The Red Flag Products I Would Never Use or Recommend and Why...

There’s a lot of noise in the skincare world. Glossy packaging, celebrity endorsements, big-budget marketing, and promises of overnight miracles. But behind many of these “holy grail” products are toxic ingredients, harsh treatments, and long-term damage, not healing.

So let’s talk about it.
This is my running list of skincare products and brands I would never use or recommend... and why they land on my red flag 🚩list.

🚨 The #1 Worst Offender: 🚩TRETINOIN 🚩

I have to start with the product I hate the most: tretinoin (Retin-A).
It’s a prescription-only, synthetic retinoid that’s pushed as the gold standard for acne and aging. But here’s the truth:

🚩It’s not pregnancy safe
🚩You can’t go in the sun while using it
🚩It destroys your skin barrier
🚩It’s a synthetic topical drug — not skincare
🚩It creates dependency and inflammation
🚩It's often paired with steroids, antibiotics, or hydroquinone (also on my red flag list)

Tretinoin doesn't heal, it suppresses symptoms and forces exfoliation. Over time, this can leave skin sensitized, inflamed, and completely reliant on an artificial process. It's like turning your skin into an addict where it becomes dependant on something that is causing damage.

🚫 Brands I Do Not Recommend and Why:

These brands often use:
❌ Harsh synthetics
❌ Barrier-damaging exfoliants
❌ Inflammatory preservatives
❌ Toxic fragrance + hormone-disrupting ingredients
❌ "Actives" that override the skin's natural processes

❌ SkinCeuticals

Overpriced lab-created actives with aggressive chemical exfoliants and synthetic preservatives. Popular in derm offices, but not because they’re healing, they create dependency.

❌ iS Clinical

I get asked about this one a lot. The brand is marketed as clean and clinical, but it’s still packed with harsh, cheap ingredients that disrupt the microbiome. Nothing unique or truly healing here.

❌ ZO Skin Health / Obagi

This entire line is rooted in aggressive protocols: hydroquinone, high % acids, and steroids. If you want long-term inflammation, thinning skin, and rebound breakouts, this is your brand.

❌ SkinMedica

Another brand marketed through dermatologists, loaded with peptides in compromised formulas. Their TNS serum is a red flag with questionable sourcing and inflammatory ingredients.

❌ Dermalogica

Cheap, outdated formulas, denatured alcohols, and irritating preservatives. The "professional" label doesn’t make it effective.

❌ PCA Skin

Known for aggressive chemical peels and exfoliating products. Their entire brand ethos is about resurfacing rather than restoring.

❌ DMK

Aggressive treatments, poor ingredient transparency, and a cult-like following for their enzyme facial, but very little actual support for barrier healing.

❌ Dr. Dennis Gross

Peel pads are the epitome of barrier damage. This line is one big chemical exfoliant in a bottle. Not anti-aging, it’s pro-inflammation & pro-stripping.

❌ The Ordinary

Cheap, concentrated actives with little barrier support. Promotes DIY “layering” without guidance, often leading to irritation, inflammation, and long-term barrier damage.

❌ Jan Marini

More old-school chemist-created skincare with formulas that strip, exfoliate, and rely on synthetic actives rather than biological healing.

❌ Epionce

Marketed as “gentle” but contains petroleum derivatives, parabens, and synthetic preservatives that can congest or irritate the skin.

❌ Revision Skincare

Expensive formulas often loaded with silicones, PEGs, and questionable preservatives; little long-term skin health benefit.

❌ La Roche-Posay

Marketed as “derm recommended,” but you’ll find a cocktail of irritating alcohols, artificial fragrance, and very few skin-healing ingredients.

❌ Murad

Another line that capitalizes on marketing over formulation. Their acne products are particularly harsh and barrier-stripping.

❌ Alastin

Uses proprietary peptides alongside a slew of synthetic fillers and chemical sunscreens.

❌ Elta MD

Marketed as a dermatologist favorite for SPF, but most of their formulas use chemical sunscreen filters like avobenzone and octocrylene (linked to skin irritation, hormone disruption) alongside silicones and synthetic preservatives. 

