my skincare "routine" has made my skin even worse and i dont know why - any advice?

All I think we need is SPF. Skin didn't evolve with applications of moisturiser and foundation every day.

You can also think of skin care as self care. What you eat has an effect, how much sleep you get, how much stress you feel. Lathering on potions won't counteract all these.

I used to be religious about my daily routines of several gels and fluids and oil until a few months ago I saw a doctor of dermatology in some afternoon show on TV. A charming woman, almost 50 years of age, with radiating skin, who explained her conviction that the best skincare is no skincare. According to her, every time that we 'clean' our face with soap but also foam or gel, we disrupt the barrier that would be doing its job of keeping everything moisturised and immune, if we just let it. Anything we apply afterwards were never to penetrate the layers anyway and would just be expensive liquids out of pretty packaging that sticked to the surface. She went so far as to say that makeup, as long as it's not too heavy, being left overnight is less harmful than destroying the natural oil barrier and reconstructing it with irritating creams in the 'nighttime ritual'. I know that this is a take that is a crazy opposite to the very first thing we learn about makeup and skincare as girls, but I've tried it and my skin has stopped coming up with red patches and inflamed spots almost completely.

I find the discussion about cosmetology extremely vital for a feminist forum. While I think that self care and vanity are beneficial and healthy to a degree and that we should not strive after the male standard of carelessness about all things health or beauty, I'd enjoy if we could have a critical view on consumption. After all, the beauty industry lives off women's insecurity. How come we think that if we buy something and smear it on our face that we'll rise above our natural 'born' state? The skin is a complex organ that does everything it needs to do on its own.

You say yourself that you don't need much makeup, so why play around with different things when your skin is good already? Maybe you're too harsh on your face and compare it to what social media skinfluencers tell you is achievable through retinol or vitamin c or whatever is the newest clinically proven ointment of the year that you need to get on as soon as possible. If your skin is reacting badly to what you put on it, I'd suggest you leave it in peace for two to four weeks and see how it likes that.

What I personally do now is wash my face with just water and gently dab it dry with a towel afterwards and I have come to like the glow better than the tightening or sticky feeling that creams or oils leave me with. My skin is better than it was on a skincare routine. Sun screen is a must of course, but also that you can take off with a soft wet wipe once you're done being under UV.

You should start with the basics. Simple facewash, moisturizer before bed, morning cleanse (light moisturizer if your skin is dry) and most importantly SPF. I would recommend Dr Dray on youtube, she is a dermatologist. Exfoliating too often can cause irritation, you shouldn't do it more than 1x a week if you are beginner (and it is better to use acids instead of scrubs). You need to do a lot of research on your skin type and products for your skin type, but you will get there.

Sometimes too much is too much, especially if you have sensitive skin.

I went through the "I need 25 different items because everyone says that's what skincare works like"-phase and it made my skin worse (and let's face it: it also takes an annoying amount of money and time). So I cut back radically a few years ago, switched to drug store products and my skin is the best it has ever been.

I wash my face in the morning and the evening (I swear on the Dove Beauty Cream Bar for it. It has been the only bar soap that doesn't dry out my skin, makes it oily or cause breakouts and red spots). Afterwards I apply my day cream in the morning (light moisturizer with SPF 50) or night cream (a little more nourishing) in the evening. Done. If I wear heavy makeup - which I rarely do - I use a gentle cleanser after washing my face and before I put on my night cream.

If you want your skin to look nice working on other factors (diet, drinking enough, avoiding alcohol, nicotine and stress, staying out of the sun and always using sunscreen...) will have a much higher impact.

How is your diet? Great skin come from within.

Where you are going wrong is that you are over washing your face.. Just leave your face alone. Especially in your 20s you don't really need to be doing anything to your face every single day. You are stripping your face of it's natural oils and healthy bacteria which allows bad bacteria to over grow. Unless you've got to wash off foundation, don't wash your face at all. Leave it alone. It will heal itself if you stop interfering. Exfoliating only twice a week MAX. You don't need to wash your face with anything every single day.

