🐌 Fantastic Skincare: The One Where Sallie Swallows Dermaplaned a Lion Named Fabio

[botemp]

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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.

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.

I am very slowly working on consolidating the gathered information from previous threads into easier to read formats but it’s slow going. 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

Understanding Which Sunscreen(s) to Buy

Do I Really Need to Wear Sunscreen Every Single Day of the Year?

A Damaged Skin Barrier - Now What?

MARCH 2018: We managed to live through hairmageddon without any major losses. We welcomed some new inquisitive faces, reunited with some much missed old ones, and are delighted at the thought of a baby snail on its way. Now, all we need is the weather to start cooperating and match the levity in our moods…

Sorry if it was overkill Sophie, I really didn't mean it as such and I really didn't want to make it a thing. I'm being overprotective and it probably isn't my place. As I said I know it comes from a good place, and is meant as such to show kindness and concern. I didn't mean for it to be a telling off, as I said Enid may have a completely different take on it and she can respond or not, it's probably fairer for her to ignore my intervention completely as I don't want to drag her into it either.

Sorry for the cause of upset everyone.

Botemp Sophie

I totally understand that people don't want to be reminded of difficult personal situations and equally understand that we instinctively want to let that person know we are thinking of them

mint I think because the Frezyderm is water resistant it probably is fairly occlusive on the skin causing spots therefore I will probably wear it on long days out in the sun where I'm wearing light makeup.

Think I'm going to have to go back to the avene spf 50 😫😫

Hi all, I've not been on the thread so I've got a lot to catch up on, will whizz back and catch up on everyone's news, but just wanted to post while it was fresh in my mind

I had a follow up appointment with Dr Emma about my acne (and to get my botox topped up) and I remembered you'd asked me to ask her what she reckoned about TO

She said she thought some products were better than others - she thought the Azelaic acid was good, the retinol wasn't bad, but that she really wasn't a fan of the vitamin C (said the formulation wasn't great and she thought it was quite gritty), and in general she didn't believe in one-brand / whole-range skincare. But she did think the Azelaic acid was pretty decent

Three months into Duac (benzoyl peroxide + clindamycin) in the am, and Treclin (tretinoin + clindamycin) in the pm, plus oral lymecycline, there has been a definite improvement in my skin - although the Duac has been pretty drying. I'm to finish the course of lymecycline, then stop, but we agreed I'd continue with the Duac and Treclin. She is keen to get me back onto the Skinoren in the mornings, but we agreed it made sense to carry on with the Duac and reassess in 3 months time. She recommended applying moisturiser before the topical acne creams, as well as afterwards, to help the dryness (apparently they still work, but the moisturiser helps to protect the skin by diluting the actives slightly). We stepped my moisturiser up last time to LRP Toleraine Riche, but recommended stepping up to Avene Recovery Cream as an option, depending on how dry I'm feeling (as someone who's been oily but dehydrated all my life, being dry is a new one!)

She said she'd be keen to add in a vitamin C at some point as well (Skinceuticals CE ferulic or one by Obagi) but we agreed that we didn't want to make too many changes at once, and to focus on the acne right now. So just removing the oral antibiotics and seeing how I get on, keeping the actives the same. I'm still using LRP Toleraine dermo cleanser and Elta MD Ultra SPF.

Will play catch up on the thread but just wanted to pass on the answer to the question you'd asked me to ask, while I still remembered!

Oh and I told Dr Emma I was still using powder despite being much less oily, and she would pry it from my cold dead hands

(I didn't buy the Armani one she recommended, I still had an Urban Decay matiffying one on the go - I should probably chuck it out and replace it, so will give the Armani one a go. Not sure if it's the lymecycline or the Duac that's dried me out, I suspect the Duac mainly, although hard to tell)

Sophie I'm also using Retin-A, ask away :)

Thank you Mint. I hope your little one will be better soon too.

Thank you Tsmummy. Perhaps you were the other person I was thinking of (not Sallie). Anyway, here goes..... background: since cutting out more or less all skincare products, I’m not getting the smaller spots that were likely caused by my skin reacting to ingredients and/or clogging up. However, still getting deep under-the-skin hormonal spots on mainly on my chin and a few on jaw line. They hurt.

My dermatologist then prescribed tretinoin 0.05% (lowest concentration available here) for acne - she knows I was keen to start a retinoid for anti-ageing anyway. We are taking it very slowly as she doesn’t want my skin to get irritated. So far I’ve been using it once a week in the evening for a few hours (I must wash it off before I sleep - she doesn’t want it on me all night yet) and I can now up this to two times a week.

I haven’t had any irritation/flaking/dryness (yet..... hope it stays that way!!) but I noticed the last couple of times that in the morning after the application (even though it had been washed off the night before), existing spots I had seemed bigger and some that I thought were on their way out, appeared to be coming back again. Almost like my skin was a bit “swollen” /puffed up. Not sure if I’m describing it well or not but e.g. this morning, an under-the-skin spot on the bottom left hand corner of my chin had expanded during the night to half my chin! It’s deflated a bit now.

Did you experience anything similar? I’ve read about purging from tret and wonder if it’s that. Read that you can get 15 months’ worth of spots in 3 months or something like that. I remember the derm telling me something but I obviously wasn’t listening well.

Sorry this turned out to be rather long. I appreciate anything you can tell me. I really don’t want to ask my dermatologist yet another question (the poor woman!). Thank you.

