In today's episode of "not following my own advice and suffering for it", I wanted to add some dirt to a tree I'm planting. I figured, I'll only be out there for 5-10 minutes, and it will be in shade the whole time! Both lies. I walked in direct sunlight multiple times, and I was out there for 15 min at least. I might have a burn on my face, we'll see after I cool down a bit.
Reminder to self, again: Don't go outside without sunblock, you idiot.
Gotta get one of those big floppy gardeners hats.
It would be better protection, but I know I'd forget to wear it half the time. At least sunblock I think about putting on, I just get lazy and don't do it.
Anyway, as it turned out I am not sunburned, my skin was just extra red because it's hotter than the deepest pits of hell here in Texas. And one of my cherry trees is successfully planted, though whether it will survive beyond a year is uncertain.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
I did end up purchasing a sun hat. I also bought some SPF 50 sunscreen - I was using SPF 40 before. 50 is basically as high as you can go before hitting diminishing returns on SPF. I spend a lot of time in the sun these days (composting, planting) so I needed both of those.
I also realized that I kept describing my skin as painful just because of the blemishes. Now that I'm back up on a skincare routine, I still get blemishes, but they don't hurt. They were hurting before because my skin was so dry (to the point of flaking) that its like the raised bump of a pimple would stretch my tight skin and make the already-painful dryness hurt even worse. I don't mind a pimple or two, what I don't want is pain.
For about 3 weeks now I've been using several Glow Recipe products, specifically their toner, some serums, and their eye cream. The thing that drew me to Glow Recipe is how cute their bottles are - with my ADHD I really need something to get my attention to keep the routine up, and these adorable little glass potion bottles are really helping (I got them all in mini sizes to try them out).
I can definitely recommend their Watermelon Glow PHA + BHA Pore-Tight Toner, I use it morning and night every time I wash. Does it tighten my pores? Honestly I don't believe any skincare product that says it can do that, but that's not why I wanted it. I dunno, maybe I should have taken "before" photos of my skin and then "after" to see if I could tell a difference in pores, but I didn't care that much. What it does for me is help hydrate and exfoliate my skin, and it smells and feels really nice. So no more painful skin flaking. Most of their fruit products (all of them except the avocado-themed stuff, I think) are scented like the fruit extract that is used, but it's not a super strong or overpowering smell like too many brands go for, it's really light.
Their serums I haven't really giving a full trial to yet. I started off by using the Plum Plump Hyaluronic Serum, but I soon realized that with the toner and my regular moisturizer, I didn't really need a third product dedicated strictly to moisturizing. So I got minis of their Avocado Ceramide Recovery Serum to treat redness and Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops for the "dewy glow" aesthetic that is all the rage in skincare circles. The second one definitely gives the correct aesthetic, and niacinamide is one of those ultra-helpful ingredients that are supposed to be good for your skin. I don't know if the recovery serum helps with redness yet, since I only started on it this week. I'll give it a few more weeks.
I don't really know about eye creams anymore. Eye creams are definitely rich moisturizers in and of themselves, but I don't know that they're making a difference in my eyes. I don't have wrinkles around my eyes yet, though, so maybe this step can just be a preventative measure for now. Besides Glow Recipe's eye cream, I've also tried Jones Road eye cream and Lumin's Dark Circle Defense (Lumin is formulated for men, but I got it as a free sample and I don't care who it's formulated for if it ends up working). I haven't really given any of them a steady enough use to decide how well they work, though, so I guess I'll keep trying. I know my face needs moisture so I might as well keep using something on my eyes that's designed for the delicate skin in that area.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Oh, there was one more thing I realized; because the toner and serums are doing so much to moisturize my face, my moisturizer ends up having to do a lot less work overall, so I don't really need ren ultracalm anymore. I can go with a cheaper moisturizer, as long as I keep using the toner at least (and I plan to keep using that, even if I drop the serums eventually). I still have to use up the moisturizers that I currently have (including a few samples), but once those are gone I will probably go shopping around for a cheaper alternative.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
edited August 2022
Well, I stand corrected: modern drugstore skincare is way better than it used to be. My favorite skincare youtuber has some suggestions for inexpensive and drugstore skincare options:
Brands:
The Ordinary, Inkey List, and e.l.f. are inexpensive, well-regarded skincare brands.
Recommended products:
Cleansers:
BYOMA Creamy Jelly Cleanser - $11.99 at Target
Inkey List Fulvic Acid Brightening Cleanser - $10.99 at Kohl's
e.l.f Holy Hydration Daily Cleanser with Hyaluronic Acid and Ceramides - $6.00 at Target
The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser - $7.50 at Target
Serums:
The Ordinary's Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% - $6.50 at Target
The Ordinary's Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 Hydrating Serum - $7.50 at Target
Inkey List Niacinamide Oil Control Serum - $7.99 at various locations
Moisturizers:
The Ordinary natural moisturizing factors + hyaluronic acid - $10.50 at Target
e.l.f. Prep & Hydrate Balm - $8.00 at Target
Simple Skin Water Boost Moisturizer Skin Quench Sleeping Cream - $5.96 at Wal-mart
Face sunscreens:
Beauty Bay SPF 50 high protection UVA UVB sunscreen - I couldn't find this one locally/online, I think it might be a UK-only brand?
Garnier Ambre Solaire Super UV Anti Dark Spots & Anti Pollution Face Fluid SPF50 - This also seems like a UK specific brand, since the only places I see selling it are websites I've never seen before and therefore do not trust, and for $18 on Amazon which looks like it's overpriced.
Bondi Sands sunscreen lotion SPF 50+ for face - $6.99 at Target
Eye creams:
The Ordinary Caffeine Solution 5% EGCG - $7.50 at Target
Vaseline (for overnight) - $1.79 anyplace
You can watch the video to see him discuss ingredients, what's good about the products, and how to use them.
