Pilling. How to Prevent it.

Pilling is when skincare or makeup products fail to absorb and instead ball up into tiny rolls on your skin's surface. When products pill, ingredients from different formulas are countering each other. Instead of absorbing or blending, they ball up against each other on the surface of your skin. The friction from your fingers drags those unblended layers into little rolls.

Causes of Pilling

Skincare formulas are built on different chemistries. Water-based products (eg. a hyaluronic acid serum) behave completely differently from silicone-based products, oil-based products, or thicker creams.

When you layer a silicone-rich formula over a water-based one that hasn't fully absorbed, the two don't want to mix. The silicone slides on top of the wet layer and with friction (rubbing) an unstable surface turns into pills.

Thicker products cause the same problem in reverse. A heavy cream applied before a lightweight serum creates a physical barrier the serum can't get through. The serum has nowhere to go, partially dries on top, and pills the moment you touch your face.

There's also a potential polymer issue. A lot of moisturizers, primers, and even some serums contain film-forming polymers. These ingredients create a smooth, flexible film on the skin, which is exactly what the formulator wanted to achieve. But when two polymer products meet on the skin before either has set, they grab onto each other and roll. This is one of the more common reasons sunscreen pills over a freshly applied serum.

Pilling is more likely if you layer products formulated with silicones with oil or polymers in the same regimen. Mixing water-based products with heavier, silicone-heavy products can cause them to pill. In most cases neither product is to blame as being the inferior product as it is an interaction between the two.

Other factors that contribute to pilling are:

• Layering Issues: Applying a thick product (like a heavy cream) before a lightweight one (like a serum) prevents absorption.

  
  

• Product Overload: Using too much product means the excess has nowhere to go but the skin's surface.

  
  

• Rushing Your Routine: Applying layers too quickly without giving them time to dry traps them, leading to clumping.

  
  

• Dead Skin Build-Up: Flaking dead skin mixes with the cream's ingredients.

How to Prevent Pilling

• Layer Thin to Thick: Start with cleanser then water-based serums, followed by gels, and finish with heavier creams.

  
  

• Applying products to damp skin instead of dry skin can make a real difference. Dehydrated skin cannot absorb evenly. Damp skin absorbs faster and more evenly, which shortens the window during which two products might interact badly at the surface.

  
  

• Wait Between Layers: Give your products 60 to 90 seconds to fully absorb and dry before applying the next layer.

  
  

• Use Less: Apply a dime-sized amount of cream.

  
  

• Pat do not rub. Gently pat and press the product into your skin instead of vigorously rubbing it in to avoid the rolling/clumping process.

  
  

• Exfoliate Regularly: Slough off dead skin cells with gentle exfoliation so your creams can penetrate smoothly.

  
  

Sometimes, despite doing everything right, a single product pills with almost everything you try to layer with it. This is more common with certain SPFs, primers, and thick creams. Heavy silicone content or high polymer concentrations are usually the cause. Hyaluronic acid is also believed to be another culprit by some but many others including us do not agree.

Here at Private Label Cosmeceuticals we avoid formulating our products with problematic ingredients, with the exception of Hyaluronic acid as we love this ingredient, to help reduce the chance of pilling however it will depend on what our products are applied with and how they interact will determine if pilling occurs or not. If it does occur follow the suggestions above to prevent pilling which helps in most cases.