Is Azelaic Acid an Exfoliant? What It Really Does

Azelaic acid is not a chemical exfoliant in the way AHAs and BHAs are. It is a dicarboxylic acid, and it does not dissolve the bonds that hold dead surface skin cells together. It does, however, help normalise the way skin cells behave, which can leave skin looking smoother and more even over time.

That is the short answer, and it is the honest one. It is also more nuanced than most of the internet will tell you, because the truthful version sits somewhere between “yes” and “no”, and neither of those words on their own is accurate.

This guide unpacks that nuance properly. We will look at what azelaic acid actually is at a chemical level, how it differs from the exfoliating acids it gets shelved next to, whether it does anything to dead skin at all, how it compares with salicylic acid, whether it counts as enough exfoliation on its own, and how to fit it into a routine without irritating your skin. If you arrived here searching “is azelaic acid an exfoliant” because you were trying to work out whether you still need a separate exfoliant, you will have a clear answer by the end.

If you already know you want the ingredient, our 10% Azelaic Acid Serum for Redness Relief is £16 for 30ml. If what you actually want is a genuine exfoliating acid, our full range of exfoliants is a better starting point. Knowing which of those two things you need is most of the battle, and that is really what this article is about.

The short answer: is azelaic acid an exfoliant?

No. Azelaic acid is not a chemical exfoliant, but it is keratolytic and comedolytic, which means it helps normalise how skin cells behave and delivers smoother-looking results gradually rather than instantly.

That sentence is doing a lot of work, so we will take it apart across the rest of this piece. But it is worth sitting with the shape of it first, because the shape is the point. Azelaic acid is not an exfoliating acid. It also is not inert when it comes to texture. People who use it consistently often report that their skin looks smoother and more even, and they are not imagining it. The reason is that azelaic acid influences an earlier stage of the skin cell lifecycle than an exfoliant does, which produces some of the same visible outcomes by an entirely different route.

There are three good reasons people assume it exfoliates, and all three are reasonable.

• It has “acid” in the name. In skincare, “acid” has become shorthand for “exfoliant”, largely because glycolic, lactic, mandelic and salicylic acids dominated the conversation for a decade. But chemically, “acid” is an enormous category. Hyaluronic acid is an acid and nobody expects it to shed skin cells. Amino acids are acids. The word tells you something about the molecule’s chemistry, not about what it does on your face.
• It sits next to exfoliants on the shelf and in routines. Azelaic acid is usually merchandised alongside AHAs and BHAs, recommended by the same people, and discussed in the same breath. Proximity implies similarity. If it is filed under “actives” next to a glycolic toner, the brain fills in the gap.
• It genuinely does improve texture over time. This is the most persuasive reason of all, and the hardest to argue with. If your skin looks smoother after eight weeks of using something, calling it an exfoliant feels like a fair description of your experience. The results are real. The mechanism is just not the one you think.

What azelaic acid actually is: a dicarboxylic acid, not an AHA or BHA

Chemically, azelaic acid is a saturated dicarboxylic acid with nine carbon atoms in its chain. Written out, it looks like COOH-(CH2)7-COOH, and its molecular weight is roughly 188.22. It is a weak acid, which matters more than it sounds, because weak acids behave far more gently on skin than the pH-dependent, fast-acting exfoliating acids people tend to compare it with.

“Dicarboxylic” is the important word, and it is simpler than it looks. A carboxyl group is the little cluster of atoms that makes a molecule acidic. Alpha hydroxy acids and beta hydroxy acids have one of them. Azelaic acid has two, one at each end of a straight nine-carbon chain, which is what the “di” refers to. That structural difference is not cosmetic trivia. It places azelaic acid in a genuinely separate chemical family from glycolic acid, lactic acid, mandelic acid and salicylic acid. They are not variations on a theme. They are different molecules doing different things.

It is also worth knowing where azelaic acid comes from, because it is one of the more reassuring origin stories in skincare. It occurs naturally in whole grains such as wheat, rye and barley. It is also produced on healthy human skin by yeast that lives there naturally as part of the skin’s normal microbial population. In other words, this is not an aggressive synthetic actor introduced to your skin for the first time in a serum bottle. It is a molecule your skin already has some familiarity with, which is part of why it tends to be so well tolerated even by people who react badly to stronger acids.

