What's gone wrong with my new skin regime? Too much acid?

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I'm 41. This is what I do. Night: Cleanse with a oil based balm, Cleanse with a cream, nip & fab extreme pads, The Ordinary Buffet, The Ordinary Hyaluronic 5%& BHA, nivea or dove night cream and a few drops of rosehip. Morning: just a wipe over with flannel then Buffet and bog standard nivea before make up.

My skin seems to be drying out since I started this regime. I stopped the Hyaluronic in the day when I first noticed. But it still seems drier, mainly on the cheeks. Foundation isn't going on that well (although that's new too - No.7 Stay Perfect I think it's called) and looks a bit 'cakey' I'm disappointed because I thought I was looking after my skin so well. I have absolutely no spots though and was getting one or 2 before so that's a improvement but the dryness is annoying.

Should I only nip & fab every 2nd night or drop the Hyaluronic? Or is it my cheap and cheerful moisturiser that needs updating? Advice appreciated!

I'm confused by your TO hylauronic 5% &BHA Do you mean lactic acid and HA or hylauronic and B5? Very different products doing different things.

I would suggest nip and fab only every second night as it is quite a drying product and is likely the cause of your problem. Buffet and hylauronic shouldn't be contributing to dryness, rather counteracting it but you could argue you don't need both, just use one a.m one p.m. If you're using nip and fab it's an acid and you need an spf for daytime which you haven't mentioned.

I hope that's helpful.

Yes sorry it's hyaluronic & B5! I think I'm using both at night as it recommended it on their website as a regime for ageing skin. Yes hopefully dropping back on nip and fab will help. Thanks!

My face would literally fall off if I put that much stuff on it. What are all those different products meant to do and how can you tell if they're all working or not?

I'm surprised you're not using sunscreen as it's just about the only over-the-counter product that's agreed to be effective.

I'm barely outside which is why no sunscreen but I will introduce it. Floisme the nip and fab is an acid toner and the ordinary stuff are serums.

But what are they supposed to do?

Acid toner removes dead cells from surface which then allows more moisture in. Serums help hold moisture in. I'm guessing you're a bit sceptical ?!

Yup 😄

That's actually not "that much stuff". Check out the Korean and Asian 10+ step regimes .

Even if barely outside, if you're getting any exposure (even through glass and clouds ) those UVA rays are present and cause skin ageing. It's THE most important anti ageing measure you can do. Acid toning makes your skin photosensitive and more susceptible to damage. Ideally a separate spf is best ( not one in a moisturiser which aren't usually broad spectrum). Japanese spfs are fab IMO. Really light, non greasy and provide excellent protection.

You don't need to remove dead cells that frequently. 2/3 a week is recommended for exfoliation which is doing a similar thing. Over doing it can cause dryness.

Try putting the HA onto damp skin - too much on dry skin can draw water from the deeper part of the skin and effectively ' dry it out'. It's suggested that you use a moisturiser that contains HA rather than a heavily concentrated serum.
Could be that. Could be the acids. A good buff with a flannel when removing cleanser does the job for me as far as exfoliation goes. I use acids maybe once a week and my skin is peachy.

I'm going to cool it on the Nip and Fab first and see if that helps. Thanks all!

Definitely only use only one of the serums am and the other pm so maybe the ha + b5 am then the buffet pm, and reduce the nip and fab pads to 2-3x a week and you do need to be using a light spf if your using acids. Personally I would drop the Nivea too and get urself a moisturiser from face theory (online)

2 - 3 times a week is enough for nip and fab extreme pads. I think it says twice a week on the label.