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Azelaic acid and citric acid

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Azelaic acid and citric acid: keep them apart

Keep them apart

Use them at different times of day, applying azelaic acid in the morning and citric acid at night. Combining these two exfoliating acids can over-exfoliate your face, leading to redness and irritation. You can make this routine work by choosing a lower strength or waiting longer between applications.

Azelaic acid products

Citric acid products

Questions and answers

Can you use azelaic acid and citric acid together?

Keep azelaic acid and citric acid apart because combining strong exfoliants may over-exfoliate your skin and lead to inflammation. Alternate their use in your routine or buffer them with soothing ingredients.

Which goes first, azelaic acid or citric acid?

Keep azelaic acid and citric acid apart in your routine to avoid over-exfoliation and potential inflammation. Instead, alternate their use or buffer them with soothing actives.

Are azelaic acid and citric acid good for sensitive skin?

No, you should keep azelaic acid and citric acid apart in your routine. Combining these strong actives may lead to over-exfoliation and inflammation.

Research on azelaic acid and citric acid

Behind this pairing advice

Lovi checks every pairing with brand-independent rules our dermatologists and cosmetic chemists build and review, and personalizes every pick with AI trained on the real results of millions of users. Lovi trains its fit score models on a proprietary dataset built from more than 10,000 expert-labeled products and more than 100,000 simulated examples, following an internally consistent methodology presented at Cosmoprof, AMWC, and Skin of Color Update.

  • Nadia Kapleva, MS

    Nadia Kapleva, MS

    Co-founder, Medical Director

    Cosmetic chemist, cosmetologist, aesthetic products developer

  • Alexey Shagraev, PhD

    Alexey Shagraev, PhD

    Co-founder, CEO and CTO

    PhD in computer science, 3x US patent holder, ex-Google, ex-Yandex

  • Dr. Sof铆a Perea P茅rez, MD, MSc

    Dr. Sof铆a Perea P茅rez, MD, MSc

    Medical Board

    Aesthetic medicine practitioner, MSc in Longevity and Anti-Aging Medicine

  • Aishani Shah, MD

    Aishani Shah, MD

    Medical Board

    Specialist dermatologist, MBBS, MD, IFAAD

  • Asya Zubkova, MS

    Asya Zubkova, MS

    Medical Board

    Cosmetic chemist, SCS, IFSCC member

  • Hanna Kurets, MD

    Hanna Kurets, MD

    Medical Board, Medical Advisor

    Dermatology MD

  • Elina Nazarenko, MD

    Elina Nazarenko, MD

    Medical Board

    Dermatology and diagnostic consultant

  • Victoria Derkova, MS

    Victoria Derkova, MS

    Medical Board

    Cosmetic chemist, cosmetic development technologist

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