❌ SkinBetter

Expensive, heavily marketed medical spa skincare with no real barrier-friendly or holistic focus. Fun fact:  They are owned by the big beauty brand: Loreal

❌ Face Reality

This brand is heavily marketed as an “acne-safe” line, but it’s built on outdated acne protocols that often over-dry, over-exfoliate, and damage the skin barrier. Many of their products are filled with pore-clogging fillers and low-quality actives. While they claim to customize protocols, the approach is still very one-size-fits-all and can lead to long-term sensitivity, thinning skin, and rebound breakouts once you stop. Acne should be addressed holistically, internally and externally - not with harsh, repetitive chemical exfoliation.

❌ Biologique Recherche

Trendy among estheticians, but the cult favorite P50 is one of the worst exfoliants you can use long-term. It’s a no for me.

❌ La Mer

One of the most overpriced and overhyped skincare brands on the market. La Mer is marketed as ultra-luxurious, but what you’re really paying for is fancy packaging and fragrance. The “Miracle Broth” they promote is a preserved, mystery marine extract in a base of mineral oil and petroleum derivatives. The same kinds of ingredients found in drugstore creams. There is nothing healing, regenerative, or barrier-supporting here. It’s synthetic, occlusive, and definitely not worth the price tag or the skin risk.

❌ Augustinus Bader

$300+ creams full of silicone and synthetics. Marketing genius, but not worth the hype or the price point.

❌ Clarins

Marketed as a luxurious, plant-based French skincare brand, but in reality, many formulas are loaded with synthetic fragrance, drying alcohols, and harsh preservatives that can trigger irritation and disrupt the skin barrier. They rely heavily on botanical extracts without balancing them for sensitivity, meaning “natural” isn’t always gentle or safe especially for compromised or reactive skin.

❌ Tatcha

Pretty packaging, but loaded with fragrance and unnecessary fillers. Doesn’t support real skin healing.

❌ Kiehl’s

Outdated, drying, and heavily fragranced. You’ll find nothing in here that nourishes the skin.

❌ Oliveda

MLM, trendy "natural" skincare line, but the olive-based formulas are loaded with hidden ingredients.  Fun fact: MLM skincare, supplement, hair care etc. do not have to disclose their full ingredient list.  This is why I recommend avoiding MLM brands because of the lack of transparency.  And side note: those "natural smells", aren't natural at all and they are hidden toxic fragrances.

❌ Drunk Elephant, Mario Badescu, Peach & Lily

Basically: If it’s sold at Sephora, Ulta, a department store, or the drugstore… it’s a no. Masquerading as clean or “innovative.” All of these brands are built around fluff ingredients, synthetic fragrance, or harsh actives.

❌ Basically: If it’s sold at Sephora, Ulta, a department store, or the drugstore… it’s a no.

These products are not regulated, not focused on true skin health.

🚫 Drugstore “Gentle” Brands I Avoid

These are brands people often think are safe or gentle, but they’re anything but. The formulas are outdated, filled with petroleum derivatives, alcohols, fragrance, and mystery preservatives.

❌ CeraVe – Filled with parabens and drying alcohols, despite being labeled “dermatologist recommended.”

❌ Vanicream – Extremely basic, often used in derm offices, but no true nourishment or healing ingredients.

❌ Cetaphil – Loaded with petrolatum, PEGs, and preservatives. Not good enough for long-term use.

❌ Neutrogena – One of the worst when it comes to drying alcohols, artificial fragrance, and irritating actives.

If it’s sold at the drugstore, Sephora, Ulta, or a department store, it’s basically like fast food for your skin.  Cheap ingredients, mass produced.

🚫 Treatments and Products to Avoid

There are also certain types of products and treatments I recommend everyone stay away from, regardless of brand.

❌ Peel Pads

Pre-soaked in chemical exfoliants like glycolic, lactic, or salicylic acid. Harsh, drying, and they destroy the microbiome.

❌ Chemical Exfoliants

Including cleansers, serums, and toners with AHAs/BHAs. These create surface "glow" at the cost of long-term inflammation and impaired barrier function.

