I honestly don’t even know where to start because I’m still mad.

Everyone kept hyping up Anua’s Retinol 0.3 Niacin Renewing Serum like it was some gentle, beginner-friendly miracle. So of course I thought it would be perfect for my sensitive combo skin. Spoiler: it wasn’t. At all.

First use? Felt fine. Second use? Little itchy, but nothing crazy. By the end of week two? FULL-ON NIGHTMARE. I woke up one morning and my face looked like it had been sandpapered. Red, flaky patches everywhere. My cheeks, my forehead, even around my mouth — it was bad. Like, embarrassingly bad.

And don’t even get me started on the texture. It made my skin bumpy in the worst way. I didn’t even know I had that many clogged pores to begin with but thanks to this serum, they all decided to show up at once like an unwanted high school reunion.

I tried to stick it out because everyone kept saying “there’s a purging phase, it’s normal!!” but honestly, it just kept getting worse. My skin barrier was shot. Every moisturizer I put on afterward just burned. Even my gentle cleanser felt like it was betraying me.

Also, let’s talk about how DRY it made me. I’m normally not even that dry but somehow, after using this, my face was tight, rough, and peeling off in chunks. Cute, right? Not to mention makeup was a total no-go. Foundation clung to every flake and pore like it had a personal vendetta.

And before anyone says “maybe you used too much,” no. I used one tiny pump, max, and only two nights a week like the instructions suggested. I baby-stepped my way into it and still got wrecked.

Honestly, this serum had me Googling “how to heal your skin barrier fast” at 3AM. It’s been three weeks since I stopped and I’m still trying to undo the damage.

Moral of the story: if you have sensitive skin and even think about trying this, maybe think again. Or at least patch test like your life depends on it.

Not every product works for everyone, sure, but Anua’s Retinol 0.3 was a full-blown horror movie for me. Hard pass.