Skincare is a high priority for many people who want to look and feel great. With the hundreds of skincare products on the market, knowing what will work with your skin can be difficult. Even if you don’t have sensitive skin, certain products may produce negative reactions when you are adding them to your skincare routine. 

Luckily for you, there are ways to avoid negative reactions from new skincare products. With patience, consistent effort, and choosing the right products for your skin type, you can have a smooth transition of adding new products to your skincare routine.

1. Determine Your Goals

The first step you should take when trying a new skincare product is to determine what your goal is with the product. Do you want your skin to be more hydrated? Do you want to get rid of stubborn acne or scarring? Whatever you are wanting from a new product, doing your research and getting an appropriate product is the first step in avoiding an unwanted reaction. 

2. Introduce the Product Slowly

The next step is to introduce the product slowly and then gradually increase the frequency of use. It is a common misconception that you should use a product frequently to see results. When it comes to skincare, letting your skin get used to the product is very important.

Most products will do well if you start by using them once or twice a week and throughout the next several weeks increase to every day or every other day. Using the product only once or twice a week lets the skin get familiar with the new product and helps avoid any extreme reactions, and it will help it be more effective in the long run.

3. Try a Patch Test

Before you apply a new product to your face, you can try a patch test to see how your skin reacts. Many people choose to do the test on an area of the body that won’t be seen if it reacts negatively, while still being more sensitive skin. A common area people will test is behind the ears. This test is extremely beneficial if your skin has a severe reaction, which can be an indicator that you may be allergic to an ingredient in the product.

4. Allow Time for Your Skin to Adjust

Along with introducing the product slowly, you will need patience in allowing time for your skin to adjust to a new product. Even if you don’t have a severe reaction, your skin may experience some redness and irritation from the new product, but that should go away as your skin gets used to it. New products generally need 4-6 weeks to truly set in, so slowly introducing product to your skin will help avoid negative reactions. 

Why Does My Skin Get Worse When I Use New Skin Care?

Many people also experience an initial “purge” when implementing a new product into their skincare routine. This usually happens because the skin is going through a process of clearing any clogged pores, which brings acne and impurities to the surface of the skin. A reaction like this is normal, but it shouldn’t last more than two or three weeks. If acne continues to pop up, it may be an indication that your skin is not compatible with the product. 

How Long Does it Take for Your Skin to Adjust to New Products?

The phrase, “Your skin will get worse before it gets better,” may be true for many people, which is why it is important to be patient with a new product. Most dermatologists recommend allowing 4-6 weeks to see the true effects of a skincare product before choosing to bag it. 

5. Introduce New Products One at a Time

We all get excited about trying new products, but it is important to implement one new product at a time. Implementing several can overload the skin and result in a negative reaction. Skin does well when the products put on it are compatible with one another, so try to research and see if the new products and their ingredients work well together. Also remember that sometimes, less products is better than more products.

Other Factors to Consider to Avoid Negative Reactions

Beyond these five tips, there are some other factors to consider when implementing new products into your skincare routine. One of the most important is to know what skin type you have because this will tell you what types of products are more likely to be compatible with your skin type.

Another factor is to make sure your skin is clean before you use any product. Sometimes skin will have a negative reaction not because of the product itself, but because the product was applied to unclean skin. 

Finally, you might consider what time of the year to try out a new product. Oftentimes, spring and summer are great times because winter and fall generally have more dry air. Make sure you add a good SPF to your routine if you are trying a new product in the summer to avoid any skin damage and sunburns. 

If you’re going on vacation, you want your skin to be picture-perfect. Sure, there is nothing wrong with having acne scars or fine lines or dull skin, but that doesn’t mean you have to want them. You want to feel confident in your own skin, as it were, so that when it comes time to go out and about and capture memories through pictures, you have no problem being in the camera frame, rather than trying to duck away with murmured comments about your skin or breaking the camera.

Aesthetic treatments can help with this. While skincare and a good diet for your body’s specific needs are key to maintaining beautiful skin all year round, aesthetic treatments give you an extra boost of confidence and show results faster than skincare typically does. As such, getting aesthetic treatments before going on vacation could be just what you need in order to achieve quick gratification in healthy, glowing skin.

Here are some of the best aesthetic treatments you can get before going on vacation. Depending on how far out your vacation is, some may be better suited to your needs than others. Let’s get into it. 

#1. Facials

Most facials give you instant gratification and don’t have any downtime, making them the perfect aesthetic treatment to get before going on vacation. There are many different types of facials for all sorts of different skin concerns, like HydraFacials. You can also get a custom facial that addresses your skin’s specific needs. 

For instance, if you have acne, you can get a facial with something like salicylic acid, or if your concern is dull skin, you can get a facial focused on exfoliation to reveal the glowing skin beneath your dead skin cells.  

#2. Chemical Peels

Chemical peels remove the top layer of your skin in order to reveal softer, new skin underneath. They can help with all sorts of skin concerns, from acne scarring to fine lines and wrinkles to pigmentation and more. 

This is something that you’d want to schedule a few weeks before you leave on vacation depending on the type of chemical peel you get. Chemical peels range from light to medium to deep. The recovery time varies depending on the type of chemical peel you get, so make sure that you ask your provider about what to expect so that you’re not going on vacation in the midst of recovery versus after you’ve recovered and can enjoy all the benefits of this aesthetic treatment. 

#3. Laser Hair Removal

Jetting off somewhere with a beach or where you need to wear light, summery clothes? Laser hair removal allows you to wear a bikini without having to worry about your leg hair or armpit hair or bikini line hair or what have you. Why shave when you can get your hair lasered off and thus be able to enjoy your vacation hair-free?

Bear in mind that if you want to get laser hair removal, this is something you should plan on starting well in advance of vacation and isn’t the best aesthetic treatment to get for a trip that is next week. This is because it can take multiple sessions in order to achieve your desired results. Plus, said sessions are usually a few weeks apart. So, if you are planning your spring break trip for next year, start getting your laser hair removal months in advance, so you can enjoy optimal results on your trip.

That said, people typically notice a 10%-25% reduction in hair in the targeted area after the first session.

#4. Microneedling With PRP

Microneedling with PRP takes microneedling to the next level with the use of your own blood. You’ve probably seen this type of treatment done by celebrities like Kim Kardashian. This is a great aesthetic treatment to get before vacation if you have a week or so, because it stimulates collagen production. What this does is improve skin tone and smooth imperfections. 

After getting microneedling with PRP you may notice redness, mild bruising, soreness, and tenderness. However, this clears within 4-5 days. Once you’ve recovered, you can enjoy your smoother, more even skin – perfect for vacations. 

#5. Injectables

Like most aesthetic treatments aside from facials, you’ll want to book any injectable treatments about a month in advance before you go on vacation. This is because it can take at least 2 weeks to start to see the benefits of Botox, fillers, and the like. Injectables can do wonders for fine lines, wrinkles, and loss of volume, helping you look refreshed, energized, and younger than your years when you go on your vacation. 

You can see initial improvements within 4-5 days, but most people notice the best results after a couple of weeks. You want to wait until a couple of weeks have passed in order to avoid minor side effects like swelling or bruising on your trip. 

Do You Want To Schedule An Aesthetic Treatment?

Whether you’ve got a trip in the books or you just want to look and feel your best, Intermountain Aesthetics MD Spa is here to help. We offer a variety of aesthetic treatments, including everything listed above. Contact us to learn more about our treatments and to schedule a consultation to determine the ideal treatments for your specific skin concerns.