🐌 Fantastic Skincare: Vanities Are The New Shelf Porn

[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?

So You Want To Buy A Retinoid - A Guide

MAY 2020: We're in lockdown and it's doing weird things to our faces

That's really positive feedback on tret. I am due my second month very soon though still have a lot of month 1 left (although bottle makes it a little hard to be sure!)

Went to order timeless but seems to be out of stock, looks like maybe back in around 8th so will wait.
Thanks for feedback on texture. I really like the Oskia funnily and a full capsule only just feels enough! But have only ever used kiehls apart from that so would like to try something new.

Very jealous about the verso eye cream. Price makes it difficult but if it's amazing I will splurge so let me know how you get on!

@agteacht I will do. If it helps, I ordered from Skincity in Sweden and it was approx £55 including delivery and only took about 10 days to arrive. Still not cheap but it’s £25 less than the uk Skincity site and it’s 30ml instead of the usual 15ml for an eye cream.

My Timeless Vit C arrived on Monday - I ordered a new one early as it seems to be very popular now. They seem to restock every second week but it sells out within a few days so keep checking the website next week.

Thanks @TattiePants I will keep an eye on the timeless. That is a big discount on the verso! How bizarre - but great for you. That does make it more appealing.

Another eye cream I've been reading good reviews on is the dr Dennis gross ferulic + retinol. Similar price point to the (discounted) verso. Any users of that here?

Not the cream but the eye retinol+ferulic serum from Dr Dennis Gross is meant to be really good. It's hardly ever in stock and it has the added benefit that it's safe to use all over the eye lid as well but it's only 15ml and the stock issues means people are often without it for weeks on end.

Bo I've been using the Verso over my whole eye area including lids, is that ok?

Hi all - I've been lurking on this thread for months and have put together a regime and made purchases, but I was wondering where the P50 fits? Is it a once a week thing like the ordinary red mask? Or is it daily so could take the place of PC BHA perhaps? My skin is very bumpy with closed comedones and I usually have a PCOS spot or two so thought the BHA or P50 would be useful! Thanks in advance!

Regime is:

AM
• Cleanse (CeraVe)
• Vitamin C (Skinceuticals CE Ferulic)
• Hyaluronic Acid (ordinary)
• Moisturiser (CeraVe)
• SPF (Elta MD)

PM
• Double cleanse (CeraVe)
• Retinol (Retrides) / BHA (Paula’s Choice)
• Hyaluronic Acid (ordinary)
• Niacinamide (ordinary)
• Moisturiser (CeraVe)

Also for anyone looking for vitamin c - timeless is out of stock but skinceuticals is £99 instead of £140 on the flawless website (it's a legit stockist - I put the salon's postcode in the skinceuticals website and it came up)

Ah yes sorry I meant the DDG serum. Good point on the size bo!

Tattie, officially, not ok. But I've used the serum on eyelids without issue, the instruction that it can be used on eyelids just means that the company paid out for extra safety testing. I don't (miraculously) have very sensitive eyes though and I've always kept it away from the eye itself. I'd never do it with a cream though as that tends to spread a lot easier to all places.

One, P50 is not a weekly thing. I suppose in your routine it would replace the Paula's choice BHA but it sort of depends on how reliant you are on it, so maybe move that to the AM?

PCOS skin is a whole issue in itself, despite having PCOS I'm relatively free of the more typical presentation of it on my skin but I can very much pinpoint when it is affecting my skin (sugar is a major trigger, as is highly processed foods). To really see a change with it it's much more about tackling the PCOS from the inside, the outside stuff, no matter how strong and effective is just maintenance.

Sorry, that's probably rather demoralising but bumpy and closed comedones really does sound like something best tackled with a dermatologist and as nice a product P50 is that's not going to be the miracle thing to solve it.

On the Timeless stock issue, I've often ordered when it's not in stock with an estimate date of when they will ship it out and I've always received it before that date. May not be like that at the moment with Covid19 but I've never waited on it for very long.

Hi @botemp thanks so much for the advice - really appreciate it!! I did go to a derm and she prescribed tret and azaleic acid and recommended a cleanser moisturiser sun cream etc which I decided to buy and she added to my bill. When I left the appointment I had a bill for almost £700! I went back to see her a few times but she always said the same thing and I did wonder what her cut was on the products and how I could do this a cheaper way now I know what she recommends (I felt that the azeleic wasn't doing anything so stopped it - perhaps this is where I am going wrong! Might try to add that back in) I agree on the PCOS and sugar thing, mine is linked to sugar and I think dairy - recently really cut down on sugar and dairy so hopefully will be better shortly! Well done for freeing yourself of the PCOS skin!

Yes, I only eat cultured dairy and lactose free/absolutely minimal trace amounts but I've always viewed my diary difficulties as unrelated to PCOS as many in my family don't respond well to dairy. But there's quite a lot of evidence to suggest there's a link between dairy and skin. Lactose is a sugar though so it may be that connection with PCOS.

It's a shame the dermatologist didn't work out, especially at the extortionate prices. But yes, azelaic alongside antibiotics (if necessary) is usually the protocol for PCOS skin (there's also the BC route, but that's a whole other subject when it comes to PCOS). You could get azelaic through boots or superdrug, although the GOW one is meant to be pretty good as well.

