This Is Gross But…What Happens to the Pus in My Pimple?

In our column, New to Me, writer and editor Stephen Rubino puts the newest and buzziest beauty products to the test, offering up his honest thoughts on how they perform and if they’re really worth adding to your shopping cart. As a man of a certain age (OK, 31), it’s time for me to start factoring in anti-aging as a key goal of my skincare routine. I’m a recent convert to wearing SPF every day, as opposed to just beach days, so this feels like a pretty major step for someone who’s fairly hands-off. But time stops for nobody, so I’ve decided to add another step in my usual process: retinol. A form of Vitamin A, retinol promises to help smooth out lines and refine the look of pores to help my skin stay youthful for longer. For this stage in my journey, I went with the SkinCeuticals Retinol 0.3, named for the 0.3% retinol in the ingredients. Some basic info on retinol: it can be powerful stuff. It helps speed up cell turnover and cuts down on blemishes, but it can also be intense on your skin at first. SkinCeuticals recommends starting out with using retinol just a couple days per week, before switching to using it nightly. This is ideal for me, because I forgot to use it half the time anywayI’m bad with routines, what can I say?). They recommend using the 0.3 solution before escalating to their 0.5 version or even the (gasp!) 1.0 solution. One reason for the slow build: Retinol makes your face more sensitive to UV rays, so you’ll want to be diligent about that SPF application, or you’ll just end up at increased risk of a sunburn.

This Is Gross But…What Happens to the Pus in My Pimple?

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