Had my first " your skin looks amazing" comment-- THANK YOU Caroline Hirons!

[bigbuttons]

A colleague said this at work today, I was so chuffed.
I'm 47 and was looking not so good. This last month I have invested in serums, acids and what not have gone back to Caroline Hirons properly this time. I have been religiously cleaning and tending to my face AM and PM. I use a 30% glycol peel every couple of weeks and use tretinoin every 3 days.
I must say even I have noticed a difference, it has knocked years off me.
All blemishes gone, skin is ultra smooth, wrinkles reduced.
There is hope for us more (ahem) mature ladies!

bigbuttons my brain is mush with starting menopause ...I need 'Janet and John' type instructions in big letters

Gatekeeper - sounds like you have combination skin. Oily T zone, dry bits, dehydrated bits, ageing bits. Plus a tendency to sensitivity.

How skint is skint? I just changed one product at a time as I ran out rather than going on a massive spree. And then I knew if I thought each one was an improvement.

Starting with cleanser - bland, non-foaming, no scrubs. If CH's recommendations are out of your price range, Cetaphil comes in a big bottle and has a big fan club on here, including me. Or have a look at LRP Physiological cleansing gel or Avene Extremely Gentle Cleanser (my mum loves this) which Sam Bunting seems to recommend every single time.

Acid - look at CH's top 10, Clearasil pads are great and aren't expensive. Just pretend you are buying them for a teenager.

Serum - should be the most expensive item. Am still waiting for CH to do a top 10 for these (please, pretty please). Should have something special in it like peptides or anti-oxidants. I don't think there is a mega budget option here, maybe Body Shop Vit E serum in oil.

Moisturiser - don't spend a lot of money here. In the day it should have SPF or you need to use a separate SPF. Given the redness maybe Avene Toleriane. Nivea blue pot has gazillions of fans on here, my skin is too oily for it but it did make it beautifully soft and hydrated, plus it's cheap as chips.

gatekeeper

Double cleansing: at night, or early evening. Only if you've been wearing a separate spf or make up. Cleanse once to remove the spf or make up then start again with the same cleanser or a lighter one.

No need if you don't wear make up or spf and no need to do it in the morning. Just single cleanse on those occasions.

HTH :)

X post

Ok I have been inspired by this thread (and some additional googling). Thank you OP and everyone, and good luck those trying to improve their skin too. I have acne, even though I'm twice the age of most acne sufferers, and am starting to get little wrinkle/lines too!

I already double cleanse with cetaphil and hibby scrub. I have just ordered 70% rubbing alcohol as a toner, a 20% salicylic acid peel, baking powder to neutralise, vitamin c serum, and an SPF moisturiser. Oh and some retin A cream 0.05% - not sure where to fit this into the routine to be honest, I suppose slap it on between the serum and the moisturiser???

Any tips/advice welcome, I'm hoping to have amazing skin this summer!

You are scrubbing your skin to death with all that Hibiscrub and rubbing alcohol - stop it!

Cetaphil - fine

Hibiscrub - ruins the hands of medical staff who have to use it, no way would I put it on my face. It is not, I repeat not, doing your acne any good.

Rubbing alcohol - there are no words to describe how bad an idea this is. Where on this thread did any suggest this?

20% salicylic acid peel - you want 2% to use every day. If you did this, I promise 75% of your acne will go. I use a 20% once a week but I built up properly from 10%, not diving straight in at 20%. Aargh.

Vitamin C serum - lovely

SPF moisturiser - lovely, hope was oil-free given your main issue is acne. Needs to be SPF 50 if you are going to use Retin-A

Retin-A 0.05% - holy crap, do not slap it on. It's fine to use this but if you slap it on in your planned routine, the redness of your face will be seen from space. A small pea sized amount, not every day to start with, make sure if you get any redness or peeling you let it recover before carrying on. And you should have bought 0.025% first and worked up.

I'm going off to lie down now to recover, hopefully Lady Hirons will come back and slap some sense into you.

Eeeek the hibiscrub will be stressing your skin out to the max.

Please don't put rubbing alcohol on your lovely face.

www.rd.com/home/12-ways-to-use-rubbing-alcohol

Rubbing alcohol -isn't that surgical spirit?

