Fantastic Skincare - Snail Optional 🐌

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For those who are taking a peek and wondering whether previous threads are worth reading, we mostly discuss a bit of advanced skincare here with a perspective of seeking out the right ingredients for our particular skin needs. Distinguishing the acid toners from the actives whilst avoiding the truly unimpressive and harmful ingredients with a hope to achieve a bit of anti-ageing, alleviate irritation and sensitivities with some idle chat in between. Deviations on this thread are mostly my fault.

If you're in need of some advice coming to grips with your skincare routine please don't hesitate to ask, we don't bite, only occasionally sting with a bit of Biologique Recherche P50 now and then . Just make sure to state clearly what your concerns and needs are in as much detail as possible, skincare is highly individual and a random recommendation for a 'good' product will be completely different from one person to the next.

Make sure you've read the earlier threads (or at the very least the first one) so we're not being asked to answer previously raised questions. It takes a lot of time and effort to answer these queries and often the answers can be found in previous threads, but if you still have questions relating specifically to you, use the following form to make life easier on us. We generally answer one a day on a first come first served basis. Not everyone will have answers and sometimes we can't answer you at all. We're only a bunch of amateurs that can respond by suggesting what we would do in your place, for any severe conditions please seek out professional help.

Skin type:

Approx age (range):

Primary skin concern:

Routine :

AM :

PM :

Makeup : eg. no/light coverage/medium coverage/heavy coverage

Occasional treatments:

Things I've tried in the past with disastrous results:

Things that are really working well for me now:

Any dietary/health concerns/pregnant:

What I'm willing to spend on a single skincare item: eg. >£10, £10-20, £20-50, £50-100, no limits.

I specifically [want help with/am looking for a product to/am curious about trying]:

---

Ahem, and finally a little note on spending. I'm well aware these threads cause many to reach for their wallets and spend with wild abandon. There can sometimes be a bit of a frenzy surrounding the excitement around a newly discovered product or on the back of great improvements when someone reports back. This is all great, it doesn't however, mean everything that's a sudden miracle for one will be it for you. Usually, it's a light bulb moment for connecting the right skincare ingredient with an individual experiencing a specific problem. Take your time to mull over decisions and question whether it's right for you too. Skincare is highly individual, it's a slow game that should cost mostly in patience, input, education, and perseverance. Please don't make it cost you financially needlessly.

Or I could read right to the end....sorry.

Welcome banana. I'm sorry you been through such a stressful time .

I've had 5 rounds of ivf Banana I looked like death warmed up until the trigger shot (hcg) which weirdly made me all glowy for a few days...until the progesterone kicked in. That aside, ivf is bloody bloody hard, so for you. Hope it's going well.

Ah. Read until the end now (sorry) if you're prepping lining then that's what's making your skin go batshit. Like having exaggerated pmt skin.

Personally I'd strip right back to basics with no acids, until you're off the drugs (in 13 weeks hopefully.) and hopefully well into a pregnancy. You're skin will then balance by itself and you'll know what you're dealing with better.

(Also- don't hate me, sure you're sick to the back teeth of advice- caffeine in the chocolate and the sugar can effect hormones so I was advised to avoid both throughout treatment by several different consultants. Up to you obviously but feel I should pass it on. )

*your

JD and Eve I posted your parcels today so should be with you Tues-Wed.

God sorry for multiple posts.

banana I'm cringing a bit at the end of my last post. Please don't let me worry you. It's stressful enough ffs. I've known people to eat chocolate and whatever, all the time whilst doing ivf and it was more than fine. Do whatever you need to do.

Thanks ladies!

Enid No need to cringe! Really appreciate the good thoughts - I’m so sorry you’ve had to go through such an ordeal. I really really hope your treatment had a happy result? Or that you have found peace however things have turned out

Funny story about chocolate and caffeine and embryos - for the months preceding my first 2 rounds I was absolutely religious about sugar, eating 10 a day, green juices, supplements, 60g of protein a day etc. Embryos were all rubbish - nothing to transfer on the first, and second had 1 chromosomally normal embryo from 12 (which I subsequently miscarried anyway). After losing the baby (and miscarrying for 6 weeks, needing a second operation to un-pregnant me) I went fuck it, and ate basically nothing of any nutritional value (Why yes Dominos, hello again!) I got absolutely shit faced one Saturday night, not realising that I was going to be able to cycle again so soon - I ended up starting my stims meds 5 days later . I asked my Dr if we should delay, as my lifestyle hadn’t exactly been, er, optimal. He said no medical reason, as the primary determinant of egg quality was age and the ovarian environment created by the meds. I’m not advocating the chocolate biscuit and vodka diet, but out of 19 embryos, 9 made it to testing and a whopping 6 were genetically perfect! My diet had been total shite, caffeine and sugar and booze to the hilt - best embryo quality of the lot!

