If you have oily skin, skincare ingredients like salicylic acid and retinol are probably on your mind — if they’re not already in your skincare routine.
If you’ve never heard of these exfoliating ingredients before, then prepare to get a whole new perspective on breakout-prone skincare solutions.
Today, we’re going to talk about the science behind salicylic acid and retinol, two of the strongest and most popular skincare ingredients for oily and breakout-prone skin types.
Stick around to learn the benefits and drawbacks of both salicylic acid and retinol for your skin — and to learn which ingredient deserves a spot in your skincare routine.
How To Manage Oily and Breakout-Prone Skin
While we are all made up of the same cell types and (relatively similar) DNA patterns, our skin is unique to just us.
What keeps one person’s skin clear and smooth might not do the same for another. However, that doesn’t mean you have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to building your skincare routine.
Dermatologists have identified five skin types that describe different types of skin:
- Normal skin
- Sensitive skin
- Dry skin
- Oily skin
- Combination skin
Today, we’re going to address oily skin types specifically. This type of skin produces more oil than it needs, resulting in a shiny or greasy skin look — even too much of a good thing can be harmful, which is exactly the case with oily skin types and sebum.
This excess oil can get trapped in your pores and cause breakouts, blemishes, and flare-ups. This is why oily skin types are often also considered breakout-prone.
Because oily and breakout-prone skin types are constantly struggling with excess oil and the breakouts that come with it, it’s important that oily skincare routines are equipped with the right ingredients to handle that.
What Is Salicylic Acid?
Salicylic acid is a common skincare ingredient used to address blemishes and dry or rough skin. The ingredient can be prescribed at high dosages by dermatologists or included in over-the-counter skin treatments, like skincare serums.
Chemically speaking, salicylic acid is a beta-hydroxy acid (BHA). Hydroxy acids are made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms that work together to exfoliate the skin.
There are also alpha-hydroxy acids (AHAs). While both BHAs and AHAs remove layers of dead cells from the skin, AHAs work primarily on the surface while BHAs target the deeper layers of skin.
What Are the Benefits of Salicylic Acid?
When it comes to skincare, salicylic acid offers a variety of benefits for oily skin types. Here are three of the most common.
1. Helps Manage Flare-Ups
Salicylic acid is a powerful skincare ingredient that can soothe breakouts on the skin and promote a clear complexion. It does this by helping to flush out excess oil trapped in the pores and forming a layer of build-up on the skin.
By clearing away this junk clogging your skin, you remove the impurities fueling your blemishes.
2. Exfoliates Oily Skin
However, excess oil isn’t the only impurity salicylic acid removes from the skin. This powerful skin acid also rids your complexions of dead skin cells.
Dead skin cells that become stuck on the surface of your skin or within the deeper skin layers can dull your natural glow and contribute to rough skin. By purging your skin of these dead cells, salicylic acid acts as the ultimate exfoliator for your oily skin.
3. Smooths Rough Skin Texture
Getting rid of these jagged dead skin cells also benefits your skin by promoting a smoother texture. Without the rough patches caused by dried-out cell membranes, your complexion can feel smooth and soft to the touch.
What Is Retinol?
You’ve probably heard of retinol as a skincare ingredient, but this acid is just one form of a larger group of ingredients called retinoids.
Retinoids are an entire class of chemical compounds that derive from vitamin A and are known for their ability to support skin cell turnover. All retinoids (including retinol) are converted into retinoic acid, which then delivers benefits directly to your skin.
What Are the Benefits of Retinol?
Retinol is a popular skincare ingredient for a reason: it offers real results for oily skin types. Here are three of the most common.
1. Smooths Out the Look of Wrinkles and Fine Lines
There are two structural proteins in your skin that are responsible for the firm and supple nature of your complexion: collagen and elastin.
When you’re young, your body produces a lot of these proteins, which is why your skin is so flexible early in life. However, collagen and elastin synthesis naturally starts to slow as you age, resulting in the most common sign of aging: wrinkles.
