Totally overwhelmed by skincare products - please help me sort it out!

[Lottapianos]

I take good care of my skin, inside and out. I recently started reading Caroline Hirons blog and while some of her recommendations have been great (double cleansing and acid toning), I feel overwhelmed by all the stuff I'm 'supposed' to be using. Also, some of the stuff that people rave about, like retinoids, seem to be mostly useful for clearing up acne or acne scarring, and they are not problems for me.

Any advice would be gratefully received. I'm 35, dry and dehydrated skin, with some oiliness in T-zone, pale skin with rosy tones. Very fine lines starting around eyes and on forehead, and some mild melasma on cheekbones. My current skincare regime is:

Morning
Cleanse with L'Oreal Skin Perfection cleaning wash
Vichy Aqualia Thermal serum
Astral moisturiser
Bioderma Ultra Fluide SPF 50 (only if sunny weather)
Make up..........

Evening
Cleanse with Superdrug Natural Radiance Hot Cloth Cleanser
Second Cleanse with Una Brennan Superfacialist Vitamin C oil
REN Clarifying Toner (2-3 times a week)
Avene Thermal Water spray
Vichy serum again
Massage in a few drops of olive oil
Astral again just before bed

Now I hear I should be using Sunday Riley Luna and / or Sunday Riley Good Genes as well and I'm a bit overwhelmed! If you used everything CH recommended, you would need a) a second mortage and b) a second bathroom so please lovely people, help me make sense of it all!

Thank you

She doesn't want you to use everything, she recommends and trials stuff and y pick and choose what works for you

Thanks Dame, I could just do with some guidance about which products would be right for my skin. Like I say, a lot of the rave reviews include references to controlling oil production or clearing up acne - not problems for me. I guess I'm just wondering if there's anything else that would be good to add / change about my routine

I have very similar skin to you, OP.

I think its really a case of trial and error, and then sticking with what works for you and just tweaking if you need to.

To be honest, I err on the side of not using too many products - its expensive, time consuming, and to be honest, my skin doesn't react that well to too much faffing. I rate Caroline Hirons in some ways (very knowledagable), but I just don't buy into the fact that I NEED to be using six or eight products every night, and then another five in the morning or whatever!

My routine is pretty simple, and I mostly do it at night:

• Double cleanse with Superdrug Vit E cleanser and soft flannel/hot water (this has made the most difference to my skin to be honest)
• Then either massage in a few drops of Trilogy rose hip facial oil, followed about 30 mins later by a night cream (it doesn't seem to matter what I use, has the same effect, so I stick with fairly cheap brands like Nivea or Olay or whatever is on offer). If my skin is feeling dry before bed, I'll use another thin layer of night cream.

OR 2-3 times I just go straight from cleansing to Liquid Gold.

In the morning, I just splash my face with water, pat dry and apply spf 50 sunscreen.

I have found the following products pointless on my skin:
-miscellar waters

• toners

-serums -specific eye creams (I just gently pat in my facial oil and moisturiser)

Since double cleansing and using Liquid Gold, I also find I no longer need to use facial scrubs.

I only use masks occasionally now, and have switched to Korean sleep masks or occasionally sheet masks (I use a brand called Missha - see the Korean thread on S&B for loads of great brands...great for fair, sensitive skin I have found).

Liquid Gold 2-3 times a week, that should say

I would add...if you can find a high spf facial sunscreen that works for you, use it every day instead of or on top of moisturiser (I find I dont need to use moisturiser as well).

I started doing this five years ago and I reckon its one of the reasons my skin is holding up pretty well.

Thanks so much Umi! I agree with you about not needing to use 9 million products. She's absolutely right about the double cleansing though - I used to think it was a rip off to make you use twice as much cleanser, but my skin looks and feels much better since I started. I use micellar water for taking off eye make up and heavy lipstick, not for cleansing though. I don't use an eye cream either, just regular moisturiser. I tried Trilogy a few years ago and it did nowt for me - I'm having much better results with bog standard olive oil out of my kitchen cupboard! I've given up on facial scrubs as well. I think that the REN acid toner makes a difference, but Im not sure if its just a tightening effect straight after using it, rather than an ongoing effect if you know what I mean.

