suncream, zits and wrinkles: rolling skincare thread?

i USED to have pretty great skin. now that i'm getting old (lol) it's fucked. not to a casual observer, but it's def starting to show some wear and tear.

ramz: in the morning i wash (in the shower) with a gentle fash wash most days and a scrub once a week. i'm using this shitty neutrogena stuff atm, which i thought was the same as my last stuff, but is in fact not - it makes my face literally 'squeaky clean'.

i feel like face skin should only have very minimal extra stuff put put on it - it produces lots of stuff to care for itself, and washing/moisturising too much will probably block up pores and strip the skin. i have no evidence for this. it's just a 'feeling'.

i don't use concealer or foundation - just a very very light bronzer.

After I turned 30 I suddenly had acne issues. Before then I was peaches and cream. Sucks.

Anyway, I'm curious as to why those of you who only wash once a day would do so in the morning rather than at night. Aren't you worried about sweat, dust, pollution, makeup, etc clogging your pores while you sleep?

Sometimes I will only wash once a day, at night, and then rinse with cool water in the morning. But in my constant quest for acne control this has been my regime for the past six weeks and it seems to be working okay (as in acne not getting worse, perhaps slightly better.):

-Wash with Cetaphil and cool water in the morning. Apply blemish cream over face follow with tinted moisturizer or moisturizer + foundation.

-When I come home - clean face with a Neutrogena makeup remover face wipe. Apply blemish cream.

-Night: Wash with sacylic or benzyol peroxide foaming cleanser (twice a week I sub an exfoliating scrub); follow with blemish cream and night moisturizer.

For the past couple of weeks I've been using a 2% sacylic blemish cream (gel). It doesn't seem as powerful as benzyol peroxide on big breakouts but seems to do well and I feel like it's less strong. I have no dryness issues.

I also don't use toner. I think it does more harm than good.

i wash my face at night, not in the morning.

the reason i wash mine in the morning is that it's too hard not getting my face wet in the shower, and once i get it wet i then have to moisturise, and i don't want to do this twice a day

I have a friend who has to moisturize MORE THAN once a day just because her skin soaks up the lotion. This is amazing to me. She has the most beautiful, pore-less skin of anyone I know (possibly ever) but she can only use super-gentle, sensitive cleansers and etc and by 10.30am, when I'm blotting my oils, she's adding moisturizer for the 2nd time of the day.

I comfort myself by thinking that my dermis will age better in the long run, but it's cold comfort when she's practically GLOWING in any light.

water often makes my skin go crazy dry -like, skin-flaking-off-my-face kind of dry. sometimes in winter i need to moisturise twice a day, but i try to avoid it, because i feel like it's just more shit filling up my pores.

and oh god - i've started noticing small red spots/lines on my cheeks, something my mum has which has gotten worse in her old age. i forget what it's called, something like 'rosacea' or similar.

i have a bunch of little things, but with a little concealer and the right angle i can pull it out

i exfoliate in the morning and cleanse at night. i use a lighter moisturizer in the morning than at night, and a different eye cream as well.

eye cream in the morning, eye gel at night for me

i am the opposite - gel in am, cream for bed.

I need to pick up new foundation/concealer. The stuff I've been using is shit for redness. Blah.

I have found nothing for redness. It's driving me mad.

tza you exfoliate every day?

does anyone still use noxzema?

i assume there is a never-ending supply of 12 year old girls who need their first cleanser, yeah. i don't think anyone over the age of 20 does though, do they?

mmm, nostalgia. Maybe I will start again.

that tingly feeling!

i used to exfoliate every day and my skin was pretty great then. also what ive seen of tza's skin in photos looks pretty great too. maybe its time to start again.

i have a really light exfoliator that i like. it's kind noxzema like in consistency, but it has tiny little scrubbing beads.

i like scrubbing better than scratching, on a regular basis.

depends how my skin is feeling. sometimes every day, sometimes not. but i like to keep smooth, i guess.

I use a scrub cleanser to exfoliate every morning and rinse with water at night. I moisturize at least twice a day sometimes more in winter. Diff day and night creams but same eye stuff.

what i find is, eye gels are really lovely and glow-y, which i love, but they don't blend with my under-eye concealer

whereas my eye cream blends

i now blend and then apply, which has been working wonders in my life

Gels aren't moisturizing enough for me so I use cream only. I just let it sink in for a while before doing concealer.

girl, you don't need no eye cream ;)

LOL. That may be true but only because I've been using it since I was 19! There's no other explanation for my lack of wrinkles as a 31 year old (hopefully soon to be ex) smoker!

everyone needs eye cream (says she who doesn't use and has only been sporadically using moisturizer for fear of clogged pores.)

discovered that a) seattle has ulta, and b) they carry mario badescu now! which means i can buy things without paying shipping! but also means no samples. so hmm.

Everyone needs eye cream, apparently.

susan's right, you know

very much

in Friends With Money, jennifer aniston's character would steal eye cream and put it all over her body

::shrugs::

What Mario Badescu products should I try now that I have noticed that Ulta carries it ?

I have both dry flaky patches and oily acne prone parts on my face. Bleh.

Stop wasting time with the expensive stuff and use the only topical treatment that has been proven to work: Retin A. Retin A in the evening + moisturizer in the morning = good skin.

i need a new eye gel for the morning. something depuffying/soothing? the clarins stuff was alright but not amazing and not really in the budget right now.

tr, try the hyaluronic eye cream. the seaweed toner is nice. also try going on their site and filling out the little questionnaire about your skin and it will suggest products for you (and usually they'll send you samples).

wish i could help tza but i use the Lab Series for men gel.

musically, my aunt uses this retin-a. i remember something about it tho -- does it dry your skin out or something? also, is it just an acne treatment, or is it like a wrinkle treatment as well?

i used retin-a in middle school. shit was harsh. i remember we had to get a note from my doctor to give the insurance company saying it wasn't bc i wanted to get rid of wrinkles/cosmetic bc otherwise they wouldn't cover it.

it's weird to me that it can be so harsh, yet prevent wrinkles. u know?

It's gotta be like some kind of race. Stay good looking long enough to make someone worthwhile fall in love with and spend the rest of your life with you, and then you can just go ahead wake up with puffy eyes some mornings.

but then they have a midlife crisis and leave you bc you too puffy.

I hope to God I pick better than that.

i think it's usually the boys who do that.

OK.

i got talked into this caudalié exfoliator and it's very nice, but even nicer are the mask and moisturizer samples she gave me! it all smells like lavender and is apparently made from grapes?

in love with this btw
http://www.aveda.com/images/products2/large/av_A3X5_162.jpg

way better than the clarins gel.

I got the green science eye cream and holy shit it burns! I'm thinking of taking it back.

ok so here is a thing:

i am currently living a healthier lifestyle than i have in YEARS, if ever, but my skin looks worse than i can remember since middle school! i am currently a broken out mess, possibly due to some kind of allergic reaction to some unknown thing (it's slightly similar to my bare minerals breakout last summer), and i am not sure that any skin product can help. what do i do? is it hormonal? is it age? gahhhhh!

maybe it's change of climate, but i can't imagine the air here being worse than polluted nyc air!