How to Avoid Problems with New Skin Care Products

Hello, I’m Dr. Neal Schultz and welcome to DermTV.

We try new skin care products to help our skin in some way, and today I am going to tell you how to try to avoid problems from new skin care products. The reason that we use new products is usually either to make our skin look better, or to make it feel better, or there may be a specific problem that we want to treat like acne or eczema. When most of us start to use products, we use them everywhere we have the problem, and for sure, not all products will do everything we want them to do, and some of them may not do anything we want them to do. But can you imagine starting a new skin care product for a problem and having it make that problem worse or even causing a different problem, like a rash or an acne breakout. Let me tell you how to avoid that problem. Very simply, the first time you use a new skin care product, use it on an area somewhere between the size of a nickel and a quarter. Choose an area off the center of your face in front of your ear and put a very small amount on. Do that for 3-4 days and make sure there is no irritation and no breakout in that area. If there isn’t, then you can use the product every place you had planned on using it or every place where you think that you need it. If you follow this method, it’s not completely foolproof but there’s a good chance that you’ll avoid having difficult problems and unanticipated problems with new skin care products.

Please join me again at DermTV.com. If you have a question, please send it to me by visiting DermTV.com/question. I’m Dr. Neal Schultz and thank you for watching today.