suncream, zits and wrinkles: rolling skincare thread?

hey laurel, maybe try dampening a cotton pad with witchhazel and wiping your hairline/nape every evening/morning? it'll pick all those oils.

i find it too drying to use all over my face, but i swipe my t-zone/hairline with some every other day

I know Jaq has some experience with oil cleansers, she'll probably weigh in soon. I believe they can actually be quite drying, paradoxically.

Thank god I can FINALLY answer to this! OCM has been great for me, but it is drying and slightly detergent. I think it's bullshit that extra virgin olive or any other oil will "nourish" your epidermis btw. Castor and jojoba oils were both way too heavy and sticky to do any good for me - you want an oil that is lighter weight than the natural oil your skin produces. The oil you apply will dissolve and carry away your skin's excess oil and the crud it harbors in the upper reaches of your pores. Without causing your oil-producing glands to go into overdrive. OCM is magnificent at clearing blackheads - not just the oil dissolving business but that it provides enough slip to keep your massaging fingers from doing a lot of damage AND provides enough resistance to work the crud loose.

What it can't help so much with - hormonal issues. Those things are going to happen. The best you can do is keep the redness and inflammation down. I used to use a vitamin K gel, which will cut redness over time. But once I started doing neem experiments, it is now my go-to. It's anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal - super soothing for any itchiness too. For god's sake, don't use the neem oil though - stinks like you would not believe! Get neem leaf tincture or make your own oil or water or witch hazel based extract. You can buy ground up neem leaf in capsules at health food stores. Massage the tincture into areas of trouble - usually it's glycerin based so has a slightly sticky feel. It is very green in color and smell. Itchiness, redness, and inflammation are noticeably decreased in 10 minutes or so. The stuff has no known toxicity, but tastes TERRIBLE.

So what do you use instead of jojoba or castor, jaq?

I tried a home made face peel thing with gelatin and soy milk - idk, my pores still look dirty

I just use a lighter weight olive oil (not ev, some lesser and cheaper one). And an occasional diluted cider vinegar rinse, for when I want to feel especially salad-like :)

I started out using the modified olive oil from DHC, which is excellent btw, but then moved on to a home-brewed grocery store solution.

Sweet almond oil was okay to blend with the light olive oil, but I ran out of it. I think argan oil would also work really well, but it is $$$.

I put a little lavender oil in mine, since I do the OCM at night. I was worried about tightness from getting my face wet intrude morning shower and not moisturizing, but it's been fine. I do look quite tired though.

For me, the feeling of tightness always came from either stripping out all the oil with an alcohol toner, or using an alkaline pH cleanser and not re-acidifying. I only do OCM a few times a week and just rinse my face well 2x/day. I don't use any makeup though, so don't have to worry about taking that off my skin.

Normally I can't get my face wet unless I can moisturize right away - it gets tight and also flaky

Sweet almond oil was okay to blend with the light olive oil, but I ran out of it. I think argan oil would also work really well, but it is $$$.

would lick any of you guys' faces, you all sound delicious

I bought a La Mer product...ONCE and they gave me a teenytiny sample of La Mer creme and it has been the only reason I really wanted money ever since. The other product I bought was forgettable and a waste of heard earned cash.

I have an oily complexion but it can get really dry using stuff that is supposed to control oily skin. My skin gobbled up the La Mer and it was the first time I felt and saw a really positive reaction to a facial product. In one week my complexion was beautiful, lovely, dewey, just perfect and I felt I looked 10 years younger. Then I ran out and it was back to... meh.

La Mer is the one thing I would ever risk stealing. It is always behind glass. Then if I ran out, have to steal again or go try and sell myself. As pricey as it is though....that wouldn't work, teehee

I agree- DHC's modified olive oil is really, really good. I did see improvements with it. Though nothing magical.

*sigh* this OCM isn't working out: i still have dry patches (increased from before) and it's giving me red-rimmed eyes, which makes me look stoned and tired all day, and my face just feels kind of dirty.

It sounds like you are having an allergic reaction to the oil you're using, if your eyes are red.

Hey y'All here's something nuts: I noticed my skin has improved by 1000% and couldnt work out why until I realized I've been drinking a whole lot of milk lately. Go cows!

loool my skin started improving when i STOPPED consuming so much dairy!

Have any of you ever used Lush's Ultrabland cleanser? I am trying it out since my skin gets so incredibly dry in the winter. So far, it's p nice.

I'm a Kiehl's gentle foaming facial cleanser (which does not actually foam at all) gal year-round. I am liking the Cerave PM cream after washing, but my face is not uber dry. My hands, on the other hand. . . constant winter battle.

Jenny - ultrabland is v nice! I've used and liked it in the past. I guess Cetaphil is my go to but I switch things up a lot.

I use Cetaphil or Cerave cleanser half the year, but I basically desiccate starting about now until April. How is the Cerave PM?

