Is this purging?
I’ve been using tretinoin 0.025% on and off for about 3 years. I have very sensitive skin, so I have to be really careful with actives and introduce things slowly. Most of my inconsistency has come from accidentally damaging my skin barrier in the past.
For the last 3 months, I’ve been easing back into tret and using it consistently 1x/week, So far I haven’t had any burning, peeling, or obvious irritation, but last week I suddenly started breaking out way more than usual.
I do have hormonal acne/PCOS, but I’ve been on spironolactone for 2 years and honestly haven’t had breakouts like this since starting it. These aren’t tiny pimples either — they’re large, painful inflamed ones.
What’s confusing me is that a lot of them are showing up in spots where I tend to get deep recurring comedones/cysts, which makes me wonder if it could actually be purging. But at the same time, I’m worried it could be irritation or a reaction instead.
Has anyone experienced purging like this even with very slow tret introduction? Or does this sound more like irritation/breakout territory?