Anyone who’s ever worn makeup has experienced the moment when you smooth foundation over your skin-care-prepped face and, just when you’re about to walk out the door, you notice a little crumb on your cheek, and then another, and another. Suddenly your whole face is peeling, and you feel like Miss Havisham. In the beauty world, this phenomenon is called “pilling”; in the regular world, it’s called “maddening.” Javon Ford, a cosmetic chemist, tells us what’s going on and how to prevent pilling from messing up your day.
Pilling happens when whatever you’re layering is incompatible.
The usual school of thought is you should layer products that have the same base, meaning a water-based primer with water-based makeup. Most primers now are water-based, and most foundations on the market are silicone-based, which you would think would be incompatible. But generally, foundations containing silicone tend to play well with water-based primers. Many so-called clean-beauty foundations are oil-based, and those particular oils may not sit well over silicone-containing products.
Some sunscreens, such as Neutrogena Hydro Boost, contain film-formers that enhance the S.P.F. coverage. If you don’t have the perfect skin-care prep underneath it, they’ll roll up like a ball.
A product with a gummy texture, like a lot of serums, can get you into trouble. Ones with xanthan gum or the cellulose gums are tricky if you use too much of them. It’s not easy to find the polymers and gums by reading the ingredient labels. Sometimes they won’t have the word “polymer” in the name. Sometimes you’ll see the word “gum” after an ingredient, but then you’ll have something like cellulose, which is a gum but isn’t identified as such. It’s confusing.
Makeup and skin care that contain a lot of polymers often cause problems. You have to make sure everything’s thoroughly absorbed or feels like it’s absorbed. If your skin feels tacky between layers then you may want to wait a few minutes until the stickiness goes away.
You can test the products by putting your skin care and your makeup on the back of your hand and seeing if they blend together. It isn’t foolproof, but, usually, if they mix together, they should layer together as well.
Javon Ford is a Los Angeles–based cosmetic chemist. He posts highly informative reviews on TikTok and @javonford16