The clinical literature is consistent on the classification. Azelaic Acid in Dermatology: A Review of Its Mechanism of Action describes it as a naturally occurring saturated dicarboxylic acid, and the dermatology resource DermNet takes the same position in DermNet’s overview of azelaic acid, where it is described as keratolytic and comedolytic.

Those two words need translating immediately, because they are where most of the confusion on this topic originates.

According to DermNet, azelaic acid is keratolytic and comedolytic, and improves the disordered growth of skin cells lining the follicle by inhibiting the proliferation and differentiation of keratinocytes.

Keratolytic means it helps soften and loosen keratin, the tough structural protein that makes up the outer layer of skin. Comedolytic means it helps keep pores from becoming blocked and congested. Neither word means “exfoliant”. A keratolytic ingredient influences how keratin behaves and accumulates. An exfoliating acid physically breaks the connections holding dead cells in place. Those are related outcomes achieved through unrelated mechanisms, and the distinction is the entire reason this article exists.

Why the category label actually matters

It would be easy to dismiss all of this as pedantry. It is not, and here is the practical reason why.

If you believe azelaic acid is an exfoliant, you will use it as though it were one. That leads to three specific, avoidable problems.

You will expect the wrong results on the wrong timeline. Exfoliating acids give you feedback fast. Skin often feels different the next morning. Azelaic acid does not work that way, and if you are waiting for an overnight change in how your skin feels, you will conclude it is not working and give up at week two, which is precisely when you should be persevering.

You might stack it badly. If you file azelaic acid under “gentle exfoliant”, you may reason that adding a proper exfoliant on top is a sensible upgrade. In practice, layering multiple actives in one routine is the fastest route to a compromised barrier, and you get irritation rather than results.

You might skip exfoliation entirely when you genuinely wanted it. If smoother-feeling skin and a decongested texture are your actual goals, and you have replaced your exfoliant with azelaic acid on the assumption that it does the same job, you have quietly removed a step from your routine without replacing its function.

So when people search “is azelaic acid a chemical exfoliant” or “what type of exfoliant is azelaic acid”, the most useful thing we can do is gently correct the premise. It is not a chemical exfoliant, and it is not a type of exfoliant at all. It is a dicarboxylic acid with its own distinct mechanism, and understanding that mechanism is what allows you to use it well. For the full picture of the ingredient across every use case, our azelaic acid pillar guide covers the rest.

Now that we know what azelaic acid is, the difference becomes much clearer once you know what a chemical exfoliant actually does.

How chemical exfoliants work, and why azelaic acid is different

Your outermost layer of skin is made up of flattened dead cells called corneocytes, and they are held together by protein structures called corneodesmosomes. Think of them as tiny anchors, or grips, locking each cell to its neighbours. Chemical exfoliants work by weakening those grips so the dead cells at the very surface release and shed more readily than they otherwise would.

Within that category there are meaningful differences. AHAs such as glycolic acid are water-loving, so they work mainly at the surface. BHAs such as salicylic acid are oil-loving, which lets them get into the pore lining and work on oil and build-up inside it. PHAs are larger molecules that work more slowly and more gently at the surface. That is the mechanical summary, and it is deliberately brief here because our guide to using acids in your skincare routine covers the whole family properly, and glycolic acid vs salicylic acid goes deeper on the AHA versus BHA comparison specifically.

Azelaic acid does none of this. There is no good evidence that it dissolves or loosens the connections between corneocytes. Its action is regulatory rather than dissolving. It does not break the anchors. It influences how the cells form in the first place.

The simple version: exfoliating acids loosen what is already there. Azelaic acid works on what happens next.

If you want to see what a true chemical exfoliant looks like in a routine, our Glycolic Acid Toner is a surface-level AHA, and our Beta Hydroxy Acid (BHA) Serum is the oil-soluble option that gets into the pore. Neither is a substitute for azelaic acid, and azelaic acid is not a substitute for either.

If azelaic acid does not loosen dead cells, the obvious next question is whether it does anything to them at all.

So does azelaic acid exfoliate dead skin? The keratinisation nuance

Not in the way the question usually means. Azelaic acid does not remove cells that are already dead and sitting on the surface of your skin. It works earlier in the process, on the cells that have not finished becoming surface cells yet. That is a genuinely different intervention point, and once you understand it, everything else about how azelaic acid behaves starts to make sense.

