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!

Thanks Kundry

If retin-a takes months and months to make any visible difference, what can I use with it to make my skin look smoother straight away?

Thanks kundry, you're quite brilliant! Xx

In the last couple of days my face has really stung putting my evening serum and moisturiser on after I've acid toned with clearasil pads but as soon as it's sunk in there's no more soreness and no redness or irritation in the morning. Do you think I need to cut down to alternate nights acid toning or just persevere?

Hey ladies, been obsessing over this thread for days!! Please can someone help me with a specific question:

What serum would be good to add moisture to skin with rosacea?

I use Clinique redness solutions - cleanser, mild clarifying toner & redness slns moisturiser am and pm - which has helped loads but my skin is still dry... I read a serum should help but don't want to upset my skin as it's calming down at long last.

Can anyone help?

Well rosacea isn't really my thing but I will do my best by calling of the queen of skin, Dr Sam Bunting.

This article from her blog is really helpful for general principles about what you should be doing:

drsambunting.wordpress.com/tag/rosacea/

Plus her video with CH:

I'm assuming the cleanser you use is non-foaming and fragrance free - if it isn't then Cetaphil or LRP Rosaliac Cleanser.

Clinique Mild Clarifying Lotion is spot on as it has salicylic acid - CH refers to all their other toners as paint stripper but loves this one. No alcohol or witch hazel either.

Which leaves you with moisturiser. A serum isn't necessarily going to help as they all do different things but mainly deal with dehydration by shoving a load of hyaluronic on your face - v different to dryness.

I wonder if a moisturiser with more moisturising power is what you need, Dr Sam would be pointing you to something like Avene Anti Rougeurs which has a dry skin option. While I don't usually read the bits about rosacea as I'm lucky enough not to have it, I've noticed she will recommend Avene products every single time.

She lso says an SPF is vital to control the redness (apparently 88% of people will notice an improvement) and recommends Avene SPF 50 emulsion - scroll down for the bit on rosacea:

www.mumsnet.com/qanda/dr-sam-bunting-facial-cleansing

If you bung Dr Sam Bunting Rosacea into google there are loads of helpful articles - I hope this helps.

Kundry - thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed response!!

The thing is I thought I read upthread that moisturiser wasn't really to hydrate and serum had to do that job... But maybe for my problem skin a good moisturiser is the answer.

Thanks so much & how amazing that Dame Hirons turned up ON THE THREAD earlier!???

i went out and bought the Boots Botanics cream cleanser and toner, eye cream/serum and face serum, all half price.

I don't have any issues with my skin apart from dark circles and a few tiny wrinkles around my eyes.

So i have filled a litre jug every morning and put it in the fridge so be drunk throughout the day and my skin already looks better, brighter!

The botanics cleanser and toner says it brightens the skin but I've no idea why!

Moisturiser is to moisturise - which might be adding oil (you seem to have drawn the short straw as oil not recommended for rosacea and you have dry skin), water or skin ingredients such as ceramides. Hydrating is for dehydrated skin - adding water.

Some serums do hydrate but there is no such thing as 'a serum', they all do different things.

Your skin sounds dry rather than dehydrated though (or possibly both).

ihatethecold I'd be wary of the claims the products make, you need to see the ingredients! Cleanser can't possibly brighten your skin as it stays on your face for too short a time to do it. The toner might but only if it's an acid toner - otherwise it's pointless.

Dark circles sadly we appear to be stuck with

Love this thread, I now know after 25 years that I don't have any blackheads I have sebaceous filaments...how can I have never known this before!
And my skin looks amazing (to me) after one week of HCC with the Emma Hardie moringa balm and glycolic toner.
My ebay retin a came yesterday and my sample of Paula's Choice retinol but the Sunsense SPF 50 isn't arriving until Tuesday or Wednesday so not sure I should be using them until I've got sunscreen?
I've got so many more products I want to buy, I'm especially interested in Biologique Recherche but seems like you can't buy it online only in some salon in London, and I'm not in London anymore.

However my moisturiser, Olay Regenerist, has SPF 30 in it, would that be ok or not enough?

Have a look at CH's videos with Marko Zelens, Hot and Flashy has a great SPF video as well.

The main problem with SPF is you have to apply loads to get the SPF claimed on the packet. Someone, can't remember who, has a great video of them trying to apply the correct amount and it simply won't go on! So esp for SPF in makeup, the v thin layer you apply will be less than it says on the packet.

And you are supposed to reapply during the day as well. Which doesn't work if you have makeup on. There are brush on powder blocks which you can reapply over makeup but I've never got round to this.

My solution which isn't based on science but works in my head, is to wear SPF 50 in the summer on the basis that I might be getting say 30-40, decreasing slowly during the day.

Also you need to make sure you have UVA protection - the ++++ bit, as UVA is the ageing bit and is just as bad in the winter as the summer.

So SPF 30 is good, check it has UVA protection, and watch or read CH about how much you are meant to apply

Hi all, a quick question.

I started this routine a week or so ago and I've been getting a few really painful bumpy spots under my skin. I've never had these before.

I don't have may spots at all normally

Is this the routine doing good? Or is it something that I should be avoiding?

