Fantastic Skincare - we're snail here 🐌

[botemp]

Thread 1 Thread 2 Thread 3 Thread 4 Thread 5 Thread 6

I am very slowly working on consolidating the gathered information from previous threads into easier to read formats but it’s slow going. In order to make use of the below form and join in I would suggest reading thread 1 and at the very least the following info sheets (provided they apply to you):

Basics of an Actives Routine

Where to Start

Anti-Ageing Info sheet

Adult Acne Info Sheet

For those who are taking a peek and wondering what this all about, we mostly discuss a bit of advanced skincare here with a perspective of seeking out the right ingredients (rather than the latest new shiny product and all its empty promises) 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 and the linked docs) 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 . Please note, the form is not here to generate a routine for you, sometimes it involves product recommendations but mostly it's there so we can answer a specific question without having to go back and forth endlessly. Also, 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.

The Ordinary and NIOD are both launching sunscreens at the end of June. I'm interested to see what they're like

Thanks Olli yes I think I'll drop the SA to start and then add back in once or twice a week. I'll probably only use the ret twice a week to start with, my skin is pretty tough but I'll still take it slowly.

Bo I'm going to try that cuticle oil, thank you. Back to Easyparapharmacie, it's rapidly becoming my favourite shopping site

That's interesting about TO and NIOD launching sunscreen, NIOD is a bit pricey for me but I'd be interested to see what TO bring out.

Ooh where'd you get that titbit of info from apple? I knew there were plans but no confirmed dates, though if there's going to be a 240,000 person waiting list like with the foundation I'll be lucky to get my mitts on it sometime in 2048

botemp I'm laughing at the acid pads!

Bo it was a reply to someone on their Instagram page

Bo your info sheets are great!

I'm probably one of those leather skinned people that could use the peel pads every night but I won't be rushing to try them at that price

I'm never going on a waiting list for any TO stuff ever again, still no updates about my foundation, I think it might actually be 2048 before I get it

I live to amuse, Olli well some days anyways. How's the recovery going?

Ooh excellent stealth work there, apple.

Glad they're helpful, cad

usedup, I suppose TO 30% Peel will give similar results. That's probably too scary for me but if I had a leather face I'd definitely be tempted. Well on the positive side if you're not using sunscreen until 2048 you'll probably really need that foundation by then, might be the wrong shade though...

Itchy! My incision is itching like crazy, I guess because it's healing. Stitches come out tomorrow

Arrrrrrgh I had two spots yesterday (well actually they were blackheads which I hate and dunno why I had them!) so I stupidly squeezed them and they were stubborn so kept going until my top layer of skin started peeling too! Now I'm left with two horrible red lumps on my cheek! How rude

Thank you for being so welcoming!!
EnidButton I am super pale with reddish undertones. I would like something that goes on a bit creamier, I don't want anything too heavy but something I can build up and lasts would be ideal. I have been using the bareminerals primer under the powder but honestly I just don't think its great for my skin type. I really struggle with finding a creamy enough foundation which doesn't leave flaky patches on my skin

The face scrub I use is Good Things Deep Clean, I have attached a picture of the ingredients. I use Garnier Moisture Bomb day and night moisturisers too. But thats all! And you came across as very friendly and helpful thank you

userallusedup Thank you, I will take a look at some of the other Bareminerals range.

botemp Thank you for your brilliant sheet, I definitely think my skin is dry despite the pores, my makeup seems to sit in my pores if that makes sense so they actually look worse with foundation on. So I have diagnosed myself with bigger pores but perhaps its just that I am noticing them more after makeup? I tried pulling my skin taut and it didn't look wrinkly.

Thank you everyone for your advice.

Here is the ingredients list for my face wash, hope you can read OK x

Bo oh well, I think botemps beauty blog might excite them more

I thought I'd read somewhere to start using BHA every 3 or so days but can't find where I read it I I thought I'd check. I won't be putting it all over my cheeks as that will make them very dry I think.

I know there's a couple of you in and around Manchester, hope you and your loved ones are all safe

Good luck with the stitches today, Olli here's hoping it relieves some of the itching.

well, describe the appearance of your pores, please. Where they are, texture, are they empty or do you have blackheads, etc. We all have pores, some just tend to be more obvious than others but on someone bone dry they really aren't that noticeable. It may be makeup accentuating it, but as I said before issues with makeup and flaky patches is far more a dehydration than dry thing. You could very well be dehydrated and dry where the dehydration is at the cause of enlarged pores, possibly. As you can tell I'm still slightly sceptical on the dry front, also on the back of powder use, dry/dehydrated tend to avoid using powder if possible as it just makes you look even drier/worse and doesn't feel all that comfortable. There's absolutely no excess oil production anywhere, you can slap on heavy ointments/creams without any forms of breakouts? What does your skin feel like after cleansing?

I don't know if Laura Mercier comes in pale enough, especially since it oxidises somewhat, but you can try the Tinted Moisturiser (the normal formula) it's the best thing I've ever found for my dehydrated skin with the occasional flakiness that can lean to dry in winter. It's lightweight but buildable in coverage.

It's pretty well covered in the sheets and on these threads that I steer people away from cleansing in the shower and the use of physical exfoliants any more than once a fortnight. These practices may feel like they're helping when using but in the long term, they're just making it worse. A gentle (non-exfoliating) cleanser used with a flannel or muslin, a hydrating serum or toner, a few key anti-ageing ingredients, moisturiser, and SPF (all introduced with adequate time in between as described in the sheets) should set you up with a good working routine, you can contemplate incorporating an AHA when you've got that all set up and are still in need of something more, but it's not necessarily imperative.

otyt, you do amuse me so . Terrible blog names aside biggest stumbling block ever, especially considering my poor choice of thread titles, at this rate it will be the Snailypoo Blog I figure I can pick your brain on that since those Google Docs work in the temporary but aren't exactly ideal.

