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Saggy baggy horrid face- no surgery solutions please

67 replies

DaveHedgehogSpudgun · 17/11/2019 16:50

God I saw my reflection in the mirror today and could have cried.

Saggy, bags under eyes, washed out, just proper knacked looking.

I have a four year and and 9 months old twins and we are genuinely in week five of illness in our house. (All seems to have caught a virus a week after each other.)

Twins were sleeping through and now wake up multiple times a night a piece. Sleep is a big factor in this but until we're all well I've got to plough through, but how can I make myself look better?

Please suggest me some gadget, anything you have used that genuinely works.

My routine currently is just basic day cream with spf and then some make up to cover the tiredness Grin

Anyone used facial rollers? Should I be using a facial brush? Any suggestions are very welcome!!

OP posts:
Lhastingsmua · 20/11/2019 13:55

Sorry I haven’t read all the posts but makeup (specifically highlighting and contouring) can hide a multitude of sins and give your face more definition. Can be a bit of a faff though. I really love Mac’s contour palette.

Kaz2200 · 20/11/2019 14:00

My recommendations on top of all the others, would be using a flannel with a cleanser, I use elemis cleansing balm, but any hot cloth cleanser will do , I have a stack of cheap white face clothes, they exfoliate as well as cleansing. The other thing that I would suggest is some fake tan, whenever I've used a bit of facial fake tan I nearly always get comments of ' you look well'.

Apileofballyhoo · 20/11/2019 14:10

Double cleanse with an oil cleanser first and a gentle cleanser afterwards. Simple oil cleanser is meant to be ok and not expensive.

Squirrelonapetridish · 20/11/2019 15:08

Retinol definitely! Have a look at Caroline Hirons website for great skin advice. Also Sali Hughes is wonderful for beauty advice too, she also does a podcast.

Apileofballyhoo · 20/11/2019 17:44

If you're using retinol or exfoliating acids a SPF of at least 30 is a must. And not just one in your moisturiser.

RogueV · 20/11/2019 18:06

Retinol.

JMAngel1 · 20/11/2019 20:34

@TowelNumber42

I've been doing that face yoga video for a few nights and I'm worried it's giving me lines around my mouth - all the kissing and blowing out. Has anyone else found this?

TowelNumber42 · 20/11/2019 21:51

I saw lines reduced from the exercises. Definitely not increased.

That said, I don't actually follow that routine in the video although I do some of those exercises.

I do something loosely based on Eva Fraser's routines. I've been doing them for years now so I have made up my own routine. I have recently been doing more for my jawline, which is working like magic, it is much sharper after only about a month of exercising (in the car!).

Branster · 20/11/2019 23:06

All the answers are very useful.
You will definitely look (and feel) transformed once you go back to having proper sleep and you’ll look amazing on that alonein a couple of years time.

I find drinking warm (not hot) water makes me drink more of it.

There isn’t much point in jumping on to using gadgets until your sort out a simple and gentle routine to start with.

Facial cleaning brushes can be too harsh for most people. Lumea, as suggested, is a good option when you feel you want to invest a bit more but I wouldn’t say it’s totally transformative (I’ve been using it regularly for about 4 years and not sure I’d miss it or see a negative result if I stopped).

Facial rollers come in different varieties.
The jade or quartz type where a stone is attached to a handle and you follow a massage system. Most are not the real thing probably because they simply are too inexpensive to be made of real Jade. However, they feel nice and cool and the massage is supposed to help with lymphatic drainage (good to keep puffiness at bay) and smooth the contours of the face and some other ancient Chinese based philosophy. There is another tool on a similar idea, again widely available on the cheap which is like a flat stone, jade mostly, a leaf shape almost, with rounded edges that follow the contours of the face and you can use it to massage your face same principle as before, called something like Gua Shi or similar. I use both, mine weren’t cheap but I bet the affordable versions do the same job, and I’d say the roller does help make the face look more rested, the stone doesn’t appear to make any difference. Mine had a DVD on how to use but there are plenty of tutorials online.
Similar to jade rollers you get a sort of spiky shaped stone on the roller instead of smooth, I suppose that would increase blood circulation but I never tried.
Then you have dermarollers for microneedling which is a handle with a barrel at the top covered in sharp tiny needles. They come in different sizes and different price points. You’d need to learn how to use these at home and be super diligent about disinfecting everything. The principle is that the needles create tiny holes in the skin which helps application of further face serums to get in to the skin deeper (debatable as the serum itself might not do anything to start with, plus there’s a risk of infection). The damage caused to the skin by the needles encourages skin to heal and increase local collagen production. Also used on the body. Make of it what you will, but it’s more of an advanced undertaking.

