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Fantastic Skincare: Skin (almost) sorted- decent fucking summer fucking clothes would be fucking nice. Don't ask us about our hair 🐌

999 replies

botemp · 26/05/2017 19:18

Thread 1 Thread 2 Thread 3 Thread 4 Thread 5 Thread 6 Thread 7

I am very slowly working on consolidating the gathered information from previous threads into easier to read formats but it’s slow going. If you wish join us on this thread I would suggest reading thread 1 and at the very least the following info sheets (provided they apply to you):

Where to Start

Basics of an Actives Routine

Skin Types vs. Skin Conditions Info Sheet

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. Newcomers are always welcome but please note the following:

Questions and asking for help on this thread is encouraged, however, we can’t give you a specific routine to follow and hope it works out for the best. There are no overnight miracles in skincare whether it be in the form of products or techniques. It’s about perseverance, understanding your skin, assessing its needs and responding to that in a diligent manner.

These threads were created to help those who want to learn for themselves. We’re a group of interested and invested skincare nuts happy to offer tea and sympathy and dole out advice. Everyone’s journey with skincare is different, what is universal and binds us is that through actually learning about the different active ingredients it helps us get to know our skin and help us adapt as it will change many times throughout our lives - with seasons, hormonal changes, ageing, genetics etc. It's in everyone's best interests to get to know their skin and to keep reviewing those changes with the confidence that comes from the gathered knowledge here. We really encourage you to spend the time reading through previous threads and linked info sheets that the many contributors have taken the trouble to share.

By no means are we experts, we're only a bunch of amateurs that can only respond by suggesting what we would do in your place, for any severe conditions please seek out professional help.


If you pose a question and we need more contextual information to answer properly we may ask you to fill in the following form. Please only use this form when asked, unsolicited forms will be deleted. Responses to the form can be found here


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.

MAY/JUNE 2017: It’s summer and some of us are hourglasses (and otherwise beautifully shaped) that desperately need to bitch and moan about the severe lack of clothes available to us. Also, some of us are recovering from a ‘fine’ butchering to our hair. Don’t ask. Some of us suffer from all of the above. At least the weather is good, wear sunscreen.

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Thread gallery
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mintmagnummm · 28/06/2017 06:37

@vaz119 could you link the product for me please? Did you have to wait ages for delivery? Thanks.

mintmagnummm · 28/06/2017 06:43

Vaz sorry just re read your message and saw you said you got it from eBay. I'm not a fan of eBay shopping and just had a little look and delivery is quite long. I really want something easier to get hold of and not have to wait too long for but thank you so much for replying to me and recommending me something

botemp · 28/06/2017 11:26

Tsnmummy08, I can't remember if we've had this conversation before or not already but didn't we discuss the Anessa Perfect Essence (I think? The gold one in the tube) at some point as an option for you? I think the BS one is fine for most of the year round but not with the levels of UV exposure we've been having and the use of Retin-A. I doubt it's very water/sweat resistant either. Technically mineral would be the best route to go with a prescription but it's hard to get a cosmetically elegant one that stands up well with a bit of sweat/humidity. I'm not sure how the Japanese milk sunscreens would work out for you, technically the essence and lotions are for normal-dry skin and the milks are more meant for oily-combo skin. Not that it's that black and white but the milks tend to be slightly mattifying and can be a bit astringent to inhibit excess sebum production.

Bareminerals is a titanium dioxide based product though, right? I'd have to look it up again but I was reading/watching something about not using avobenzone and mineral filters together, even in layering makeup and/or different sunscreens. Can't remember if that rendered the filters useless or just opened it up for potential oxidative stress or similar. I'd have to look it up but I'm pretty sure the BS SPF is Avobenzone based.

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Wtfdoicare · 28/06/2017 11:51

Hi guys, I've ordered TO Vitamin C serum (the 20% one which I've used before) from Victoria Health. It was out of stock then, but I was assuming it wouldn't be too long before it came back in stock. It's been about 4 weeks now. Shpild I cancel the order, because they've taken my payment already for it?

