Skin is the worth it's ever been since I started a propper routine.

[Lottiebugz22]

I do the routine of:

Double cleanse
Acid tone
Spray hydrate
Serum
Moisturiser

My skins just a spotty mess now.
Anyone else find the more products they use the worse their skin goes?

ps I read that Beauty Editors have notoriously bad skin as they trial all these products and cosmetic interventions.

@TwilightPeace

I use coconut oil to remove makeup then a thin layer of it to moisturise. I never have break-outs, my skin is calm and soft and strangely my life-long oily t-zone has pretty much completely gone.

All acids do is strip the goodness out of your skin and like a pp said, all the different products just conflict with each other. There’s no need for it! Total waste of money and headspace.

I do the same, no problems in the 3 or 4 years I've been doing this.

Plus cheap and no bottles

By the way I now use mainly Nivea products. Spent a fortune on skincare before and it didn’t do much for me. I use La Roche Posay day moisturiser and spf but everything else is from either the Nivea Rose or Nivea Q10 range. Plus a ginseng toner from the Body Shop.

Most of the older women I know with truly beautiful young looking skin only ever used Oil of Ulay (Olay), Ponds, Nivea, Astral etc.

I've never used loads on my skin. Used to use st Ives, used it for years and had great skin then I started to break out, tried oil cleansing instead after it was raved about on here. That ruined my skin. No I use micellar water to take of make up if I wear it. In the morning I wash my face with a little antibacterial soap, at night I use acnecide to fend off the breakouts. If I stop using it for more than a few days I end up breaking out. I moisture day and night with cerave. I don't know what happened to my skin because I very rarely ever had spots until about 28 and shit hit the fan.

Actually now that I think about it, the only thing that changed was I stopped wearing make up every day. I used to do a full face every single day, now I rarely put it on 🤔

I'm another one whose skin prefers as few products as possible. Treat it gently and it behaves much better than throwing lots of products or layers of products at it. I've double cleansed to take make up off (same cleanser twice) since the 90s as it was recommended by Janet Filderman whose book I had, so it's not new, but claiming you need to buy two different products to do it is. Liz Earle tonic to tone and moisturise where and when I need to (not necessarily all over or at night). I know it's mostly a con, but I do have times of falling into the trap of buying new products, but I always come back to a simple, basic routine and my skin thanks me for it. I do always use an eye cream though, always have done as my hayfever has given me itchy, sore eyes and lots of rubbing means my dark circles are quite bad. No lines though! Just a bit of creasing coming now which is probably as much due to sleeping with my face smooshed in the pillow as anything else.

If it's not broken don't fix it and keep it simple. Don't use acids/toners.

A gentle cleanser, good moisturiser, retinol and SPF is all you need.

I had acne prone skin. Fell down the CH rabbit hole. Spent hundreds of pounds and made my skin so much worse. Still trying to figure it out. Stripped it right back.

Putting lots of crap on your face isn't good for it.

My skin has become much greasier in the last few years (I reckon I'm peri menopausal) and I have more spots now than in my teens. The only face cream I can use that doesn't give lots of spots is a simple one designed for teenagers! Anything else leaves my skin greasy and terrible.

Yes, I have found that using hundreds of products makes my skin worse. My skin is the best it’s ever looked and in the morning I use CeraVe hydrating cleanser and Simple water gel moisturiser, and in the evening I use Garnier micellar water to take off my makeup, followed by CeraVe eye cream and the Lidl water gel moisturiser. Cheap and my skin looks way better than when I was coating it in multiple premium products.

To OP - yes. My skin reacts very badly to most ‘name’ cleanse/tone/moisturise ‘solutions’. The more I use, the worse my skin gets.

If I’ve had make-up on, I remove it with Steam Cream and cotton wool. Then a reasonably hot flannel to freshen up, then moisturise with more steam cream. That’s it.

Occasionally some Argan oil for extra richness.

Maybe rest your skin, don’t strip it. Give it a chance to settle, and try again, product by product, until you’re sure it’s not causing trouble for you.

A few people have said micellar water stripes the skin? Does anyone know if this is true?

Something just feels inherently wrong with plastering anything with acid in its name on your face. What’s wrong with simple and straightforward? Can’t help thinking women are being duped into spending money on things that really don’t make much of a difference. Good skin is surely down to eating well, drinking lots of water, not smoking and avoiding the sun but mostly genetics. What we stick on it makes very little difference.

It really depends on your skin and what you use
It's not all "crap" and my skin would be awful with soap or coconut oil
A lot of people say well my skin is great and I just use soap. Yes, and you probably had decent skin to start!
I keep it as simple as I can but I use make up and SPF so need to cleanse well, and I also use retinol. Acid tone maybe twice a week
Retinol has changed my skin incredibly and you would have to pry it out my hands

Tinks15 it works well for me but I don't use it often, maybe once a week to take make up off, then I rinse with water and moisturise. I like it for taking make up off because it's light, obviously like water but removes everything.

@Tinks15 micellar water has a surfactant in so it needs washing off, it's good for removing makeup but then you need a second cleanse

QueenCT what retinol do you use, and in what way does it help your skin?

I double cleanse at night to remove make up/SPF followed by an eye cream and retinol. Cleanse in the morning, apply eye cream and moisturiser and SPF on top. I've stripped everything else out.

Less is more. You have been conned into convoluted routines to get you to spend money. A sort of extra tax for being female.

You see gurus like Caroline Hirons, yet their skin doesn't look that great.

@flashbac

This is not going to go down well on here but here goes: All this facial routine is a trap set by capitalists. Your skin doesn't need to be abused by all that on a daily basis.

Spoken as an ex-acne sufferer whose skin finally healed after I stopped being conned that the acne was because I wasn't using every product going on it. Now I use St Ives at night and sensitive soap in morning.

I actually agree. I use a gentle cleanser (REN evercalm) or soap, moisturise if I nerd it fir comfort and use a salicylic acid toner (clinique clarifying lotion 1) if I'm breaking out, which is more than usual, with mask wearing. I have very sensitive skin, so most of what is on the market is actively harmful, anyhow.

It'll be the acid tone. My skin hates that too.

@Iminaglasscaseofemotion I use skin and me which is a prescription online service. It's virtually cleared my hormonal acne, smoothed everything out and my skin just looks.. better. Clearer I guess. It's a long haul with retinol though

I use a good cleanser (personally Elemis cleansing balm but whatever works for you), followed by vit c in morning then moisturiser that works (for me was Elemis pro collagen pre-lockdown but find that too much when working from home so use something lighter). Then spf. Evening is cleanser plus retinol plus moisturiser. I found stripping it back to the basics really helped then I could see if additions helped or not. One thing to remember is you need to give skincare products a decent time to work. Sometimes things worsen for a short period before improving.

@QueenCT thanks. I think my breakouts are hormonal, can't think what else it could be. The acnecide does work for me but incase it stops working, I'll keep that in mind.