I’ve never considered myself to have sensitive skin. I’ve always thought I had normal to oily skin, especially in my T-Zone area, where it tends to get very shiny about a few hours after I wash my face. When I got pregnant, I stopped using any retinol or beta hydroxy acid (BHA) products because they’re supposed to get into your blood stream, which could either affect your growing baby or your breast milk. So since 2021, I haven’t used any BHA products. Now that I’m close to fully weaning off of breastfeeding, I figured I could start using my BHA serums again. So I whipped out a Farmacy brand BHA serum this past weekend, and without thinking, I slathered it all over my face, neck, and chest. It’s been suggested that when you introduce a new skin product that has “powerful” ingredients, you should be conservative and test it on just a small patch of skin to ensure no adverse reactions. Well, I never had to do that before, so I clearly wasn’t going to do it this time. The next morning, I woke up feeling itchy and sore from my face down to my chest. I looked in the mirror and realized that I had tiny red bumps ALL over my neck and chest where I applied the serum. My face had tiny bumps on my forehead, and the texture of my face suddenly felt super leathery.

What the heck happened to my skin in the last two years that I suddenly cannot handle higher percentages of BHA? Or is it just that this product had expired? Every morning for the last few mornings now, I feel like my skin is burning when I wake up. I need my skin to get back to normal and stop feeling like I tried to burn it all off.