There are a few things that could be happening here: you could be allergic to certain ingredients. Fragrances and even some essential oils can cause negative reactions in some people, and a lot of pricy brands have them. Your skin could also be going through a purge response: ifyou're using skincare ingredients that increase cell turnover (AHA or BHA exfoliants, retinoids), the pimples that were waiting to erupt get pushed to the surface faster, making it seem like your skin is getting worse before it gets better. This is usually only observed in people who are prone to cystic acne, though. And it could just be dermatitis (often charactized by redness and little white bumps) because you're changing your skin's PH or moisture level too quickly. Sensitive skin doesn't respond well to too many changes at once. I recommend only introducing one new skincare product at a time, and using exfoliants once a week at the beginning, and working your way up to more frequently. As for oils, most essential oils are too irritating to use directly on skin, and need to be diluted with a carrier oil (something like Argan or sweet almond oil--not olive or coconut, as those tend to clog pores). Try mixing the rosehip oil with a carrier oil in a 1:6 ratio, and seeing how that works. You can increase the ratio later if your skin reacts well to it, but I wouldn't go above a 1:3 ratio.

People put way too much stuff on their skin at once. You need to keep in mind that you need to introduce new ingredients one by one and wait for a few weeks to see how your skin reacts, especially throughout your whole cycle. Use as little as possible. So many women are obsessed with skincare but have no professional knowledge about how to safely and effectively combine products so they just put on whatever promises the most benefits. Your skin is an organ, it's not just an inert canvas. Don't obsess over nailing the "perfect" routine, that's how you lose tons of time and money. Good skin also has a big genetic component.

it sounds like you'reusing products that are not recommended for your type of skin. so check that first.

hialuronic acid takes moisture from the environment. if there's moisture in the air, it will improve your skin. if the air is dry, it will take the moisture from your skin and make it worse. i think that might be waht is happening to you.

what you actually need for a bsic 3 step routine is to clean with a product that is appropriate for you skin (bar soaps are better for oily skin and terrible for sensitive dry skin), apply a moisturizer and than the sunscreen. remember to reaply the sunscreen every 3h or so.

essential oils and other natural products can be very strong and need to be used very carefully. they can cause burns and make things worse.

what you eat also afects your skin a lot. have your diet changed at all lately?

i've been suffering from melasma for years and decided to seek help last year. i regret it quite a lot... nothing really works even though i do everything correctly, and i have the perception that it's gotten worse. so much money, time and energy wasted. i'm thinking about "going natural" with the treatment. phytotherapy, eating better, etc. i've heard it works better than acids. i'll just keep the basic 3 step routine and hopefully the natural acid-free treatment will give good results.

What SPF products do ladies recommend? I usually avoid chemical sunscreens (like avobenzone, oxybenzone - source) because they raise your cancer risk and are endocrine disruptors. I use zinc sunscreen when I’ll be in the sun a ton, but usually prefer clothing cover (wide-brimmed hat and light long sleeves). I’d love to find a lightweight, invisible everyday SPF without risky chemical sunscreen ingredients.

As someone with sensitive, oily, acne-prone skin, here's what I've been doing for over 20 years.

Wash with Cetaphil cleanser

Use Cetaphil moisturizer

Exfoliate. I make my own recipe which consists of baking soda and Cetaphil cleanser mixed with a bit of water so it's a paste. I wear foundation and sunscreen everyday so I use this gentle exfoliator every single day. Because the grain is very fine, it doesn't hurt my skin.

Here's the sunscreen that doesn't give me acne and works under my foundation

Lastly, I just started using the Cetaphil (lol, what else) face mask and WOW. It's fantastic for cleaning out pores before they turn into break outs, heals break outs faster and makes my skin soft. I've been using this for about 3 months and am very happy.

Please review my posts on checking your skin type in the skincare section. After you know your skin type dm me.

Don’t exfoliate if you have acne. In fact, I’ve been told by dermatologists to not exfoliate anywhere, ever. It probably depends on your skin though - Dr dray, who someone has already mentioned, can recommend gentle exfoliant if you feel you need it.

I also react badly to oil - like you, I went through a rosehip oil phase and it didn’t end well.

If you find the redness hard to solve, I recommend Clinique’s ‘redness solution’ moisturiser. I swear by it. Good luck!

I'm struggling with my skin right now mainly due to stress but I do know that less is more in skincare! If you use too many products it irritates your skin

Lots of info here already. I definitely prefer a minimalist approach. I use the dove beauty bar daily and the st Ives apricot scrub about every other day. I use corsx snail all in one moisturizer daily.

The biggest effect on my skin is water consumption and the avoidance of foods with sugar like candy and sweets.

