New to Skincare - Mature skin routine

[theemmadilemma]

Hello!

I'm 46, and have never bothered with too much of a skin routine. Soap and water, and a water/essential oil 'toner'.

But I'm aging and I'd like to start taking a little better care, plus I'm getting married in a month so would like my face to look it's best.

Budget is 'drug store buys'.

So far I've ordered:

The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser
Pixi Skintreats Glow Tonic (Exfoliant)
Olay Retinol Cream, 24 Night Cream Moisturiser With Vitamin B3

I need a toner right, inbetween the cleanser and exfoliant. Have I missed anything else? Any help appreciated.

Hmm. I'm interested in this too.

I just bought the skin&me starter, which is bargainous with a code, but not sustainable for me. I think I need to buy the ingredients separately and use them.

So may I tag on to your post, OP? I was thinking about starting a 'skin care for beginners' thread, myself!

Maybe someone could give their opinion on Avon offerings, as they've got a product called 'protinol' I think, that they claim works miracles!

I've got a cleanser, a pixie glow dupe, and a sunscreen and moisturiser.

You need a facial sunscreen, OP. I use a Nivea one recommended on here.

I think I need
tretinoin
Azelaic acid
and niacinamide

No idea how to do that.

I swear by skin and me. Prescribed specially for me and I can honestly say my skin looks amazing! After 3 months, no redness, fine lines massively reduced and skin much nicer. Hope that helps!

I would say don't do too much too soon, or your skin might not be in great shape for your wedding. When introducing 'active' ingredients into your skincare, try and go slowly and introduce one thing at a time, that way if your skin reacts badly or breaks out you know what caused it.

Do you wear sunscreen? If you are going to be using active ingredients (AHAs, retinol, vitamin c etc.) you need to use it everyday, as they will make your skin more sensitive to sun damage.

The Olay cream you bought is probably ok, but it's quite expensive considering you can get those active ingredients in cheaper brands. It's better to focus on active ingredients rather than brand names.

I would advise researching prescription strength tretinoin - it is basically a strong form of retinol, and has years of clinical research to support its effectiveness. But you need to get it on prescription, or you can sign up to Skin & Me or Dermatica if you are in the UK. However, it's heavy duty stuff and may make your skin purge or break for the first while when using it, so maybe wait until after your wedding.

Also a vitamin C serum in the morning is good for brightening the skin and good to use under sunscreen. Look for l-ascorbic acid in the ingredient list.

My basic skincare routine goes like this:

Morning
Cleanse with gentle cleanser
Vitamin C serum - Geek and Glow
SPF 50
Moisturiser

Evening
Cleanse with gentle cleanser
Niacinamide serum (vitamin b3) mixed with moisturiser
Tretinoin (prescription strength retinol)

Then one or two evenings a week I substitute that with a glycolic acid serum for exfoliation.

The Ordinary do a 10% niacinamide and zine serum which is cheap, but very strong I have to mix it with moisturiser of it burns my face! But it lasts for ages.

I wouldn't bother with the Avon product to be honest, no over the counter brand is going to be able to sell prescription strength tretinoin.

If skin and me is too expensive long term, I use Farmacia Andorra to order mine, although have been having some problems getting it delivered in the last few months, so I tried TretinoinWorld, as recommended on here and it delivered really quickly. Its about 20 quid a tube, but should last 2/3 months, you only need a tiny amount.

Oh that fabulous, Roseglen! Really helpful. I can't justify skin&me, but think I can manage to gently increase the amount of the one you suggest, once my skin&me is gone!

Thank you everyone. I'll defo add in a SP then. Noted.

Thanks for the tag @picklemewalnuts !

It feels like a exam trying to figure this out!!

Also @Roseglen84 that's good advice re making a lot of changes at once. Thank you.

They do 0.025% which is the lowest prescription strength I believe.
The site was recommended on here and seems to be a UK based, I got mine in a few days from there. Haven't started using it yet as I still have some Retirides (Spanish version) left.
Also, if you are ever in Spain you can buy it over the counter in a pharmacy (jealous!).