Hi Bananafish. Was interested to read about your “acne journey”. Thanks for the update. My derm also wants to re-introduce vitamin C at some point as I know it’s one of her favourite actives but, like you, got to wait for these spots to sort themselves out. My derm also suggested benzoyl peroxide on individual spots but I refused because I have ruined so many sheets, towels etc using it!

Just catching up - really hope you're feeling better bo and sending much love and strength Enid

I nursed my dying mother at home - she was in remission and the cancer returned very suddenly and very aggressively (oncologist reckoned she might have 8-10 weeks, but she died 10 days later). I held her hand when she passed, and am here for any practical advice as well as a listening ear, PM me any time. There absolutely is no right or wrong way to deal with these things - it's quite normal to feel all the feelings, or equally to feel totally numb (and sometimes all of the above at once). You are amongst friends here, and you and your family are very much in our thoughts

I’m just catching up. As someone who has shared a bereavement on here I didn’t and don’t mind a “how are you”. For me there’s something comforting about people remembering you and what you’re going through/gone through. That said, I’m the sort of person who if asked how I am and I wasn’t ok, I’d say so. I’m certainly not one to say “fine” when I’m not. We’re all different but certainly we should take our cue from Enid.

banana thanks, as always, for update from Dr Emma. I notice she hadn’t done any videos for ages, they’re all Dr Sam.

sophie I’m not using tret but expressed my interest in your use of it. I’m using differin but didn’t have acne to start with so can’t comment but I’ve heard about ‘purging’ so presumably that’s what’s happening- worse before it gets better scenario. I recall Dr Sam saying she likes at least 6 months before a patient’s wedding to sort out their acne.

Bananafish

Thanks JDSTER. Clearly I'm confused: thought Differin was a prescription retinoid used for acne treatment!
So presumably you use it for anti-ageing. What % retinoid acid is in it? Or is it an OTC retinoid with a retinoic acid derivative (so I can't really make a comparison with tretinoin)? Thank you.

To clarify JDSTER: remembered you were using Differin but thought it was retinoic acid/tretinoin with something else added to specifically target acne.

Hi @Botemp, is this the original Hada Labo you meant?
And is this the correct amber one? Sorry for the idiot question! They seem to be have different descriptions on various listings, I don't want to buy the wrong one. Would it just go in the same place in my routine, as a regular serum, & are there any specific products/ ingredients it shouldn't be used with?

Joz, yes on the HL, no on the KH. It's this one. I can'tt vouch for the literal 'old skin' translation on that listing though

Welcome back banana, and thanks for the update once more and the inside intel from Dr Emma. Glad to hear things are still improving

Sophie, Differin is a synthetic retinoid that's less irritating and specifically targets the upper dermis which is more of interest for acne/oil management. They're both prescription retinoids but they're not a variation of each other and work somewhat differently.

Mint, the info sheet about sunscreen in the OP mentions the preferred UVA filters, surely you can compare the ingredient list yourself with that info? Though I'm pretty sure without ever seeing the INCI they'll have used avobenzone to rely on as their UVA filter if it's very cheap. Whilst Avobenzone is a UVA filter, it's not the best as it's highly unstable and doesn't cover quite the same spectrum as other UVA filters. Also the source of irritation in chemical sunscreens for many.

Bo no there's no avobenzone. I've realised there's that cyclo silicone tho so doesn't matter now anyway.
I've bought more avene today, it was on offer too.

Thank you Sophie 💐

Thanks, Botemp, I have ordered the amber one to start with. Definitely need one that's better value that the Vichy, as I use all skincare stuff on my neck, shoulders, upper chest etc - anywhere that's occasionally troublesome & exposed by a low necklined top.

Mint - you do know that on most European product labelling, Avobenzone is labelled as Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane? I think Avobenzone may be the US term for the chemical?

sophie as Bo said, Differin (adapalene) is a synthetic retinoid. It’s OTC in USA, which is how I got it. I’m oily so I’m using it as a retinoid to improve overall skin clarity, although sadly it hasn’t reduced oil production as I hoped it might. I’ll need to step up at some point to one aimed at reducing signs of ageing.

Joz no I didn't realise that, in that case yes it does use avobenzone!

Nooooo! My long reply just deleted! 😩

I thought ethylhexl methoxicinnimate was a questionable spf ingredient too?? Am I wrong?

I haven't read all the thread yet, I'm very tired (for good reasons, had a day out with DH) and brain is a bit foggy. But quickly want to say I really appreciate your thinking of me bo and understand what you mean, but I don't mind being asked how I am atm, that may change but for now it's ok. It's nice to know people (tiny lovely people who live in my phone ) care and want to let me know that. I don't want to go into any details ever but I'm ok to say how I'm doing. (It's also ok if no-one asks.)
I'm ok thank you Sophie Had an impromptu picnic on the green with DH today and the sun was shining. Taking things bit by bit and today was a good day. I hope you, and everyone on the thread has had a nice weekend too.

Banana I'm so so sorry. Thank you, that's really kind of you.

Going to read the thread properly now. No skin things to report except I am glowing white in the sunshine and still cannot dress for Summer. Eating more healthy for the past 2 weeks and all spots have cleared up again.

Much love to everyone.

I was enjoying the sunshine and stuff till I got home and saw a photo of me (luckily not on FB) but on a private WhatsApp next to a slim friend and I looked huge, like really really fat. There I've said it. I thought I was looking ok eating healthily, walking a lot, cutting right down on alcohol. It might look worse due to the perspective of where we sat, but still

My friend obv thought i looked fine, she would never put up a photo deliberately.

Anyway l now need to concentrate on my figure and how to stop my face from sagging and wrinkling after all the weight I'm going to lose.