May investigate Liquid Gold then....

I have a colleague who has great skin and she said she uses Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair. This is another product that I had been thinking of using and I asked her if she thought it was worth the money. She said to be honest, she doesn't really know because she has no 'control face' to compare it against, which make sense! But she likes it and thinks its doing some good so she carries on. It's true though- there's no way of knowing what your face would have looked like if you just used soap and water I do enjoy my products though, just don't want to go crazy with them!

Can I ask which SPF moisturiser you use?

Maybe adding a glycolic product into the routine, like liquid gold or pixi glow or first aid beauty pads...that will exfoliate and give you a glow. For the fine lines maybe try retinol like redermic r?

I'm experimenting with sunscreen at the moment.

I've been using La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL Ultra Light Fluid SPF50 for a good while and quite happily. Recently, though, I'm finding it a bit cloggy on my pores - think maybe my skin is changing slightly as I hurtle towards 40 .

I'm going to try Neutrogena Ultra Sheer SPF 100 next. The Korean beauty blogs all rave about it, and I'm a bit of a sucker for Korean beauty stuff at the moment.

Will report back!

yazzy85, thanks for another Liquid Gold recommendation - seems like that may be the way forward!

Have heard good things about Neutrogena SPFs Umi, didn't know there was a factor 100!

Lotta CH makes her living by promoting and endorsing stuff. The more expensive stuff has higher profit margins, I doubt that Astral cream has fancy PR events.

I've been trying to figure out ingredients (Astral: water, mineral oil, glycerin...) and posted a few links on the Asian thread that might help. By checking the ingredients you can mix and match, and also remember that not every product suits every skin type. When you are led by ingredients, there are often cheaper alternatives. For Advanced Night Repair, for example, there is a cheaper Missha alternative (I tried a sample, it did not transform my skin overnight) and I've found a lovely alternative to my pricey Chanel serum (water, alcohol, isohexodecane, glycerin, butylene glycol...). Luna ingredients here. Avocado and grape seed oil are the first ingredients so maybe you could start with that... Cosdna.com is a good resource too.

Umi great ideas! I've been wearing a lower spf version of Neutrogena sunscreen for most days during the past month and it is really nice, no breakouts during that time.

'I doubt that Astral cream has fancy PR events'

I think you're probably right

I've been on a journey with CH too. At first I drank the koolaid but then a few things didn't add up - mostly if you read the early blog she then totally changes her mind about things she once absolutely adamantly did not rate - for example I read she used to really really not like Clinique on her blog but now she suddenly recommends Clinique very often - turns out now she is sponsored by them :(

However her actual advice to double cleans and treat my skin (instead of what I used to be like) has been gold

When you read her advice daily over the month there is no actual way a normal woman could use that amount of products making her recommendations actually quite pointless.

There is also a forum out there (which she addresses as 'trolling') but which in fact calls her out on a lot of stuff - all written by women who know about skin (a lot of them seem very clued up) but are not being sponsored to shill product - worth a read Google 'guru gossip' and Caroline hirons and have a read of the thread it makes you think on how to take her advice (or not) For example nothing she says is evidenced and the forum also addresses her turn around in products she once abhorred strongly and her lack of qualifications to lecture in skin ie she's not a dermatologist.

Food for thought when standing there ready to give your money over for a product she's shilled.

I bloody love her attitude tho and how she writes, awesome!! ..and how she is rocking out being absolutely not qualified but having readers hanging on her every word to buy the stuff she deigns to do a review in - clever girl a marketing story dream lol

Double cleansing has worked wonders with my skin but I just use E45 wash as my skin is sensitive, if I used toner my face would fall off she's very funny in Instagram though and she like Duran Duran so she's forgiven anything

Yet Astral works for really many people! And if it works for you, you immediately know that most budget moisturizers will work too because lots of them have a similar structure, so that means you can save a lot of time and money right there. Here is an analysis of Astral.

