suncream, zits and wrinkles: rolling skincare thread?

Cerave is my favorite moisturizer! *high fives Jenny*

I have been a periodic Retin-A user for I dunno, twenty years or so. I am not very wrinkly, but do have sun spots, broken capillaries, old acne scars. . . I don't break out much anymore thanks to spironolactone, and I can tolerate a 20% vitamin C serum in the a.m. and either Retin-A or an AHA cream in the evening (if I manage to take off my makeup and apply said product in the evening, which is admittedly hit-or-miss). Retin-A micro .04% is the least irritating IMO, but even then I can't use it more than three times a week!

Thanks to some other thread I am now rubbing coconut oil into spouse's upper arms for his KP! Have not been consistent, so hard to say if it is helpful or not. Makes me kinda hungry.

the smell of the coconut oil, I mean. not the spouse's KP.

xp rrrobyn - YES to avocados, as many as possible. With pepper as well as salt.

I just bought an avocado today! But it is not yet ripe, so I will have to be patient :(

One of the few things I miss about my time in Texas is the availability of CHEAP (like, 5 for a buck) and awesome avocados. Even at the HMart, those fuckers cost over a buck and a half each in the DC area.

I had avocados in my shrimp tacos tonight. So good.

Quincie, they are going down...64 cents each but not yet at the 5 for $1.

I know I'm repeating myself but it's so cheap and good: corn meal mixed with honey is my favorite scrub in the world. All commercial scrubs now seem too complicated and not scrubby enough for me.

Corn meal and honey! I usually do either sugar and olive oil or salt and olive oil but will have to try cornmeal.

I don't think either my skin or my shower could handle the extra oil in an oil scrub--my sister had a fancy one that I tried by accident and had to wash with soap twice afterward to get the horrible residue off. I'm sure yours isn't like this but I just don't trust it.

The cornmeal and honey doesn't need any oil b/c the cornmeal doesn't dissolve in water so you can keep scrubbing away. I make it in a little dish and then put it in the fridge between showers so no bugs find it (because of the honey), but if you have a lid you can keep it in the shower for weeks. It won't spoil!

Oh see I like the residue!! Even if I don't do a scrub I will bring a cup of olive oil into the shower with me and put that on just before get out and towel off instead of using a moisturizer. I'm talking strictly body here - not face - in case that wasn't clear.

Ah dammit I forgot to bookmark this thread! My mum has rosacea so I probably have it mildly. I got my o/h the Lush ocean salt scrub for occasional exfoliating and it is amazing. I only use it every couple of weeks or so but it makes my face soooo soft.

(and I've used other exfoliators before which were fine but nothing compared to this)

You guys salt scrubs are so easy to make -- not worth buying EVER. Just get some epsom salts + regular food salt + jojoba oil and scent it as you wish. It's just that easy.

add some chunky sea salt if you're flaky! add some fine kosher salt if you're kosher, drop some smelly oils in there, let it sit for a week, poof.

Beblesh creams. What are they, what is the big fracking deal?

It looks like each formulation only comes in ONE skin tone color, should this worry me? I want the orange bottle formula, but that color is way different in this review.

http://prettycuteblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/skin79-super-bleblesh-balm.html

Lauren is normally my derma advisor but she's not online today.

I can't cope with the word "beblesh."

My coworkers rave about that stuff - they order it off eBay IIRC.

I've only done a quick Google survey of the results of a search for the word "beblesh," but I have to say that it sounds like a lot of hype, mostly because nobody ever actually says what the hell it is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BB_cream

That is not helpful either. Also LOL at "it provided a solution to a common skin problem for many Asians: impure skin."

God I know. The claims are ridiculous and unintelligible, also they all promise "whitening" which worries (and offends!) me. And yet, sensible people who take good care of their skin are INSANE for the stuff??

lol @ "beblesh" I haven't heard that before. I've just heard BB, Beauty Balm or Blemish Balm.

I bought the Garnier one. It's OK. I guess the whole idea is that it's primer, foundation, moisturizing cream and SPF all in one. If you use all those things separately than I can see how it would probably be a big improvement. I mean it's nice but I wouldn't rush to get it again necessarily.

I believe the "whitening" thing on the asian creams is a mistranslation. I think they mean it in the way we mean "brightening". I read that somewhere but can't remember where. The whole deal with them is basically that they put like 5 products in one.

Oh and some have blemish fighting things in them I guess. The Garnier one doesn't but some of the foreign ones do.

I have no clue what any of you are talking about -- all of this shit takes so much time and research! blech.

I like reading about this stuff.

