At first blush, it might seem like a reasonable idea to inject salicylic acid wart medicine directly into your wart. Wouldn’t doing so, the thinking goes, make the wart disappear twice as fast? Injecting it into the meaty core of the wart and applying it directly to the outer skin of the wart at the same time would seem to burn through the wart from both directions. To date, salicylic acid treatments have only been approved for topical application on warts, not for injection. Why is that? In theory, the idea of injection seems to make sense. But there are a few reasons why injecting salicylic acid is not really a good idea in practice: Inside your wart are many tiny blood vessels that carry oxygen and nutrients to the flesh of the wart. If you inject salicylic acid into it, there is the risk that some of the acid […]

Ever ruin your clothes because your skin care medication left a blotchy discoloration on the fabric? Acne medications are infamous for staining clothes, towels, and bedsheets. Of course, each medication has its own list of ingredients and some stain more egregiously than others. Medications with benzoyl peroxide are the worst when it comes to bleaching. If benzoyl peroxide is exposed moisture it converts to hydrogen peroxide, which is a bleaching agent. And once a fabric has a bleach stain, the discoloration is irreversible. Always use old towels or tissue when wiping off benzoyl peroxide products. To prevent bleach stains, never let a fabric touch benzoyl peroxide unless it is completely dry. Will salicylic acid bleach or stain, too? Salicylic acid is not nearly as bad as benzoyl peroxide at staining your clothes. First, salicylic acid itself is not a bleaching agent. It will not permanently lighten or whiten your clothes, hair, […]

All over-the-counter skin care products containing salicylic acid are required to have an expiration date on the packaging. But is it safe and effective to use salicylic acid after the expiration date? Salicylic acid is a stable compound that degrades very slowly if stored in optimal conditions. So yes, as a general rule, salicylic acid products can be used long after their expiration date as long as they have been stored properly. Each individual product is different however. They all have different ingredients and packaging quality. Check yours for any of the following signs of degradation and spoiling: the product has changed color or texture, or the smell is off putting or rancid. Also check for dark speckles of color, as this is an indication of bacterial contamination. If any of these signs are present in your product, discard it and do not use regardless of the expiration date. Storage […]

You may have noticed that most over-the-counter wart treatments use salicylic acid as the primary active ingredient. No matter the brand name or the form of wart treatment (be it liquid, pads, gel, etc.), salicylic acid is most likely to be the medicine used to actually remove the wart. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why salicylic acid is such a stalwart medicine for wart removal. What is salicylic acid? Salicylic acid is a colorless, organic, and naturally occurring acid found in many plant species. It functions as a hormone and is also required for many aspects of organic synthesis. Salicylic acid also has many antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Not only used for warts, salicylic acid is also a primary treatment for many skin ailments including acne, psoriasis, corns, dandruff, and ringworms. In fact, salicylic acid is such an important medicine it is included on the World Health […]