinsing off after 20 minutes. Alternate days, I used CEO brightening and CEO moisturizer. I was even using Baby Facial once a week with no burning!!! One night I do not know WHAT I was thinking but got cocky and added two pumps of Good Genes to my face and then slathered CEO brightening AND CEO moisturizer over it. Next morning, I wake up, wash my face with my new ceramic slip and I swear it felt like my face was so tight it was going to crack. I waited just a minute, used my micellular water, and it burned SO BAD. Ok - that's strange - now let's add my Murad Hydrating Gel moisturizer and then DE Umbre Tint, same reaction - I had to wash everything off and my face was so red. Ran to CVS to buy Cerave cream and Vaseline and even the cream burned by the Vaseline was okay.

It's 5 days later and I am still using Cerave and Vaseline but now have a ton of flesh-bumbs and a couple of blackheads which I NEVER have. I feel so stupid that I ruined what was probably the best skin of my life. I do not even know how to know when my skin is ready to even add a cleanser again.

[njattana]

I'm going to have to agree with @heartsmyface here and say I don't believe you're "purging".  My understanding has been that the initial reaction ("purge")  is your skin's defence system kicking and trying to restore itself to an equilibrium, whatever you're using isn't right for you - you can clear your pores without your skin erupting into bumps...My skin isn't sensitive but it's pretty reactive and I've been able to use AHA/BHA's that never caused any initial breakouts and helped clear my skin greatly. 

Caroline Hirons is a great source of skincare information and I believe she's written a few posts on the matter of "purge" as well. 

[concreteroads]

Clarifying a couple of points brought up in this thread:

1. "Purging" is possible with actives, e.g. acids, retinoids, and Vitamin C. I expand more upon this in my other comment, but basically these exfoliating chemicals increase cell turnover, causing pores that were already clogged or abnormal to come to a head more quickly. Purging does not happen with non-active ingredients; in that case it would just be a breakout.

2. The UFO Oil does contain salicylic acid, a BHA, which is also a chemical exfoliant. Thus, purging is possible with this product, contrary to what some others have stated.

3. However, you are describing really extreme--red, cystic, painful--acne in response to this product. If you don't normally get this kind of angry cystic acne, it really doesn't sound like a purge! I think it is much more likely that you are having a bad reaction to this product. You didn't mention how exactly you're using this product, but it may be because you introduced it too quickly/are using too much, too soon, or because you are just sensitive to an ingredient in this product. Salicylic acid and tea tree oil (also in the UFO) can both be quite drying and irritating.

4. I would advise stopping the product entirely and trying to heal your skin back to baseline: moisturize; use sunscreen; avoid other irritating skincare products. Then, when you are ready to perhaps test out this product again, I would first patch test to rule out the possibility of an allergic reaction. Next I would reintroduce this product slowly and in small quantities, remembering also to keep up the protective aspects of your routine including sunscreen and moisturizer. 

[Nathaniatr]

That's too bad.  I LOVE U.F.O. so much that I stock up each time I go to the US from Canada (because they don't sell it in Canada anymore?)..  I have literally tried EVERYTHING to get rid of my hormonal chin acne and U.F.O is the only thing that seems to work.  I would say give it time.  Have you considered if maybe the combination of U.F.O with your cleanser or toner could be causing a bad reaction?  I try not to use too many products with salicylic acid to avoid drying my skin out and causing even more breakouts.  

Another product that worked for me for a while was the Juice Beauty blemish clearing serum.  I would say give it a try if U.F.O really isn't for you! 

[MissLollie]

I stopped using all my other products in my beauty regimen to try UFO out bc I love Sunday Riley products in general. I've been using a really gentle cleanser minimal makeup and I just think my face does not like it. I was only applying it at night and I'd wake up and my face would be tender when I washed it. This really surprised bc I've used spot treatments with more saliyic acid in it than UFO. Im cutting this product off lol purge or no purge I'm done. Nothing is worse than looking like an old pizza face

[heartsmyface]

The only product that your skin really has to get used to is Retinol and that's because you're building up a tolerance for it.  

Purging through skincare does not exist.  