No toners sadly, but I suspect I'm still right that grocery store toners suck and are terrible. I think even more upper scale skincare companies don't do toner right, that's why I'm so jazzed about the watermelon glow toner, it doesn't irritate my highly sensitive skin at all, it's amazing.
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"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
That reminds me, I don't know if I mentioned this -- I've got a couple of patches on my cheeks. Fairly high up, on the cheekbones rather than the meat of the cheek. They're dry, and crusty, and irregularly shaped. I mentioned them to my doctor ('cause when I looked up skin patches like that, Google screamed SKIN CANCER!!!!!) and he said they were just dry spots and to moisturize.
So I moisturized (being someone who has always had somewhat greasy skin, the idea of moisturizing my face seemed abhorrent), and eventually the flakiness of the patch on the right side peeled off, for whatever reason.
Left side has gotten... I apologize for being a bit gross, but I can't think of a better word. It's gotten crustier. It doesn't flake off or anything like that. Being that the right side peeled off, I tried to get the left to peel, and that didn't happen. It didn't bleed, but there was a tiny speck of a spot that blood welled to the surface, if you follow.
What do you think? It's largely hidden by my beard, so I'm not too worried about the cosmetic appearance, and given that a doc said it wasn't anything to worry about, I'm not worried about the SKIN CANCER!!!!!, but I kinda don't want a patch of very pickable skin on my face. Moisturizing, as yet, hasn't seemed to have any effect (in fact, it's gotten a bit bigger). Suggestions? Just keep moisturizing?
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
That reminds me, I don't know if I mentioned this -- I've got a couple of patches on my cheeks. Fairly high up, on the cheekbones rather than the meat of the cheek. They're dry, and crusty, and irregularly shaped. I mentioned them to my doctor ('cause when I looked up skin patches like that, Google screamed SKIN CANCER!!!!!) and he said they were just dry spots and to moisturize.
So I moisturized (being someone who has always had somewhat greasy skin, the idea of moisturizing my face seemed abhorrent), and eventually the flakiness of the patch on the right side peeled off, for whatever reason.
Left side has gotten... I apologize for being a bit gross, but I can't think of a better word. It's gotten crustier. It doesn't flake off or anything like that. Being that the right side peeled off, I tried to get the left to peel, and that didn't happen. It didn't bleed, but there was a tiny speck of a spot that blood welled to the surface, if you follow.
What do you think? It's largely hidden by my beard, so I'm not too worried about the cosmetic appearance, and given that a doc said it wasn't anything to worry about, I'm not worried about the SKIN CANCER!!!!!, but I kinda don't want a patch of very pickable skin on my face. Moisturizing, as yet, hasn't seemed to have any effect (in fact, it's gotten a bit bigger). Suggestions? Just keep moisturizing?
Keep moisturizing, yeah. Morning and night. But also, what are you using as your face moisturizer? You might need to get a better one (or just a different one).
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"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
I use the same moisturizer that I use for my hands and my feet, Lubriderm Advanced Therapy. After I rub down my hands, feet, knees, and arms, I give a little rub on the dry spot. I'm really hesitant to go all out on moisturizing my face, for the aforementioned greasy face reasons, so it really just gets leftover moisture.
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
I use the same moisturizer that I use for my hands and my feet, Lubriderm Advanced Therapy. After I rub down my hands, feet, knees, and arms, I give a little rub on the dry spot. I'm really hesitant to go all out on moisturizing my face, for the aforementioned greasy face reasons, so it really just gets leftover moisture.
There are face moisturizers that are designed specifically for oily skin - they have ingredients that help control the oil and tone it down. You should also be washing your face before putting on the moisturizer. I'm not a dermatologist, but one thing that could be happening is that your skin is overproducing oil because of the dry skin patch. Your body is trying to fix the problem the only way it knows how, so moisturizing is a way to calm your skin down and stop the overproduction.
The problem with body moisturizer on the face is that it's formulated for different skin. Your skin has different widths and textures throughout your body - the bottom of your feet being the thickest, the skin around your eyes being the thinnest. You aren't going to get the best results from body moisturizer on the face, because it's not formulated to work on the more delicate skin of your face. Even the cheapest face moisturizer would be better.
Also, of course, you can visit a dermatologist for more specific guidance on your face patch.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
edited August 2022
I've talked a little bit about serums, about not knowing what they were for. That's because when I first got one I didn't do any research on it. Now I get it - or at least I think I do. The thing is that there's only so many ingredients you can pack into a moisturizer, and the more you try to fit in the less effect those ingredients will be. The important thing that your moisturizer does is lock in the moisture in your face so it doesn't dry out through the day. You don't necessarily want to start adding ingredients to treat rosacea, or help with skin turnover, or exfoliate, because then it might do it's number-one job less well. That's where the serums come in - they're skin treatments for specific problems, and they're made to be much thinner than a moisturizer so that they soak in quickly. In my mind, moisturizer is like the fruit and vegetables you eat every day to keep yourself healthy, and serums are taking vitamin D because you don't get enough sun or echinacea because you're prone to colds. You don't have to take those vitamin supplements, but you might find them useful in some situations.
I've experimented with a few different ways to use the serums. At first, I mixed all the ones I wanted to use together and put them on my face at the same time - that's, supposedly, a method innovated by Korean skincare influencers. I'm not really a fan of that. Next I tried putting them on from thinnest to thickest, which is another method recommended on the internet if you read up on this stuff. That seemed OK, but I think my preferred method for now is the one I've just switched to, where I do a "daytime" serum (Niacinamide dew drops) and a "nightime" one (ceramide recovery cream). If I add a third one in at some point I'll probably do a hybrid of these methods, either by mixing the new serum in with one of the existing, or doing one after the other. I'm probably going to ultimately try all of Glow Recipe's serums at one point or another, just because those bottles are too damn cute. But I mean not only that, I do have dark spots on my face so I'd like to try the Guava Vitamin C Dark Spot Serum. I also will probably try the Strawberry Smooth AHA + BHA Salicylic serum as an acne treatment. But I'll wait until my current mini serums are used up before then, just so I can give each one a proper trial.