My routine:

Morning:

Cleanser: Emma Hardie/Avene facewash thingie or LRP Effaclar
Acid toner: Pixie Glow
Moisturiser: Avene/LRP or Glamtox

Evening
Cleanser 2 of the above, plus have a dermalogica one too
Toner as above
Then: either skinceuticals 1.0 retinol, alpha gold or on other days Serum and moisturiser. (I have decleor aromessence neroli oil and avene triacenal or LRp

(I've been using the Avene and LRP stuff for ages and haven't had any bumpy spots so far with them).

I used my retin A again last night. I know I know! I used such a tiny amount the first night though.

Mine is the gel and has an antibiotic gel in it as well.

So far no dryness or peeling. I will have a few days off just incase it takes the dryness a few days after application to show up. I start a new job in May so a part of me wanted to get the crap over quicker.

Henrietta it could be several things. It could be the Emma Hardie which is new, it could be that you are over cleansing and don't need to do double and it could be that you skin is reacting to all the new exfoliation going on and the bumpy spots have come up and will then go. My guess would be it's one of the latter 2 or both.

If double cleansing, acid toning and retinol are all new to you, stop doing 2 of them and stick to just one for 3-4 weeks before adding in the next step.

I think you also have too many products doing the same thing - you don't need Skinceuticals and Triacneal, just one retinol. And if you are already using Pixiglow, then you don't need the acid from Triacneal. And adding LG as well is just freaking your skin out!

I'd narrow it down massively, when you have managed to get the acid toner + retinol going happily for a while with just 2 products then you can have fun playing around - but at the moment it's all just tooo much.

I got a bumpy spot on my cheek too, which came up possibly from this new regime, I stuck a blob of my dds duac on it for 2 nights and it's more or less gone now.
U2TheEdge what's the retin a gel with antibiotic you're using?

And thanks Kundy for the advice it makes sense. Maybe if I put on the sunsense spf 50 (hopefully my lovely new skin doesn't react to it) and the moisturiser with spf 30 on top I'll get a decent protection. No point in using retin to get rid of pigmentation then going out in the sun and making the problem worse. No idea how I've got so much sun damage as I don't like going out in the sun or sunbathing, but I walk dogs every day and just walking around would make me catch the sun. So annoyed I didn't take more care when I was younger!
I'm going to look at Hot and Flashy and the CH videos. Wonder if CH will come back..

I don't think we need CH, kundry is doing marevellously!

kundry is actually getting quite scared by the idea that people are spending money and putting stuff on their faces on the basis of her postings!

However as you can see I've spent a lot of time reading this stuff and am really enjoying getting the chance to share it with like minded people. I've loved the changes to my skin and the knowledge that there are products out there that really WORK but it makes me so cross that the whole industry is designed to make it difficult for women to find them.

Here's my planned routine having been kundried...

AM
Lancôme micellar
FAB radiance pads
Decleor neroli oil
Decleor hydrafloral
Heliocare spf 50

PM
Decleor micellar oil - flannel
Alpha H balancing cleanser - flannel
Redermic LRP
Decleor night balm

Does that sound ok? Will introduce Redermic every other night to start.

You're right, I had no idea about all the ingredients what they do and what order they should go in. I came across double cleansing and Caroline Hirons only a few weeks ago on another mumsnet thread and started reading her blogs, if I hadn't I possibly wouldn't have read this thread as I'd never heard of her before. I'm really happy with how my skins starting to look whereas before it looked awful and I thought I had problem skin but I just wasn't using the right stuff. The stuff I was using was breaking me out and making me look like I'd not slept for 2 years

I am peeling.

I was too gung ho with the retin A, three nights in a row with 0.25% retin A and I have a very peely face that looks even worse with my usual cc cream on. Clearly I need to give it a rest, but any ideas as to how to get through this? I'm not going to be able to wear any make up even though I don't usually wear much, I'm going to feel a bit crap. When my glycolic stuff arrives will that help? If it's job is to un gunk the top layer?

Well, you didn't follow the advice did you

Leave off the Retin-A until ALL the peeling has settled. No acid either. Just non-foaming cleanser (and not double cleansing) and a nice calming moisturiser like LRP Cicaplast or Avene Cicalfate.

Then start again gradually. Use once, then not for 2 days. Keep that going for a couple of weeks and if your skin is happy then alternate days. Do that for two weeks before going every day. If at any point your skin is unhappy then drop down a step and go slower. I found my skin loves Cerave moisturiser when on Retin-A as it's full of lovely skin identical ingredients so really healing and calming.

Remember this is something you will be doing for years, there's no rush to get on it within a week.

Thanks for the advice Kundry.

I should add I don't use all of that on the same day. The retinol maybe once or twice a week, and I've been using Triacneal for months now with no adverse affects at all (and also no discernable benefits). Also have previously used both Eve Lom and the other stuff with no effect. So I think it could either be all the double cleansing, the acid tone or the retinol, or all of it together. I'll lay off a few nights and then reintroduce slowly I think.

I'm just desperate to get rid of the brown marks though

Just to add I use the bioderma spf 50 cream - it was recommended by India Knight last year I think. I'm also staying out of the sun - I love sitting (not lying) in the sun so it makes me really sad to do it. But I hate the brown marks more.