Ordered another, probably inferior, C serum from Amazon in the meantime Sad

yongnian · 28/06/2017 12:53

Ooh I've been missing in action due to tedious stuff....
Will be filling my end of month review shortly as have lots to report. Also plotting French pharma purchases for month.
Skin generally looking good except for the under-cheek patch of tedious mini-acne is slowly but surely turning back into a patch of not-so mini acne...like I used to get. This is stress-related, but at least I have better skincare weapons now...
Back soon....

BaliBound · 28/06/2017 13:16

Hello, I'm back from Glastonbury in one stupidly tired piece. Skin is looking pretty good, if you ignore the eye bags! I only got one spot from the ordeal and that's gone now. It did get a little sensitive/stingy on the last day when I put my moisturiser on but I put that down to the glitter and lack of pro er face washing.

I've caught the sun a little on my face, I thought I was being good with spf but clearly not. This was only on the last day so after the sensitivity so couldn't be the cause. Either way it doesn't really matter, slapped on TO HA when I got home which was instantly soothing and it's gone now.

Just going back and catching up on what I've missed over the last week Smile

Ollivander84 · 28/06/2017 14:24

I went to boots to spend some vouchers on the Lancôme foundation. Oh, says the sales assistant, if you buy a mascara too, you get £7.50 of points so the mascara is only £14
Sold. So she did some magic trickery and I got the foundation, mascara and £14 worth of other bits (hair stuff etc) for £56 when it should have been £70. And I used all vouchers and got double points

EnidButton · 28/06/2017 15:40

Excellent work Olli 👌🏻 Which mascara did you get?

Ollivander84 · 28/06/2017 16:00

Hypnose? I've never had a mascara this expensive Grin she said it was the best selling

yongnian · 28/06/2017 16:24

Ooh voucher-haul envy olli! Love boots for that.
Who did you see bali???? Tell all....watched lots on TV

EnidButton · 28/06/2017 16:28

I like the Hypnose one. Bought it lots before I went on to Dior. I'd buy it again. Especially if there was a good deal to be had.

Pupsiecola · 28/06/2017 18:36

Thanks Bo. Current house was just to get back on ladder after living overseas. It was always going to be short to medium term. We are able to move to something more 'us'.

JDSTER · 28/06/2017 19:54

wtf victoriahealth has a policy not to charge until they ship.

BaliBound · 28/06/2017 21:38

We saw lots Yong, the Foos and Royal Blood were highlights though, both amazing! Dizzee was also great. And Biffy! We tried to get to The Killers secret gig that everybody on site knew about but you couldn't even get near to the tent, they closed all the entrances off! It was a great weekend but I'm happy to be home.

Ollivander84 · 28/06/2017 23:43

Cult beauty discount code

15% off when you spend over £20 with code: BDAY15
20% off when you spend £150 with code: BDAY20

Tsmummy08 · 29/06/2017 07:41

Bali sounds amaaazing! Hope to go myself one year - though not sure it's possible while DD is young... friends of ours took their 8 month old this year but it's probably easier carrying a baby than dealing with a tired pre-teen!

Wtf I rate the vit C serum from Active Formulas - cheap and effective, less hot and miss than Amazon!

Bo yes BS is avobenzone and BM is mineral based - I'd be really interested to hear whether that incompatibility is indeed correct: I imagine many people use that combination of products and if that's the case the information should be more widely known! And yes, the Anessa Perfect UV facial (gold tube) has been on my Amazon wishlist for a while :)

I'm going to order a few today including that, the BM Prep Step physical spf and possibly the Skinceuticals mineral one - there's got to be one there that works!

Tsmummy08 · 29/06/2017 07:41
  • HIT and miss lol!
botemp · 29/06/2017 09:08

I think I'm the rare exception to not liking Hypnose. It's ok as a mascara but I mostly didn't like it because it always felt like I was going to stab my eye out with that giant wand Shock.

Glad to hear that letting your inner goat out was such a blast, Bali!

I'll have to start compiling a list of budget alternative Vit C since the TO draught has been especially longlasting currently. I had to do an EPP order and ended up ordering the SkinCeuticals version as I just want to know what the fuss is about with that one. I think the Active Formulas is indeed a decent alternative (though they advice not to use daily) although I had a rather poor CS experience with them, so they're dead to me as long as you actually receive your package it shouldn't be an issue. Think the Indeed Labs Vit C is also very comparable to TO, different type of challenging texture (siliconey to the max) but relatively affordable and appears to be effective. There's the Melano CC essence from Japan and the SC dupe NuFountain C20 Ferulic from American Amazon that gets made to order. Think those are all under £20. Will think on a few more.