I know I'm sounding like a walking advert for that company, I'm just a sucker for cute packaging I think. Once I've tried all their stuff I'll probably give some Ren serums a chance, since I still like their moisturizer a lot.
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"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Glow recipe gave me a $7 discount code on account of messing up a shipment they sent me (they also sent the product to me that was missing from the shipment, I should add) so I used that to go ahead and purchase the Strawberry Smooth serum. A lot of articles I've read about it play it up a lot as an acne fighter.
I also put the plump plumper serum back into my routine. I found that the niacinamide dew drops appear to dry me out a bit (niacinamide is said to be a good ingredient for acne/oil control, so this makes sense), so I put the hyaluronic acid serum back in. So my serum routine now is, for the morning, 1) hyaluronic acid (plum plumper) 2) niacinamide (watermelon dew drops) and for the evening 1) hyaluronic acid 2) redness serum.
That's kind of a lot of serums, but right now I'm experimenting to find out what works for me; I expect my final choices will be much less involved (and of course there are always those days when I can't be bothered and just do the minimum). Most of my current serums are mini size, the acne serum will be the exception because they don't seem to keep it in multiple sizes. Once the acne serum is delivered, I think my routine will be - Morning: 1) hyaluronic acid 2) niacinamide - evening: 1) acne serum 2) redness serum. I'm honestly not sure I'm seeing a difference with the redness serum, so I'll probably drop that once I run out of it, and use the hyaluronic acid at night instead.
Also last night my husband saw me in my reusable silicone sheet mask for the first time. I was trying to hide it from him because it looks dumb, but I suppose if anyone is allowed to see me looking at maximum dumbness it's Strikor.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
So, sunscreen: the label always says to re-apply every 2 hours, and, like
does anyone actually do that?
When I was doing drum corps (so, outside all day (and I do mean all day) in the summer sun) I would apply sunscreen at breakfast and again right after lunch; so, maybe four hours apart. That was sufficient to keep my Nordic-ancestry-white skin from burning. But looking at face cleansers, etc. that make skin photosensitive, I'm wondering if I would actually need to rub stuff on my face every two hours, whether I'm outside or not. Because that is not happening.
Calica on
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
So, sunscreen: the label always says to re-apply every 2 hours, and, like
does anyone actually do that?
When I was doing drum corps (so, outside all day (and I do mean all day) in the summer sun) I would apply sunscreen at breakfast and again right after lunch; so, maybe four hours apart. That was sufficient to keep my Nordic-ancestry-white skin from burning. But looking at face cleansers, etc. that make skin photosensitive, I'm wondering if I would actually need to rub stuff on my face every two hours, whether I'm outside or not. Because that is not happening.
If you're inside all day I think once is enough. My problem is that I'll go out working in the sun getting sweaty and whatnot, but I never apply it then even though I know I should. At least thanks to this thread I'm wearing a hat now.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
@Calica thank you for bringing that up, I literally never thought about it before. Yesterday when you brought it up I was just like, "fuck, I'm not going to do that, too much trouble." Then I thought about it overnight, and I do have an aerosol sunscreen so it's not even like it's hard, so from now on I'm going to try to remember re-applying, along with wearing the hat.
See this is why I made this thread, there's all sorts of shit I don't think about because I never thought I had to when I was younger, and now my skin won't take the least amount of shit from me so I have to. And I don't know what I don't know!
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
edited August 2022
So I'm overdoing something in my experiments, and I think it's the serums - not a surprise really. What makes me say that is that I've been breaking out more and more. At first I thought it might be the toner so I started doing that once per wash instead of twice, but no that made it worse. However, I got the Strawberry serum from glow recipe yesterday and it might be a coincidence but when I used it as a spot treatment last night all of my pimples were smaller or gone today. So for now I'm going to try wash + toner + strawberry serum + moisturizer and see how that goes. If I'm still breaking out I'll take out serums entirely until it's clear.
Also, I've been meaning to share pics on how fast tea tree oil takes care of mosquito bites. I know from experience it doesn't work this well on everyone as sadly Strikor didn't have the same experience; but I also get bit by mosquitoes a lot more than he does so it works out in the end. One thing is that I would not recommend putting tea tree oil on your face, as the smell makes my eyes water; but also, essential oils, even when diluted, can cause a reaction on the skin of your face, so you have to be careful with them. Also, tea tree oil is toxic to pets, so don't let them rub up against you, and definitely don't pick your pets up or cuddle them with the oil on your hands.
I have the tea tree oil diluted at 1:6 with sweet almond oil. It's a mess to apply and if I have to apply it to a large area I always take a shower afterwards, but it's amazing how it utterly erases mosquito bites for me. Here's some pictures:
I took 2 "before" pictures because it's hard to see this bite, but this is right when it was at it's itchiest:
This is my elbow, btw.
This is immediately after application. It still itches, but it already feels a little bit soothed. During this stage, I usually just keep rubbing the oil in until the itchiness reduces enough for me to forget about it. I don't know that this makes the tea tree oil work any better, it just feel nice. I think it's easier to see the bit in this photo.
This is 5-8 minutes later. At this point, the bite is still visible, but it barely itches at all. For my smaller mosquito bites, some of them don't itch at all at this stage:
This is 15 minutes later. The bite is still red, but doesn't itch at all and is no longer swollen. I had to remind myself to check it again after this since it no longer bothered me:
This is an hour after my first application. You can't even tell where I was bitten anymore. This picture is angled differently than the others (showing the mole on the underside of my arm) because I couldn't remember where the bite had been.