Lucky Spanish ladies!

What about the ordinary retinol? And the Buffet peptides?

I went on looking for the one you recommended and got side tracked...

Does my shopping cart below look sensible, @Roseglen84 ?

Or should I get the retinol from the other site you recommended?

The retinol from the Ordinary is over the counter and therefore not very strong. It's fine for starting out, but if you have been using skin and me they are using tretinoin, which is like a super concentrated version of retinol. You would be going backwards to start using a retinol.

Basically - Retinol < Retinaldahyde <<< Tretinoin.

The only way to get tretinoin in the UK, or Ireland where I'm from is by prescription from a dermatologist, or from Skin & Me etc. Or from sites like tretinoinworld, or farmacia andorra. It's a bit dodgy but it's all we have!

I actually use retinaldehyde on my neck, as the skin on my neck never tolerated tretinoin even after 3 years! Retinaldehyde is slightly stronger than retinol, as it only requires one conversion in the skin to be turned into retinoic acid (which is tretinoin).

It's all a bit of a minefields, but actually pretty interesting to research the different ingredients and what they do.

thedermreview.com/retinaldehyde/

That's really helpful, thank you! I'll have a think whether to keep on with the heavy stuff (only on day 2, so very mild still), or go for the ordinary feebler version!

Anything will be an improvement on the 'nothing in particular' I've been doing for 50 years!

Sounds like you're about to overwork your skin which will cause more problems. Add in things one at a time.

Yes, a decent cleanser, and an exfoliation three times a week with a cloth or scrub or a face brush.

A decent night moisturiser and one for day, and then address any skin issues, these days you can order from Skin and Me or Dermatica and get ingredients previously only available on prescription.

Hemp oil is great for night time too, evens the skin tone and doesn't cause breakouts in most as the molecules are larger so can't clog pores. it's cheap too.

Oh sorry, I was under the impression you had been using it for a while and therefore your skin had acclimatised.
What percentage of tretinoin did they put you on? It's probably quite low anyway given it's your first tube.

I dunno, you could get the Ordinary one to use on your neck area and then use the Skin & Me tube until it's finished and look for some other tretinoin alternative. The thing is you might not see much results within the first month or so, or you might just break out and purge. It tends to take a few months of consistent use to get to the other side and see good results, although everyones skin is different.

Just thinking picklemewalnuts if you're starting off completely then you should only be using it once or twice a week for a while to get your skin adjusted, so that tube could last you a fair while.

Sorry OP, we've gone off on a tangent here!

I'm 50 and use Medik 8 (uk based)

They have a curated range for different skin types which makes it slightly easier. Used them for about 5 years.

But yes get an SPF and don't start using too many products at once.

I think OP are in the same camp really, Rose, which is why I jumped on her thread!

@picklemewalnuts We are, it's fine! (FINE BY ME!)

So I ordered Bondi Sands SPF 50+ Face Sunscreen Fragrance Free.

Noted about adding things one at a time, it's a good call I wouldn't have thought of.

Eventually morning would be:
Cleanse
Homemade toner (just essential oils/water my mother swears by it and you should see her skin at 78!)
SPF

Evening:
Cleanse
Exfoliate/Tone with Pixi
Night cream

I'm trying to keep it simple because otherwise I'll give up. lol

I just wanted to come back and update this because I’m amazed in the difference in my skin.

I’ve been doing the above and my skin is looking so good I barely bother with my mineral powder I was wearing daily.

My skin tone is far more even and clear. I’m honestly shocked and pleased. I’m interested in some of the more in-depth stuff but for now this is giving me the results I wanted.

So you aren't on the heavy duty ingredients then, but the regular routine and pixi are doing the trick?

Is that a basic moisturiser day and night or a fancy expensive one?

I thought mine looked much better, but I was using the starter tret as well.

However my hands didn't like it and I got out of the habit. I must try again!