Annoyingly, I can't really get a conclusive answer on the subject, Tsmummy08. In the US you're not allowed to sell formulations containing both titanium dioxide (or zinc oxide) and avobenzone as it degrades the avo at an accelerated rate and therefore the projected projection isn't correct. I've seen a few reccomendations now not to layer mineral makeup over chemical sunscreens (as pretty much all chemical sunscreens in the US contain avo) including some dermatologists. Others seem to dismiss it as more a theoretical issue than a proven one and aren't all that remorseful for the lack of Avo's working when a physical sunscreen agent is there in its place. In the EU there is no regulation against using the two filters together (I'm assuming manufacturers are encapsulating the filters to avoid the degradation issues) which is usually much stricter about these things but there are more filters available than in the US to stabilise the entire formulation too. I think it's a bit of 'when in doubt...' and sunscreen isn't something you want to play too fast and loose with. This article seemed the most helpful but didn't give an opinion either way.

OP posts:
botemp · 29/06/2017 09:25

*projected projection... ahem... projected protection

OP posts:
yongnian · 29/06/2017 17:36

Ohhh bali I'm so not jealous that you saw the foos sounds great. I've never really got into the foos but their performance was awesome so I'm a new zealous convert....

JDSTER · 29/06/2017 18:48

I'll be interested in your review of skinceuticals bo.

Tsmummy08 · 29/06/2017 19:23

Bo thanks for the link, interesting article.. I've ordered the SC sheer physical, BM was OOS in my local store (though I tried and think it will suit me), and now it's OOS at Feelunique, annoyingly, as they had 20% off! The Anessa seems to be harder to get hold of online in its newer version, so I may hold off and see what the SC and /or BM is like. What a pallaver over sunscreen!

Also ordered the Verso eye serum using Cult Beauty's codes :)

I've used the SC CE Ferulic a few times in the past - it has a distinctive smell and was always dark coloured on arrival, so I never knew when it was oxidised (or if it was already "off")... I'd be interested to hear what you make of it.

EnidButton · 29/06/2017 23:50

Footner update. The peeling is not far off being finished. It was much quicker than usual for some reason. Just a little bit on one foot left to go. So I took advantage of the Boots footcare offer and bought CCS foot cream www.ccsfootcare.co.uk/index.php/products/product/foot_cream and a foot mask from Masque Bar www.boots.com/masque-bar-intensive-moisturizing-foot-mask-10227949 I've some flexitol heel balms and some other industrial strength one that were free with something or other, but the CCS cream had good reviews and I fancied the idea of a foot mask.

The feet soaking is a faff but I do love footner. I always feel so much nicer when my hands and feet are well groomed iykwim.

olderthanyouthink · 30/06/2017 01:42

Still not up to date. Feeling v shitty this week, depression suuuucks but at least I finally went to a doctor.

I have several random spots and IDK why (related to the extra crappy week, maybe?), I think TO BHA is helping (using it more since the spots came up) but I think I'll get some LRP B5 because some of them aren't budging passed a certain point. i also popped one of the spots, no regrets... yet-

bo I thought about a humidifier while I was away, I think I'll order one in a couple days.

enid shortly after I asked about footner I spied my scholl angle grinder velvet smooth thingie and went to town, I'll try footner someday though

EnidButton · 30/06/2017 01:55

Lots of Flowers for you Older. I hope things start to get better for you now. Have some Cake and a unicorn too 🦄 x

I might get one of those scholl things to keep it up. I've slapped a load of the CCS cream on with some socks tonight as I think the peeling is finished.

The LRP b5 is mainly helpful for fading the red marks after the spot has 'finished', if that makes sense? If they're still feeling dire to touch or like they need bringing to a head, a dab of savlon overnight seems to work for me. Then use the LRP b5 after that. It really does half the time they take to fade though.

Hope tomorrow is a brighter day for you.