I had a really horrendous case of bites a few days ago, because I foolishly decided to work in our garden immediately after work, which was about 7:20pm, twilight, when the mosquitoes love to have feeding frenzies. I counted at least 12 mosquito bites on my calves and I know there were more than that. I slathered my calves up and kept rubbing them with the oil to soothe the itch, and just as above after an hour they were gone.
I guarantee there are companies that make creams and gels with tea tree oil if just applying the oil seems annoying (and it is), but the oil alone is a cheap and plentiful solution so I'm just going to keep doing it this way.
Cambiata on
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
Maybe that's what I had the tea tree oil for!
I get some bad reactions to mosquito bites, and a year or so back, I found a bottle of tea tree oil in my bathroom. I didn't remember buying it, or what I bought it for, but if I had heard about it's effectiveness on mosquito bites, that would explain it.
I think I wound up dumping it into a bottle of body wash . . .
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Maybe that's what I had the tea tree oil for!
I get some bad reactions to mosquito bites, and a year or so back, I found a bottle of tea tree oil in my bathroom. I didn't remember buying it, or what I bought it for, but if I had heard about it's effectiveness on mosquito bites, that would explain it.
I think I wound up dumping it into a bottle of body wash . . .
Could be! Another thing it's said to be good for is pimples, but my face is too sensitive for me to give it a good trial.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
edited August 2022
I figured out one problem element with my current skincare trials: the avocado ceremide recovery cream. I tried to add it back in a couple of nights ago, only to realize that it makes my skin sting when I put it on. Pain with skincare is a red flag. So I've stowed that away. It's especially annoying to find out my skin doesn't agree with that cream because ceremide is supposed to help your skin recover. That said I am in luck because I had recently heard about Ample N Ceremide shot as a popular recovery serum that gives you a lot of product for the price, so I already had that on hand. Definitely no stinging with it, so I am now including it as part of my routine at least until my skin clears up. The strawberry salicylic acid serum I'm not really putting on serum-style, I'm just using it as a once-a-day acne spot treatment. I'm not really sure if it's helping, so I'll give it a couple more days and maybe drop it and hang with the ceremide shot only for a while.
Also, today I plan to wear makeup. I realize previously in the thread I may have given a false impression of a "not like other girls" or a "pick me" girl with my description of makeup as something I don't do often. The reason I don't do it often isn't because I dislike makeup. I think makeup is a beautiful art that requires skill and practice! The reason I rarely do it is because 1) I'm lazy and 2) my skin is sensitive, so I have to be careful how often I put things on it besides skincare 3) my effortful art interest lie in other directions. Today I'll be going with basic makeup because I'll be in a professional setting and want to look polished.
In the past, I always put my makeup on immediately after skincare. Since I have some time, today I'm waiting a bit for my skincare to sink in as much as possible before I start the makeup. So at least 30 minutes.
Edit: Fucking nooooope on the makeup. We recently replaced the lights in my office bathroom, the previous ones being too dim. And with the improved lighting I quickly realized that my foundation is far too orange. Good thing I didn't wear it much out. It was expensive stuff, too! See this is why I don't do makeup often, it's f'n hard. At least in replacing it I can purchase the drugstore dupe version of the foundation at a fraction of the price. Originally bought Gorgio Armani Luminous foundation, will now try L’Oreal True Match Lumi Foundation which is one of the dupes.
After doing a full skincare routine, waiting, and putting on spf and foundation, I then had to thoroughly clean it all off, redo skincare (minus the salicylic acid, I don't want to overuse that) and then put spf on immediately because I can't wait this time. Oh I did cycle the niacinamide serum back in this time, since I feel like I've found the cause for my pimples in the avocado serum that I won't use anymore. Niacinamide will be a sort of replacement for makeup as it makes your skin "glow"; it won't cover up my rosacea-cheeks but folks will just have to live with that.
Cambiata on
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
I was rocking a bunch of Kiehl's products for a while, but hard times financially meant I needed to dial back a bit, so I decided to try out The Ordinary just to try to get back into the skincare game
Good lord did their toner and retinol fuck my skin up
I've used retinol products before, but it was a Drunk Elephant one so the bar was set to "two zits" and that was about it
The toner caused some dry skin but the retinol itself caused both my eyes to scale up and look like I ran sand paper over them, it was atrocious
Their moisturizer is... aggressively fine, their hyaluronic acid didn't really have a noticeable effect, and I like their cleanser for makeup removal, but that's about it.
I was rocking a bunch of Kiehl's products for a while, but hard times financially meant I needed to dial back a bit, so I decided to try out The Ordinary just to try to get back into the skincare game
Good lord did their toner and retinol fuck my skin up
I've used retinol products before, but it was a Drunk Elephant one so the bar was set to "two zits" and that was about it
The toner caused some dry skin but the retinol itself caused both my eyes to scale up and look like I ran sand paper over them, it was atrocious
Their moisturizer is... aggressively fine, their hyaluronic acid didn't really have a noticeable effect, and I like their cleanser for makeup removal, but that's about it.
Oof, sorry to hear that. I had the same problem with their toner, but I assumed it was because my skin's so cranky these days.
The Inkey List is also supposed to be an inexpensive skincare line that's good, but I haven't tried them yet.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Whelp, remember when I said that I could probably use any moisturizer now, since I was getting so much hydration in serums? That was a fucking lie, my skin refuses any moisturizer except the stupidly expensive Ren Evercalm. So far I've tried two from Glow Recipe, a popular one from Drunk Elephant, and a rosemary-smelling one from Alpyn Beauty. The only of those that worked was the stinky Alpyn Beauty one, which is even more expensive than Ren. So yeah I'm giving up trying out new moisturizers for the moment, I have one that works so I might as well stay the course.
