Will a facial help me sort out my oily/blemished skin?

[LadySybilLikesCake]

I'm too old for bad skin and have found a place which does dermatologica facials. I had one which kept the blackheads away for weeks, then another elsewhere and they were back right away. Is it worth doing again?

A facial is a nice-to-have thing. A deep-cleansing one is good for a one-off deep-cleanse but it's what you do everyday that counts.

I'd rather use the money spent on a facial to buy products that would help everyday.

A facial for me is about the massage part - everything else I can do myself.

I've tried all sorts, from Chanel, Clinique (terrible), Clarins (OK but not great), Liz Earl (OK but not great), Aveda (OK) to tea tree stuff from superdrug, they just keep coming. It feels good for 5 minutes to an hour, then greasy again. The only thing that kept them away was the first facial I had. I'm all out of ideas.

Have you tried Dermalogica products? You said their facial helped!

Kind of. I had some samples after the first one which helped but it's been a while. I can't remember what they were as it's been so long so I thought a facial so I can see what the right things to get are, then get them slowly so the bill isn't too painful

I feel like a grease ball.

Thank you

Oh, and this was shit www.kiehls.co.uk/skin-care/by-category/toners/blue-astringent-herbal-lotion and nivea gave me white heads (and the grease was back after 25 minutes).

I'd book another Dermalogica facial if I were you. Go for the cheapest one and ask lots of questions - see it as an investigative mission and ask for samples. Always ask what the one thing you should buy that would make the biggest difference would be - saves them flogging you the whole lot!

I'm a big fan of Alpha H products - Michelle the 'owner' had dreadful skin and bought the company. Check out QVC for reviews and a 30day money back guarantee

Ah, I'll have a look. Thank you. I'm nearly 37 and I still have teenage skin (albeit less spots though but it's still as greasy). It's ridiculous.

I love samples! I'm pleased you've found something to help

I've not tried it myself but I often read the oil cleansing method highly recommended on here, for oily skins. The idea behind it is that harsh products temporarily strip the oil but then the pores go into overdrive to replace the lost oil and over-produce. The oil cleansing method apparently deep cleanses but does not strip oil, and as a result natural oil production slows down.
Plenty of threads on here about it if you're interested.

Good luck! My skin hates rich products - I come out in milia/whiteheads if they're too heavy. I use the Elemis pro-collagen marine cream as a moisturiser - lovely gel texture and not too claggy. Decleor plays havoc with my skin.

I would also recommend staying away from the stripping-type exfoliators. Aveda's daily exfoliant, Clinique exfoliating toners. Your face will pump out more oil to compensate.

And lastly, check out Caroline Hirons.com - she knows a thing or two about skincare. Read and learn but don't go and buy everything at once!! Listen and observe your own skin. La Roche Posay Physiological cleansing gel that a lot of people rave about brought me out in mega spots :(

Caroline Hirons skincare advice for acne/blackheads is totally random and seems designed to just make you buy masses of products. She knows a lot about the skincare industry but precious little about dermatology.

You need a gentle cleanser (non foaming or mildly foaming), an exfoliant containing salicylic acid and an oil-free non comedogenic moisturiser. Preferably all with little or no fragrance. You definitely don't want a scrubby cleanser, a clay mask, an astrigent toner, fragranced products that irritate your skin and rich creams.

The Dermalogica facial you had probably contained salicylic acid or glycolic acid which is why it kept things at bay for ages. La Roche Posay Effaclar range or Neutrogena Visibly Clear all contain products that fit the bill. Alpha-H is based on glycolic acid mainly which is great for spots but for blackheads you need salicylic which is oil soluble so gets in and dissolves the blackhead in the pores.

i have oily skin and i find a regular facial (once every 4 - 6 weeks) does it the power of good.

i think facials work if they are taken regularly and in conjunction with a good skin care routine.

ive started oil cleansing recently.

i dont suffer with blackheads but the body shop used to sell a little tool that got rid of blackheads - it was brilliant, i used to use it on DS teenaged skin....very satisfying! tweezerman does one on amazon.

You need La Roche Posay's Effaclar range for blackheads. Don't waste your money on overpriced "names" like Chanel - go for a good French parapharmacy range, such as LRP, Bioderma or Filorga. You can get LRP in Boots, and possibly also Bioderma. M & S stock Filorga.

Do you use a toner? I have skin like yours and was told to use a good toner. I'm using body shop vitamin e and It made a huge difference to my skin. I also realised that although I had a skin routine, I wasn't doing it properly. I used to wash my face in 20 seconds, now I spend more time to wash my face massaging all areas of my face making sure it's really clean.

