Skin Care

I would like to share with you my journey through the last couple of years regarding skincare. In my younger years, l would lie in the sun all day with very little protection. I had no idea about SPF or protecting my skin, we just went for the burn – thinking how cool we looked with a bit of colour.  Mind you, I never had that easy tanning skin.  I went bright pink, then it all just all peeled off (not cool).  It’s little wonder that I don’t now look like a prune. With our UK climate, we are generally lucky if we get a few days of sunshine in any one year, which has probably saved me. That said, this summer has been exceptionally hot!!!

My favourite sun protection

Over the years I have used many creams and serums that I thought would improve my skin, not really researching the ingredients and relying instead on the information or hype that came with that product.

I would say it was around my late forties, early fifties when my skin started to change.  I noticed the skin on my face was dried out and dull.  My skin also felt irritated and tight, my immediate reaction to this was to buy moisturisers that made me glow like a bleacher beacon! I thought if I slapped on a rich cream that would do the trick, not so!

The world of Skincare can be a minefield

This spurred me on to start to do my research to improve my skin, reading articles by experts, watching vloggers and gathering as much information as I could.  I looked for bloggers and vloggers in my age group – I loved watching the young women as well, but they weren’t on the same journey as me, so I couldn’t relate, women in my age group were hard to find back then, maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough.

Thankfully this is now improving and women in midlife are certainly becoming more visible.   I really enjoyed listening to the ones who I thought knew their stuff and I gained a lot of knowledge from them and still read their blogs or watch them on youtube today.

I must also mention that around my late forties, early fifties it seemed to be a time that is quite frantic and stressful – you will all relate.  Around this time when I felt the beginnings of the menopause everything else seemed to be also reaching a crescendo, such as children going through their teenage hormonal stage, elderly parents or family starting to have health problems or issues – oh the list is endless and there we are trying to look after everyone as well as working and juggling other life balls as well! – so, no wonder things can become a little dramatic with the way we look and feel at this time, I know this was the case with me!

My favourite timeless vitamin C serum

Apologies for going off the subject but it’s all related to how we feel and look.

Of course, nutrition along with drinking plenty of water (I always forget) along with sleep (what’s that) and of course a high SPF cream is always recommended.  Also, I know it shows on my face when I have had a few days of overindulgence, you can certainly get away with that in your early days, but not now.

I have no experience of fillers, Botox or any laser treatments – I am certainly not against any of these – it’s just it’s never been on my radar.

For me, I wanted to see which skincare or active ingredients were proven to work. Skincare that I could try at my leisure, to see if it was effective for me and beneficial to my skin to make me feel better.

Following my research, I learned there is a huge list of ingredients that are effective for better skin – the ingredients that were mentioned time and time again are Retinols, Tretinoin (Retin A), Vitamin C,  a whole host of peptides,  AHA’s and other ingredients (it’s mind-boggling)!

Wonder cream – Tretinoin

I thought I would keep it simple and try Retin A (Tretinoin) and Vitamin C, including it in my skincare routine.

I did my homework regarding Retin A  and to play it safe I started to use it gradually using the lowest strength first, using it once a week and very slowly building it up.  It takes a long time for your skin to adapt, hence I’m still not onto the higher strength of 0.1% daily after using it for three years.   So, the trick I have found is to go slow.  This is certainly not for everyone.  Tretinoin is not available to buy over the counter in the UK, though it is in Europe and other countries – But I feel it has improved my skin and has worked for me – but may not suit everyone – so do your homework if you are tempted.

As I am mildly obsessed with moisturisers and serums I will be doing some tried and tested products I have used along with my journey using Retin A in the future.

Thank you for reading.  Please subscribe to my blog if you enjoyed it!

Alison x

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8 Comments

  1. Bev
    /

    Hi Alison
    Thanks for this I too have been trying out a retinol A syrum type treatment since my skin seemed to age very rapidly during chemotherapy treatment last year, I feel a bit clueless in how to apply it as it’s very runny, I have also used it in combination with one of these derma rollers to help it penetrate the skin better. I would be interested to know more about your routine and how you apply yours in your future blogs, thanks.

    • Hi Bev,
      Apologies for not replying sooner. The internet went off and other IT problems, but all fixed now. Yes I can honestly say it’s a slow journey when you start down the retin A route, I havent got any experience of the derma roll so can’t give advice on that. I do know that you can get irritation with retin a, so maybe for the time being use one or the other, just to be on the safe side. I will write about my journey using retin a in a future post and hopefully it will help you. Thank you for your comment and if you have any more questions let me know.
      Alison
      Xx

  2. I am not positive the place you are getting your information, but great topic.
    I must spend some time finding out much more or working out more.
    Thank you for great info I used to be on the lookout for this info for my mission.

    • Hi Candice,
      I gathered a lot of my information reading articles, watching You Tube tutorials and reading forums on-line. Listening to what different people’s experiences were using various treatments or creams to see if they worked, or not – so I really knew the ins and outs of Retin-A before I tried it myself. Let me know if there is anything you are unsure of?
      Alison

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