What keratinisation actually is

Your skin is in a constant state of manufacture. New cells called keratinocytes are produced in the deepest layer of the epidermis, and over roughly a month they travel upwards, maturing as they go. As they rise they fill with keratin, flatten out, lose their nuclei, and eventually become the tough, protective, technically dead cells of the outer layer. At the top of the journey they shed, invisibly and continuously, and are replaced by the cells behind them. That whole conveyor belt process is called keratinisation.

When it runs smoothly, you never notice it. When it goes out of step, you notice immediately. Cells can mature too quickly, stick together when they should be separating, or accumulate inside the lining of the follicle rather than moving cleanly through it. The visible results are familiar to almost everyone: skin that looks rough rather than smooth, pores that look congested, texture that does not photograph well in side lighting, and a general sense that your skin is not reflecting light evenly.

An exfoliating acid addresses the end of that process. It accelerates the shedding of cells that have already completed their journey. Azelaic acid addresses the middle of it, by influencing how those cells behave as they form and mature.

What the dermatology literature actually says

This is where the evidence is worth naming directly rather than gesturing at. According to DermNet, azelaic acid improves the disordered growth of skin cells lining the follicle by inhibiting the proliferation and differentiation of keratinocytes. Translated into plain English: it calms down overactive cell build-up inside the pore, rather than scrubbing cells off the top.

That claim is supported elsewhere. Research examining the effects on keratinisation pattern in human skin found measurable changes in how the follicular lining behaved with azelaic acid use. Broader reviews, including The multiple uses of azelaic acid in dermatology and Azelaic acid: Mechanisms of Action and Clinical Applications, describe a molecule with several overlapping properties: antibacterial, anti-keratinising, antimelanogenic, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Note what is absent from that list. Nowhere in the mechanism of action is there a step where azelaic acid dissolves the bonds between dead surface cells.

So when someone searches “how does azelaic acid exfoliate”, the honest answer is that it does not exfoliate at all. What it does is regulate the process that determines whether you needed exfoliating in the first place.

The most useful way to hold the difference

Here is the contrast that tends to make it click for people.

An exfoliant gives you an immediate change in how your skin feels. Azelaic acid gives you a gradual change in how your skin behaves.

That is why the two are not interchangeable, and why the comparison between them is a little unfair in both directions. Judging azelaic acid by how smooth your skin feels the next morning is like judging a change in diet by how full you feel after one meal. It is measuring the wrong thing on the wrong timescale.

To make it concrete, here is the split.

What azelaic acid does:

• Helps normalise the way skin cells form and mature inside the follicle
• Helps soften and reduce keratin build-up, which is what keratolytic means
• Helps keep pores from becoming congested, which is what comedolytic means
• Supports a more even-looking tone, partly through its effect on pigment production
• Helps reduce the look of redness, which is its headline benefit in our formula

What azelaic acid does not do:

• Dissolve or loosen the bonds between dead surface cells
• Produce an immediate change in surface smoothness after one use
• Replace a dedicated exfoliating acid if genuine exfoliation is your goal
• Cause visible flaking or peeling in the way stronger acids sometimes can

Why results still show up, and when

The gradual nature of the mechanism is exactly why the timeline matters so much. Studies observing changes in the skin with azelaic acid generally look at a window of around four to eight weeks before assessing visible and histologic change. That is not a marketing hedge, it is what the research design reflects, and it is the honest expectation to set.

What to expect, and when. Azelaic acid works gradually. Research looking at changes in the skin typically observes a window of around four to eight weeks. Consistency over that period matters far more than how much you apply in any single session.

Some people do notice a short adjustment period at the start, which is a separate question with its own answer. Does azelaic acid cause purging covers the turnover and timeline question in full, so we will not duplicate it here.

Why azelaic acid can still make skin look smoother and more even

If the mechanism is regulatory rather than exfoliating, why do so many people describe their skin as smoother after using it? Because normalised cell behaviour produces smoother-looking skin as a downstream consequence. The route is indirect, but the destination overlaps.

There are three strands to it.

Less visible congestion. When cells stop accumulating inside the pore lining, pores look clearer and the surface of the skin looks less bumpy and uneven. That is a texture improvement arrived at by prevention rather than removal.

More even-looking tone. Azelaic acid has an effect on pigment production. The proposed mechanism involves tyrosinase inhibition, and in plain English, tyrosinase is the enzyme that starts the process of making melanin. Slowing that enzyme down means less new pigment is produced in the areas where your skin has been overproducing it. That is why azelaic acid is so often recommended for the look of uneven tone and post-blemish marks, and why people describe their complexion as looking more uniform even when individual spots have not changed dramatically.

