budget skin care routine

[stottiecake]

hello! I'm 42 (almost) and come to the realisation that I really need to take the best care of my face that I can afford (which is not much - poor student) Please tell me your low budget top tips to keep what I've got (which is not great) for as long as possible.

have come

What kind of skin do you have? I'd go for a Superdrug hot cloth cleanser. I rate the one in the green tube but if your skin is drier then you may prefer the Vitamin E version. That's about £3 they are always on offer. I also use coconut oil as a makeup remover/first cleanse. I get a big jar for £2.50 in the local Asian grocery.

Then acid tone with the Clearasil pads, 99p shop. Two good budget serums are the Superdrug pure one and the Aldi ones £3-4 a pop. I use Nivea blue pot moisturiser which is a couple of pounds and lasts forever.

You might want to checkout the Asian beauty products too. They are very cheap and work wonders.

What type of skin do you have? And what issues do you want to address? Advice would be v different for dry vs oily skin.

If you want to keep what you've got for as long as possible the most important thing you can do is use broad spectrum SPF every day.

Boots glycerin and rosewater for softening/moisturising/cleansing

hi sorry I've not been back - have been zipping about with the kids all day! thanks for all your suggestions. I'm not sure exactly what my skin type is. it might be 'normal' if that's a type? I used to get a very spotty chin, upper lip and between my eyebrows but now I only get the occasional chin spot premenstrually. I could be prone to be a bit dry but never so dry its obvious. my eye wrinkles are starting to stretch a little to my cheeks but then I smoked in my youth - gave up 7 years ago. I will definitely pop along to superdrug to see what they have and look for a moisturiser with an SPF - although my foundation is factor 20- and I never go out without it!!

ooh rosewater sounds lovely!! I suppose I want it to preserve it for as long as poss - dont want those wrinkles spreading!!

I use a micelar (sp?) cleanser, loreal usually about £3-4 from asda. It's lovely, very mild, like toner / water in consistency and use with cotton wool pads. I also use olay total effects moisturiser, but buy when on offer half price £7.50 ish then.

If I had cash to spare it would be no.7 protect and perfect intense moisturiser from boots.

So you would be normal to combination if you still get some premenstrual spots.

Any non-foaming cleanser will do, it doesn't have to be expensive. Some people love coconut oil, some people find it a major spot trigger. At least if your skin hates it you can eat it instead of through it away!

Clearasil pads are really cheap and will exfoliate preventing your spots but also making your skin look younger.

Serum really is an added extra - on a mega budget you won't get fancy anti-ageing ingredients but you can get hydration. Aldi Lacura serum is essentially the same as the much more expensive Hydraluron and good if your skin is dehydrated.

During the day, you need SPF! That really is far and away the most anti-ageing thing you can do for your skin - one with UVA and UVB protection and at least SPF 30.

You may find your SPF is moisturising enough and so not need a separate mosituriser.

Finally at night, Nivea blue pot is v cheap, lasts for ages. If you are more on the oily side you might not like it as it is quite oily.

The only other anti-ageing thing you can do is retinols - and there is no budget version for these!

Garnier Micellar water is a £1 in Boots atm :-)

BodyShop Camomile Butter cleanser (£13 but loads of special offers there) and a muslin cloth in hot water.
Cleanses and exfoliates in one.Takes of eyemakeup too.

I use Soap and Glory Drama Clean Miccelar water other days .

Aldi serums etc irritate my eyes when I perspire so I use on my neck downwards.

I have Philosophy renewed Hope in a Jar (present from my DC) which I love.

Superdrug Glycolic Overnight Peel (in the Radience range, green tube. About £8ish)

Lots of water.(to drink )

If you have normal skin then I'd go for what misss recommends as a good starting point.

Micellar water is great stuff, cheap, lasts for ages.

I have decided to go budget for a while. Bought the superdrug naturally radiant cleanser, eye cream, moisturiser/serum and glycolic peel all half price (princely total of £12 for all 4!) and so far so good! I am still using slightly pricier toners (Claines, FAB pads, Pixi) but really impressed with the Superdrug stuff. I'm 40 with half decent occasional breakout/pregnant skin.

Clarins, bloody autocorrect

thank you! am going to write all these product suggestions down and go looking tomorrow and price them up. but I think I will start with buying a moisturiser with a high spf and work from there. Thanks for sharing your expertise!!

Aldi do really nice day & night face creams, they have Q10 in them and they are really cheap. I switched to them a little while ago and just as good as Olay and all the other expensive brands. Not sure if they do cleanser though, possibly in the bigger stores

Una Brennan stuff in Boots is pretty good for the price. Especially if on offer. Not super cheap but great quality.

I discovered a great diy acid peel- mix milk powder with a splash of apple cider vinegar, paint on and leave for 20 mins or so then rinse off. Really refreshing and gets my skin glowing but does smell pretty strong!

Boots Botanics facial oil is lovely and smells divine.

an acid peel? what is one of these? I am so very new to this. I do have some apple cider vinegar I think. milk powder should be easy to find. But what does it do?

An acid peel is a way of gently exfoliating your skin - there should be no peeling involved!

If you are prone to blackheads you need salicylic acid which is in the Clearasil pads as it dissolves in oil.

If you have dry skin and are simply looking for a freshening up rather than preventing spots then glycolic or lactic acid are better. Vinegar + milk powder presumably makes lactic acid.

Personally I'm not in to DIY esp when you can get the Clearasil pads for 99p - last ages and no effort involved. But it does sound interesting to do.

Yes, just seems to clear my skin a bit and I have both ingredients in anyway so it's good to not have an extra bottle of stuff in the cupboard!

I do get a few blackheads so I might try the clearasil pads when I've used up some of the bottles already there. I just have bad memories of clearasil completely stripping my skin and leaving it oily with dry patches.