Medical/pharmaceutical grade skincare - worth it??

[TheHoneyMonster82]

My aesthetics person says I should use medical grade skincare as it will be far more effective than anything I can buy at beauty counters. I get Botox but she says skincare is also a must. At almost 47 I’m desperate to halt my rapidly aging skin, but the price of this stuff is huge - £80 for vit C serum, £65 for moisturiser, etc.

The brand she recommended was Alumiers. Others are SkinCeuticals, Dermalogica, Skinmedica, and lots more I’m sure

So, does anyone have experience of using these and if so is it worth the money?

I’ve used lots of products over the years, including Dermalogica and SkinCeuticals and no, I don’t think it was worth it. I know it gets talked about a lot on here but Tretinoin has been the best thing for me (long term acne sufferer). Now I use a Rovectin cleanser, a Klairs moisturising toner, Byoma serum and an Altruist SPF on a morning. Then on a night I use The Ordinary Squalane cleanser to remove makeup and SPF, then the Rovectin. Then I use the toner, the serum and an Avene moisturiser (Cicalfate). And every other night I use my Tret.

This might seem a lot of products but it isn’t really, none are massively expensive, in fact, the SPF is cheap, as is the moisturiser - and they all last ages. My skin has never been better.

Aldi Lacura Marine is a dupe of Elemis and Lacura La Sois (I think) is a dupe of la mer.

I get prescription Tret from overseas ( India) at 20 p per tube and I don't need anything else, except Nivea. No Botox for me.

All other products are a waste of money, I believe..Though it is in the interest of aestheticians to peddle them to you.

Which company do you use please?

@Lentilweaver if you can share, if like to know how to do it too please.

Most active ingredients are pretty cheap so good effective skin care does not need to be expensive.

One of the only exceptions to this seems to be Vitamin C. There are lots of cheap Vit C serums around but experts seem to agree that they are not stable so pretty much useless. Skinceuticals is one of the few that gets a tick.

Its a matter of finding the products that work for you though, no matter the price point.

I buy majority of my skin care products from Vinted. There's generally a bargain to be had
Obviously some tret is prescription only where as retinol products aren't
I do like the Cosrx snail serum and that's priced reasonable on amazon and ticket
I do like Sunday Riley vit C serum which is more pricy but again, can be found on Vinted sometimes
They have a lot of travel / sample sizes to see if it suits your skin
I do use a Aldi cleanser though

*Tiktok

Afraid I get it from friends and family visiting India where its available OTC.

My skincare is not that expensive, I will share mine. So here is my routine that I follow:
Morning:
Using water to wash your face,
Sebamed clear face gel,
la roche posay spf
Evening:
la roche posay moisturizer,
Tretinoin (0.1) from skinorac
Sebamed clear facial gel