If youre experiencing large painful 'acne' you're probably having an allergic reaction or contact dermatitis due to one of the ingredients in a product.  @MissLollie 

[jemly]

ah thank you @heartsmyface for tagging me. i hope i'm not too late to respond. 

purging is a myth, for the most part. but i call it a myth more for the concept/word's misuse, as the misinformation out there is encouraging women to persevere through products that are blatantly telling them they don't work for them. i have seen countless amounts of people who have clear signs of stressed and beaten up skin, caused by a myriad of things--such as far too much clarisonic usage, overstripping foaming cleansers and general over exfoliation (chemical or physical). and they keep on with their products and routines because "they're purging". no, they're beating up their skin and it's screaming for help ! that is why i like to call out the purging myth.

that said, @concreteroads is correct in that vit c and acid exfoliants (particularly lactic acid, in my experience, which is an AHA) can cause a purging, of sorts. this varies person-to-person, and it really should only 'present' itself as a non-angry whitehead (or a few). if the skin is red and angry, as  @MissLollie is reporting hers is, then there's something more going on there--an infection--and something is not right. either the person is reacting negatively to ingredients, or (to complicate things further) their routine is too harsh alongside the newly introduced products, which then leads to the potential of a non-threatening whitehead 'purge' to become irritated, inflamed and then, yes, infected. and that wouldn't be a purge--that would be indicative that something needs to be changed.

so i think the idea of purging is used far too widely to justify products that just don't work. and the more that women (and men!) learn what is a reasonable sign of a product working, the better.

@MissLollie and anyone else reading this curious about their reaction to UFO, the thing that is most frustrating for acne sufferers, is that not all acne is triggered by the same things. what can solve some people's skin problems--like BHA (salicylic acid)--can wreak havoc on others (my skin, for example, does not respond very well to salicylic acid, but brilliantly to AHAs like glycolic and lactic). and this really goes for any ingredient in any product, obviously. i saw that you said your skin has tolerated BHAs in the past, so that is likely not the culprit (though i would advise to keep an eye out to see if you notice any correlation with BHAs in the future). i'm a huge advocate for face oils for acneic skin, but there is always trial and error to figure out which types your skin likes. the UFO oil has quite a few oils that skins *can* find irritating. i'd chuck it and move on too greener pastures (rather than bottles 😉 ). in the mean time, take a week break from exfoliating, use gentle non-foaming cleansers, and baby your skin with hydration.

[heartsmyface]

@jemly Thank you very much for the educational post.  You're definitely my skincare icon for a reason:) 

[Anonymous]

Yes. I don't get the whole idea of purging. 

[quspork]

What? No, this is completely wrong. Purging because of exfoliation absolutely exists. It's simply clogged pores surfacing. It generally doesn't last more than a couple of weeks though so if you've been experiencing it for much longer than it's probably a negative reaction to the product itself.

[lachaton]

---

quspork wrote:
and what actual dermatologists say exists... it's just spreading mis-information. 

---

There are also dermatologists who advise that purging doesn't exist; it's an area where there really isn't consensus. I happen to fall into the camp that doesn't welcome purging as a necessary stage of a new product, or at least not as it is often described where one experiences significant breakouts. 

[quspork]

LOL! @heartsmyface I am a "skincare enthusiast" myself and I have experienced purging  in the past. You may not have ever experienced it and lucky you if not! There's absolutely a difference between purging and bad reactions/breakouts. It was clarified better up-post, but purging generally involves short-lived whiteheads. I'll agree that it sounds like what the original poster is experiencing doesn't seem like purging but rather a bad reaction to the oil. But to categorically deny what many people have experienced and what actual dermatologists say exists... it's just spreading mis-information. 

[concreteroads]

@heartsmyface

"Purging" is absolutely a thing, despite not being the most scientific of terms.

What really happens is this: as you use chemical exfoliants such as retinoids and AHAs, you are sloughing off the top layers of dead skin cells and increasing your cell turnover rate. Because of this, the pimples/clogged pores that previously were not visible are able to come to a head much faster, and so you may see a sudden burst of pimples, aka "purging". It's not that the active is necessarily causing you to develop new pimples, but rather a side effect of the active's intended mechanism causing a bunch of skin issues that were already there to surface all at once. Over time, of course, these layers will too slough off as skin naturally does (and as your actives continue to work), and so ideally skin should clear up after this initial phase. 

[heartsmyface]

I'm sorry but I have to disagree on this one.  Exfoliating may cause breakouts but not because you are 'purging'.  You may break out because you are over exfoliating or irritating your skin however.  

Let me get you in touch with some skincare enthusiasts who can better explain things so you don't have to take just my word on it. @jemly@Mochapj@lylysa@quspork

[mpas]

I usually give it a month.  Maybe an extra 2 weeks depending on if I am having a hormonal flare up.

[Anonymous]

Your skin should never get worse before getting better. Right now your skin is telling you it doesn't like that product. That's what dermatologists say.

The Sephora employee is just telling you the rule of any new skin care routine, you must give any given product a couple of months to see any changes. That is if you don't get a bad reaction. 

In my experience when a product works for you, you'll notice in a week or two.  

Best of luck.