Fed up with my awful skin

[LoveBeingAMum555]

So, i eat a healthy diet, drink lots of water, follow a strict cleanse, tone and moisturise routine but my skin is awful. I am 46 with very sensitive skin that is red and blotchy most of the time. I also love to run and cycle which in winter really doesn't help and my skin gets very dry, but if I overdo the moisturiser I break out in spots.

I have wasted a small fortune on all sorts of creams, serums and the like. Currently have a full bottle of Pixi Tonic on my dresser which I should have realised would be too harsh.

What would you suggest? I know there probably is no miracle solution but as I get older it gets worse and I am very self conscious about it.

I would add a booster to your routine. You just add a few drops to your current face cream.
www.paulaschoice.co.uk/boosters/products

Or maybe a serum? The Calm serum might be a good choice.

Body shop Aloe range (milk cleanser, toner and moisturiser) has always worked to calm my skin down and it's quite good in winter as well. Also la rosche possay hydraphase serum is really good at hydrating.

Maybe you need to do much less, not more. Maybe try oil cleansing and moisturise with a little oil and leave it at that.

Also you could try cleansing in the eves but just splashing with water in the morns followed by a light moisturiser.

This is excellent

www.amazon.co.uk/Weleda-Weather-Protection-Cream-30ml/dp/B00B7268V0?tag=mumsnetforum-21

The Body Shop also do a weather protector for the face. A hemp one.

The body shop ale range has already been mentioned- thus is very good www.thebodyshop.com/en-gb/face/face-masks/aloe-soothing-rescue-cream-mask/p/p000392

I love this and use in the winter months www.dermalogica.co.uk/barrier-repair/126,en_GB,pd.html it makes a huge difference to my skin.

What exactly do you eat?

See a dermatologist
(Although if you’re very unlikely like me, ^that still wasn’t enough cries)

Rather than more trial and error and wasting money etc
Sadly genes are the biggest contributing factor to good skin

Your skin sounds like mine.
I use Pai calm range, you can get trial sets to see if it suits your skin.
La Roche Posay Cicaplast Baume helps when it’s been windy and my face is sore.
Yesterday I bought a new Boots product that you leave on overnight, it’s called Cica Rescue Paste.
And for coverage I use IT Cosmetics Bye Bye Redness.
Hope you can find something that helps, you have my every sympathy. I’d love skin I wasn’t constantly thinking about and worrying about.

I've got to be honest, ever since I cut out sugar (not completely, but almost - no chocolate etc), my skin has improved massively!

Not helpful in the run up to Christmas I know!!!

You need to get your skin completely healthy and healed! And that means avoiding the outdoors!

Try using the Bioderma Sensibio range of products. Keep your house fantastically clean, especially your bed - buy new pillows and pillow cases, use pillow protectors and wash all your bedding at 90 degrees every week. Wash your towel every day or two, washing it at 90.

I have the complete opposite skin to yours, it’s very very oily but I am now only using natural products. I cleanse with either coconut or jojoba oil - literally rub it into my face and wipe off with a damp muslin. I also use a bit of oil as moisturiser at bed time. The difference was noticeable immediately.
I still wear makeup every day and use a moisturiser but I realised that I was putting a load of really harsh chemicals onto my skin in a bid to make it less oily and was actually stripping it of its natural oils so it was probably going into overproduction.
I know it’s the opposite problem but rather than spending a fortune maybe finding a basic oil and trying that for a bit might rebalance your skin. Or I might just be talking rubbish.

Cleanse tone moisturise is a bit outdated now. It's all about acids, vit c and retinol. Admittedly, this may be too harsh currently. Cerave is probably the best thing for you to use at the mo and/or LRP.

Cleanse, (tone) and moisturise is common sense. All the other stuff is marketing hype that no dermatologist would recommend anyone using other than under medical supervision.

"You need to get your skin completely healthy and healed! And that means avoiding the outdoors!"

what a horrible prospect for someone who enjoys being outdoors.

OP I would agree that less is probably more. Does calamine cream help with blotches at all? Maybe cleanse with cold cream? Toner unnecessary. Presume you're not using a harsh cleanser?

