Hi Michelle, would you be so kind to let us know which skin care ingredients should not be used together? For instance, I've read that niacinamide shouldn't be used with Vitamin C for whatever reason.. would greatly appreciate it, thank you so much for always being so gracious, thorough and informative ❤️

Hello, good questions! 

Vitamin C and Niacinamide are fine to use together, it can create a reaction which is usually a bad thing but in this instance it’s fine. If you are experiencing a reaction then let one product dry before applying the other. For a more scientific explanation see here.

Ingredients not to mix

Vitamin C shouldn’t be mixed with most AHA’s/BHA’s/acids (lactic, glycolic, etc). AHA’s destabilize Vitamin C because they change the PH level and Vitamin C is a very vulnerable ingredient and requires specific PH levels to work efficiently. If you are a Vitamin C lover i’d recommend searching for the freshest doses available, things that come in one use pipets or ampoules. Vitamin C usually loses it’s efficiency when exposed to light or oxygen. Look for Vitamin C products like Clinique Fresh Pressed Vitamin C Daily Booster, this product is exposed to very little light and oxygen even when using. Try to avoid products with Vitamin C that require lots of opening like a cream and stick to serums that pump out product. 

Avoid mixing Retinol with Benzoyl Peroxide/any acne treatments because they counteract each other’s benefits. Both products are also irritants and can cause peeling on their own, so using them together can cause major irritation especially on sensitive skin. Benzoyl Peroxide does work really well however with Salicylic and Glycolic Acid, so anyone with acne should steer towards these ingredients. 

Ingredients to mix

As listed above, Benzoyl Peroxide goes well with Glycolic and Salicylic Acid. Great to know for anyone out there with acne prone skin, make sure your skin care routine has these ingredients. This can be a bit drying so it’s best for oily, acne prone skin. Think 16 year old skin.

Retinol and Ferulic Acid. Ferulic acid is an antioxidant that helps with sun damage (good because Retinol makes your skin more prone to sum damage).

Retinol and Vitamin C. These two are both amazing for anti aging. Vitamin C is a tricky product to get right so you want to find vitamin c products that really keep it fresh and being able to use the product up asap. The longer vitamin C sits out the less effective it becomes. Always buy it in dark/non glass bottles and keep it out of light! Vitamin A, C and E all work great together. Vitamin A = Retinol. 

Vitamin C and Vitamin E. As explained above, Vitamin A, C and E are all besties. These are all antioxidants and protect your skin from the elements, keeping it looking youthful.

Retinol and AHA’s/BHA’s. This is usually viewed asa no go, and if you have sensitive skin then this might be too a little too intense. Retinol is not an exfoliant like AHA’s/BHA’s and Retinol could use the help of exfoliation to work even better. However this can be a little intense on the skin. You shouldn’t be using retinol every night anyway but listen to your skin if you’re experiencing irritation. See more explanation on Retinol here.

Retinol and Hyaluronic Acid. Retinol is known to be drying so follow up with a good moisturizing products especially ones that keep water/hydrating into the skin like Hyaluronic Acid. They work together to keep skin young and plump!

hello ieva! i was wondering your thoughts on mario badescu products? specifically their enzyme cleansing gel, the seaweed cleansing lotion and their oil free moisturizer. i tend to have oily skin and i've been trying a sample of those three products and i seem to be doing ok but i don't wanna do harm to my face

wowee, do i ever have opinions on mario badescu! thanks for giving me the perfect chance to voice them!

🚫 why mario badescu should be renamed mario BAD 🚫

this was an inevitable topic that i knew would come up. full disclosure: MB is probably at the head of the list of brands i do not trust, would not purchase from, and am so tired of seeing in aesthetic insta shelfies and twitter skincare threads. and it isn’t even because of the overpriced, cheap-packaging food-colourant scented water that passes for a face mist, nor the dramatic claims about their “anti-cystic-acne” buffering lotion that actually has very little chances of affecting something as deep in the skin as a cyst. 

oh no, my bone to pick with mario badescu is much bigger. i wish it were just ineffectiveness marketed through attractive VSCO girl-esque aesthetics.

many, many users of MB skincare have ended up reporting “dry, itchy, red, irritated, broken out skin”, so much so that the brand is infamous for this in the skincare aficionado circles. in 2013, they were hit with a class-action lawsuit for “failing to disclose the inclusion of strong steroids in at least two of their products.” to quote from this news article:

have they improved since then? not really. from ingredient lists that disregard regulations and on occasion are entirely misleading about product contents, to very low-quality and non-user friendly packaging combined with cheap formulations with an enormous profit margin for MB, consistent complaints about irritation, problems have persisted to the present day, and if they lied about something as enormous as including steroids in their products — this is very, very serious — i do not trust them not to lie again.

in short: the formulations are extremely cheap to produce, so are the packagings, the company’s ethics are terrible, everything is overpriced, effectiveness is dubious unless stuff’s been laced with undisclosed steroids. mario badescu? it’s gonna be a big yikes from me, no thank you.