Cleansing cloths. Apparently Primark do a micro fibre cloth at £1 which is brilliant at cleansing even with just water. I haven’t tried it. Cheapest face washcloth I’ve seen are at Wilko for 50p if I remember correctly. Natural silk is very good also but I never got around to making some cloths myself and haven’t seen any yet. I might recycle an item of silk clothing one day and make it into squares for this very purpose. You can use these cloths to cleanse, obviously, but also for alternate cold and hot face wash which is very good for the skin and to wash of face masks.

Cleansing. Micellar water is drying so you should wash your skin after using it. Double cleansing usually assumes the use of 2 different cleansers, 1 to take makeup off and 1 for a further deeper clean. Not to everyone’s taste or time. Use whatever cleanser you like, there are lots of formulations (liquid, foam, lotion, balm, solid bar), start cheap and if you don’t have negative reactions, stick with it.

Toners. Traditionally more intended to hydrate but nowadays there are a lot available which contain acids for exfoliation (and other ingredients like Vit C or retinol which is pointless). If you choose to use a toner with glycolic acid, you should only use it once a week and not on the same day as using a retinol based product or Vit C as it can cause irritation. Rose water is just fine for everyday.

Acids. There are quite a few for different things (to calm redness, to gently exfoliate, antibacterial action, heavy exfoliation, hydration etc). They are often included in toners, serums and creams. I think serums are the most potent.

Vitamin C will help your skin look better but start on a low dose in a serum.

Retinols are a chapter on their own, there are lots of threads with great advice on here if you want to start.

Masks. I love them. Widely available and I can’t recommend one in particular, and the sheet masks are a clever invention. GlamGlow is rubbish though. Apart from some French algae based powder ones, I make my own. You can get basic cellulose dry sheet masks on Amazon in a big pack and you can imbibe these with whatever watery consistence mask you make, place on face then cover with one of those silicone flexible masks that attaches with loops behind the ears. Very useful because you can get on with other jobs but you must never wear these with kids around (!). Most masks dry on the face so you don’t always need a sheet. I find masks give better results than creams but they are a bit of a commitment to make and to use.

Start with a basic moisturiser and gradually venture to further ingredients.

You can’t beat a facial massage - again, very good suggestions around here on where to find resources. Get a simple oil like almond or jojoba and use your hands. The oils are inexpensive and your hands are free. In time, you can move towards a more complex oil but it’s the massage itself that makes most of the difference, not the oil.

You really do not need to spend a lot of money. There are good products mentioned above, there’s also a small range at Waitrose called Pure which is affordable and usually on sale and even though most products are not transformative, on the plus side, they are gentle and shouldn’t irritate.

DaveHedgehogSpudgun · 21/11/2019 09:15

@Branster

Thank you so much for taking the time to write that reply - it's really really useful as I find the whole thing a minefield and don't know what anything means.

It's an answer that I will keep coming back to for reference and I really appreciate it!

OP posts:
Branster · 22/11/2019 18:40

You are very welcome.
Keep it simple and branch out very slowly. Enjoy the journey!

Apileofballyhoo · 22/11/2019 19:45

The inkey list is the name of another reasonably priced brand OP. There's a discount on look fantastic today.

JacksCreation · 12/08/2020 21:05

Has anyone ever done at at home eyelash perm?

Or an at home eyebrow dye kit? My eyebrows are very sparse these days.

Maybe I should be applying something to them overnight? Any advice on a Wonder product for eyebrow growth?

namitynamechange · 12/08/2020 21:29

I was feeling very poorly yesterday from the sun so dissolved an ORS tablet in water and not only did it help with basically feeling dehydrated, but my skin this morning looked great and much younger - I think basically it rehydrated me and my skin massively. So guess that fits in with what other people are saying about water, although obviously I wouldnt be drinking rehydration solutions every day it is suprising the difference it makes because I thought I was already drinking a lot...

bingowingsmcgee · 12/08/2020 22:24

You'll de-age, honestly. Once they're sleeping properly you'll look and feel so much younger. Try not to eat away the tiredness. It's so easy to do (ask me how I know), but then on top of feeling old you also feel dumpy! Keep chucking the makeup on and try to eat well. It's a dreadful proposition, but if you can bare to go tee total for a few weeks/months, your skin will glow much more. It's how badly you need the release of a wine bottle though - I totally get that. Basically it's about hanging in there and keeping the faith. If you keep your weight under control, everything else will be fine once you're getting proper sleep!

Othering · 13/08/2020 06:45

@PollyFeather

Be careful with Clarisonic type brushes. They cause broken thread veins with repeated use. You're basically scouring your skin and it honestly doesn't need that.
Yep, exactly this happened to me.
Notarealmum · 13/08/2020 10:06

Another thumbs up for facial exercise. And enough sleep. And smiling - lifts a droopy mouth (like mine!) and takes years off, just like that!

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