Thank you

The best ones I've found so far (as in make my skin feel OK for the longest, which is an hour before it starts to feel grubby again) are Aveda Outer peace foaming cleanser (it has salicylic acid in it) followed by Liz Earl spritzy thingy toner (this one www.johnlewis.com/liz-earle-instant-boost-skin-tonic-spritzer-200ml/p231417760 ) and L'Oreal triple active day light moisturiser. I don't exfoliate as I don't want to do too much to it incase it makes things worse (I'm not sure if this is a bad idea). I've tried the Body Shop Vitamin E already and that didn't make much of a difference. Neutrogena didn't work at all Problem is, is that my skin feels great for an hour (at the most), then it starts to feel grubby and I can see oils on my skin. I don't want to do too much to it but often the pores are clogged by the evening and there's a few blackheads (I use the little tool from the body shop! ) but it just feels horrible. I've tried cleansing/toning/moisturising only in the morning incase I'm doing too much but that didn't help.

I'll pop to Boots and try La Roche, then I'll try the Oil cleaning method. I'd rather spend £40+ on wine fruit and veg so if I can find a cheaper way to sort it I'll be happy I think I need to drink more water instead of coffee, maybe it's dehydrated It's tricky.

A Clarisonic cleansing brush and a good anti-blackhead cleanser containing salicylic acid will work wonders.

Thank you. I'll stick it on the list of things to try.

My skin used to be like this for years. I used to try gazillions of products. I eventually realised that all the cleansing washes, scrubs, masks etc were just stripping my skin of natural oils and making it produce more oil to compensate.
I now use a cleansing lotion (just a simple creamy one, no added toner or anything) - smoothe on gently before bed, then rinse off with water. Just splash with water in the morning. And I use a good moisturiser in the day and the thick Nivea creme in the blue pot at night. I thought it would be too heavy and greasy for my skin but it's fab. My skin is the best it's been for years.

Clarisonic is very spendy - amazon do something called Rio Sonicleanse (or something like that) which is great. Foaming washes can be very drying so watch for that too.

I have found that bog standard Quinoderm is good at getting away blackheads, used sparingly. However I think it takes the dye out of clothes, either coming off from hands or in the sweat, not sure. Lemon tea trea oil shower gel is good as a general cleanser.

Salicylic acid/glycolic acid, quinoa erm, all of these things will help to a degree. But if I were you, I would save the money I would spend on facials and see a dermatologist privately. At least then you know you are getting expert advice, not just someone who has been trained in their own products. If your skin is as oily as you say, a dermatologist will prob be able to do more.

Oops *quinoderm not quinoa erm! Proof read proof read proof read, will I ever learn!

A dermatologist might be a wise move, thank you. I've bought some La Roche face wash. The Liz Earl stuff has cucumber and whatnot in it so it looks mild and the moisturiser is light too so I'll see if this does anything. Ds is in the loo at the moment so I'll try it in an hour when he gets out (teenagers!).

Thank you, it's dead tricky this!

Essentially cleanser is the least important step because whatever product you use, you are washing it straight off again. The most important thing about cleanser is that it should be harsh and stripping. The one you tried sounded ideal for you as it had salicyclic in it, and it helped reduce the oil and blackheads.

However you really need to exfoliate - by which I don't mean scrub/peel agitate skin off. Just leaving some salicyclic on all day so it can really do it's job. I use Paula's Choice 2% BHA lotion (recommended to me by a friend who raved about it)- it actually feels more like a moisturiser going on, not at all like it's taking layers of skin off. But it's totally controlled the oil and blackheads. Effaclar Duo is meant to be very similar.

Spots and blackheads are formed in the deeper levels of the skin so product needs to be able to get there and work - and it takes a few weeks for all the deep forming spots to disappear as your skin is renewed. So a bit of face wash can help, but isn't really the whole job.

If you can afford a dermatologist, you may spend less on that one appointment getting good advice than you would have spent on loads of different products that didn't help.

I've just tried the La Roche face wash and it feels soooo clean (grease free). I'll give it an hour to see what happens. I'll pop back to Boots and pick up some Duo too, thank you There's a few different products and I wasn't sure which ones I needed.

I'm pretty sure it's hormonal. The grease felt worse after my GP prescribed Cerazatte and I've had red spots over my shoulders and on the top of my back, as well as the odd one on my face. They are not acne spots, they start as red and nothing else happens (no puss, no head - sorry- ), and they take ages to go. I get them when I take steroids too (I have MS so they give me massive doses when I relapse) but it's far worse then. I think my GP gave me some sort of ointment last time.

Over an hour and it's still OK

THANK YOU!