I have broken my skin

[myladyjane]

I am 50 and have always had pretty ok skin. It was oily but has changed a bit since I've aged so now pretty normal although can be dehydrated.

I had a pretty basic routine- cerave wash off cleanser, a vit c serum and spf morning then same cleanse, gel moisturiser alternating with an otc retinol. I got good results with the L'Oréal revitalist one.

I know people will say tret to me btw but I had a skin and me prescription for well over a year and it did nothing - my skin just kept peeling and drying out and looking dull. The retinol seemed to work much better.

I change up my vit c serum and a couple of months ago tried a new L'Oréal one, same range as the retinol. It seems to have burned my skin off! For the first time ever skin is red, sensitive, blotchy and spotty. The area just under my dark circles has gone really crepey.

Obviously I stopped using it. I spent a few weeks just using cerave hyloronic serum and a bland moisturiser which seemed to calm it down but it was still dull. Tried to reintroduce a previously well tolerated vit c )geek and gorgeous) and my retinol but only once or twice a week.

But my skin is dull, red and spotty still. It was really quite good before all this. How can I rescue it?

I'm not convinced we should be messing around with our skin with this new generation of action ingredients and who knows what.

Can you take it back to basics and let everything settle down for a while?

TBH I'm inclined to agree with you. DD finally has skin that doesn't flare up after a raft of allergy testing.

It could be that the OP has developed an allergy to an ingredient to something she is putting on her skin. This can happen at any age BTW.

You need to look up moisturisers that build up your skins barrier. They became a big thing after brands like the ordinary pushed frequent chemical peels and everyone ruined their skin. But they contain the nice kind of ingredients that anyone with dry upset skin would benefit from. I'd lose the retinol and vit c for a while again as well. Spot stickers for large spots too, do not squeeze them!

Perimenopause? Check what's going on inside your body (vitamin/hormone levels/minerals).

Honestly you need to stop, I can’t beleive you continued for a year when your skin kept peeling, and even now are still putting retinonl on a couple of times a week, you will have no skin left.

allow your skin to heal, try to go make up free as much as possible to allow it to do so. And keep it clean.

and when it recovers, then use nothing more than a basic gentle moisturiser.

To be fair, tretinoin has been around for decades, so that in itself isn’t generally in issue. Obviously individual reactions will vary.

In your case, I agree with others. You need to stop using any actives and get your skin repaired. I only use the second lowest dose of tret 2 or 3 times a week. Any more and I would peel. I also moisturise first (it can be ‘sandwiched’ too). So you could maybe look at that again down the line if you wanted to try again. (I use tret mainly for acne and for that it has been brilliant - I battled with the acne for 25 years and this is the only thing that has got rid of it long term).

In the meantime, gentle cleanser, maybe a moisturising toner and a good moisturiser. I use Avène Cicalfate as an everyday one which is lovely and helps repair the skin barrier.

It's only been a couple of months since your initial reaction, so I'd be patient and stick with the back to basics routine a bit longer. A mild cleanser and a gentle barrier repairing moisturiser. Avoid actives until your skin has had a chance to calm down, it's going to keep reacting even to products you've tolerated before. After a couple of weeks think about introducing an unscented barrier repair serum, but just keep it super simple!