Medik8/ skin and me/ dermitica

[crazycrimbolady]

Hi 👋

I'm in my mid 30s and really want to freshen up my skin. I have a lot of acne scarring and fine lines and my complexion is dull.

I've been looking at medik8, skin and me, and demitaca.
Has anyone tried these and would you recommend?

Hi OP,

Medik8 is an over the counter retinaldehyde serum (which is a step up from retinol). It's quite expensive, but quite popular, I haven't used it myself but it has good reviews. This would be a great starting point if you haven't used any retinol products before.

Skin & Me and Dermatica are subscription services which sell tretinoin, which is a much stronger retinoid (and otherwise is only sold with a prescription), so you'd have to sign up to a monthly payment. I haven't used them but I do use tretinoin, and have done for several years. It's brilliant stuff but you need to start slowly and build up usage. Like I said it's quite strong and initially people can sometimes have irritation and peeling when they use it.
There are lots of threads on here about them if you want to search.

If you are going to use any of these, just make sure you use a good SPF daily to protect your skin from sun damage.

Haven't tried Skin and Me or Dermatica, but a big fan of Medik8. I use the Crystal Retinal 3 every other night (50s, dry skin), and find it really effective. I have used it every night in the past, but went down to every other and it worked just as well. I started with The Ordinary Granactive Retinoid in my 40s and liked it and then tried random other more expensive stuff, but find Medik8 the most reliable brand and the easiest to figure out what's what. You may not be ready for the Crystal Retinal yet, but it's worth looking at the brand to see what they have for a starter.

One tube will last many months, and it's frequently available with a 20% off code from Cult Beauty, Space NK, or Sephora. I also like that the Crystal Retinal comes in a variety of strengths (1, 3, 6 etc) which get a little more expensive as the strength gets higher), so it's easy to move to an obvious next step when you're ready.

The Skin and Me/Dermatica model never appealed to me - I don't want to pay for monthly kits. But I know other people find them useful. It depends on you.

If you are going to start w/ retinol/retinoid/retinal etc, I found videos by Nadine Baggott, Gothamista, Shereene Idriss, and Caroline Hirons helpful in explaining what the different levels are and how they work. They also explain how to start by alternating nights, how to buffer it with other creams if you start too strong, etc.

I’ve been using Dermatica for a few months now and really like it. I keep it as simple as possible so just cleanse with their squalene cleanser, tret and hydroquinone serum for sun damage and their ceramide moisturiser. I do have their azealic (?) acid serum but forget to use it as I hate having to wait before applying the next thing. My skin is the best it’s been in a long time and it’s worth the cost.

@Farmageddon where do you get your Tret from? I'm using skin and me at the moment but they've put their prices up and am thinking it would be cheaper to source myself

Hi, I get mine from an online pharmacy called Farmacia Andorra ( I think it's also called Farmacia Tristaina), the brand of tretinoin cream is called Retirides, it's a Spanish brand thats available in 0.025%, 0.05% and 0.1% strengths.

https://www.farmaciaenandorra.com/shop/retirides-0.5mg-tretinoina?search=retirides
I know it sounds a bit dodgy but I've been ordering from them for a few years with no problems. The first time I only ordered one tube, as I was worried it was a scam and I'd get nothing, but was desperate to buy some so I tried it (I'm not in the UK so can't get Skin & Me etc.).

Anyway it takes a few weeks for it to be delivered, but they should send you an email with a tracking link. Once when it got turned back at customs, they eventually refunded me the price of the creams (but not the postage unfortunately), but that's why I try not to order too many at the same time ( I think you're not supposed to send creams/ liquids through the post, it should be done by courier - but they send by post and it usually gets delivered fine).

The tubes cost about €20, and postage is about the same, so I usually order 3 or 4 together. One 30g tube usually lasts me about 2 - 3 months, applying it 4 or 5 nights a week as you only need a small amount. If you were using it twice a week or something it would last much longer.

I've read on here people also talking about a website called TretinoinWorld which sells a different brand, called Retin-A, you could do a search for posts and see if it's any good.

Or if you know somebody living in Spain, they can buy Retirides over the counter in pharmacies there.