🐌 Fantastic Skincare: Is Everyone Having Botox Without Me? 💉

[botemp]

Thread 1 Thread 2 Thread 3 Thread 4 Thread 5 Thread 6 Thread 7 Thread 8 Thread 9 Thread 10
Thread 11 Thread 12 Thread 13 Thread 14 Thread 15 Thread 16 Thread 17 Thread 18 Thread 19

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?

NEW SERIES:

So You Want To Buy A Retinoid - A Guide

December 2019: Time for The Snailies way more reliable and better than the MN recommends annual roundup (yes I'm still bitter about them quoting me in isolation and making me sound like a wanker please don't revoke my special image allowance privileges, MNHQ )

Also: Thread 20 in time for 2020!!! Ahem, where are my presents?

Glad you like the Timeless Vit c cad I’m due to repurchase soon, might try their hyaluronic acid as well.

I’ve had my analysis from styled by Susie through, no surprises with body shape (pear) and a lot of the clothes suggestions are what I’m wearing anyway but good to know I’m on the right lines.

Very surprised by the colour - warm autumn! I’d always thought I was a cool something or other as I don’t think browns, olives, beige etc suit me at all as they bring out my yellowness but I might try a warm/bronze/honey brown as well as some of the other suggestions next time I’m clothes buying.

Think I’m pretty good with makeup but there were a few things I’d not thought of like coral lipstick and dark green eyeliner. Wonder if Lisa might bring a nice coral out for spring...

@botemp I think what I’ll do then is do alternate nights until I run out of the bha and then not reorder it and do Tret each night.

Sallie which analysis did you get from styled by susie I know there are different options? I have been thinking about doing it. I know my body shape and what clothes suit me but with colours I would like a bit more guidance. Would you recommend doing it?

Sallie Lanolips tinted balm in rhubarb over the top of Love of My Life makes it quite coral on my lips.

I'm definitely cool but weirdly suit chocolate brown. I prob need colours help tbh. I get confused between what I live and what actually suits.

*love not live

Thanks @SallieSallow and @botemp for the detailed advice. I’m going easy on the acids, spots are those big under the skin ones with good skin around them so I agree there is probably little i can do except clean them and make sure they don’t dry out (so I can apply concealer without them looking crusty )

@botemp I have cut back on amount of oil (just need one squirt to ‘melt’ makeup) and have been avoiding all products with Shea butter. I really hope I don’t develop rosacea but you might be right. I react very badly to some wines that I suspect are high in sulphites.

I have lovely glowing skin today after using the gentle peel from Dr Dennis Gross. Going into work today for first time in ages and want to look my best

Sounds like a solid plan, Karcheer.

Sallie, if you're putting in a timeless order soon, definitely consider the Purito sunscreen too. I bought it in Rotterdam in a k-beauty shop before going on holiday, only started using it since getting back and it's very similar to the Bioderma we both like, not the tinted one but the tube with cica ingredients. It's also green, slightly less greasy and not as shiny. Wouldn't be surprised it was modelled after the Bioderma.

I thought there was a whole thread on the styled by Susie experience debunking it as a lot of tucking in and chunky sneakers and not much variation in advice unless I'm mistaken and it was something else. I don't think colours are all that relevent, yes in the past I can see some sense in providing handle bars but dyes have come along so far that they're a lot less specific to certain skin tones/undertones. Lisa Eldridge's lipsticks are really a testament to that, they're really sophisticated in how universally (as much as possible anyhow) they are to very different people.

Blue, I flush easily and have never been able to tolerate red wine which is actually lower in sulphites than white, I think it has something to do with tannins that links it to rosacae. While it's definitely a possibility that I'll develop rosacae, I think by being sensible and not over asking my skin and focusing on its resilience I'll be able to ward off the worst of it. At the very least I'll be quite well informed of how to handle it. Keeping fingers crossed for it never to develop into anything full blown anyhow.

Also, Blue, hope you're having a good day getting back to work and that your colleagues won't accredit the glow to the baby

argh! I have tret face. very flaky chin. I used it every night for 3 nights as advised by dermatica, but I think I'm going to switch to every other night. not loving the flaky look

I have bought some cerave pm lotion and hyaluronic acid serum to try to control the flakiness.

for those that have pushed through it, do you have an idea of how long it might last?

Cad it was a Christmas present think it was £30 and was just the bronze (most basic) one.

I think the colour analysis was worth doing, I wear way too much black so it’s given me some ideas for colours I’d never have thought of trying which might be nice for spring and summer.

The body shape wasn’t that useful for me as I already knew I was a pear and dressed accordingly (including tucked in tops and chunky trainers ) I’d stated specifically that I don’t wear costume jewellery (or any jewellery really) as find it irritating and I still got advice for wearing chunky necklaces and big earrings so it is pretty generic.

Not sure if I’d consider it value for money if I’d paid myself tbh but the more expensive options might be as you get more specific advice with them, some of them offer video or in person consultations I believe.

I keep seeing lanolips recommended on here so might well give that a try Enid I’ve ordered a dark green eyeliner but it was £3 so no great loss if it doesn’t suit.

