How to Prevent Your Skin From Freaking Out When You Try a New Product

Raise your hand if you immediately run home after buying a brand-spanking-new serum to slather it on your face? {Raises hand} We get it. Why would you want to wait? Well, not to bum you out, but there’s a pretty important reason you should, and First Aid Beauty brought that to our attention yesterday when it posted a very painful-looking warning to us all on its Instagram account. It showed the red, irritated skin of beauty Instagrammer Casually Gorgeous, who had applied a new skin care product without doing a patch test first.

Wait, a patch what? It’s when you apply a new product—following the directions, of course—to a small, discreet patch of skin, like behind your ear or even on the inside of your elbow. Then, you’re supposed to wait 24 hours so you can look for signs of redness or irritation. Here’s why: Certain ingredients, like retinol, glycolic acid, and hydroquinone (a bleaching agent used to lighten dark spots), can irritate even normal skin types.

And that’s another part of the equation: Just because you don’t think you have sensitive skin—or have had a reaction yet—doesn’t mean you’re immune to strong active ingredients. “It’s always possible,” NYC dermatologist Howard Sobel, M.D., founder of Park Avenue Skin and Spa, told us. “People develop allergies throughout all stages of their lives.” If you’ve been lucky enough to have never experienced a reaction, keep an eye out for the main, uh, red flags: Redness, swelling, and itching.

If you got a little excited and already rubbed your new cream all over, it’s probably going to be fine. But if you do look in the mirror and see a pink, slightly puffy version of yourself staring back at you, just wash the area you tested with water and a gentle cleanser, and then follow up with a basic moisturizer that you’ve used in the past. Then, return the product—that means it’s definitely a bad match.

Oh, and while we’re all here talking about skin care products, check out the best derm-recommended ones you definitely need to try. Bonus: They’re all under $20! (And hopefully shouldn’t make you break out.)

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