Reduced look of redness. Azelaic acid’s anti-inflammatory properties are part of why our formula is built around redness relief. Skin that looks calmer also tends to look more even, because unevenness is as much about colour variation as it is about surface texture.

Put those three together over six or eight weeks and the cumulative effect is skin that genuinely looks smoother and more even. It just did not get there by having its top layer removed.

Clearing up the language, once and for all

You may have seen azelaic acid described as having a “gentle exfoliating action”, including in places where you would expect precision. You may also have seen it described as “accelerating skin cell turnover”. Both phrases are trying to describe something real, and both are slightly imprecise. Here is how to read them.

“Gentle exfoliating action” is best understood as exfoliation-like smoothing results, not an exfoliating acid mechanism. The outcome resembles what an exfoliant gives you. The process does not.

“Accelerates skin cell turnover” is more accurately stated as supports the skin’s natural renewal process and helps normalise keratinisation. The evidence supports regulation of a disordered process, not a straightforward speeding up of a normal one. Those are different claims, and the second is the one the research actually backs.

So the canonical version, and the one worth remembering, is the one we opened with. Azelaic acid is not a chemical exfoliant, but it is keratolytic and comedolytic, which means it helps normalise how skin cells behave and delivers smoother-looking results gradually rather than instantly.

In practical terms, that is what our 10% Azelaic Acid Serum for Redness Relief is designed to do: a 10% concentration of the ingredient in a lightweight formula, at £16 for 30ml, positioned for visible redness and uneven tone rather than for exfoliation.

The clearest way to see all of this in action is to put azelaic acid next to the exfoliating acid it gets confused with most often.

Azelaic acid vs salicylic acid: two different jobs

Search interest in “azelaic acid vs salicylic acid” is high, and it is usually driven by someone trying to pick one. That framing is slightly off, because these two ingredients are not competing for the same role. They are two different tools solving two different problems that happen to show up on the same faces.

What salicylic acid does

Salicylic acid is a beta hydroxy acid, and it is a true chemical exfoliant. Its defining property is that it is oil-loving, which means it can travel through sebum and into the pore lining rather than sitting on the surface. Once there, it loosens the build-up of dead cells and oil that blocks pores, which is why it is the standard recommendation for blackheads, visible congestion and skin that runs oily through the day.

It works relatively quickly. Skin often feels different within days, and pores can look visibly clearer within a couple of weeks. It is an intervention at the point of blockage. Our Beta Hydroxy Acid (BHA) Serum is the concentrated leave-on version, and our Salicylic Acid Cleanser is a gentler, rinse-off format for people who want the ingredient without a leave-on active. Both live within our wider blemishes and breakouts range.

What azelaic acid does

Azelaic acid is a dicarboxylic acid, and it is not an exfoliant. It works on the look of redness, on tone, and on the way skin cells behave as they form. It does not clear an existing blockage the way a BHA does. It influences the conditions that lead to blockages forming, while simultaneously calming the look of redness and helping to even out tone.

It works more slowly, on that four to eight week horizon, and its benefits are cumulative rather than immediate. Where salicylic acid is a clearing ingredient, azelaic acid is a regulating and calming one.

Different tools, different jobs. One clears the pore. The other calms and evens.

Who tends to reach for which

The honest guidance is that this is less about which ingredient is better and more about what is bothering you.

• If your main concerns are oiliness, visible congestion, blackheads and blemish-prone skin, salicylic acid is usually the more direct answer.
• If your main concerns are visible redness, uneven tone, and the marks left behind after blemishes have settled, azelaic acid is usually the better fit. Our guide on whether does azelaic acid help with post-blemish marks goes into that specific use case in detail.
• If you are choosing between exfoliating acids rather than between categories, glycolic acid vs salicylic acid is the comparison you actually want.

Plenty of people benefit from both ingredients across a week, and they can work well together in a routine when used sensibly. How to combine them is its own question with its own answer, and our dedicated guide on using azelaic acid with salicylic acid covers the specifics. For the purposes of this article, the point is simply that they belong to different categories doing different jobs.

Knowing the difference raises an immediately practical question for anyone already using azelaic acid.

Is azelaic acid enough exfoliation on its own?

It depends entirely on what you are asking it to do, and the honest answer splits in two.

