Is salicylic acid a wonder ingredient, or can it make your skin worse?

If you’ve ever had acne , it’s likely you will be familiar with salicylic acid, aka beta hydroxy acid. It’s a clever ingredient for anyone with spots precisely because of its lipophilic nature, meaning it’ll penetrate clogs, and over time reduce the likelihood of getting spots, blackheads, and any other sort of congestion.

The only problem is, as with all skincare , there’s no one-size-fits-all, and if you’ve been diligently applying your salicylic and find yourself with worse skin, you may not be alone.

“Not everyone can tolerate salicylic acid,” Pam Marshall, Clinical Aesthetician at Mortar and Milk , tells me. “It can irritate the skin, and some people are actually allergic to it, myself included — it causes me to break out, rather than diminishing break outs.”

Facialist Tarryn Warren has like Pam seen many clients who display signs of salicylic acid overload, and furnished me with a huge list of potential issues related to salicylic when I interviewed her for this piece, including: “skin irritation like redness, burning, stinging, or excessive dryness; increased sensitivity, which can mean to the sun or to other products; a compromised skin barrier, resulting in, ironically, more breakouts, and more severe irritation that look like chemical burns in extreme cases.”

If you suspect salicylic might not be your skin’s friend, Tarryn suggests first ensuring you’re sticking to the usual rules of using an active which include starting slowly by applying it just a couple of times a week and working your way up (you can even opt for lower concentrations while your skin builds tolerance), hydrating to ensure your skin barrier remains hardy, and always protecting skin from UV damage by using a broad-spectrum sunscreen daily. If you’re unsure where to start always ask a dermatologist to advise you.

If however, that’s not quite enough, you may need to ditch it altogether, as Marshall has. In the worst case scenario, you may need to be on the lookout for even a whisper of it in your skincare. In fact, after award-winning actress Sharon Maughan realised that the symptoms from which she suffered (including breathing problems, nasal polyps, and eczema ) were the result of salicylic overload, she felt so strongly about providing products free of any salicylic that she created FaceWise , a range of four key products that can be used by anyone wishing to swerve salicylic entirely.

A final tip from Marshall if you’re still suffering from spots but have weeded out salicylic: “try mandelic; it doesn’t irritate half as much.”

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