Transcript
A (0:00)
Foreign
B (0:04)
welcome to ASCP and the Rogue Pharmacist with Benjamin Knight Fuchs. In each episode we'll explore how internal and external factors can impact the skin. I'm Maggie Stasik, ASCP's program director. And joining me is Ben Fuchs, skincare formulator and pharmacist. Hi Ben.
A (0:19)
Hello Maggie.
B (0:21)
Ben. I hear a lot from clients and online that their skin is quote unquote purging whenever they start a new product. And some even talk about the skin detoxing. But I know it's not that simple. Break it down for us.
A (0:33)
No, it's not that simple. So here's the deal. Skin purging only occurs when you use ingredients that pull things up. So you know, estheticians all know this, but the average person doesn't realize that the skin, skin cells are at the bottom of the skin and then everything rises up to the form the barrier. So you got your keratinocyte, it lives in the basal layer and then the keratinocyte kind of shape shifts up to the squamous layer and all the way up until reaches the barrier. This movement upwards is where skin purging begins. And yes, skin purging is a thing, but it has to, it is only associated with ingredients that pull things up, that speed up cell turnover. And it only occurs when there are microcomedones inside a follicle. So just quick review. You got your pores, Pores are like, I think of them like the opening to a rabbit hole. And then you have a follicle which is the rabbit hole and the follicle itself. And this is kind of not really intuitive, but makes sense. The follicle itself is lined with keratinocytes, it's lined with cells. And those keratinocytes under certain conditions can overgrow, particularly when there's certain nutrients that are missing. They, they grow really fast, they hyper proliferate. We say they secrete proteins and this is what causes a clog. The clog itself is exacerbated by sebaceous secretions. The sebaceous gland lives inside the follicle and that's where you get your comedone. If you have bacteria that are trapped inside, you get a full blown zit. Microcomedones are comedones that are beginning to form inside the follicle, but you don't see them yet. They only become a comedone over time. Purging is the end result of microcomedones being pulled up to the top of the, of the follicle. To the pore. So it is a thing. But it only occurs, A, when there are microcomedones present, that is in acne patients, typically, and B, with ingredients that pull things up. And there are a few of those kinds of ingredients. The most common, the most well known are the alpha hydroxy, I'm sorry, the retinoids like retinol and retin A. And this is where most purging comes from, because retinol and retinoic acid are very significant or they speed up cell turnover, we'll say. So it usually occurs with retinol and retinoic acid. But alpha hydroxy acids can do the same thing because alpha hydroxy acids also pull things upwards. They speed up cell turnover. Do you know, by the way, speaking of retinol and retinoic acid, that effect of pulling things up can actually be leveraged for mosquito bites. And you can actually use retinol to speed up the healing of a mosquito bite or, or to help remove splinters simply by speeding up cell turnover. But if you have a microcomedone inside a follicle, it's going to speed up the formation of a comedone. And that's what the purging effect is. So purging is a thing. It typically will only happen with retinol, retinoic acid, alpha hydroxy acids, to a certain extent, azelaic acid and then sometimes urea, sometimes vitamin C. Ascorbic acid will sometimes do that as well. It only occurs when there is microcomedones present. So it's basically tomorrow's zit coming out today, which is a good thing, because once the purging is eliminated, once those microcomodones are eliminated, the microcomodones that comes to the top, you don't get any more purging. And that's a beautiful thing. So it's worth it to go through the purging effect. Or you can minimize the purging effect. So a, you can kind of rip the band aid off. You know that saying where you can just let it go and purge and then be done with it. Or you can slow down purging by using lower doses of retinol or hydroxy acids, increase or decreasing the frequency, increasing the time, the days off between the use of your hydroxy acids or your retinol. And also what I found is if you mix your retinol with a little bit of bentonite clay or kaolin clay or any kind of clay really, you'll slow down the penetration of the retinol and subsequently slow down the purging effect for the microcomedones. And you can also slow down or eliminate purging entirely if you use nutrition. And that's one of the really important points that estheticians and skincare professionals have to recognize is that internal nutrition or systemic nutrition is really the key. The best topical products are going to be topical nutrients like vitamin C for example, or, or retinol, both of which are vitamin A and vitamin C, both of which are nutrients, also ionic minerals. That's what my two treatments are really about. It's about topical nutrients. But along those same lines, internal nutrition is really important. And so by using vitamin A internally, you can slow down the formation of microcomedones and thereby slow down or help prevent purging. By using antioxidants like vitamin E or N acetylcysteine or vitamin C, you can also slow down the formation of microcomonones and mitigate or completely eliminate the purging effect. And by the way, now that I think about a Sulfur and sulfur masks can sometimes cause purging along the same lines of bringing, of rising thing, bringing things up to the top.