Pregnancy Skincare: The Safe Ingredients & The Hard No’s According to Experts

After Hours Skin Clinic

Dermatologists Dr. Emma Craythorne and Dr. Ellie Rashid provide an evidence-based guide to skincare ingredients safe for use during pregnanc

Key takeaways

• Azelaic acid is considered safe and effective for managing melasma, acne, and rosermacia during pregnancy.
• Hydroquinone is strictly contraindicated because it is systemically absorbed into the bloodstream.

Main topics

• Pregnancy skincare safety
• Retinoid usage and risks

Notable quotes

Hydroquinone is a real no. Because unlike... the topical retinoid tretinoin, hydroquinone is systemically absorbed.

Conclusion

Expectant mothers can continue many of their effective skincare routin

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Here's what's coming up in Speaker 1 (0:01) today's episode. So should we just go through like each ingredient and say whether we use it in pregnancy or not? So should we start with azelaic acid? And Speaker 2 (0:08) so for topical retinoids? Speaker 1 (0:10) But actually the only one that's got an evidence base to say that it's harmless for a newborn baby is... This is the one that is a real no. Speaker 1 (0:22) Hello and welcome to the After Hours Skin Clinic. I'm Dr Emma Craythorne. And I'm Dr Ellie Rashid and we're both consultant dermatologists here in central London. But this is our favourite clinic Speaker 2 (0:32) where we unpack the evidence and challenge the trends and answer the questions you Speaker 1 (0:37) always wanted to ask your dermatologist. And if you don't have one, you do now. So we're going to run through ingredients that people use in their topical skincare. that are safe in pregnancy because I had a patient in clinic who was pregnant. It was her first pregnancy and she's always suffered with mild acne and was really worried about this getting worse when she were to stop her skincare routine. So she had a skincare routine that she had on lock and it was working really great. And then in pregnancy, she wanted to understand what she could use, what she couldn't use and what to do if things flared up. So She thought it would be really helpful if we did a podcast episode on it that other pregnant women could refer to. There Speaker 2 (1:19) is a whole lot of misinformation about what you can and can't use on your skin. Actually, just generally, even Speaker 1 (1:26) aside from pregnancy. All Speaker 2 (1:29) the skin specialists out there telling you what you can and can't do on your skin in pregnancy. So I think that is really called for. But also, even yourself, whenever you're pregnant. Well, I'll speak. from myself. you get really anxious about absolutely everything. Everything. You know, every single thing that you might do might potentially harm your unborn child. Plus as well, everybody's telling you all the things that you're, you potentially are doing might harm your unborn child. You can't do this kind of exercise. You can't do that kind of exercise. You can't eat that kind of food. You can't drink that kind of drink. You can't stay up too late. You can't walk that way. You can't put this on your skin. There's a whole load of, things that just makes you feel nervous. There's almost a reactionary thing then. Okay, I'm just not going to do anything. And even that then makes you anxious and stressed, which actually you shouldn't be whenever you're pregnant because that will transfer to your baby as well. Speaker 1