After rinsing off a face mask or treatment, you might notice your face looking a little red or flushed—but there’s a key difference between a response and a reaction. A response would be flushing, the experience of warmth, splotchiness, or tonal change in the skin that occurs as a result of an active regimen, like Youth To The People’s Superclay Purify + Clear Power Mask. As Laura Cline, Youth To The People’s Director of Education, notes, flushing is quite a normal response to a product, ingredient, or treatment when you’re bringing circulation, blood, and oxygen to the skin.
“When a product brings circulation and oxygen to the surface of the skin, flushing should go away in under thirty minutes—and it shouldn’t feel like a burning sensation or feel plump or really warm to the touch,” Cline explains. “When you do want to worry about flushing is if it is accompanied by itchiness, a burning sensation, and if it doesn’t go away within thirty minutes. That would be more of a true reaction—maybe a negative reaction—to a product or an ingredient, rather than a response." To ease any discomfort from flushing, Cline recommends calming the skin with cool water, ice, or the Adaptogen Soothe + Hydrate Activated Mist.
“Cleanse with Superfood Cleanser, then apply a moderate layer of the Power Mask to dry skin. Because of the potent ingredients, it’s important to avoid applying the mask too close to the sensitive skin around your eyes—around the orbital bone is a good place to stop,” Cline explains, noting that it is important not to use the Power Mask on the same day as an exfoliating product. “Let it dry for up to 10 minutes, then rinse it off with either cool or mild temperature water and follow that up with the Adaptogen Mist.”
