Thought it would be good to have a thread where those of us starting Dermatica could share our progress!
My skin: I'm 36, with pale and very sensitive/reactive skin and mild rosacea.
Goals: anti-ageing and wanted the feted "glow" you supposedly get from tretinoin, apparently a stronger version of retinol. I am also hoping to get a less rough/uneven texture with smaller pores.
My prescription: Tretinoin 0.015% / Niacinamide 4%
I started on Monday night, and on Tuesday I was experiencing severe dryness with some mild flaking, so I only applied it again on Friday night. Next week my goal is to apply it three times.
My routine:
AM: Wash with just water, apply Weleda Skin Food and remove excess an hour later, apply Eucerin Oil Control sunscreen
PM: Wash with superdrug hot cloth cleanser (only using warm water), apply Cicaplast, and then either the Dermatica lotion followed by Weleda Skin Food, or just Skin Food
Thoughts so far:
- They said this could aggravate my rosacea and I have found this to be the case. I'm wondering if this is something that's temporary as part of the "retinisation" phase, or whether this is a lasting thing with using retinol/tret. If the latter, then this isn't going to be something I will continue with, as I'd rather deal with no glow but minimal redness, than "glowy" skin that is continuously slightly irritated. For the time being, I'm pushing on through.
- I wish I had sorted out my sunscreen situation BEFORE starting. This week, as well as introducing this Dermatica concoction, I've also been dicking around applying shit loads of new products (sunscreens) to my face in a bid to find the perfect one that plays nicely with makeup. This means that it's hard for me to distinguish between irritation caused by the Dermatica, and irritation from multiple different sunscreens.
The sunscreen scavenger hunt is also bloody expensive. If I could go back in time I would have put a shout out on my local FB group to ask whether people could lend me a squirt (😅) of their sunscreens to try.
- I'm in two minds about this "niacinamide" component. Why didn't they just give me straight up tret? Again, it's difficult to judge whether irritation is due to tret or to niacinamide.
I've set my subscription to repeat every 6 weeks, not 4, and for the next one I am considering asking them to give me tret alone. Or with azelaic acid, as my skin gets on nicely with that.
Here's a pic from last Monday morning, taken before I started and was just using moisturiser at night. I'll try and update every Monday!
I'll leave my referral link here too if anyone is considering giving it a go: you get money off and so do I, you get your first order for £3 and then £10 off your second: https://www.dermatica.co.uk/referrer/JL5YJN
My plan is to continue with it for another 2 orders (which will make 3 orders in total), and then reassess whether its right for me.