Good Genes is more difficult to duplicate but its first ingredient is licorice, a commonly used whitener in Asian products. If you have six months, I'm sure there is going to be an acceptable supermarket dupe Sunday Riley sounds really smart BTW (and whoever comes up with those names is a genius). She has actually trained in cosmetics chemistry, but it's licorice, not unicorn tears - and really, really great marketing!

By ingredient sleuthing I've figured out why I get spots from LRP Effaclar H although Effaclar K is fine - I strongly suspect it's the shea butter in the former. When you know your triggers and sweet spots, it's easier to pick the right products!

That's funny Frugal because actually I've tried loads of budget moisturisers and none of them have been rich enough but Astral is just perfect! I can feel my skin breathing a sigh of relief when I put it on. It makes my skin feel soft and comfortable and plumped up. I guess when it comes to moisturisers, I need to stop trying to fix what ain't broke! Lucky me that it costs the princely sum of 4 for about a 4 month supply

ninawish, you're right - the amount of product she recommends is fairly insane. I love some of her philosophy - if you're prepared to spend 300 on a pair of shoes or handbag (which I never would by the way), you should also be prepared to spend big on your face. And double cleansing works, for sure. But I feel the need to tread very carefully with the rest of it. I understand that a lot of it is trial and error and everyone's skin is different but 50+ is actually a lot of money for a serum or whatever that may not be your thing at all. Hence picking the brains of you lovely lot first!

Sorry correcting, lactic acid is the first ingredient in Good Genes. So to approximate it, if your skin likes chemical exfoliation, do a lactic acid peel and dab on a licorice and ceramide containing cream afterwards?

Things I like from the CH approach

• acid toning - this has really helped my skin - no more flakey bits, pores on nose look clearer and it also seems to help my PCOS facial hair to pop through without turning into horrible spotty lumps which then explode into inch long hairs.
• slapping on a serum to hydrate before moisturizer. excellent and means I don't need such a heavy moisturizer.
• retinol - I dismissed this before reading the CH blog as I bought the line that nothing that you can buy over the counter can really impact the deep layers of your skin (acid toning and hydrating serums are obviously surface level only). But once I did a wee bit of reading, I realized that there may be something in it. So I now use LRP redermic R every other night or so. Yes, it's good for acne but from what I've read it is one of the few anti-aging things that actually work. OTC creams have a relatively low level of active retinol but that's fine for me as I am 35, fairly dry skinned, little troubled areas and only starting to get a few traces of crow's feet/NL lines. Jury is obviously out on how successful all this is but happy to give it a whirl as I bought it with my boots points.

'So I now use LRP redermic R every other night or so'

Ooh, this is exciting! I'm same as as you and with similar skin. This may be the new extra little thing I was looking for to add to my regime. And from Boots and at a reasonable price too! Will give it a whirl. Thanks Free

Do a bit of reading on vit a/retinols. There are other brands as well offering a low level retinols (avene, I think and some olay too as well as other more expensive brand offferings). I went for LRP because it was a gel serum type thing that I can then cover with my own facial oil/moisturizer afterwards. Also I use it right up to my eyes as my skin tolerates it and I have a personal distrust of eye creams (same stuff in a smaller pot for more money it seems to me!).

Sorry to hijack. Drama Queen, do you find E45 wash is good on your face. I use it on my body and use Liz Earle cleanse and polish on my face which is good. Does E45 wash have the same effect? Also do you use it to remove eye make up?

Puss - I use the emailing wash in the pump and double cleanse with a warm flannel after removing eye make up with Loreal Micellar gel make up remover. I've faffed around with different products for years and doing this basic routine has left me with best skin I've ever had in the last 20 years!

Much nicer than Liz Earle imo.

Oh wow they really don't like here on that guru site

Thanks for that tip Drama Queen. I find that when I don't use Liz Earle my skin doesn't feel the same and I have received compliments after using it but using my E45 wash on my face will work out cheaper so I'll give it a try.