My lining prep actually involves ovulation induction rather than HRT, unfortunately ovulating 13 eggs at once this month(and we couldn’t even do the sodding endometrial biopsy cos my lining didn’t respond!!) sent my hormones through the roof and made my skin go berserk, as well as making me resemble a spacehopper (with ovaries like beach balls). Oh, the indignity!

I’m not going to be pregnant for a long time, if ever, because we can’t do a transfer unless we can fix my lining - I’ve miscarried two healthy babies because of my rubbish uterus, since the last mc we’ve spent 5 months trying to work on my lining, and the current treatment isn’t going well, so I don’t know if we’ll even be able to do a transfer cycle. 5 genetically perfect frozen buns on ice but the oven is on the blink. So we don’t really need to worry about being pregnant in terms of my skin, because I’m not going to be having an embryo back any time soon unfortunately, potentially at all.

Sorry for FAR too much depressing information than you needed about my broken reproductive organs! But no need to worry about pregnancy any time soon - so we can throw on the acids and retinoids with gay abandon! I’ve not had a month since 2015 when I wasn’t taking hormones, pregnant, or miscarrying - after 4 months of injecting stims back to back for my lining, I’m currently resembling a pizza, so frankly at the moment a vat of AHA and lashings of hyaluronic acid should probably be prescribed by my consultant as part of my treatment protocol…!!

Pics

You look amazing Hollin hope you had a fantastic night!

Mint I'm very prone to breakouts but neither dry nor oily. I've been using the regenecalm & night cream. The M4 day cream arrives with my reorder and tried it yesterday, love it just as much as the night cream. I have the vit c serum on preorder.

Hello Fantastic Skincare People,

I've not posted before so I first have to thank you for all your good work. I owe most of my good skin to you.

As the weather has begun to perk up and I'm not running indoors at every opportunity my thoughts have turned to sunscreen. I've never really got on with sunscreen as I don't like the thick gloopy feel of it. Also, my skin is somewhat sensitive which adds another layer of complexity.

Currently I'm using Cerave AM, which is not awful. But I'm also looking for a standalone product. In the past I've used Ultrasun and P50 (too gloopy/greasy, only for holidays), and LRP Anthelios (good feel, a bit stingy, especially if it gets in your eyes). I have a tube of Biore watery essence in my Amazon basket.....

So what's good in sunscreen these days?

I am dutifully filling out my skincare questionnaire-

Skin type: Dehydrated/congested/a little bit sensitive

Approx age (range): Early 40s

Primary skin concern: Ageing

Routine :

AM :
Cleanse with Cetaphil
Paula's Choice Clear 2% BHA
Hylamide sub-q
Cerave PM or AM

PM :
Cleanse with Body Shop Cleaning Butter and LRP Toleriane
Paula's Choice Clear 2% BHA
Hylamide sub-q
Paula's Choice Skin Recovery Mask
Rose Hip Oil

or twice a week

Cleanse as above
Paula's Choice Clinical 1% Retinol
Rose Hip Oil

Makeup : Not so much

Occasional treatments: Some AHA gel if I get super flaky

Things I've tried in the past with disastrous results: I've not really had a disaster, just disappointments. One thing that I've never really got on with is vitamin C, don't know why.

Things that are really working well for me now: Boatloads of HA

Any dietary/health concerns/pregnant: None

What I'm willing to spend on a single skincare item: 50ish

TIA

Looking gorgeous hollin! Hope it was a good night?

Looking good Hollin!

Lovely hollin

Hot to trot hollin!!

Morning-ish all! Hope your hope your night was as good as you looked Hollin! Think I missed this in the carryover, but from the INCI I can't see too much wrong with the facetheory cleansing oil (though jojoba and rosehip are gamble oils but since it's a wash off product unlikely to cause immediate harm), would really need to try it in person to assess if it's any good at the cleansing bit. Price is a bit steep for the amount (without the perpetual discount) but the oils they use are a lot more expensive than other cleansing oils so in the end it's fairly priced, it's just a point of wonder whether you need to use expensive oils that you wash away within a minute.