On my serums calibration, I've taken the watermelon niacinamide serum out of rotation for now. I think using it too often irritates my skin, it'll have to be an occasional thing. For a bit I had removed the hylauronic acid serum because I learned that basically all of my skincare has hylauronic acid in it, after a couple of washes without it my skin just wanted it back, so it's back.
Also, I've added some overnight masks in! I don't know why, I just find overnight masks fun for some reason? As long as they aren't ultra-smelly, and the ones I've tried so far are not.
First I got a mini of the Glow Recipe (yeah I know, I keep going back to that well) Watermelon Glow AHA Night Treatment. I was a little worried about using exfoliant chemicals on an overnight mask, but my skin felt great the next day. I think as long as I keep it to 3 days a week, as recommended, it should be fine. The other overnight mask I got was the Make Beauty Overnight Recovery Balm. It feels so nice and comfortable after a long day. I have some on now since I'm about to go to bed. It's rich enough that it almost makes me want to continue looking for a new moisturizer and to use Make Beauty for the next trial. Almost.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
I'm at the beach right now and I'm wondering what is it with these elderly people with really nasty leathery skin with all sorts of melanomas all over it that always seem to be sunning themselves at every beach I visit? Is it some sort of ocd thing?
"Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
I'm at the beach right now and I'm wondering what is it with these elderly people with really nasty leathery skin with all sorts of melanomas all over it that always seem to be sunning themselves at every beach I visit? Is it some sort of ocd thing?
I didn't really know how to comment on this before, but I'd like to gently push back against describing people with terms like "leathery skin" - it feels like it's criticizing other people's looks, especially appearance that they cannot, at this point, help, so I'd rather not do it.
But just in general with older people and sun care, I do feel that when I was growing up (80s-90s), sun protection was a lot less well understood, and people only wore SPF when going to the beach, not when going out every day to garden or whatnot. For that matter, a lot of people would just go "lay out" in the sun to get a suntan, using dark tanning oil like Hawaiian Tropic. So it's to be expected that older generations just have more sun damage that younger folks. I watched an interesting video about whether we age slower now than previous generations did on Vsauce:
RE: my skincare routine, part of the reason I started this thread was to keep me honest about my routine. Well I've been fucking up this week and it shows on my face! For example, I did wash and put on sunscreen yesterday (good), but went to bed without washing it off (bad) so today I have a face full of pimples. I washed and used the strawberry serum on the pimples - thus far that stuff has taken my pimples away after two days, it's not instantaneous but I do see marked improvement after one day, so it's worth using for me. Hopefully this experience will keep me on the straight and narrow for the rest of the week.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
Two pieces of beginning skincare advice I see a lot are as follows:
1. The minimal skincare routine is cleanser, toner, moisturizer, sunscreen.
2. Only add one product to your routine at a time, so you can tell how your skin reacts.
These would seem to be in conflict. How start?
I've also read that cleansers should be within a certain pH range (which I'd have to look up), but I have seen zero drugstore products that list their pH. (Walgreens has stuff that at least looks like it might be decent quality, but I have no idea what I'm doing...)
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Two pieces of beginning skincare advice I see a lot are as follows:
1. The minimal skincare routine is cleanser, toner, moisturizer, sunscreen.
2. Only add one product to your routine at a time, so you can tell how your skin reacts.
These would seem to be in conflict. How start?
I've also read that cleansers should be within a certain pH range (which I'd have to look up), but I have seen zero drugstore products that list their pH. (Walgreens has stuff that at least looks like it might be decent quality, but I have no idea what I'm doing...)
Yeah those steps are kinda in conflict, and I'm not really sure how to get around it. I've heard about PH, too, but I don't have the foggiest clue how you find out PH, so I just ignore that? Maybe someone with more experience can chime in here.
As far as cleansers go, I think for the most part this step is the one you need to worry the least about, because other than something like Noxema, even the most basic cleansers are formulated to be "non-stripping." Cetaphil is a brand that's made by dermatologists, so you can start with their cleanser without having to worry too much. If your concerned about your cleanser being too drying, then find a cleansing balm - any cleansing balm - and use that instead. Even Pond's cold cream cleanser works fine here. As I mentioned before, I do prefer products without mineral oil, but as it turns out there's nothing really wrong with using petroleum products on your skin - science says it's fine, and it has less allergen potential than the nut oils that go into "natural" cleansing balms. The only area where I'd really use caution in using petroleum products that stay on the skin is under the nose, due to a rare illness called lipid pneumonia, which is caused by breathing in fats. So I'll continue staying away from carmex and other petroleum lip balms, but a cleanser should be fine.
SPF I also think isn't a step you need to worry too much about adding. Despite what some crunchy influencers might try to say about sun blocking ingredients being "toxic", there is no scientific research that supports that. Whether you get some Banana Boat sunscreen, or opt for the overpriced Unseen sunscreen that I like, you should be fine with whatever. The only ones I personally would avoid are the suntan oils, as mentioned above, because the goal with those is to let the sun in instead of keeping it out - I've also found that they block my pores and cause blemishes like crazy, so just all around bad IMO. Also, if you get sunscreen in makeup be aware that it won't be sufficient for protecting your skin. The recommended amount of sunscreen for your face is one teaspoon, and most people won't be putting a teaspoon of foundation on their face - so spf makeup can help out, but it shouldn't be your only line of defense. Also, there's no significant benefit to getting an SPF higher than 50. The range should be between 30 and 50 SPF, 50 SPF being what you use when you know you're going to be in direct sunlight for an extended period.
