Alongside chocolate and bad moods, breakouts are one of the tired tropes often associated with periods. But spots that coincide with the so-called crimson tide can be one of life’s very real inconveniences. Hence the rise of period skincare.
The idea is that your skin undergoes a series of changes as your hormones ebb and flow throughout your 28-day cycle, and therefore your skincare routine should morph, too.
A glut of brands now cater to this idea. The US-based Amareta offers “hormonal cycle-based clean skincare”, recommending its Petal Soft cleansing balm for weeks one and two (counting from the first day of your period) and Pure Peace clarifying serum for weeks three and four. Veneffect, another US-based brand, suggests products high in salicylic or glycolic acid in the days leading up to your period – a bid to control oil production – then “skin-soothers”, such as serums and moisturisers, to help you “amp up the glow” during it.
Charlotte Ferguson set up Disciple Skincare, her London-based “natural skincare company for stressed-out skin”, because of her own adult acne. For her, menstruation-savvy skincare might mean using alpha hydroxy acids in the week before your period when oestrogen drops and progesterone and testosterone surge: “That’s what can make your skin particularly oily and your pores blocked and inflamed.” These acids are good, she says, for “breaking the sticky bonds between dead skin cells and the surface of your skin. They help to dissolve the oil.” She also recommends a double, deep pore cleanse and advises against using heavy creams. “They are going to block your pores and you’ll be more likely to break out.”
For the week of your period and the week after, she suggests using a retinol treatment at night and vitamin C in the day: the former to “help heal and reduce any scarring that you might have from breakouts you’ve had in the week before”, the latter “because it’s really brightening. Your skin is more likely to have a glow because of all the oestrogen anyway [so] it’s a really good thing to use at the same time.”
Of course, not all women have periods. But for those who always get spotty during them or oily just beforehand, this will sound familiar.
“When you speak to people about it, they are like: ‘That totally makes sense; I’ve just never thought about it before,’” says Ferguson.
But does the science back it up? According to Dr Sweta Rai, a dermatologist at King’s College hospital, there are certain skin conditions that can happen during your period, such as spots and acne flares, but “periods in themselves don’t really give you anything to write home about”. “In the medical world,” she says, “we don’t generally advise different people on [different] skincare products during their periods.”
According to Dr Anjoli Mahto, a consultant dermatologist at Chelsea’s Cadogan clinic, there is a little bit of science to back up the idea of period-specific skincare, despite the fact that “nobody’s done any studies on this”. During the “second half of your cycle, you do tend to be quite progesterone- and testosterone-heavy, and that’s why a lot of people find their skin can get a bit oilier after ovulation and more spot-prone in the run up to their period”. You could therefore argue that there’s some benefit to “ramping up your actives, like your acids – alpha and beta hydroxy acids – and your retinols in that time” to combat any increased oiliness. But, she says, there is no guarantee it will work.
Rather than switching your routine for different times of the month, Rai advises using sunscreen and a good moisturiser that work for you throughout it. For most of Mahto’s patients, it is more effective to have “a consistent skincare routine to deliver reliable results” rather than “chopping and changing”.
If the medical community is not behind the trend, what else might be driving it? There is increasing chatter around the idea of “cyclical living”, with women encouraged to harness the power of their monthly hormonal fluctuations rather than fight against them. Where hormones were once a fast lane to “hysteria”, they are now things to be listened to, a possible tool of personal empowerment.
The burgeoning “femtech” market, which includes the rise of period trackers and is estimated to be worth $50bn (£41bn) by 2025, is feeding into an increasing intimacy with hormonal fluctuations. From Clue to Flo, apps are already telling their users when they are ovulating or when to expect that pre-menstrual fug to descend. It doesn’t feel like too big a leap to apply the tracking mentality of apps to skincare.
Period skincare also slots neatly into the trend for targeted beauty products. Last year saw a surge in “anti-pollution skincare”, which featured products marketed with “urban skin” in mind. There has also been a rise in so-called “menopause skincare”.
The advertising consultant Cindy Gallop is delighted that period skincare now exists. She believes it to be an indication that “there are people out there taking women and women’s needs seriously, especially related to something that the world at large – that is, men – are so squeamish about: periods.”
With women’s skincare such a lucrative market, some cynicism is only sensible. Yet Gallop believes we should pay attention to women’s self-identified needs. While she, at 59, is completely period-free – “Hallelujah!” – she accepts that there are “women out there with very bad things that happen only on your period, to your skin, to your mood. So I don’t think any of us should discount any other woman’s experience.”
Of course, sorting what we need from what we think we need will never be easy, especially when marketing has become so sophisticated that some companies are mining data from period trackers in an attempt to target consumers based on what stage of their cycle they are at.
Period skincare can be seen as part of the £500bn-plus “wellness industry”. To its critics, this is something for the already “disproportionately well”, or a way to wring more money out of women’s insecurities. For Gallop, it is a logical outcome of a world where mainstream health doesn’t take women seriously.
“Women cannot find focus, empathy and relevance within the mainstream medical and health system,” she says. “When you have offshoots of health and beauty that are female-driven, female-founded, no wonder women flock to them.”