Can't make up my mind what the best platform would be. It's annoying as I really am putting this all up at the request of others so I just want it to be a good and easily navigatable resource site which I can add to in the form of blog posts so need a bit of versatility that doesn't require too much hassle to customise though surely I can dig up some of my old Dreamweaver knowledge, does anyone still use that? I know there's going to be costs involved and I can barely contemplate affiliate links but something needs to attempt to cover those costs even though I'm expecting I'd be lucky to break even. I've WordPressed before, but never on the self-hosting end (the susceptibility to hacking and security issues do concern me on that) and I understand there are some definite disadvantages of not self-hosting and Blogger/Blogspot just looks very blah. Then there's stuff like Squarespace and Wix but I think costs could easily spiral on those (?) and it would be harder to move content from one to the other when it stops being cost effective. Just asking for the moon this time, well opinions on the moon anyhow

I'm also keeping everyone in and around Manchester in my thoughts, and hoping you're all safe

bo, WordPress with self-hosting is very easy to set up, and doesn't require too much time to customise with templates. I fiddled with a blog temporarily in the past, so can help with that! I'm not too sure about hacking and security, but can check with my boyfriend as he's in the online marketing world and would know about it. Wix does look awesome by the way, but I imagine it's not cheap! Anyway, it would be great to have a bo-blog :)

I've just popped in to say that I went to my home country to visit my parents over Easter, and my mum insisted I use this cream on a few red marks/spots I had picked to help it heal up quicker. The cream had B5, I ended up trying it and it worked quite well, so I recently asked her to post some of the cream over. Today I learnt the same brand is marketed as nappy ointment cream in the UK, which made me laugh I still want to keep it as it faded a nasty red mark over a few days, haha.

Thank you Manchester is a place I've spent a lot of time in as its my closest big city, and also my colleagues are on my mind too. Slightly stunned and feeling panicky

Manchester is my nearest city too. It's close to my heart. Mancunians are amazing people, they'll pull together and help each other. Devastating.

Well Just off the top of my head as you're very pale and sound cool toned like me, the new Lancôme teint idole 24hr foundation might be a good one to try. They were giving out very generous samples of it a month or so ago so worth asking at a counter. I (and Olli) use shade 008. It's quite light coverage really put is very good for evening out the skin tone. I use a stippling brush (from real techniques) followed by a very slightly damp beauty blender (big orange one also from RT).

Look up Lisa Eldridge for natural make up suggestions, her videos are really good and easy to follow. She's also quite pale (thought not very very pale) and cool toned so I like a lot of her product suggestions.

Flaking does suggest dehydration to me so once you get that sorted all foundations will sit better. bo and the others will be able to help you there. I'm still figuring it out.

Bo I'd click on the SnailyPoo blog, just sayin'.

I always use WordPress.org (that's the self hosted one) you get to have completed control over it that way. You could have it look anyway you like instead of "yep that's another WordPress/blogger theme"

You shouldn't need web dev skills to make posts, once the sites built you should just be able to use templates of sorts.

No one used dreamweaver anymore, text editors are what's used now (they don't add a tonne of crap to the code). But it's still HTML & CSS plus PHP.

I've personally never known a site to be hacked. Normal IT safety applies, strong passwords regular updates, don't use dodgy software etc.

I hate wix and squarespace because I've seen some hideous things come out of them and I can code so... yeah i just do it myself. (I'm aware I'm massively biased in this)

It costs me about £110 to run one site for a year + plus email , but I built it so development is free but people also use themes, the basic squarespace is about the same I think (annually). You can't as far as I know import from SS or Wix to WP but you can from blogger, live journal, type pad, and tumblr.

Mint I have to be v careful re body products as some make ezcema flare on my elbows. I use one by Sanex. It's in a bit container with a pump and I buy it in Waitrose. Their shower gels are fab too. I moisturiser my body day after showering.

I'm in Manchester but don't live or work in the city centre. I'm stunned and shaken today

Pupsie I've just read your reply about body products but have forgotten what my original question to u was??

I don't have the words, re Manchester. My thoughts are with everyone there.

Thanks all for the body lotion/foundation suggestions. I'm going to order some of those to test out.

I thought I'd also do a little update on some of TO products I've been trying out (I know TO is old hat now but I have been being good and introduced things to my otherwise stripped back to basics regime very slowly ). As a reminder I have dry, quite sensitive skin, prone to redness.

Nia - I was hoping this would help with redness on my cheeks and nose. I was convinced it wasn't doing anything, so I stopped, and then became convinced my skin looked worse as a result of not using it.. I genuinely can't work out if it's a placebo or not - may need to repeat the exercise and take photos I think to do an objective assessment.

Buffet - I've been using each morning and like it, it seems to make my skin look slightly undefinably better - glowier? - somehow. My skin can be quite reactive with serums but not from this. Will probably repurchase.

Natural Moisturizing factors plus HA - I bought this really to bump up the order re postage. I found it fine - it didn't aggravate my skin, but didn't do wonders and I like e.g. Toleraine more. Having said that it was much better than..

Hyaluronic Acid - I didn't get on with this at all. It didn't seem to have the plumping effect I expected and my skin reddened when I used it, although the redness later subsided to be fair.

Therein ends the report! I do find it interesting that the two products I probably liked best (Buffet and Natural Moisturizing Factors) are I suppose the ones closest to 'traditional' skincare ranges, e.g. a combination of ingredients/delivery method, rather than the 'single ingredient' which I guess is really TO's USP?

Mint lol, my response re body products was for mintleaves

pupsie no wonder I was confused