It's because skin care is cosmetic hobby - not a necessity, not hygeine, and not health care. If you like using a ton of products, go ahead. But if you dont like to, or it makes your skin worse, then dont.

All you actually *need* to do for hygeine and health is wash your face daily with soap, scrub a little with a washcloth to exfoliate when you need it (probably not daily), moisturize with something simple when you need it, and protect your skin with hats/clothing/sunscreen when you need it.

If you have medical or cosmetic skin issues that bother you despite that routine, then try some over the counter things specific to that issue (salicylic acid for acne or retinol for aging, for example). If those dont work and it's bothering you, then see a dermatologist.

And I promise you, no matter how your skin looks, you can "get away" with no makeup at all.

First things first download Yuka, it's got a lil carrot on its picture.

It checks for bad ingredients in cosmetic products even shampoo you just scan what you're going to buy and it'll give you a score. It'll also tell you what's wrong with the product which is really cool.

Second- determine if you have any kind of skin conditions or what type of skin you have. for example I have eczema and I can't use 80% of the products I see and a regular store and I end up just using CeraVe for everything even my face.

And I use Maui for shampoo (shampoos effect your skin too), these things can be expensive especially fancy shampoos like Maui (7$) for lil bottle but I hardly ever break out or have skin problems. Watch out for fragrance because I know that wherever you go in an area that's targeted towards women they're going to sell you some weird cancerous b******* that smells like watermelon and coconut and you have to watch out on what they use for fragrance and you can use that app to figure out if it'll irritate your skin or mess with your reproductive organs or whatever. Those chemicals do crazy s*** and stores are littered with cheap products that don't do anything targeted specifically towards women.

If you're exfoliating make sure that you're using a clean exfoliating utensil because you can't just leave it in the shower and use it for all eternity you have to swap it out and some skin types don't even need crazy exfoliation if you're an oily type you might just need an oily skin CeraVe cleanser and that's it nothing else If you really want to get down dirty you could buy Paula's choice BHA facial toner (gray bottle, white cap) and exfoliate that way (with flat cotton pads) If you buy a little sample bottle off of Amazon you might notice once you use it for the first time you might see some yellow and brown and it could work for you.

. This way you're not jabbing bacteria into your skin with a sponge and instead you're gently rubbing and cleaning everything.

For some people you don't even need to exfoliate with utensils and you don't need to use 10 products or a routine sometimes you just need to clean your face with some water and use a toner afterwards about twice a week.

If it's broken out I'd recommend just some old fashioned water just to let your skin heal and to figure out what works for you kind of like a reset button. Don't use makeup during the healing process.

Oils are a no-go, always, it's like clog pore central. Even me with my dry skin can't use em. The body will produce it's own oils honestly.

For youth just do sunscreen dawg.

Again we're all different so I'd figure out your skin type first and foremost and stick to water and moisturizer for now until you've googled enough things

Could you have damaged your moisture barrier? Lay off the exfoliant for a while and just use gentle cleanser and moisturise and wait it out.

Also if you're using a physical exfoliant, switch to a chemical one as physical ones can be too harsh

The bare minimum basics for skincare is moisturiser, cleanser, and spf. If you want to try extras, do it by their ACTIVE INGREDIENTS and try them 1 at a time. For example, vitamin C (shields sun damage) , retinol (anti aging) , BHA (chemical exfoliant) are actives.

In my opinion, anything more than 1-2 actives is unnecessary. Serums and toners aren't necessary. You don't need a $50 moisturiser. Keep it simple and work your way up.

I would like to recommend this book- "Clean- The New Science of Skin" by James Hamblin. Pretty informative. Basically, in a nutsehell, as less skincare as possible is the best. Products are mostly bullshit.

As for myself, I wash my face with only water most days. When it feels oily or I go to a dirty environment, I use green gram flour/chickpea flour/ bentonite clay. For my body, I use something called "sunni pindi"- which is a combination of certain flour powders (mostly edible). The ingredients don't really matter- as long as you are very mildly removing overt dirt and sweat with water. For my hair, I use fenugreek paste. Sometimes, if I feel really dirty, I use soap on my body. Maybe once a week.

This has worked extremely well for me (especially the hair) for the past 3 years- everything is softer and smoother. I do get a few pimples around my ovulation and period, though.

All the best!