So sick of my dry skin!

[UpsyDaisy352]

Help?!
No matter what foundation I wear, my skin always ends up looking like this!

i have dry skin, and even after exfoliating, heavy Moisturiser, toner, oil, suncream and primer, my face looks like this (fuzzy or flaky). I make sure my foundation, primer and suncream are all the same base so there’s no mixing of ingredients that don’t work, and I use a hydrating cleanser twice a day (followed by my skincare).

any tips?

Your skin looks pretty perfect to me

I struggle with dry skin on my face and I wish my skin looked as good as yours!

That said, you might be doing too much and need to strip back your routine. Give your skin a couple of weeks to reset.

Dispense with the toner and primer and choose either the oil or the moisturiser, not both. I think you're overloading your skin.

Me? Overdoing something? Unheard of 🥴😂😂

That could be it, I might be doing more harm than good in an effort to achieve perfection - perfectionism is a long held struggle of mine! Thanks for the advice with the Moisturiser and oil. I assumed they were to be used together but I might drop one of those and the toner. The toner doesn’t seem like it does anything anyway 🤷🏻‍♀️

I can't see you look very dry but not all toners and Moistusiers are equal in terms of hydration. What are you using? I'm dry and I never exfoliate either, this makes me more dry

😄

They can be used together but personally I find it too much.

I exfoliate only when there's visible flaky skin - still have my 'winter skin' so that's about once a week. My skin also responds much better to a very basic routine and I only add extras in if I absolutely need to.

You could also consider switching from manual exfoliation to an active serum which exfoliates chemically.

Hyaluronic acid is a good moisturiser and my skin also loves Niacinamide. I use an oil at night only and then a moisturiser with built in high-factor spf for day time. That's it.
Every so often add in a face mask.

Toners are having a resurgence and are apparently not the stripping liquids they used to be but I haven't tried the new generation of them yet because, quite frankly, I don't see a need. However, the idea of a toner is remove any remains of make up and dirt so if you will use once, use it at night post cleanser. Personally, I find double cleansing at night is more than adequate (cereve hydrating foaming cleanser followed by garnier oil based micellar water).

These days I only ever use a primer if I need my make up to have additional sticking power and have found that finding and investing in better quality make up has largely removed the need for one.

If you load up your skin with too many products then you will get pilling under your make up. It may also be that one (or more) of the products you're using pills up as it dries anyway - good way to test is to go make up free at home and then see if you can rub off your moisturiser/primer/whatever once it's dried.

Most toners now are either acid exfoliators or hydrating - much of the korean glass skin look is lots of toner.

So it repends what you're using

The last picture looks like you have a slight rash. Are you sure you’re not allergic/sensitive to one of the products?

Some shampoos give me a rash like that if I don’t wash my face thoroughly after a hair wash too.

Tha last picture looks like a rash I once had from the pill OP.

i can’t remember having a rash on my face when that picture was taken - however I do have a touch of rosacea, and that day could have been a redness day. I’m wearing the ordinary’s coverage foundation in that picture too

Your skin looks fantastic,not dry or flaky at all.

If you are using topical hydrocortisone for your rosacea you could have topical steroid withdrawal

I haven’t used anything for my rosacea in years. The last time I did was back in 2016 - it was a prescribed ointment I used for 3 months and it didn’t work. That picture was only a few weeks ago

Oil! Olive oil. 4 drops each night after cleansing. Will sort you right out

Your skin looks normal to me - better than most if anything. Real skin does have texture and I can't see much you can improve on really.

With that said my skin looks a little like that texture wise when the products I use to moisturise are applied too thickly or layered up before whatever was underneath has absorbed. I do have dry skin (much drier than yours looks in the photos). I personally found the coverage on the ordinary foundation didn't do me any favours - have you considered switching to something else foundation wise?

At the moment I'm using Nyx Born to Glow with a couple of drops of hydrating serum in it, applied with a beauty blender it just looks like my own skin but better with no texture. I then go in with a concealer if I have anything I want to cover up and the overall finish is far nicer than if I just put foundation all over my face as a starting point.