Skincare for 40 year old - looking for advice from knowledgeable enthusiasts

[Marvelina]

Is there anything I could do to improve the following:

AM
Vitamin c serum
La Roche posay sensitive moisturiser
Separate spf

PM
hyaluronic acid
Aveeno baby cream

Skin is normal, bit oily on forehead. My problem area is my jawline where I get spots due to ingrowing hairs. Fabulous. I've noticed my pores on my cheeks are more visible than they used to be too.

This is such a rabbit hole, would appreciate any tips 

Lots of good advice on here.

Are you sure the spots on your chin are cause by ingrown hairs? It's very common for spots on the chin in women your age (and mine!) to be caused by hormones. Not that it really matters I suppose as the treatment of them would be the same (the things that have been suggested here).

Yes, I am so grateful for this advice. It's bespoke! I think the chin is sometimes hormonal spots but mainly I get a lot of gross thick dark hairs that I pluck. Often I damage my skin trying to grab them (as they're visible before they're long enough iyswim) and sometimes they ingrow. But I think the damage is probably mainly caused by me trying to pluck and squeeze them out

I'm not sure what to do about dark chin hairs - my worst thing is peach fuzz and that becomes lush and very noticeable if I use peptides. I think hormones could definitely be playing into the hair as well as the spots. I used to get hormonal breakouts on my chin and jaw line but I don't now, though I'll get stress related breakouts if I'm very very stressed (bereavement level stress). Horrible cystic sore things, and they'll appear in places I don't even normally get spots. Thankfully that hasn't happened for a while.

I think I'd try something different to the tea tree cleanser. I hear you about CeraVe - as I said the hydrating one stung my face. I've never actually used the foaming one even though I have a bottle of it I bought for DS - he tried the free cream to foam one and said it stung his eyes so I didn't produce the one I actually bought.

It's just that the tea tree one might not be actually helping you at all. I just read the blurb and it makes a lot of the right claims about not drying your skin out, but I'd wonder about the pH and if lots of tea tree is good for your skin. Also the menthol seems like a really bad idea. I also wonder if it's really dissolving oil and makeup well. It might be making your skin produce more oil to protect itself if it's not happy with the menthol and tea tree. Also tea tree might be disrupting your skin's natural flora. If it was working well you shouldn't really be getting many breakouts, maybe apart from those ones from pulling at the hairs.

I was using DHC cleansing oil but I stopped when my skin went through a crazy period as I stopped using a heavy sunscreen too and just went back to only using my Avene. I think it was mostly from stress but I was worried I was having some kind of reaction to LRP sensitive skin sunscreen/indeed Labs retinol/DHC cleansing oil even though I had been using them all happily enough (apart from the lush hair growth). So rather than adding more products I cut everything out except cleansing and moisturising and lighter non irritating (mineral) sunscreen. Just to see if my skin would settle down and it did, thankfully. I have a bit of scarring though. Which I'll tackle when I'm happy that my skin is completely happy with what I'm doing now (higher strength retinol than before).

I think you should really ask on the fantastic skincare threads, they're so knowledgable about different things and different products, whereas I only know about stuff I've tried myself. And I've been looking into this stuff for about 5 years but I don't keep track of developments for specific problems really if they're not concerns I have.

Thanks, this has been a total eye opener this thread. It is so complicated, isn't it? I'll have a look for those threads you mention. Thanks everyone for getting me off to a good start.

I only use that tea tree cleanser cos it doesn't sting my eyes when I take makeup off but I'll have a look for a different one i think. Will look up Avene

I hear you on the singing eyes too, bane of my life! Not sure the Avene would be enough to dissolve makeup - I don't wear any. The body shop chamomile balm thing is popular and you could follow with the Avene or la Roche Posay Toleraine might be good.

Brilliant, I'll be cautious about introducing all the new stuff and do it gradually as you suggested. Thanks again and wish me luck!

Clinique do a makeup remover called take the day off and for the second cleanse there's a wash from cosrx called good morning low pH gel or something like that that I've seen people mention that prefer a face wash to a cream cleanser.

Thank you, I'm googling right now!

No worries, I thought I was stuck with spots and wrinkles but now I'm just stuck with wrinkles! I think I've slowed them down though and my skin doesn't look dull so I'll take it.

That's exactly what I'm hoping for

What brands of daily spf do you use?
What brands of vitamin C?
I'm nearing 40 and honestly need to come up with a proper regimen.
I only put the hyualronic acid and la roche posey efficlar duo in the AM- mix it with the anthelios spf50, only a tiny bit.

Wash my face in the evening and again with the efficlar.
I don't have any other serums as I am so overwhelmed by it all and it all seems expensive and the reviews are mixed.

Do I have to use Retinol? What's a retinoid cream? What does vitamin C do and can I use the hyualronic acid with? So much out there that I feel deflated

I use the heliocare spf. I was using balance me vitamin c serum but it's so pricey I've bought one with good reviews on Amazon (though I expect I'll end up returning to the balance me). I also find it all totally overwhelming but luckily loads of others are really knowledgeable

I think it's unfair how expensive all this is. I am worried once I start with a comprehensive regimen, my skin will need it all the time, so I'll be committing to something to where I cannot go back from.

Yes I have an anxiety about falling in love with something and then not being able to keep it up too! I try to stick mid range for exactly this reason though I'd love to splurge if I could!

The inkey list have been great for affordable stuff

piddock the OP of the fantastic skincare threads has done a brilliant fact sheet on retinoids that you can find a link to on the first page. She's also against buying expensive products that do nothing and is so knowledgable about what the various products do and what the best formulas are for the least money iyswim. It's really worth following - it seems more complicated and off putting or expensive in the beginning but I've realised through reading them that my basic products - cleansers, moisturisers, can be low in price and the more expensive serums last for ages.

The most expensive thing is sunscreen because it's hard to get a good one that isn't like a thick shiny gloop otherwise, and you've to use so much of it compared to everything else. At the moment I'm just cleansing, moisturising and using SPF and retinol every second night and my skin looks so much better than when I was using more stuff. I've definitely saved money through not trying crap or buying expensive cleansers and moisturisers that are no better than basic ones. My retinol seemed quite expensive for me but I think I'll probably get 5 or 6 months out of it (I actually got 6ml free as samples and the bottle is only 15ml I think so it's amazing they give away so much).

I can't just pay any money for sunscreen either - the Heliocare sunscreen is €25 if I can get it for that price and that's too much a month for me really and if I'm putting the right amount on it doesn't even last a month. The Inkey List mineral sunscreen isn't bad and doesn't sting or break me out, but you can't use it near your eyes and it's only SPF 30. It's quite thick but it rubs in well for me. La Roche Posay shaka fluid I can usually pick up on offer but sometimes stings my face, and I'm not sure if it contributed to my skin going completely crazy or not last summer. But it's the most important thing to protect my skin from ageing and you can't use any of the good stuff without it.