Help me with my skin care regime please!

[ImAFraud]

I'm mid 30's and my skin care regime is... nothing! I'm in an incredibly stressful job and don't usually have time for extras but I've reduced my hours to achieve better work-life balance and I really want to start concentrating on myself a little more.

I have a variety of nice brands from various advent calendars but don't know where to start other than washing my face with cleanser regularly! I read threads on S&B and I'm left a bit confused. What is double cleansing? Serum/acid/peel/vit C etc etc. Should I use some of them? All of them? How exactly?

If you could give me some simple tips and recommendations to start with, I'd be very grateful! Then hopefully one I have a new regime I can add to it if I need to, but I think baby steps to begin with!

Thank you for reading, I look forward to benefiting from your collective wisdom

If you don’t have much of a skincare regime at the moment you’re better off starting slowly rather than bombarding your skin with loads of new things.

Double cleansing is basically cleaning your face twice. I don’t bother with it, I just use a Clinique balm cleanser in the evening to remove makeup, spf etc.

Glycolic acid is a liquid exfoliant. Try doing this maybe twice a week and see how your skin responds to it.

Vitamin C serums are for glow and are applied in the morning. Some of them can be a bit stingy so watch out for that.

Start with cleansing properly every evening, glycolic acid once or twice a week, and a moisturizer. If your skin seems okay with that maybe try adding in a Vit C serum the following week.

Oh and a daily spf is your best bet to prevent, or limit, wrinkles forming.

Double cleansing works well if you wear sfp (which you should!) and foundation. Oil cleanse on dry skin 1st to breakdown spf and foundation. Then a foaming cleanser on damp skin to clean skin. I use an Inkey List oat cleanser that does both stages.

The biggest problem I had when I started was introducing new products too quickly so I never knew which one is causing any issues. 1 new product a month (6 weeks is better but who has the patience. Lol) and if it's an active like an acid start with once a week and work up very slowly.

I have very sensitive skin. It hates vitamin c or any exfoliating acid like glycolic acid. And strangely hydrochloric acid which is supposed to work for everything.

Spf is the only think I spend money on (£20 a month). Everything else is between £5 to £10. The Ordinary, inkey List and Boots Ingredients are all good and cheap as well as cruelty free.

My morning is: splash face, use polyglutamic acid to hydrate, then moisturiser and finish with spf 30 (winter) or 50 (summer).
Night: double cleanse, followed by niacinamide cos it calms down redness and protects skin against retinol side effects, tgen retinol for wrinkles, finishing with moisturiser/eye cream.

Thank you both, that's very helpful! I don't wear make up regularly and don't really want to start. Considering your advice, I am planning on how to use the products I already have at home and wanted to ask for particular recommendations for moisturer. I can get a bit oily around the T- zone and also have some dry areas.

I have cetaphil cleanser which doesn't dry out my skin too much, alpha-h liquid gold glycolic acid, a very light spf 50 milk from the body shop. I only occasionally use micellar water to remove make up, never a balm or oil based cleanser, so thank you for those suggestions .

A few Q's - is there a particular moisturer you would recommend? Or is there a type I should be looking at? Should I use day and night? And what about eye creams?

Thank you @HangoverSquare and @Thingsdogetbetter for your advice.

If you go on Amazon, search for kaeso facial kits. Choose one for dry skin. It has everything you need.for under £20.