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What actually causes acne, which actives have evidence behind them, and how to use them without wrecking your barrier.
11 articles
Bakuchiol is marketed as a gentler, plant-derived stand-in for retinol. The headline study behind that claim is smaller and more caveated than the marketing suggests — here's what the evidence actually supports.
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Acne isn't one condition — it's a category. A blackhead, a papule and a cyst share a starting mechanism but need genuinely different treatment, and matching the wrong intensity to the wrong type is where most routines go wrong.
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Oily skin, shiny T-zones, clogged pores — sebum gets blamed for all of it. But it's also doing genuine protective work, and the products that fight it hardest often make oiliness worse, not better.
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Squalane has become a skincare staple — a go-to oil for those who don't like oils, a moisturising ingredient that seems to work for everyone.
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Alpha-hydroxy acids get sold as one category, but glycolic, lactic and mandelic acid behave differently enough that picking the wrong one is a common reason an acid "doesn't work" — or works too well, too fast, in the wrong direction.
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Every acne product with salicylic acid uses the same tagline about unclogging pores. That's true, but it undersells an ingredient that's also anti-inflammatory, mildly antibacterial, and one of the few actives that can actually get inside a pore rather than just working the surface.
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Retinoids and vitamin C get the headlines. Azelaic acid quietly does three jobs at once — acne, rosacea and pigmentation — with a gentler side-effect profile than most of the ingredients that outrank it in popularity.
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Niacinamide (vitamin B3) has become a skincare darling — appearing in everything from serums to sunscreens, praised as a solution for nearly every skin concern.
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Slugging isn't the miracle TikTok made it out to be, and it isn't the pore-clogging disaster its critics warn about either — it's ordinary occlusion, with genuine upsides for some skin and real downsides for others.
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'Microbiome-friendly' has no regulatory definition, and most products trading on the word are capitalising on genuine scientific interest rather than delivering proven microbiome benefits. Here's what the research actually supports.
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Not all retinoids are created equal. The term covers a family of vitamin A derivatives with vastly different potencies, evidence bases, and effects on skin.
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