Another one here wanting to thank Caroline! Can't believe you're on here! Been following your advice for almost two months after an acne related overhaul and noticed a huge difference - I always thought I couldn't be arsed with anything other than a face wash in the shower and moisturiser but I genuinely look forward to my routine now

14575, sorry to go off track slightly, but if you're looking after your skin and you still look half dead are you sure your hair is the right colour? I changed mine about six months ago and got lots of comments about 'looking well'.

For Dead Face, I'm also a fan of getting foundation or tinted moisturiser sorted out by a professional, I got brill help at SpaceNK and was brought back to life!

thank you Kundry and Twitchcoco

will look for Cetaphil in Boots tomorrow; already have the Nivea for my hands so will try it on my face

so cleanse twice ( I use makeup)
then the clearasil pads ; is this all over face or on oily bits?
then serum
then moisturiser

is that right?

Hi Gatekeeper - yes. Clearasil pads is all over face, not just the spots or the oily bits.

Do one at a time and don't panic if initially some spots turn up - give it 2-3 weeks before making a judgement as when you start acid toning sometimes the old or about to start spots have to sort themselves out. I found I also got spots in places I never got spots (eyebrow spots????) but this phase passed v quickly and then I had lovely spot free glowing skin.

I could manage the Nivea on my face once I'd started acid toning but not before as it brought me up in spots - and even then only at night as it makes me look like a greaseball. Still use a tiny pot for travel though as it's so convenient.

That's interesting kundry, I'm hoping that by buying the radiance pads by FAB that I'll be able to tolerate creams better. I get milia easily..

Kundry and twitchcoco - thank you so much! Ooops. The hibiscrub was from a different mn thread, and the rubbing alcohol - I must have misunderstood something, it was from posts on about page 2 or something of this thread, saying the toner should be 70% alcohol or something. I'll buy some clearasil pads to tone, and use the rubbing alcohol to clean my bathroom, haha!

Wish I new how to prevent milia... however removing them by poking with a needle is so satisfying did I say that out loud?

Have just made myself a looong shopping list, also want to try out the FAB Radiance pads. Didn't get on with Hydraluron but am v excited about the launch of hylamide (hyaluronic AND peptides AND one with Vit C - wow!) which I'm hoping will be my holy grail serum.

Crossing fingers CH is preparing a top 10 serums and top 10 moisturisers.

gatekeeper My routine is:
AM single cleanse
acid tone
hydrating tone
serum
oil
sun cream
moisturiser(sometimes)

PM As am but I use a different acid tone and serum and double cleanse with different cleansers.

I am sorted. Nearly.
I have got:
micellar water, tesco own brand. Really not expensive at all, couple of pounds.
Palmers skin oil.
tescos have a 3 for a fiver deal on skincare so got Simple cleanser, toner and moisturiser.
Nivea spf 30 for face
Rose water.
Tesco scrub.

It hasn't been all that expensive actually.

oh and for anyone thinking of ordering from Geoff pharmacy beware. After googling I saw there are a string of complaints about card cloning and bank fraud.
And if they are dodgy with your details they may well be dodgy sourcing their products.

Just want to thank everyone on this thread. I've read it all and it is equally fascinating and confuzzling, but has inspired me to attempt to sort my face out

I've just splurged at Boots. Exciting!

I've never had a problem with Geoff myself!
The hylamide looks very interesting.

And my glowy faced cousin swears by a castor oil pill a day

3 days in using la roche posay effaclar duo and it's really fading my red marks from the nasty spots I had. Im impressed with this product. This might become one of my permanent products.

I take castor oil.
I tell you what though I also put a small amount on the my lashes at night. It makes them grow like buggery .

shirkingworking I use a dark spot corrector serum by la roche posay called pigmentclar and this together with the anthelios sp50 also by lrp has faded my pigmentation to the point where they are now hardly visible. Would definitely recommend. I get it from escentual and they almost always have offers on.

I've not tried that. I remember someone saying put vaseline on your eyelashes but I dislike the gloopiness!

I'm a confident milia-stabber too!

Hydraluron dried my skin out. Weird.