What are everyone’s thoughts on ‘bespoke’ skincare?

[Fandango52]

Just as the title really. I’ve heard about various different companies offering ‘bespoke’ skincare - Skin and Me, Dermatica, Klira etc - and wondered if anyone has tried them out and what you think about them.

I thought I’d give Klira a go because that’s the main one I’d heard of and because they use a treatment with tret in it where they gradually up the dosage. It appealed to me because I’ve wanted to use tret for a while to see if it will help with the faint wrinkles on my forehead, but was too nervous to go into it gung ho, as I’ve heard loads of stories of people saying it made their skin worse and really sensitive.

I got my first Klira monthly batch delivered today, so will try it tonight and report back. Apparently I’ll see results in about 12 weeks, so I’ll see how it goes. Also, I’m not a fan of the £65 monthly cost, so will probably stick it out for 3 months and see if I can go on to something else instead.

For reference, I’m early thirties and have listed my current routine below:

AM: LRP Toleriane cleanser, Avene hydrance moisturiser, SPF (Soltan mini SPF50 sunscreen)

PM: LRP Toleriane cleanser, No 7 Protect and Perfect serum (sometimes), LRP dermallergo
night cream, and the idea with the Klira skin treatment is I’ll put it on after cleansing.

Sounds expensive…. I just use aqueous cream to wash face.

30 sfp cream daily on face and hands.

I've found dermatica great. I wouldn't pay £65 a month though. Mine is more like £25 and I don't buy it every month. Using it every couple of days still makes a huge difference to my skin.

I use Klira having tried both dermatica and skin and me and have to say it is better. Mostly because I never quite got through the redness stage with either despite about 5 years of tret. I do think the formulation of Klira is better. However to be honest that's just me and I'd probably try something cheaper first to see if your skin will tolerate.

I use some of them.
Morning:
Using water to wash your face,
Sebamed clear face gel,
LRP spf on my face
Cicaplast
Evening:
LRP moisturizer,
Tretinoin (0.1) from skinorac
Sebamed clear facial gel

It's a marketing ploy, of course it is.

@slinkiemalinkiey why is it a marketing ploy? Do you not believe the skincare items have the active ingredient in? Yes they are marketing their products but that doesn’t make it a ‘ploy’.

I've not heard of Klira; £65 sounds a lot to me. I've looked into Skin&Me and Dermatica because I wanted tretinoin. I'm on my first month of S&M and my prescription is:

Month 1: Tretinoin 0.006%, Niacinamide 4%, Azelaic Acid 4%
Month 2: Tretinoin 0.009%, Niacinamide 4%, Azelaic Acid 4%
Month 3: Tretinoin 0.012%, Niacinamide 4%, Azelaic Acid 4%
Month 4: Tretinoin 0.015%, Niacinamide 4%, Azelaic Acid 4%

The first month was £9.99 and came with free morning serum, moisturiser and sunscreen, the next two months are £17.49 and following on (just for the prescription above) is £24.99.
So far I've had no problems but haven't seen much difference either.
I rather wish I'd looked into Dermatica more and signed up for that as I think they're slightly cheaper and ramp up the tret rather more quickly. I've been using Medic8 Crystal Retinal 20 for a couple of years which I think is the strongest you can get without prescription and have no problems so expected them to start with a slightly % of tret. From what I've read, the prescription I've outlined above is what everyone gets at the beginning from S&M.
I'll continue for this month and next, then email to ask if they'll up it sooner. If they won't I might swap to Dermatica.
My skin care otherwise is whatever brand I've got from Advent Calendars, beauty boxes etc
I cleanse, use a serum for face and one for eyes, moisturiser, eye cream and every morning a SPF (UVB 50 and UVA 5☆).

I’ve just started Skin + me and, after a little initial frustration with their ‘customer service’ robot, I got all the info I needed and my products arrived, nicely packaged in the post.

To be honest I was initially expecting it all to feel a bit more ‘luxury’ and smell lovely and make me feel devine. The products actually feel quite medical, no frills, but I am trusting that the quality is good and the ingredients are indeed tailored to my skin. I have noticed a vast improvement to my skin and I’m really enjoying my new skincare routine.

I’m still breastfeeding at the moment so they have had to remove tret from my prescription which I felt was a bit of a shame but hopefully I will be able to amend this soon.

My skin + me product contains:
Azelaic Acid 12%
Niacinamide 4%

This is my prescription from Skin + Me. I have rosacea so was advised tretinoin wouldn't be suitable. I'm only on month 2 but have seen an improvement in my acne. What was annoying is they only send out the next months supply to arrive the day you need it, and with Royal Mail being so unreliable mine arrived a week late, so think they need more of an overlap! I pay about £19 a month.

Month 1
Metronidazole 1%
Niacinamide 4%
Azelaic Acid 8%

Month 2
Metronidazole 1%
Niacinamide 4%
Azelaic Acid 12%

Month 3
Metronidazole 1%
Niacinamide 4%
Azelaic Acid 12%

Month 4
Niacinamide 4%
Azelaic Acid 14%

@Fandango52I use skin & me. With this link you can get your first and fifth dose for £3.50. I also get a discount. Skin & me has tretnoin in too.

www.skinandme.com/?promocode=CAROLT5VTM

My daughter used Skin + Me - she’s been plagued by cystic acne for years and her skin has never looked better - no completely cleared but it’s mainly scarring at the moment with the odd blemish so she’s happy with it

I buy Skin and Me for DS17, he's really happy with it

I’ve just started Skin and Me with the same treatment schedule as @LaMarschallin , it’s early days yet so I haven’t seen much progress. Ideally I’d prefer just using the straight tret cream but I’m a bit wary of the routes to getting that (unsure about the security of giving payment details to a random pharmacy in India!)

I started Dermatica in September and it's been life changing. I'm almost 40 and still got spots. My skin has never been better.

I had a patch of acne on my cheek that came out of nowhere and just wouldn’t clear. I ended up going to Dermatica and it cleared it up really quickly. Sadly I can’t remember what exactly the treatment was, but I was able to stop using it after a few months and my skin is still lovely and clear.

Like a previous poster said, it’s not a luxury item, there’s no beautiful packaging and it doesn’t smell divine, but it’s still a great product.

Well, they certainly saw you lot coming…

I have been using Klira for a year now. It is amazing. I am 55 and my skin was starting to look dull and blotchy. The texture of my skin is visibly improved and although expensive for me it is worth it. I use it every night as recommended and get about 6 weeks out of each bottle.
I actually started using it because of a positive Mumsnet post.

I think it's probably nonsense - there can't be enough different types of skin to make tailor-made useful. I tried it once (Dermatica) and found it totally underwhelming. No discernible difference to my skin compared with bog-standard high street brand products. In fact, less good than whichever ones I'd been using at the time. I often use Aldi Lacura and Nivea these days.

It does seem the only way to get tretinoin though.

@Cynicalaboutall dont know if Dermatica saw me coming but I do know that in my mid fifties my skin is better than it has been for a decade. I use nothing but their prescription and moisturiser and an spf50.

I tried Skin and Me but wasn’t impressed. I use Dermatica now and have noticed a real difference. I have rosacea, but still use tret with no adverse effects.

I use Uncouth which has tret in. I'm really pleased and having lots of compliments on my skin. I've just paused my subscription because I'm still using my bottle from November. It's lasted ages. I've got a referral code for 50% off the first month if anyone would like it.

I have rosacea too and had to give up tret. Can I ask what percentage you are on/how often you use it? Thanks.