Pilling, i.e. the balling up of products on your skin, most often happens with moisturiser, sunscreen, or foundation. I’ll tell you my skincare hacks how you can start preventing products from pilling, so you don’t have to remove everything and start applying again.

Why does a product ball up?

what to do when skincare pills
The culprits that made me write this post: I introduced The Ordinary’s Caffeine Solution to my routine, and my Clarins sunscreen started pilling. Fun times!

Usually, when you read up on pilling, cosmetics experts seem to think that there’re three main reasons for pilling:

  • You’re applying both oil- and water-based products on your skin. Oil and water can’t mix properly – ergo, balling up.
  • You’re applying either too many products that can’t sink in properly, or your skin isn’t properly exfoliated.
  • You’re using products with mica and talc – both ingredients ball up easily.
  • Also, let me add that in my experience, applying more than one product with a lot of film formers is often difficult.

The usual remedies noted are mostly ‘don’t use that many products, exfoliate properly, wait between each product until it’s properly sunk in’.

First help measures

how to prevent skincare pilling
Proceed with caution, but adding a few drops of oil could help!

Does that help in any way whatsoever? No, it doesn’t, because very likely you like the products you use and want to use them in that order you painstakingly researched. And now, there’s a lot of crumbly product on your face. Here’s what I learned to prevent that.

Before applying potentially pilling products

help when products start pilling
Some facial mist could help, as well!

So, if you already know that your shiny new sunscreen or moisturiser or foundation is prone to pilling, these two methods might help:

Use either a mist or an oil. Mist your face before you apply the product that’s prone to pilling. Apply when your face is still damp. With oil, I had a lot of success when my fave sunscreen started pilling: I mixed a few drops of face oil into my moisturiser. When I applied the sunscreen, it worked much better. If foundation is the culprit, you could try mixing a drop of oil directly into it. I won’t advise to mix products with sunscreen directly – it can diminish sunscreen properties.

Pat pat pat!

when skincare balls up
Think about your application method! A puff could help, or maybe even a microfibre cloth!

Think about application methods. Are you vigorously rubbing your face when you apply a product? That’ll easily lead to pilling. Try gently patting your face. You could also think about using a puff (from a cushion foundation) for sunscreen application (Fiddy does it). Beauty blenders used with foundations prone to pilling are a better choice than fingers alone.

After applying a pilling product

how to prevent products pilling
Nooo, don’t despair! You don’t have to remove every product and start again!

Worst case scenario: it already happened and little crumbs of product are now sticking to your skin. Don’t despair, you don’t have to start over.

  • Try very gently to pat more product on. Very, very gently pat it over crumbly areas. Use one finger like you’d pat on eye cream. Hopefully the crumbs will combine with the fresh liquid product. This takes quite some time and patience.
  • You’ll want to get rid of crumbs, right? So, take a very soft and fluffy micro fibre towel and start flicking that over your face. Never, ever rub – use the most whispery, soft touch you’re able to do. For me, it works best if I ball the towel together first. If you end up with product in your baby hairs around your face, use a fluffy powder brush to remove them.

Phew, crisis averted. 😉