The hand battle... Dear god. It's endless. Q, what is your hand cream of choice? I like L'Occitaine.

oh god the hand battle :(

My cuticles haven't recovered yet from the constant handwashing/hand sanitizer assault on them during my last job.

I try to hand moisturize at night so it can soak in, but it's not enough. I think I need to start drinking CRAZY amts of water, I don't know what else to do. I overwhelming prefer this weather to anything that happens between late June and early September, and my skin prefers it too and is the best in fall, but my hands get wet too often to survive.

my face exploded this week. i have not had a breakout like this in as long as i can remember. i am sad.

I keep this at my desk and reapply it PRN throughout the day: http://usa.loccitane.com/FO/shea-butter-nail-cuticle-cream.htm

There's no way I can justify spending $18 on cuticle cream right now, though.

try some olive oil, christine

I do like the l'occitane shea butter hand cream! I had forgotten about that. But really, other than "I can tolerate the texture and smell vs. I cannot tolerate the texture and smell" hand cream issue, it really hasn't mattered ime. I think the only way I could possibly win the hand war is to keep them coated in a thick layer of vaseline under a pair of gloves 94/7.

Ha, yeah.

That cuticle cream is pricey, no doubt. The tube I have has lasted over a year, though, so there's that. I am always on the lookout for cheaper drugstore alternatives.

I sample sized tube of Bliss (I think? Is that a brand?) hand cream but it smells strongly enough that I feel bad using it in public. I keep a giant pump bottle of Jergins original scent at my desk so I can reapply every time I wash my hands. That helps, but it's not quite enough in the winter. I used to regularly do the moisturizer and gloves trick but I read a lot of ebooks on my iPad now, which is incomparable with nighttime hand moisturizing.

The idea of sleeping in gloves kind of weirds me out for no good reason. But I should try it, because not only do my hands look like those of someone twice my age, it *hurts* to have cracked/chapped hands!

And then you try to fix it with cream and the cream STINGS when you apply gah

Jeff always makes jokes about sleeping next to Minnie Mouse when I do it but it does help.

Also I get why that would weird you out. It's weird. I usually pull them off during the night (I am an inveterate nocturnal clothes puller offer though).

Hahaha I just envision waking up in the middle of the night and having the overwhelming urge to pop some jazz hands.

IRL LOL

And, another thing--hangnails and skin cracks can let germs into your body just like any other broken skin can. People have contracted some pretty nasty infections that way.

jenny, sew some contact wire into the fingertips of the gloves - then you can still use the touch screen

i have a hard enough time sleeping with socks on, the gloves thing just freaks me out.

aveeno is my preferred hand cream. very hydrating and absorbs quickly. i have a trace of psoraiasis on my hands but it's good for normal skin too.

I can't sleep with socks on at all and there's no way I'd be able to do so with gloves.

I like the Ahava hand cream a lot but it smells sort of what I imagine diaper cream smelling like. It's not but bad it's just something I can't get past.

Crabtree and Evelyn Hand Therapy creams are really good. I still haven't found my holy grail handcream though. Still on the hunt and specifically for a good non-greasy one with SPF.

Agree w you, jed--Aveeno is my favorite body lotion, hands down, no pun intended, still feels moisturized and supple at the end of the day when I get home from work (or the next morning!).

The Crabtree & Ev ones have a wonderful silky feel, I agree with that also.

That's what I like about them. It sinks in immediately and is so silky feeling.

for ENBB: http://www.etsy.com/shop/amykarol?ref=pr_shop_more

^^ i got the balancing facial oil. i'm not sure how i feel about it yet. i've been doing the OCM nightly, followed by this face oil, avoiding getting my face wet in the morning shower and just dabbing a bit of vitamin e oil on, and using a neutrogena scrub every few days. my skin doesn't seem improved, i have some new dryness on my forehead and still clusters of blackheads near the corners of my mouth. i'm going to persist and see if this is a hump that i'll get over... i just want nice skin, damn it!

pretty much sold on DDF restorative serum followed by moisturizing dew right now

i am considering a huge splurge on luxurious skincare products in the next month or so.

KATE78 I need you!!!

Remember a while ago when you so awesomely sent me those RetinA samples? I remember at the time I started using them and got a couple huge zits and it freaked me out so I didn't see it through and stopped using it.

Because I am now officially pretty old I figured I should start on some retinoids so bought a cream and have used it approx 3 times and all of a sudden I have two zits on each cheek! They're not awful but this is really unusual for me. I don't really get pimples anywhere except my chin area. It's awful and making me feel really bad to the point of wanting to stop the cream. This is normal though and will stop, right?

:(

Yes, it is normal and will stop. The first 12 weeks or so of using retin-a/retinoid, your face will break out and look like hell, but stick with it! You may also notice some peeling/flaking. If that happens, maybe use it every other day to start and gently exfoliate. Use sunscreen. And as a reminder, retin-a is pregnancy category C drug, so it might be good to stop using it if you're gonna get knocked up.