Bo I’ve looked at the Purito sunscreen on Timeless previously and had it on my ‘possibles’ list so thank you for that review and I likely will get it, I still use and like frezyderm but often find I need something a bit more moisturising at this time of year.

Hope all went well today Blue and everyone was suitably impressed with The Glow

Bernard I was never able to push through using tret consecutive nights or without buffering, I’ve gone back to every other night buffered with cerave and no more tret face I have the 0.05% though which I think might be too strong for me, might revert to 0.025% and see if I can drop the buffering once winter is over.

thanks Sallie, i think moving to every other night is definitely the way to go

Fingers crossed you manage to ward off the rosacea @botemp it must be a terrible skin condition to suffer from. I fear my face flushing- just thinking about how it looks makes it worse. It’s white wine that does it more- supermarket ones usually as I think they tend to be higher in sulphites. Aldi and M&S are the worst. Anything from my local independent wine shop is fine. They mainly sell single vineyard wines and stuff from relatively small vineyards. My theory is they don’t over process their wine so there are less sulphites.

My first day in work was brilliant! I loved being back, lots of positive changes/ growth and am excited to start back next month. Baby had another great day at the childminder and seems very happy. The best part of the day though was getting cuddles and kisses from my two little ones when I returned home. Then playing and reading. Absence makes the heart grow fonder!

My skin is still glowing btw... highly rate the Dr Dennis Gross peels

I'm playing with the ABH soft glam palette. Must admit they are my most used eyeshadows, the Sultry palette especially

Poor you Bernard, get some LRP cicaplast as well for your chin. IME it's usually one day of Tret face then most of it will dislodge with cleansing (with slight manual encouragement, just by going over the area a bit longer with circular motions) skin then seems to rebalance and it'll appear again 3 days or so later. All together I think it lasted 2-3 weeks for me but it took longer than that for my skin barrier to fully recover and stop feeling overly sensitised. I use it every other day at most though so timings could very well be different.

Blue, I agree natural wines tend to be better, luckily I'm not much of a drinker so I'm not missing out on much. Good to hear you had a great and glowy day back and reunion with the children. The Dennis Gross peels are nice but glycolic acid is one I'm very wary of for myself so it's not anything I can use often, I just snag them whenever they're offered as a free sample. When I foolishly tried Pixi glow tonic it damaged my skin so quickly, despite careful use, I was very concerned I had developed rosacea at that point, weirdly the Dennis Gross ones, whilst stronger, are less irritating there's a lot to be said for formulation of actives.

I don't think the Pixi glow did anything for me. My skin seems to love Paulas choice BHA and the alpha h liquid gold mask. Fussy skin

I never found an acid toner that really did anything for me until I discovered P50. Even that’s not miraculous but it does make my skin look a bit brighter and it’s great for getting rid of tret face/winter face flaking (BHA used to make that significantly worse) and stopping spots in their tracks.

whats buffering?

Karcheer it’s mixing tret with moisturiser, by either using a thin layer of moisturiser before tret (which is what I do) or mixing a small blob of moisturiser with tret and applying both together. If you can tolerate tret on it’s own there’s no need to do this at all, unfortunately I can’t in winter but am going to try without buffering again in spring. I think the 0.05% I’m using might be too strong for me though so will likely drop back down to 0.025.

I am working my way through my current cleansing oil from Muji. I can only buy it in Stockholm, where I am not. Cleansing oils are thin on the ground here, most annoying.

Skincity have an offer on Decleors micellar oil cleanser. Big 400 ml bottle for not that much. Has anyone tried it? It seems like a genuine oil cleanser, but a bit thinner. I am sceptical of anything micellar. Also read that the "squalane" is derived from olive oil and I have an idea that olive oil blocks my pores (I have not tested this in a scientific manner, but I read somewhere that generally speaking OO is comedogenic and, well, nocebo is an effect).

Can't you order Muji online in Sweden? Or do they charge stupid high delivery charges like they do me, thought it was just because I'm next to Germany and not in.

I looked at the INCI and I don't know why it's called micellar either, it's a term specific to suspended in water and there's no water There's olive oil in your current Muji cleanser so don't freak out, olive oil isn't that great for skin, generally, because it opens up your skin barrier but that isn't a bad thing when cleansing hence why so many cleansing oils use it or a derivative. Squalane is derived from olives (the fruit, at least I think they're fruits) and is generally helpful to the skin.

They charge 40 crowns. So not extortionate but not attractive. I mean, it's not my favourite oil, a bit too thick and "draggy". Åhléns are going to bring back Muji on their website in which case it'll be click and collect - who knows, we might get a shop-in-shop too. I really enjoy the Muji flagship store in Stockholm (Åhléns City) .

Re Decler: yes, it IS just a cleansing oil, right? They must be using micellar because it's a magic word or something. I feel calmer about the olive oil too now. One has to be careful to not trigger the nocebo effect! Might hit purchase after all then.

Got myself a little treat from all beauty. I love these oils!