When to add azelaic acid?
Hi everyone,
35F here on her 10th week of 0.025% tretinoin. Still purging a bit but it's manageable. I started tretinoin for mild acne (mostly closed comedones but inflamed acne every so often). I'm using it about every 3 days/every other night - took a bit of a break last week because I tried to increase to nightly but my skin got irritated for the first time so have dialled back and will stick to every other night for a while I think. My question is when is too soon to add azelaic acid in the mornings? I've used skinoren 20% in the past and my skin absolutely loves it, it saved me from a terrible breakout a few years back. I have an unopened tube on standby and I'm so tempted to start using it a few mornings a week just to help me get through the last bit of the purge/deal with some of the PIH it's left me with... But is it too soon?! I've been focussing on being as gentle as possible so I'm torn.
Routine is:
am: cerave hydrating cleanser, few drops of TO squalane oil, Clinique moisture surge 100H, LRP hydrating SPF 50
Pm: cerave hydrating cleanser, Clinique moisture surge 100H, wait a while (tret on tret nights followed by another layer of the same moisturiser), sometimes cicaplast baum to top off on non tret nights if my skin is feeling a little dry.
Thank you!