I feel like literally everything at drugstores, sephora, ulta, make up counters, etc. all use Salicylic Acid in their "acne fighting" products. I've seriously never found anything in Sephora that uses BP. I don't understand because SA has never done much for my face except really dry it out. I find BP to be WAY more effective at fighting zits and it can also be drying but personally never as drying as SA for me. I can only find a handful of BP products at drugstores whereas there are a TON of SA face washes and treatments and what not. It's really annoying and odd to me. I wonder if these companies know how superior BP is and they just continue using SA to give ppl limited results in hopes that they buy more of their products to do a job that simple BP could do. IDK it's strange to me.
Acne bacteria grows reistent to BP, but not salicylic. Salicylic aids sloughing, BP only dries the skin, which can compound the issue.
See, I've heard the complete opposite - that skin can grow resistant to salicylic acid but not BP.
I would say the main reason there are more products that use Salicylic acid is because it's a milder treatment without any side effects or requirements. It's a very effective treatment for mild acne, which is what the majority of products are targeted at. BP can sting on application and dry the skin out and is therefore less attractive for those only trying to get rid of a couple of spots. I can't imagine it would work well with make-up either. Also, you don't need BP in every product, just a cream to apply at night - more would probably be quite uncomfortable. Salicylic acid however isn't as strong and can be included in lots of products.
Myself, I'm currently wondering why there aren't more glycolic acid products.
Acne bacteria grows reistent to BP, but not salicylic. Salicylic aids sloughing, BP only dries the skin, which can compound the issue.
BP kills bacteria by oxygenating the pore, which is a different mechanism than something like clindamyacin which is a direct anti-bacterial agent. So for example by oxygenating the pore you kill many types of bacteria as a side effect. Bacteria that are killed by oxygenation cannot become immune to BP.
The oxygenation is BP's main action. The drying is a side effect.
I feel like literally everything at drugstores, sephora, ulta, make up counters, etc. all use Salicylic Acid in their "acne fighting" products. I've seriously never found anything in Sephora that uses BP. I don't understand because SA has never done much for my face except really dry it out. I find BP to be WAY more effective at fighting zits and it can also be drying but personally never as drying as SA for me. I can only find a handful of BP products at drugstores whereas there are a TON of SA face washes and treatments and what not. It's really annoying and odd to me. I wonder if these companies know how superior BP is and they just continue using SA to give ppl limited results in hopes that they buy more of their products to do a job that simple BP could do. IDK it's strange to me.
There are plenty of BP options at my drugstores, grocery stores, and Wal-Mart. However BP is not used much at higher-end places like Sephora because it is seen as a cosmetically inelegant ingredient. BP bleaches clothing, can cause stinging and redness...someone making a $50 face wash for Sephora is not going to use BP because customers will feel gipped when their "high end" product stings and bleaches their favorite shirt.
Salicylic acid may also be cheaper. I looked into the raw pricing once and I vaguely remember that salicylic acid was dirt cheap and fairly easy to mix into a lotion at the appropriate pH. BP on the other hand is much more unstable and it also expires, which means that manufacturers of BP products have to sell their products in a shorter time frame.