Okay I'm going to order the orange bottle for oily skin and report back! Apparently this brand gets the sun protection from physical sunblocks like zinc oxide instead of chemical blocks, which I'm eager to try.

Yeah, let us know. I'd be interested in hearing how one of the actual Asian ones works since I get the feeling the ones coming on the American/US markets now are sort of BB cream the lite version.

this month's vanity fair has a page on skin care recs from dermatologists (aka advertising) and talks about Dr Brandt's Flexitone BB Cream with SPF 30 - i lolled at "... to completely hide your flaws while your skin is being re-engineered and repaired under the surface." images of Fraggle Rock's doozers under my skin does not make me want to buy this.

hahahaha THAT IS NOT GOING TO ACTUALLY HAPPEN.

In moments of weakness I wonder about creams that are supposed to even out skin tones, though I doubt that they do anything. I have discoloration around my mouth which nobody else notices, but I'm sensitive about it.

(When it 1st happened my mother, who is extremely detail oriented and sometimes tactless, said something about how I looked like someone had punched me in the mouth. Thanks Mom! It turns out that pregnant women and some women on birth control have this sort of discoloration)

I have a weird blob of discolouration up on my cheekbone that appeared a couple of years ago, I'm not sure if that's due to BC. It's easy enough to cover where it is but I am annoyed that yet another stupid skin thing appeared to add to my woes.

BB cream will re-engineer discoloration away, don't worry!

i'm pretty stoked on the idea of retin-a/tretinoin but not quite stoked enough to get myself to the doctor about it yet... next week...

on man, robyn, if I still lived in Canada, I coulda sent you some!

lol, are you a underground pharmacist? ;)

I'm a nurse who currently works in derm a d gets lotsa samples.
So yes, an underground pharmacist.

omg
i too wish you still lived in canada!

damn, I wish we still lived in the same place, k8! my skin needs help!

i was in sephora a week ago buying a brightening cleanser (DDF - it's great) and it seemed like they suddenly had a ton of bb cream/brightening products. i might try shiseido white lucent but not until the fall so i won't be out in the sun too much while using it.

for weird discolorations i totally recommend clinique's clinical dark spot corrector. but you have to be patient and keep using it every day. it takes several months (or even longer) to show results. it did work for me though, i felt like i had a weird darker spot on my face from using brightening cleanser and then getting too much sun a few times, so i use the clinique stuff as a spot treatment in morning/evening and it has helped a lot.

and i'm not trying to change my skin tone any, i'm stuck being very pale no matter what - the brightening stuff seems to really help with not having flat, dull skin.

I have dull, pale skin! Perhaps I will try this.

How drying is it?

I really liked what vitamin C serum did for me a few years back, when I didn't need it so much. I'd like to start using it again, does anyone have a favorite brand? I used a sample from my esty, can't remember what it was.

I used Pevonia Botanica Enzyme-Spherides Peeling Creme and loved the results. Yet something else I'd like to get back to.

Tried Pevonia Botanica Glycolic Acid and couldn't stand the itchy red patches it caused. Maybe I was misusing it.

Now that I don't work, I have noticed that I just don't look in the mirror as much. The lights in the bathroom of my old job always made me look like I needed work so I was more invested in my skin. Pregnancy though has done awesome things to my skin but I fear it all tumbling down like a fragile house of cards once the baby comes.

xpost - ddf cleanser, it depends i guess? i haven't found it to be drying.. my skin is a little oily though! (using tinted moisturizer instead of foundation also contributes to this)

I love ddf! That's one of my company's products so I have a few. Their moisturizer makes my face feel great.

I was looking at the Clinique stuff and its reviews and saw:

“Highly recommend if no medical causes of dark spots.”

I know that my hyperpigmentation is medical. Dammit.

But those sorts of serums are so expensive anyway.

I've heard good things about clinique's pore stuffs. Anyone have any experience with them? My pores are hueg.

Big self-improvement/pampering day today. Two masks (drying, then calming), a pore strip, a self-administered two-tone manicure with this deeply shiny topcoat called Seche Vite, then some eyebrow darkening. This is for a party tonight that will be full of stylish people glamming it up. (You cannot do "too much" for this crowd: the last time I saw them, the hostess was wearing an allover gold sequined mini-dress.) Now, what to WEAR??

Seche Vite is totally awesome (the quick dry one), as is POSHE. Did not realize quick-dry, badass shiny topcoats could actully convince me that doing nails is worth doing.

That said, I have not done my nails in, like, months.

"That said, I have not done my nails in, like, months."
Ditto!

The fancy Walgreens by my work has $10 manicures. My nails are did.