What is it?
Lactobionic Acid Is The New Ingredient Transforming Winter Skin. From mandelic to salicylic, exfoliating acids are huge in skincare right now. Promising brighter, smoother and clearer skin, they work on both a surface and deeper level to lift away dull, dead skin cells, unclog pores and minimise hyperpigmentation.
Benefits for your skin?
Exfoliation: As a PHA with large molecules, it acts as a mild exfoliant. It boosts the removal of the outer layer of the skin, helping to get rid of dead skin, leaving you with smooth skin.
Sun Protection: It has antioxidant properties and offers your skin some protection from the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays.
Skin Thickening: It can improve the thickness of your skin which helps to increase firmness.
Anti-Aging: It boosts the production of collagen, which helps to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and improves elasticity.
Skin Brightening: It helps to fade dark spots and marks, including under-eye darkness, and can help with hyperpigmentation by increasing cellular turnover.
Hydrating: Lactobionic acid is a humectant which means that it can draw moisture from the deeper layers of your skin (and from the atmosphere in humid environments) into the outer layers of your skin to keep it supple and hydrated, without making your skin feel greasy.
Treating inflammatory skin conditions: It reduces skin pH without irritation which helps inflammatory skin conditions like acne and rosacea.
How to use in your skincare routine?
You should avoid using lactobionic-acid alongside products containing glycolic acid or other chemical exfoliants. However, it’s usually ok to use multiple chemical exfoliants if they’re in one multi-ingredient product as these are usually tested for irritation potential.
Chemical exfoliants should only be used a maximum of 1-3x per week to avoid over-exfoliation, skin barrier damage, and inflammation.
When using any type of chemical exfoliant, it’s important to apply it to dry skin to reduce the risk of irritation. For example:
- Cleanse
- Thoroughly dry skin
- Apply Lactobionic acid toner or serum
- Follow with moisturizer
- Apply sunscreen (AM only)
To reduce irritation, you can also use lactobionic-acid after your moisturiser which will act as a buffer to slow the rate that the acid penetrates your skin.