I should say I never really had full blown PCOS skin, I did start getting unruly skin and that was related to PCOS but I don't think I freed myself of anything. I don't eat sugar, am careful with fruit, generally follow low GI in principle but I'm not an absolute killjoy with my diet either. Exercise is really important, it doesn't need to be anything intense. I actually find intense exercise working adversely, it raises stress hormones and completely disrupts everything else but I need to do something daily.

Thanks Bo, my eyes aren't particularly sensitive either. I'll keep using it all round the eye area but just look out for any signs of irritation.

I've been keeping an eye on the timeless website for the last month or so and they've been very reliable at restocking every second week.

What is the BC route? Always looking for new routes out of PCOS!! I know it's here to stay but always trying to minimise a symptom! I had bad acne when I was younger and roaccutane sorted it out (after a few tries on antibiotics) but now it's sort of one spot at a time, the rest is little tiny bumps but skin colour (almost milia but not) and they seem to take it in turns to turn into an actual spot and get inflamed! I'm going to go for an azaelic in that case - she prescribed skinoren so I'll try and find that. The derm was a little too glitzy for me - she spent quite a bit of the appointment talking about her fabulous life which made me resent the bill even more! I've switched to almond milk and just having hard cheese that's it for the dairy and my sugar is a tiny bit of honey and strawberries so I'm going to see if there are any improvements with that!

Oh god what a fool BC is birth control. Sorry! Brain is not working today. Ignore me!

Birth control, oh it's kind of controversial within PCOS as one is convinced it's counterproductive as it just masks the issue (somewhat true) but for many it alleviates a whole load of symptoms. Yazmin is the skin one or interest. If you're not trying to conceive Spironolactone can be really helpful with a lot of PCOS issues including skin but you have to use BC alongside it.

I am wondering though what you're describing, have you ever googled fungal acne, it sounds somewhat like that.

Was it a Harley Street dermatologist, they all seem to be a bit too enamoured with leading charmed lives and conflating it with success.

Hi all,
So I tried the Neostrata mineral SPF after everyone's recommendations recently and have to say it's definitely the nicest mineral sunscreen I've ever tried - great texture, not oily and a decent tint. However, I ended up getting really freckly on Sunday (I won't say burnt, although I was a little pink at the end of the day!) after spending a few hours outside... I'd put a layer on in the morning and again at lunchtime before going out. I wasn't expecting that at all - if anything I was expecting better protection from a mineral SPF.

Which brings me to hats: I've got a hat but the brim isn't that large and I've been looking around for a better one. However, I have a tiny pin-head and have ordered and returned 3 hats recently. Anyone got any recommendations for a small, wide-brimmed sunhat? I can't find any info on the size of the Global babe ones... For ref my head's 54.5cm or 6 5/8

I think the global babe do a child sized one? Maybe I'm making that up? I need a size 54 and I usually just but some sticky foam tape on the inner rim to make it fit. Arket has one in at the moment with a ribbon to tie to your chin, it doesn't look as horrible as it sounds.

The word "fungal" makes me feel a bit but it's not itchy at all and it's not in a sweaty bit of the face. But I shall research further! Yes Harley st, beautiful office, loubs etc HUUUUUUUGE bill. I got on really well with Dianette but TTC now so BC route not open at the moment!

One do you double cleanse using the same product twice?

Hi @Pupsiecola I have just started to after reading that people seem to do it on here but have only done it the last two nights so don't think that will have caused anything... fungal (shudder) but it does look like the pictures that come up when I google fungal acne...

Don't get too stressed out by "fungal", they're bacteria everyone has they just have gone into overdrive. I'm really not that well versed in it but apparently it's a lot easier to get rid off than acne (it's not really acne).

Yes, double cleansing can be helpful but doing it twice with the same cleanser rather defeats the purpose. You need an oil based cleanser first, followed by something like Cerave cleanser (is it the hydrating you're using?).

Ah. I thought it was just doing it twice! I'm using CeraVe Hydrate yes.ok I will get an oil based one - any recs? Ah. That makes sense. Yes Cebu. Yes using hydrate twice! Is an oil based one ok for acne though? Any non ruinously experience recs? Thanks for all the advice

Hilariously I couldn't see what I was writing because the "new post" bit kept obscuring my response! Sorry about that! I'm a bit nervous of oil because of the bumpiness but would love a recommendation if you have one! Thanks for all the advice!!

oneday I use Clinique Take The Day Off BALM which I like very much. I've repurchased it about 4 times now. It sort of melts on the skin and then you can add a splash of water and continue to massage. Other oil cleansers I've tried have given me spots and I'm not generally prone to spots.

There is this Body Shop one which is cheaper and the two are often recommended as alternatives to each other so I assume they are equally as well tolerated.

The Body Shop Camomile Cleanser

I don't have experience of your particular worries though. I'm sure Bo will confirm that they are okay to try.

Incidentally you can get travel sizes of the TTDO:

Clinique TTDO Travel Size

Look Fantastic usually have offers if you click through TopCashBack although they also often have a 10% off code on their website which I think cancels out the TCB cash back.

Thank you @Pupsiecola Trying so many new things I'm going to be an actual swan when I'm back in the office!