So the main ingredient you need to work out when you start is the moisturizer. Don't add toner yet, you can go without that while you figure out the moisturizer. Since everyone's skin is different, it's hard to advise on what to use in this space, but the basics are that it should feel good on your skin and your skin should feel, well, moisturized. If your skin feels dry an hour or two after moisturizing, then that's not the one for you. If it stings or hurts in some way, it's not the right one, either. So you buy a moisturizer, use it for a week and see how it goes. Beyond those first two stipulations, you'll also want to notice if your skin seems to be breaking out more with the new moisturizer than it was without it - things like that are why you add products slowly. There still is some danger that the cleanser you use will turn out to be the problem, rather than the moisturizer - unfortunately there doesn't really seem to be a way around this. I think SPF is the least likely thing to cause a problem at this stage, as long as you wash it off at the end of the day.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
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It would be better protection, but I know I'd forget to wear it half the time. At least sunblock I think about putting on, I just get lazy and don't do it.
Anyway, as it turned out I am not sunburned, my skin was just extra red because it's hotter than the deepest pits of hell here in Texas. And one of my cherry trees is successfully planted, though whether it will survive beyond a year is uncertain.
I also realized that I kept describing my skin as painful just because of the blemishes. Now that I'm back up on a skincare routine, I still get blemishes, but they don't hurt. They were hurting before because my skin was so dry (to the point of flaking) that its like the raised bump of a pimple would stretch my tight skin and make the already-painful dryness hurt even worse. I don't mind a pimple or two, what I don't want is pain.
For about 3 weeks now I've been using several Glow Recipe products, specifically their toner, some serums, and their eye cream. The thing that drew me to Glow Recipe is how cute their bottles are - with my ADHD I really need something to get my attention to keep the routine up, and these adorable little glass potion bottles are really helping (I got them all in mini sizes to try them out).
I can definitely recommend their Watermelon Glow PHA + BHA Pore-Tight Toner, I use it morning and night every time I wash. Does it tighten my pores? Honestly I don't believe any skincare product that says it can do that, but that's not why I wanted it. I dunno, maybe I should have taken "before" photos of my skin and then "after" to see if I could tell a difference in pores, but I didn't care that much. What it does for me is help hydrate and exfoliate my skin, and it smells and feels really nice. So no more painful skin flaking. Most of their fruit products (all of them except the avocado-themed stuff, I think) are scented like the fruit extract that is used, but it's not a super strong or overpowering smell like too many brands go for, it's really light.
Their serums I haven't really giving a full trial to yet. I started off by using the Plum Plump Hyaluronic Serum, but I soon realized that with the toner and my regular moisturizer, I didn't really need a third product dedicated strictly to moisturizing. So I got minis of their Avocado Ceramide Recovery Serum to treat redness and Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops for the "dewy glow" aesthetic that is all the rage in skincare circles. The second one definitely gives the correct aesthetic, and niacinamide is one of those ultra-helpful ingredients that are supposed to be good for your skin. I don't know if the recovery serum helps with redness yet, since I only started on it this week. I'll give it a few more weeks.
I don't really know about eye creams anymore. Eye creams are definitely rich moisturizers in and of themselves, but I don't know that they're making a difference in my eyes. I don't have wrinkles around my eyes yet, though, so maybe this step can just be a preventative measure for now. Besides Glow Recipe's eye cream, I've also tried Jones Road eye cream and Lumin's Dark Circle Defense (Lumin is formulated for men, but I got it as a free sample and I don't care who it's formulated for if it ends up working). I haven't really given any of them a steady enough use to decide how well they work, though, so I guess I'll keep trying. I know my face needs moisture so I might as well keep using something on my eyes that's designed for the delicate skin in that area.
If you don't want to watch the video, he mentions
Brands:
The Ordinary, Inkey List, and e.l.f. are inexpensive, well-regarded skincare brands.
Recommended products:
Cleansers:
BYOMA Creamy Jelly Cleanser - $11.99 at Target
Inkey List Fulvic Acid Brightening Cleanser - $10.99 at Kohl's
e.l.f Holy Hydration Daily Cleanser with Hyaluronic Acid and Ceramides - $6.00 at Target
The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser - $7.50 at Target
Serums:
The Ordinary's Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% - $6.50 at Target
The Ordinary's Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 Hydrating Serum - $7.50 at Target
Inkey List Niacinamide Oil Control Serum - $7.99 at various locations
Moisturizers:
The Ordinary natural moisturizing factors + hyaluronic acid - $10.50 at Target
e.l.f. Prep & Hydrate Balm - $8.00 at Target
Simple Skin Water Boost Moisturizer Skin Quench Sleeping Cream - $5.96 at Wal-mart
Face sunscreens:
Beauty Bay SPF 50 high protection UVA UVB sunscreen - I couldn't find this one locally/online, I think it might be a UK-only brand?
Garnier Ambre Solaire Super UV Anti Dark Spots & Anti Pollution Face Fluid SPF50 - This also seems like a UK specific brand, since the only places I see selling it are websites I've never seen before and therefore do not trust, and for $18 on Amazon which looks like it's overpriced.
Bondi Sands sunscreen lotion SPF 50+ for face - $6.99 at Target
Eye creams:
The Ordinary Caffeine Solution 5% EGCG - $7.50 at Target
Vaseline (for overnight) - $1.79 anyplace
You can watch the video to see him discuss ingredients, what's good about the products, and how to use them.
No toners sadly, but I suspect I'm still right that grocery store toners suck and are terrible. I think even more upper scale skincare companies don't do toner right, that's why I'm so jazzed about the watermelon glow toner, it doesn't irritate my highly sensitive skin at all, it's amazing.
So I moisturized (being someone who has always had somewhat greasy skin, the idea of moisturizing my face seemed abhorrent), and eventually the flakiness of the patch on the right side peeled off, for whatever reason.