If your goal is genuine exfoliation, meaning the active removal of dead surface cells, then no. Azelaic acid is not doing that job, and no amount of consistency will make it do that job. If you have rough texture that you want physically resolved, or persistent surface build-up, or you simply like the immediate smoothness an acid gives you, azelaic acid will not deliver that and you will need an actual exfoliant.

If your goal is smoother, clearer and more even-looking skin with less visible redness, then it may well be all you need, and you may not need a dedicated exfoliant at all.

That second half deserves emphasis, because it runs against the grain of a lot of skincare advice. There is a widespread assumption that every routine requires an exfoliation step, and that assumption is not true. Plenty of skin does perfectly well without one. If your skin is sensitive, reactive, prone to stinging, or already looks and feels the way you want it to, adding an exfoliating acid is not an automatic upgrade. It is an additional variable, and additional variables carry additional risk.

So before you buy anything, it is worth asking what problem the exfoliant would actually be solving. If you cannot name one, you may not need it. If you can, our exfoliants range is the right place to look, and best exfoliator for sensitive skin is the guide to read if you want the gentlest possible entry point.

Can you use azelaic acid with an exfoliant, or after exfoliating?

Yes, you can use both, but our published guidance is to alternate rather than stack them in the same routine.

That advice appears on the product page for our 10% Azelaic Acid Serum for Redness Relief and it is deliberate. Avoid layering with exfoliating acids such as AHAs, BHAs and PHAs, with retinols, or with vitamin C in the same routine. Alternate use instead, to prevent over-exfoliation and irritation.

Our guidance. Alternate, do not stack. Using both in the same routine increases irritation risk without increasing results.

In practice, alternating is straightforward. A simple structure that works for most people looks like this.

1. Monday evening: azelaic acid after cleansing, then moisturiser.
2. Tuesday evening: your exfoliating acid, then moisturiser.
3. Wednesday evening: azelaic acid again.
4. Thursday evening: a rest night, with just cleanser and moisturiser, if your skin is on the sensitive side.
5. Repeat, adjusting the ratio based on how your skin responds.

The other common approach is to split by time of day rather than by day of the week, with one active in the morning and the other in the evening. Both work. The principle is the same: give each ingredient its own moment rather than asking your skin to process two actives at once.

Can you use azelaic acid straight after exfoliating? Better to separate them. Applying azelaic acid immediately after an exfoliating acid increases the chance of irritation without adding any benefit, because your skin has just had its surface altered and its tolerance is temporarily lower. There is no reward for compressing the two into one session.

If you are choosing between exfoliant strengths, PHA toner vs glycolic acid toner walks through the difference, and our PHA Toner is the gentler of the two if you are pairing an exfoliant with azelaic acid in the same week.

Signs you have overdone it

Over-exfoliation is easy to cause and easy to miss, because the early signs get misread as the product working. Watch for tightness that does not resolve after moisturising, stinging when you apply products that never used to sting, unusual sensitivity to temperature or wind, and visible redness that is not settling down between uses.

If any of that is happening, the answer is to pause the actives rather than push through. What to do if you have over exfoliated covers the recovery process, and our Ectoin Hydro-Barrier Serum is a genuinely useful thing to reach for while your barrier settles. None of this is cause for alarm. Skin recovers well when you give it the space to.

With the pairing rules settled, here is what a simple azelaic acid routine actually looks like from start to finish.

How to use azelaic acid in your routine

The good news is that azelaic acid is one of the less fussy actives to work into a routine. There is no complicated buffering, no waiting period, no pH-dependent sequencing to memorise.

1. Cleanse. Start with clean, dry skin. Any gentle cleanser works here.
2. Apply azelaic acid. Take a small amount, roughly the size of a pea for the whole face, and spread it evenly across the areas you are targeting. Let it absorb for a moment.
3. Moisturise. Follow with a moisturiser to seal everything in and support your barrier. Our Bio-Active Ceramide Moisturiser pairs well here, and our full moisturisers range has options for every skin type.

Morning or evening? Our 10% Azelaic Acid Serum for Redness Relief can be used both AM and PM. If you are new to actives, though, there is no need to leap straight to twice daily. Starting a few times a week, seeing how your skin responds, and building up from there is the sensible approach. Tolerance is individual, and there is no prize for going fast.

How much to use, and why more is not better. This is worth saying plainly, because it is one of the most common mistakes with any active. Doubling the amount you apply does not double the result. The formula is at a 10% concentration for a reason, and applying a thicker layer simply means more product sitting on the surface with nowhere useful to go. What you gain is a higher chance of irritation. What you do not gain is faster results.

