Somerset
, Sorry to hear you're having such a hard time right now. Happy to help distract you with skincare
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As yongnian noted don't be too hard on yourself, everyone on this thread was a rubbish cleanser and carer of their face at some point and managed to get a bit more serious about it. Everyone has their trigger that motivates it, ours just came a bit sooner probably and came with a bit more urgency.
Looking back it really shouldn't have surprised me that my skin went to pots when it did, I was mid twenties, exhausted from caring for my terminally ill mother for months on end, little sleep, inconsistent diet, add in the PCOS and a slap dash incidental routine you can see where it all went wrong. I'm sort of happy that it did though, my newly forming skincare routine gave me a bit of purpose during my period of grief, it forced me to have a start and an end to a day, it made me get out of bed and it allowed me get back in after a tough day. I was okay if I managed those two things. It gave me something I could actually fix and influence day by day and see the results of my labour doing good even though I made the same mistakes initially as everyone else, slapping on anything that sounded good, lacking patience and hoping for the best. It takes a bit to learn and adapt but once you find a bit of confidence with it through some education and some trial & error, skincare becomes a different experience.
These days it's a lovely self indulgent quiet moment to myself and I like to think there's a meditative quality in it too. I thought I had good skin before, a bit sensitive but it was pretty self sufficient and could withstand a bit of neglect but I can confidently say it's so much better now than it was in my early twenties, it looked fine before it actually looks good now, I just never knew the difference.
For you the carving out of time for your routine should really be the first thing to work on, mornings most of us try to keep in minimal steps anyhow so shouldn't take up a lot of time, it's mostly adjusting to it and soon enough it becomes habit provided you're consistent. To save time some of us do our routine at night when we get home or tie it to after you've finished dinner, etc. rather than delaying it till bed time when you're less likely to do it as you're tired.
AM
LRP Dermo Cleanser, I know you mention not being a HCC girl but honestly it's the quickest way to wash your face provided you've got a good supply of flannels. Slather on, rub a bit and remove with wet warm-ish towel. Takes 30 secs at most. Alternatively a Konjac sponge may be the thing for you (no personal experience though, yongnian, were you the one that bought one in shopping frenzy recently?)
TO Matrixyl or TO Buffet (dependant on whether you'll be TTC again, retinols are off the table during pregnancy so Matrixyl makes for a good interim) - if you can spare about 20 more secs.
If you're up for snail goo the Benton Steam Cream is a nice one for dryer skin but you can probably use a lot of moisturisers without issue. A richer one from Face Theory will make for a decent budget one like the Rejuvenating Moisturiser M2 or the Relaxing Night Cream M10 (or both for N&D accordingly) or the Regenerating Moisturiser M4 which has a retinol in it, see note above about retinol. Even though your current moisturiser isn't impressing you much provided it doesn't irritate you or cause adverse reactions I'd try finishing that up first.
SPF - I figure you'll be happy with the LRP Anthelios Fluide SPF50, I wouldn't attempt the Biore due to high alcohol content which is not the best with dry skin.
Then proceed with CC cream, etc.
PM
Erborian actually make quite a nice cleansing balm/cream with dual purpose, Solid Cleansing Oil 2 in 1. It first turns from an oil cleanser for makeup into a cream cleanser for the face which sounds a bit hocus pocus marketing talk but it's a decent and comfy cleanser. I'm normally a big double cleansing advocate but you wear such minimal makeup I think this one might actually just about cover you and you can always try experimenting with using the LRP dermo cleanser after and see if that makes a difference for you or not.
Rosehip oil.
Night cream (see suggestions above) if you need it.
I'm deliberately keeping the night routine as short as possible while you get some consistency into your routine and your face out of the shower
. Once you're in the habit of a steady routine you can expand it as follows:
Cleanse as above.
BR P50(w) every other day (not to be used w. retinols), you sound to have pretty resilient skin so you wouldn't be on the W for very long by my estimation. Maybe someone else on this thread is willing to send you a decant as mine is just about finished and I have a different version now and you can buy the normal version if you get on well with it. I don't think it smells strongly (the W) at all but the higher concentrations do have a bit of a stronger vinegar smell but it's not annoying in my experience and only really when you open the bottle, on the pad it isn't as strong of a scent and you get used to it pretty quick.
Serums, Vit C (23%), Niacinamide(10%), Retinol (2%) from TO all great for anti-ageing along with several others discussed on this thread but these three stand at the base of it and don't necessarily need to come from TO and can also be incorporated into your morning routine (possibly on alternate days) placing the Matrixyl/Buffet at night. Don't use all at once! You may also consider swapping out the Rosehip oil for the Pestle & Mortar Retinoil.
Possibly an eye product with retinol (like LRP Redermic R for eyes, the Verso Super Eye Serum) but reservations wrt retinol as above.
Rosehip oil.
Night cream as discussed above.
The St. Ives does indeed have to go. You can repurpose it to the body for a smooth behind or something
. Same goes with creams, the heavier ones for dry skin usually make for good hand creams. What do you have in your surely enormous stash currently? We can try see where we can fit it into your routine and avoid you buying a lot of new things unnecessarily.