Can I use Hyaluronic Acid and Retinoid?

The good news is, using hyaluronic acid and retinoids together is a match made in skincare heaven. Even though retinoids (which are another more potent form of retinol) are known for being quite a tricky ingredient to use in your routine, they do work well with hyaluronic acid. What you’ll often find is that the drying effects that occur when first use retinol in your skincare routine will be counteracted and calmed thanks to the hydrating benefits of hyaluronic acid.

If you’re in need of a quick reminder the skincare benefits you can expect to see when using hyaluronic acid and retinol, you can check out our Skin School which has a collection of information about all the most used and popular skin ingredients. Now let’s get stuck in and find out more about whether you can use hyaluronic acid and retinoids.

What goes first hyaluronic acid or retinol?

It is often considered to apply hyaluronic acid after retinol to gain optimal results. This is due to the humectant traits of HA ensuring that water surrounding the face is drawn in from the atmosphere and locked into the outer surface. This is something that hyaluronic acid continues to do once it is applied to the skin. By ensuring the protective skin barrier is left hydrated, plumped, and moisturised will not only ward off potential damage from free radicals, such as pollution and UV exposure, but will keep the drying effects of retinoids at bay.

How to layer hyaluronic acid and retinol

• Cleanse the skin of any remaining traces of makeup and impurities.
• Apply your retinol enriched product to cleansed skin.
• Allow about 30 minutes in between applications to ensure the retinol is fully absorbed in the skin.
• Follow this with a serum or moisturiser containing hyaluronic to the skin locking hydration into the skin surface.
• Once the morning has arrived finish your morning routine with a SPF of 30 and above.

If you are wanting to know more about layering hyaluronic acid and retinol together in more detail, there is a dedicated blog post about it for you to check out.

Can you layer retinol and hyaluronic acid?

Absolutely! It is perfectly safe for you to layer retinol and hyaluronic acid. Using these ingredients together is one of the most popular skin combinations due to how effective hyaluronic acid is at helping to combat the side effects that occur when using retinol.

Although these side effects are something that everyone who uses retinol will experience and generally don’t last long, by teaming it with a clever humectant, such as hyaluronic acid, you will find the drying, flaking, and red patches of skin are not as irritating.

What can you not mix with hyaluronic acid?

Hyaluronic acid is undoubtably one of the most versatile skincare ingredients and can be teamed with some of the most potent ingredients, such as retinol, benzoyl peroxide, some forms of vitamin C and beta hydroxy acids, such as salicylic acid. All these ingredients deliver impressive skin benefits, from evening out the skin tone, reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and improving the complexion by helping to improving the firmness of the skin.

As effective and easy as hyaluronic acid is to introduce into your daily skincare routine, it is still important that you consult with a GP, dermatologist, or medical professional to ensure you will reap the rewards and bypass any unwanted skin irritations.

What can you not mix with retinol?

When it comes to mixing ingredients with retinol, there are a number of potent actives that should be avoided. These are, vitamin C, benzoyl peroxide, and acids such as glycolic acid and salicylic acid.

You’ll find that mixing these ingredients together can result in them cancelling out each other, as well as becoming too harsh for the skin. You’ll often find that using retinol with these ingredients will lead to the vital oils needed in the surface barrier will be stripped away. This results in the skin becoming irritated, dry, uncomfortable, and the protective skin barrier is left weakened and susceptible to potential skin damage.

If you wanted to find out more about retinol, how it benefits the skin and what not to mix with it, check out our dedicated blog post. 

Can you use hyaluronic acid every day?

Yes, you certainly can, in fact, you can use hyaluronic acid twice a day in your skincare routine. Ideally, you’ll want to apply your HA enriched product to a cleansed skin that is still slightly damp, this will help the humectant traits of the ingredient lock in extra moisture. You can then follow this with a moisturiser or face oil as this will not only form a protective layer over the skin but will also aid hyaluronic acid in keeping the complexion plumped, hydrated, with a youthful bounce all day.

Can I use retinol every night?

Not really, only because retinol is one ingredient that remains potent on the skin until it has built a tolerance for it. You’ll find that the percentage of retinol in skincare formulations will vary from 0.25% up to over 2% when it’s a medical or prescription standard. There is nothing preventing you from using retinol during the day, however, exposure to UV light does in fact make it loose its potency. Therefore, almost every skincare expert suggests only using retinol during your evening routine, this enables the powerhouse ingredient to work undisturbed in the evening whilst you catch up on your beauty sleep.

All skincare ingredients work differently and deliver various results on the skin, the best way of ensuring you are reaping the rewards is by performing a patch test for 24 hours before applying it to the entire face. This will help you avoid any flare-ups in redness, skin irritation, and flaky patches of skin.

There you have a little more information about using hyaluronic acid and retinol together. Don’t forget if you have any skincare related questions you can come and follow us on Instagram.