I use a gentle face wash for cleansing and aloe vera moisturiser from the Body Shop.

You can love the outdoors and also acknowledge that you need to give it a miss while you deal with your health!

Get a referral to a dermatologist. It sounds like rosacea. All the creams in the world will not help until you get a diagnosis.

Triggers for rosacea are changing temperature eg. indoors to outside, sun exposure, spicy food and alcohol. The redness can also be accompanied by spots.

Cleanse tone moisturise is far from common sense (nothing about skincare is 'common sense' - we've all learned about it in various ways). Everyone, including the big names, is moving away from tone, moisturise. Skincare has been revolutionised with acids and retinols.

I am about the same age as you and my skin suddenly got very bad a few years ago - was like being a teenager again. I have sensitive skin too. La Roche Posay Effaclar 3 step system has worked absolute wonders. It is a bit of a faff doing it in the morning and evening (but I have never really had a skincare routine before) but it has made such a difference it is untrue. It is quite expensive but, when I started it, they had an offer that if it didn't work you could get a full refund so may be worth giving it a go.

I also think you could have rosacea! I'm 29 and I've had it for a couple of years. After trying all sorts of creams that were useless or irritated my skin I've finally found creams that work for me. Eucerin 5% urea replenishing face cream and the 5% rich replenishing cream, I cleanse with Cerave Hydrating Cleanser and if I've been wearing makeup I use Clinique TTDO balm first to remove it. You want to use very gentle products that moisturise and restore your skin barrier and that's exactly what the eucerin does. I can get really dry skin at the sides of my nose and the apples of my cheeks where my rosacea is, especially with this cold weather but the eucerin has really sorted that out. In the summer the 5% replenishing cream was enough to keep the dryness at bay but now it's cold and my skin is getting dryer I layer the tiniest amount of the 5% rich cream over the top just on the dry bits before bed because it feels like a balm. Take away the dryness, start to repair your barrier and the sore red skins will improve. I swear by it now and (touch wood) my skin is the best it's been in a long time, I flush less and don't get pimples as often at all. I tried going down the natural products route but found that many of them contain fragrance or essential oils which can really irritate my rosacea.
Eucerin is quite often 3 for 2 at boots too.

Everyone, including the big names, is moving away from tone, moisturise. Skincare has been revolutionised with acids and retinols.

Skincare hasn’t been revolutionized - the profits of the cosmetics industry have been revolutionized. Big difference. Please don’t use retinols etc without oversight from a dermatologist.

La Roche-Posay products are high in carcinogens.

I get this from time to time, normally when I use shampoo. I just use a little bit of Vaseline.

Double cleanse; use a natural oil like coconut first, then a basic soap with warm water and a cloth

Don't put anything on your skin overnight

I second what a previous poster mentioned about reducing sugar

Many shampoos and conditioners are high in allergens and even carcinogens.

Your skin sounds a lot like mine. It took me a long time to work out that there’s a big difference between skin that is dry (i.e. lacking oil) and skin that is dehydrated (lacking moisture)

In winter, my skin gets dehydrated to the point that it cracks up and really hurts, but if I use a moisturiser for dry skin I just end up with spots because my skin isn’t dry, it’s dehydrated.

For dehydrated skin, which it sounds like you have, you want to look for products with hyaluronic acid. It’s not actually a strong chemical, but a substance that can be found naturally in human skin, which decreases when we age.

I’m sure there are other products available that have this as a main ingredient, but I’ve had really good (and fast!) results with Clinique’s hydrating jelly. It restored my skin to a reasonable state and even calmed down a big patch of eczema that’s been bothering me for more than a year. It did a lot more than I imagined possible to be honest!

I was advised to buy Cetaphil cleaner, so far works a treat. I used to use Weleda outdoor cream (can't remember exact name) which helped a lot.At night i use Evening Primrose oil drops. I have spot prone/dry/senstive mash up of skin and this seems to work fine. I don't use any other harsh products. In the morning I just splash my face, at night I may also use Clinique soap bar. If it's really dry, I use Vaseline cream (not the greasy stuff), but I got it from GP to treat dry skin after eczema break out.