❌ HydraFacials

These get pushed as the “gentle” facial that everyone can do, but here’s the truth: they’re basically a chemical peel combined with aggressive suction. The solution they infuse is filled with harsh exfoliating acids and preservatives that strip your skin barrier, and the vacuum suction can break capillaries, stretch pores, and trigger inflammation — especially in sensitive or aging skin. The short-term “glow” you get is really just post-exfoliation inflammation and swelling

❌ Sheet Masks

Single-use waste loaded with preservatives and fragrance. Occlusive and irritating, with no real long-term benefit.

❌ Chemical Peels

Unless you’re treating deep scarring under professional guidance, most peels just strip and inflame the skin. They're not the solution for acne, melasma, or aging.

❌ Harsh Lasers (Moxi, Halo, Clear & Brilliant, BBL, Fraxel)

These create controlled wounds that trigger inflammation in hopes of collagen rebuilding. But many people see minimal results, or worse, rebound pigmentation, sensitivity, and damaged tissue. I’ve seen way more regret than results.

🧴Why I Only Carry The Two Skincare Lines (for Now)

I get asked all the time why I don’t sell other brands, especially since there are so many skincare lines marketed as clean, non-toxic, or “dermatologist-approved.”

Here’s the truth:

When I put my name behind a product, I need to know with absolute certainty that it’s going to:

• Be free of toxic or hormone-disrupting ingredients

• Support the skin barrier instead of breaking it down

• Deliver visible, measurable improvements in skin health and appearance

• Align with my philosophy of healing the skin at the root, not creating dependency on harsh actives

• Perform consistently across different skin types when used correctly

That’s why I personally test every single product.  Not for a week, not for a month, but sometimes for years. I use it on my own skin, in different seasons, while traveling, under stress, during hormonal changes, and on a variety of client cases. Only if a product consistently proves itself in every scenario will I recommend it.

These two skincare lines I currently carry are the only ones that have passed every single test:  Effective, High Performance, Professional Grade, Non Toxic Skincare

🧴 Other Brands (That Are Cleaner Options)

There are a lot of cleaner, non-toxic brands that are out there.  These are better brands that won’t cause the kind of damage the others will:

✨Primally Pure

✨OSEA

✨True Botanicals

✨Clearstem

✨DIME Beauty

✨Agent Nateur

Just to name a few. 

These can be a great place to start if you’re transitioning off toxic skincare, just know the results may be more subtle and they may not work well for everyone just because they are “cleaner” formulas.

My Approach >

There are many clean brands out there and more are emerging every year. But what I’ve found through both personal use and professional experience is this:

+ To get real results with non-toxic skincare, you need professional-grade formulas that are biologically compatible and rooted in science.

+ That’s why I only offer and personally use the lines I have available on my website. Every single product is something I’ve tested on my own skin, sometimes for years, before recommending to anyone else.

+ I know exactly how these formulas perform, what skin types they’re best for, and how to use them safely. And that’s what allows me to confidently build healing, transformative protocols for my clients.

The Bottom Line >

If you're feeling overwhelmed or stuck, you're not alone.

Most of the skincare world is built around bandaids, marketing, and promises that don’t deliver. My mission is to help you cut through the noise and focus on products that actually support your skin, not suppress it.

You don’t need more steps. You don’t need expensive lasers. You don’t need to strip your skin to see results.

You just need the right tools, the right education, and a commitment to healing from the inside out.

A Better Way >

Real skincare doesn’t have to be extreme.
You don’t need to “burn it off” or “strip it down.”
You need to support your skin like the living, breathing organ it is.

My approach is rooted in:

+ Barrier repair

+ Nervous system regulation

+ Internal balance (gut, hormones, liver)

+ Professional-grade, biologically compatible skincare

+ Realistic routines that work with your skin, not against it

And no, you don’t have to spend thousands. You just need to ditch the noise and focus on real, effective, healing products and protocols.

This red flag list is always evolving as I continue to research, test, and support real women in their healing journey. My goal? To help you stop wasting money, stop harming your skin, and finally feel good about what you’re using.

Need a skin reset?

Start with a 1:1 virtual consultation. We will help you build a personalized protocol that actually works for your skin, or explore my shop for my favorite tried-and-true products that I actually use and recommend.

Your skin doesn’t need hype. It needs healing.

xo,

Jamie