Left side has gotten... I apologize for being a bit gross, but I can't think of a better word. It's gotten crustier. It doesn't flake off or anything like that. Being that the right side peeled off, I tried to get the left to peel, and that didn't happen. It didn't bleed, but there was a tiny speck of a spot that blood welled to the surface, if you follow.
What do you think? It's largely hidden by my beard, so I'm not too worried about the cosmetic appearance, and given that a doc said it wasn't anything to worry about, I'm not worried about the SKIN CANCER!!!!!, but I kinda don't want a patch of very pickable skin on my face. Moisturizing, as yet, hasn't seemed to have any effect (in fact, it's gotten a bit bigger). Suggestions? Just keep moisturizing?
Keep moisturizing, yeah. Morning and night. But also, what are you using as your face moisturizer? You might need to get a better one (or just a different one).
There are face moisturizers that are designed specifically for oily skin - they have ingredients that help control the oil and tone it down. You should also be washing your face before putting on the moisturizer. I'm not a dermatologist, but one thing that could be happening is that your skin is overproducing oil because of the dry skin patch. Your body is trying to fix the problem the only way it knows how, so moisturizing is a way to calm your skin down and stop the overproduction.
The problem with body moisturizer on the face is that it's formulated for different skin. Your skin has different widths and textures throughout your body - the bottom of your feet being the thickest, the skin around your eyes being the thinnest. You aren't going to get the best results from body moisturizer on the face, because it's not formulated to work on the more delicate skin of your face. Even the cheapest face moisturizer would be better.
Here's an inexpensive one with salicylic acid, which is specifically an acne fighting ingredient, but also helps with oil control. Or if would like to avoid salicylic acid, here's another one formulated for oily skin.
Also, of course, you can visit a dermatologist for more specific guidance on your face patch.
I've experimented with a few different ways to use the serums. At first, I mixed all the ones I wanted to use together and put them on my face at the same time - that's, supposedly, a method innovated by Korean skincare influencers. I'm not really a fan of that. Next I tried putting them on from thinnest to thickest, which is another method recommended on the internet if you read up on this stuff. That seemed OK, but I think my preferred method for now is the one I've just switched to, where I do a "daytime" serum (Niacinamide dew drops) and a "nightime" one (ceramide recovery cream). If I add a third one in at some point I'll probably do a hybrid of these methods, either by mixing the new serum in with one of the existing, or doing one after the other. I'm probably going to ultimately try all of Glow Recipe's serums at one point or another, just because those bottles are too damn cute. But I mean not only that, I do have dark spots on my face so I'd like to try the Guava Vitamin C Dark Spot Serum. I also will probably try the Strawberry Smooth AHA + BHA Salicylic serum as an acne treatment. But I'll wait until my current mini serums are used up before then, just so I can give each one a proper trial.
I know I'm sounding like a walking advert for that company, I'm just a sucker for cute packaging I think. Once I've tried all their stuff I'll probably give some Ren serums a chance, since I still like their moisturizer a lot.
I also put the plump plumper serum back into my routine. I found that the niacinamide dew drops appear to dry me out a bit (niacinamide is said to be a good ingredient for acne/oil control, so this makes sense), so I put the hyaluronic acid serum back in. So my serum routine now is, for the morning, 1) hyaluronic acid (plum plumper) 2) niacinamide (watermelon dew drops) and for the evening 1) hyaluronic acid 2) redness serum.
That's kind of a lot of serums, but right now I'm experimenting to find out what works for me; I expect my final choices will be much less involved (and of course there are always those days when I can't be bothered and just do the minimum). Most of my current serums are mini size, the acne serum will be the exception because they don't seem to keep it in multiple sizes. Once the acne serum is delivered, I think my routine will be - Morning: 1) hyaluronic acid 2) niacinamide - evening: 1) acne serum 2) redness serum. I'm honestly not sure I'm seeing a difference with the redness serum, so I'll probably drop that once I run out of it, and use the hyaluronic acid at night instead.
Also last night my husband saw me in my reusable silicone sheet mask for the first time. I was trying to hide it from him because it looks dumb, but I suppose if anyone is allowed to see me looking at maximum dumbness it's Strikor.
does anyone actually do that?
When I was doing drum corps (so, outside all day (and I do mean all day) in the summer sun) I would apply sunscreen at breakfast and again right after lunch; so, maybe four hours apart. That was sufficient to keep my Nordic-ancestry-white skin from burning. But looking at face cleansers, etc. that make skin photosensitive, I'm wondering if I would actually need to rub stuff on my face every two hours, whether I'm outside or not. Because that is not happening.
If you're inside all day I think once is enough. My problem is that I'll go out working in the sun getting sweaty and whatnot, but I never apply it then even though I know I should. At least thanks to this thread I'm wearing a hat now.
See this is why I made this thread, there's all sorts of shit I don't think about because I never thought I had to when I was younger, and now my skin won't take the least amount of shit from me so I have to. And I don't know what I don't know!
Also, I've been meaning to share pics on how fast tea tree oil takes care of mosquito bites. I know from experience it doesn't work this well on everyone as sadly Strikor didn't have the same experience; but I also get bit by mosquitoes a lot more than he does so it works out in the end. One thing is that I would not recommend putting tea tree oil on your face, as the smell makes my eyes water; but also, essential oils, even when diluted, can cause a reaction on the skin of your face, so you have to be careful with them. Also, tea tree oil is toxic to pets, so don't let them rub up against you, and definitely don't pick your pets up or cuddle them with the oil on your hands.
I have the tea tree oil diluted at 1:6 with sweet almond oil. It's a mess to apply and if I have to apply it to a large area I always take a shower afterwards, but it's amazing how it utterly erases mosquito bites for me. Here's some pictures:
I took 2 "before" pictures because it's hard to see this bite, but this is right when it was at it's itchiest:
This is my elbow, btw.
