Dr. Courtney Rubin, our Chief Medical Officer, weighs in on your most pressing skincare questions.
Multiple active ingredients can and should be integrated into the same routine. Each active ingredient has a different mechanism of action and leads to different results. You will always see better outcomes when using a well-thought-out combination of multiple actives rather than relying on a single active ingredient. The trick is to be able to combine actives without overdoing it, which can lead to excess irritation and skin barrier breakdown. Because it can sometimes be difficult to achieve this balance, I usually recommend products that are formulated by experts (dermatologists and cosmetic chemists, for example), in which the active ingredients used and the concentration of each active is carefully thought through and backed by science. This usually leads to better outcomes and increased tolerability, rather than trying to combine many single-ingredient products on your own at home.