Enid were you up to your midnight confessions again

Welcome banana and burrito will get to you soon-ish and all the other questions too, probably tonight but most likely tomorrow.

Sunday Supplement

Turns out the Hirons Snail Wars did enter phase 3 The Curious History of Medieval Battle Snails - aka a brilliant retort. And just as a point of total 'eh', I've recently been reading into Emu Oil and their promises to help with hair loss which is mostly unfounded, it helps reduce inflammation and in that sense it is interesting for several skin conditions beyond scalp health. Anyhow, Emu Oil is "a paste of the birds' gizzards and intestine-couching fat." Is this the new AB 'thing' I hear you as,... most definitely not, you can thank those Australians for this (unless Australia counts as AB these days).

Victoria Health's March Newsletter with all the info on The Ordinary's new acids.

A nice supplementation to that Everything you need to know about peels and skin renewal and why caution is warranted.

An interview with Deciem founder Brendan Truaxe in the Telegraph Beauty without the fluff: Meet the man who will make you look younger. It's an interesting read although a bit of a PR exercise and it's doing little to help clarify their contradicting skincare views and product lineup.

This is in Swedish so use Google translate if you're not me and can read it fine but get flustered when they talk too fast or hail from obscure corners TOPPLISTAN: 10 VÄXTER SOM GER FUKTIGARE INOMHUSLUFT - It's an overview of plants to put in your home to help raise the humidity levels which is great for skin health. I need to get some plants, they'll die but at least they'll marginally improve skin and I won't feel so bad about it

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO RETINOL

Note this is a download file Think with Google: Beauty Trends 2017 (US, France, Japan)

Want to help further acne research? These clinical trials are recruiting! There's one UK based one in the mix (and seems the most interesting actually) that researches the topical use of a filler/injection with elastin building blocks and hyaluronic acid mix for acne scarring, actually improving skin health by promoting elastin production which would take fillers into a different direction from cosmetic 'correctors' to targeted treatments (though you could posit HA fillers already do this but since that's usually to replace lost volume that dissipates eventually it's not really a 'treatment' in that sense). Anyone interested can apply though the links on that page (think the project is based in London).

On Double Cleansing (face and hair) The Net-A-Porter Edit magazine actually has quite a good beauty copy. This one on the what with Double Cleansing (as mentioned previously it's gaining traction in haircare too now). Sarah Chapman is noted talking about an oil cleanser followed up by a clay cleanser, I've tried one in the past (Maria Akerberg and a sample from SR, Ceramic Slip) but have always found it too drying (but recently have found it great for hair, just not called it a double cleanse at the time). Wondering how others have gotten on with them (on the face), with perhaps oilier skin.

Some interesting roundups from the annual American Academy of Dermatology conference:

On the effacacy of major (at home) beauty trends quite effectively cuts through all the crap

Dermatological developments on Acne and Rosacea, antibiotics are definitely on the outs.

Dr. Sam is sooooo a lurker, I linked to an interview about the Telomere Effect and how it applies to ageing not all that long ago in of these Sunday Supplements. and the Telegraph article she mentions www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-secret-to-staying-young-smile-more-walk-more-stop-moaning-enjoymarital-sex-80ffw6b5r must still get that book.

Sali Hughes and everyone else is going a bit nuts over these dry masks. Beauty: a big hello to a gamechanger of a dry mask - I'm a bit on the fence as to what they actually do long term, they sound great for a pick me up and a temporary boost but I have serious doubts that they do much more than a wet sheet mask int terms of improving skin health (see also the AAD article on beauty trends and their merit). The price tag and reusing it thrice will keep me away from them for now plus it's from Charlotte Tilbury whose stuff I refuse to buy anyhow.

Not a fan of CH but I have to thank her for her snail posts, without them I wouldn't read this www.fanserviced-b.com/caroline-hirons-snail/ (I'm guessing it was in previous supplement and I have somehow missed it)

Hollin your makeup looks fantastic. I wish I could apply make up like that! Hope you had a great night.

Is it morning? I got in at 6am via a trip to McDonald's for breakfast and I wasn't even drinking!

Mmmmm McDonald's breakfast

I had a double sausage and egg muffin. Two hash browns and orange juice. Don't judge me
To balance that out I've just eaten King prawns, salad and cous cous

Yum yum that sounds perfect for me lol I love a McDonald's brekkie

I was naughty for lunch today and had a quarter pounder with cheese meal....oh and I had Chinese last night