Retinol works to smooth out the look of wrinkles and fine lines by encouraging your skin to create more collagen and elastin. With these structural proteins in place, your skin is strong enough to resist wrinkling.
2. Improves Skin Texture
Increasing the amount of collagen and elastin in the skin has a secondary benefit for oily skin types: shrinking your pores.
When the skin appears fuller and more supple thanks to collagen and elastin, the appearance of pores also goes down. This results in a smoother skin texture because your minimized pores can’t contain as much build-up.
3. Evens Out Skin Tone
Another skin concern that retinol can help with is dark spots. When pigment-producing melanocytes become overactive, patches of skin can start to become darker in color than the surrounding area, resulting in pigmentation issues.
Retinol works to fade the appearance of this excess pigment by interacting with the cells producing the color in the first place. This results in a brighter, more even-looking skin tone.
How Do Salicylic Acid and Retinol Compare?
It can’t be argued that both salicylic acid and retinol are powerful skincare ingredients that have the right qualities to transform an oily and damaged complexion into fresh and blemish-free skin. However, how do you know which skincare solution is right for you?
When it comes to choosing between salicylic acid and retinol, it all comes down to what oily skin concern is your top priority.
For Breakout-Prone Skin, Choose Salicylic Acid
Though most oily skin types struggle with blemishes in some form or another, some people experience long-lasting flare-ups that they just can’t seem to escape. If this describes your skin, then salicylic acid might be the best choice for you.
Salicylic acid is first and foremost a skin exfoliant. The skincare ingredient works by dissolving the chemical bonds holding dead skin cells and other impurities to your healthy skin and flushing them away.
Our Blemish Clearing Salicylic Acid Serum does just that. With a 0.75% salicylic acid formula, potent organic fruit acids, and soothing botanical antioxidants, this Juice Beauty serum clears excess oil from the skin and rehydrates it for a fresh, redness-free skin look.
In fact, 100% of participants in our clinical study saw definite blemish clearing in just two weeks, and 94% saw improved to complete clearing by the end of the month.
Salicylic acid’s unique ability to scoop out any lingering dirt, debris, dead skin cells, and excess oil and to unclog pores makes it the ultimate option for breakout-prone skin types.
For Aging Skin, Choose Retinol
While breakouts don’t necessarily go away with age, older skin tends to struggle with pimples and blackheads less than younger skin.
This is because oil production in your skin naturally slows down as you get older, so there’s less sebum to become trapped in your pores. That doesn’t mean oily skin types will suddenly go away after a certain age, but it does change how oily skin manifests later in life.
For aged oily skin types, the top skin concern isn’t typically breakouts. Instead, this skin struggles the most with wrinkles.
Because oily skin is naturally thicker, it is more prone to deep wrinkles later in life, especially on the bottom half of the face. This is because there is simply more skin there to fold in on itself as the structural proteins that once kept your skin tight and taut start to disappear.
This makes retinol an important skincare ingredient for aging, oily skin. Retinol can stimulate the growth of those fading structural proteins to restore the smooth strength of your skin.
Our STEM CELLULAR Anti-Wrinkle Retinol Overnight Serum is made with 2.5% Bio-Retinol + Retinol formula to help fuel the skin and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
Clinically validated results show that 36% less roughness and 28% fewer wrinkles in just a month and a half.
Achieve Clear Skin With the Best Ingredients
Here at Juice Beauty, we don’t believe in empty promises. That’s why all of our skincare solutions are filled with the best organic ingredients nature has to offer. We rely on the power of juice — not the promise of junk — to support your skin.
Both retinol and salicylic acid are powerful skincare ingredients that can sweep away dead skin cells and other debris that might be keeping you from a healthy, clear complexion.
While you and your skin might have a preference for one over the other, each is a potent skincare solution that can make a difference for oily and breakout-prone skin types.
Sources:
Skin care tips dermatologists use | American Academy of Dermatology Association
Retinoid or retinol? | American Academy of Dermatology Association
