The 6 beauty products to avoid during pregnancy, and the 6 to use—according to skin experts.


As a beauty editor I’m pretty geeky about scientific data. I love reading case studies about how a product has performed, the science behind the latest aesthetic tweakments, and decoding an ingredients list to understand what makes a formula so potent. Simply put, digesting complex information while researching the stories that I’m working on doesn’t typically faze me. So it was to my enormous surprise that when I found myself expecting my first child back in 2019 I became immediately overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information out there about what is and isn’t safe to do when you’re pregnant.

Putting my raging hormones aside, the volume of guidance online can feel near impossible to break through on a good day—let alone when you’re thinking about the safety of your unborn child. And when you throw an ever-increasing amount of social media ‘experts’ into the mix it makes deciphering what is fact and what is scaremongering a near-impossible task. As someone that tests products for a living, I felt incredibly anxious about what beauty products I needed to avoid during pregnancy and which ones were safe to use, and I’d hate for anyone else to experience this level of confusion.

(Image credit: @haileybieber)

Thankfully, a huge benefit of my work means that I have an array of experts on-hand to answer my burning beauty questions at all times—which is exactly what I did. And having gone on to have a second child in 2022, I now consider myself to be fairly well-versed about what constitutes a pregnancy-safe beauty routine. Ahead, I’ve crafted an expert-approved guide to the ingredients and beauty products that should be definitively avoided during pregnancy—and the products that might be beneficial to add to your prenatal beauty routine. Plus, the experts break down the changes that you might expect to see in your skin during your pregnancy so there are no unexpected surprises!

What are the most common skin changes during pregnancy?

beauty products to avoid during pregnancy: Monikh wearing white shirt and skirt

Sure, we’ve all heard about the phenomenon of the pregnancy glow that many people are said to enjoy during the second trimester and beyond—although, disclaimer, I definitely did not glow in either pregnancy—but what other changes in the skin are common during pregnancy? “Numerous skin changes can occur during pregnancy, either as an intensification of existing skin conditions or as a result of the pregnancy,” explains Consultant Dermatologist, Dr Catriona Maybury. “In fact, in almost 90% of women, skin changes during pregnancy are due to increased hormone levels, which can lead to skin problems such as acne, hyperpigmentation, and melasma.” And while these skin issues tend to resolve themselves in the postnatal period, it can be hard to know how to tackle them while you’re pregnant if you’re unsure what products are safe to use.

Which beauty products should be avoided during pregnancy?

beauty products to avoid during pregnancy: Suki Waterhouse wearing red dress

All of the experts that I spoke to for this piece were in agreement that stripping your beauty routine back to basics is a good rule of thumb during pregnancy. However, if you are used to a pretty extensive skincare routine then it’s good to be aware of a few key ingredients that should be avoided entirely while pregnant:

1. Retinoids