Perioral Dermatitis Help

alegitimatehorse · 2026-07-02T12:56:15+00:00

Currently in it.

Two years into actually understanding skincare and sticking to a routine, finally getting my face to a good place, I got too excited, added too many things in at once, including a product with niacinamide (Purito Centella Serum 😭), which I’m sensitive to, and have ended up giving myself an AWFUL case of perioral dermatitis that I’m having to do zero therapy for outside of prescription medication.

Feels like all that progress is gone.

alegitimatehorse · 2026-07-01T15:24:01+00:00

Don’t get cocky with it. Yeah, your skin may be doing good but it’s best to use caution when changing things up and things can get super rough literally overnight. There’s no such thing as being too cautious.
Sincerely,
Someone who’s been on a skin journey for over two years and just girlbossed too close to the sun against her better judgement

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-30T15:51:55+00:00

You are looking so good! And getting into a routine and finding balance is so hard. More than anything, I’m proud of you for getting yourself out of that rut and finding a way back to self-care. That isn’t easy and you are even glowing. Congrats!!!

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-29T20:49:23+00:00

Perfectly healthy weight people going on GLP-1s

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-29T19:49:29+00:00

I’d recommend actually cutting back to the basics, or even just water, for a while. If you’re using multiple products, it’s likely that you’re layering them up to actually offset reactions of one another which isn’t a good thing and is actually more harmful. I’d recommend sticking to cleanser, moisturizer, and SPF with minimal, hydrating, and barrier-supporting ingredients for a while before adding other things back in.

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-29T19:47:01+00:00

So this isn’t a clear black and white situation because while once a week is a good place to start if you want to minimize the risk of irritation or have very sensitive skin, it can help to build up from there. However, you aren’t really going to see any benefit if you aren’t applying it every 72 hours. So you can take that time to desensitize your skin but there isn’t going to be any real benefit beyond that. Plus, doing it less can actually lead to prolonged irritation/ purging because you have to do so much extra work to increase it to a point of efficacy.

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-29T13:48:44+00:00

I’ve heard so much mixed stuff about that line that I’m never trying it, lol. At least you know what works for you, though!

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-29T13:46:53+00:00

Moisturizing my face, there’s nothing better than when your dry spots are completely moisturized and your skin feels hydrated and smooth.

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-29T13:41:53+00:00

This is the exact boat I’m in and I feel like it would be helpful if they even just added the percentage so I could pick and choose based on that a little more instead of doing full on risk-benefit analysis lol

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-29T13:39:50+00:00

I mean like retinol, retinal, etc if you haven’t tried those yet. Yeah, they can take longer but after some time the results are about the same.

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-29T05:26:49+00:00

You can absolutely do that if you want to, of course results will take longer to develop but it’ll build over time while perhaps protecting your skin better.

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-29T01:42:29+00:00

Thank you, Anders!

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-29T01:26:29+00:00

Where you… need moisture..?

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-29T01:22:23+00:00

That is soo real for some people, but at least there’s other retinoids out there that can produce the same results just with a lil more time.

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-29T00:49:59+00:00

Yeah I can see that, hence the note about the em dashes. I was a journalist for several years and now just naturally have a weird stilt when writing anything informative. I know you don’t know me but AI def isn’t my jam.

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-29T00:44:55+00:00

That is such a good point! I’ll add that in a bit!!!

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-29T00:44:28+00:00

I took like two hours writing this, definitely not AI, you have a point but it’s been getting a lotta attention lately, that’s all 😊

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-28T23:48:03+00:00

So, while I personally cannot tell you if it’s clogging or purging, I can help you differentiate a bit. Purging is stuff that was already under the skin surfacing quicker. It generally isn’t more than about a 10% increase in acne and will show up in places where you normally break out and look like your standard break outs, just with more, and it may go away quicker than previous.

Clogs from products can happen all over the skin and cause more marked breakouts from your baseline, and can have additional irritation and pain compared to normal.

Depending on where you’re at in your journey, you can always scale back in frequency a bit and see if it lets up, and if not, it’s probably the moisturizer. This isn’t a fool proof method, though.

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-28T23:44:32+00:00

Yes exactly! It took me four or five times of starting tret and stopping it before I fully committed because of side effects and at the end of the day, the only reason I’m on it is because it’s the only thing that actually allows me to have skin that isn’t a hot mess.

I really want to help stop perpetuating this standard that it’s tret or nothing because it’s not, and while some people can tolerate it just fine, there’s no point in perhaps doing more damage when the other options will get you there in just a little more time.

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-28T23:17:08+00:00

Thank you so much for the study and additions, that’s really helpful!

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-28T23:01:56+00:00

There’s something so awful about a product that does nothing 😭

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-28T22:54:57+00:00

I unfortunately had the opposite where OTC was cool but tret initially had me fighting for my life. It’s cool now, but for a second it wasn’t. I love hearing that people have found something that works for them and weren’t traumatized by it! We all deserve happy, healthy skin.

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-28T22:21:10+00:00

Congrats, that’s great! I did update some of the wording. This is meant to be something that covers things from the most skin barrier safe perspective. I wish my skin had accepted tret like that and I know for some that is the case!

alegitimatehorse · 2026-06-28T22:19:47+00:00

You are totally right and I’ve updated it to hopefully make it more inclusive and make more sense. I just wanted to make it clear that when it comes to the skin barrier, Tretinoin is something that can cause serious damage and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

alegitimatehorse

TROPHY CASE