4 Skin Screw-Ups To Avoid

We like to think of our complexions as an angsty teen: moody, temperamental, needy, unsure of what we want, and even less sure of what we actually need. Our skin just can't seem to make up its mind — it's dry, it's oily, there's a wrinkle, there's a breakout. Battling all of these issues usually calls for a battalion of lotions and potions. Oh, how desperately we wish there were one skin-care solution to fix it all.

We're holding out hope that some cosmetic chemist in some lab out there will soon have her eureka moment on this front, but in the interim, we rely on product cocktailing to get us by. We use serum A to address our hyperpigmentation, followed by lotion B to address the moisture loss, then layer treatment C on top to dissolve those dead skin cells and prevent breakouts. A very involved, time-consuming process, but it's the only way to keep our skin in check at home.

Well, turns out all this mixing and matching might be doing our skin more harm than good. According to aesthetician Renée Rouleau, there are certain skin-care ingredients that, when combined, actually cancel each other out, or worse, could cause a major skin reaction. So, looks like we might have been unwittingly sabotaging our skin this whole time. Whoops.

Here, Rouleau gives us the scoop on which ingredients don't play nice. Budding skin-care cocktailers should take heed — a few of these we had an idea probably weren't a good idea to combine, but there's one really surprising one in there almost all of us did regularly. Whoops again.