The timeline, again. Four to eight weeks. Consistency beats intensity, every single time. The single most common reason people conclude azelaic acid did not work for them is that they assessed it at week two, which is genuinely too early to judge.

What it pairs well with. Niacinamide is a natural companion, since both work on the look of tone and redness from different angles, and azelaic acid and niacinamide covers exactly how to combine them. Our 10% Niacinamide Serumis the straightforward option if you want to try the pairing. Retinol is also compatible for many people, though it needs a more careful approach, and can you use azelaic acid with retinol sets out the alternating schedule we recommend.

Who azelaic acid suits, including sensitive and reactive skin

This might suit you if:

• You have visible redness you want to calm the look of
• Your tone looks uneven, patchy or blotchy
• You are dealing with post-blemish marks left behind after spots have settled
• Your skin is congestion-prone and you want to address it without a strong exfoliating acid
• You have tried AHAs or BHAs and found them too much for your skin
• You want a single ingredient that works on several concerns at once rather than a ten-step routine

The sensitivity point is the one worth expanding, because it is a genuine point of difference and not just a marketing line.

A great many people cannot comfortably tolerate exfoliating acids. Their skin stings, flushes, tightens or flakes, and the standard advice they receive is to use a lower concentration less often, which frequently just means a smaller version of the same problem. For those people, azelaic acid offers a different route to several of the same goals. Because its mechanism is regulatory rather than dissolving, it does not depend on disrupting the surface of the skin to work. It is not asking your barrier to absorb an insult in exchange for a benefit.

That does not mean it is universally comfortable. Some people experience a mild tingling in the first week or two, and a small number find it does not suit them at all. But as a category, it is notably better tolerated than strong AHAs and BHAs, and it fits into routines where those ingredients simply are not an option.

It is also frequently recommended for rosacea-prone skin, which has its own complexities well beyond the scope of this article. Our guide to azelaic acid for rosacea-prone skin covers that question properly.

Our formula is a 10% concentration of azelaic acid, and our 10% Azelaic Acid Serum for Redness Relief is £16 for 30ml. It sits within our wider redness range, which is the right place to browse if calming the look of redness is your primary concern.

Explore more guides

If this raised more questions than it answered, these are the guides worth reading next.

• Azelaic acid: the complete guide covers every use case for the ingredient in one place, from concentrations to concerns.
• A guide to using acids in your skincare routine explains AHAs, BHAs and PHAs properly, and is the best starting point if you are still deciding which acid you need.
• Does azelaic acid cause purging? answers the question everyone asks in week two, when skin is adjusting.
• Azelaic acid for rosacea-prone skin goes deep on the use case azelaic acid is arguably best known for.
• Does azelaic acid help with post-blemish marks? is the guide to read if uneven tone left behind by blemishes is your main concern.
• Glycolic acid vs salicylic acid is the comparison to read if you have decided you do want an exfoliating acid.
• Best exfoliator for sensitive skin helps you find the gentlest option if your skin reacts easily.
• What to do if you have over exfoliated is the recovery guide, for when a routine has gone a step too far.

The bottom line on azelaic acid and exfoliation

Azelaic acid is not a chemical exfoliant. It is a dicarboxylic acid, not an AHA or a BHA, and it does not loosen the bonds holding dead surface cells in place the way exfoliating acids do. What it does instead is help normalise the way skin cells form and behave, which is why skin can look smoother, clearer and more even after consistent use over four to eight weeks.

That distinction is not academic. It changes what you should expect, how quickly you should expect it, and what else belongs in your routine alongside it. If you want exfoliation, use an exfoliant. If you want calmer, more even-looking skin with less visible redness, azelaic acid is doing a different job, and a genuinely useful one.

The most interesting thing about this ingredient is that it makes a case for patience in a category built on immediacy. It does not announce itself. It just quietly changes the conditions, and lets your skin do the rest. Our azelaic acid guide has everything else you might want to know.

Ready to try it?

Our 10% Azelaic Acid Serum for Redness Relief is £16 for 30ml, formulated for visible redness and uneven tone rather than for exfoliation. Use it morning or evening on clean skin, follow with moisturiser, and give it a few weeks.

And if this article has convinced you that what you actually wanted was a proper exfoliating acid, our exfoliants range is the place to start.

Because at The INKEY List, We Give A Care.