This is immediately after application. It still itches, but it already feels a little bit soothed. During this stage, I usually just keep rubbing the oil in until the itchiness reduces enough for me to forget about it. I don't know that this makes the tea tree oil work any better, it just feel nice. I think it's easier to see the bit in this photo.
This is 5-8 minutes later. At this point, the bite is still visible, but it barely itches at all. For my smaller mosquito bites, some of them don't itch at all at this stage:
This is 15 minutes later. The bite is still red, but doesn't itch at all and is no longer swollen. I had to remind myself to check it again after this since it no longer bothered me:
This is an hour after my first application. You can't even tell where I was bitten anymore. This picture is angled differently than the others (showing the mole on the underside of my arm) because I couldn't remember where the bite had been.
I had a really horrendous case of bites a few days ago, because I foolishly decided to work in our garden immediately after work, which was about 7:20pm, twilight, when the mosquitoes love to have feeding frenzies. I counted at least 12 mosquito bites on my calves and I know there were more than that. I slathered my calves up and kept rubbing them with the oil to soothe the itch, and just as above after an hour they were gone.
I guarantee there are companies that make creams and gels with tea tree oil if just applying the oil seems annoying (and it is), but the oil alone is a cheap and plentiful solution so I'm just going to keep doing it this way.
I get some bad reactions to mosquito bites, and a year or so back, I found a bottle of tea tree oil in my bathroom. I didn't remember buying it, or what I bought it for, but if I had heard about it's effectiveness on mosquito bites, that would explain it.
I think I wound up dumping it into a bottle of body wash . . .
Could be! Another thing it's said to be good for is pimples, but my face is too sensitive for me to give it a good trial.
Also, today I plan to wear makeup. I realize previously in the thread I may have given a false impression of a "not like other girls" or a "pick me" girl with my description of makeup as something I don't do often. The reason I don't do it often isn't because I dislike makeup. I think makeup is a beautiful art that requires skill and practice! The reason I rarely do it is because 1) I'm lazy and 2) my skin is sensitive, so I have to be careful how often I put things on it besides skincare 3) my effortful art interest lie in other directions. Today I'll be going with basic makeup because I'll be in a professional setting and want to look polished.
In the past, I always put my makeup on immediately after skincare. Since I have some time, today I'm waiting a bit for my skincare to sink in as much as possible before I start the makeup. So at least 30 minutes.
Edit: Fucking nooooope on the makeup. We recently replaced the lights in my office bathroom, the previous ones being too dim. And with the improved lighting I quickly realized that my foundation is far too orange. Good thing I didn't wear it much out. It was expensive stuff, too! See this is why I don't do makeup often, it's f'n hard. At least in replacing it I can purchase the drugstore dupe version of the foundation at a fraction of the price. Originally bought Gorgio Armani Luminous foundation, will now try L’Oreal True Match Lumi Foundation which is one of the dupes.
After doing a full skincare routine, waiting, and putting on spf and foundation, I then had to thoroughly clean it all off, redo skincare (minus the salicylic acid, I don't want to overuse that) and then put spf on immediately because I can't wait this time. Oh I did cycle the niacinamide serum back in this time, since I feel like I've found the cause for my pimples in the avocado serum that I won't use anymore. Niacinamide will be a sort of replacement for makeup as it makes your skin "glow"; it won't cover up my rosacea-cheeks but folks will just have to live with that.
Good lord did their toner and retinol fuck my skin up
I've used retinol products before, but it was a Drunk Elephant one so the bar was set to "two zits" and that was about it
The toner caused some dry skin but the retinol itself caused both my eyes to scale up and look like I ran sand paper over them, it was atrocious
Their moisturizer is... aggressively fine, their hyaluronic acid didn't really have a noticeable effect, and I like their cleanser for makeup removal, but that's about it.
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Oof, sorry to hear that. I had the same problem with their toner, but I assumed it was because my skin's so cranky these days.
The Inkey List is also supposed to be an inexpensive skincare line that's good, but I haven't tried them yet.
On my serums calibration, I've taken the watermelon niacinamide serum out of rotation for now. I think using it too often irritates my skin, it'll have to be an occasional thing. For a bit I had removed the hylauronic acid serum because I learned that basically all of my skincare has hylauronic acid in it, after a couple of washes without it my skin just wanted it back, so it's back.
Also, I've added some overnight masks in! I don't know why, I just find overnight masks fun for some reason? As long as they aren't ultra-smelly, and the ones I've tried so far are not.
First I got a mini of the Glow Recipe (yeah I know, I keep going back to that well) Watermelon Glow AHA Night Treatment. I was a little worried about using exfoliant chemicals on an overnight mask, but my skin felt great the next day. I think as long as I keep it to 3 days a week, as recommended, it should be fine. The other overnight mask I got was the Make Beauty Overnight Recovery Balm. It feels so nice and comfortable after a long day. I have some on now since I'm about to go to bed. It's rich enough that it almost makes me want to continue looking for a new moisturizer and to use Make Beauty for the next trial. Almost.
I didn't really know how to comment on this before, but I'd like to gently push back against describing people with terms like "leathery skin" - it feels like it's criticizing other people's looks, especially appearance that they cannot, at this point, help, so I'd rather not do it.
But just in general with older people and sun care, I do feel that when I was growing up (80s-90s), sun protection was a lot less well understood, and people only wore SPF when going to the beach, not when going out every day to garden or whatnot. For that matter, a lot of people would just go "lay out" in the sun to get a suntan, using dark tanning oil like Hawaiian Tropic. So it's to be expected that older generations just have more sun damage that younger folks. I watched an interesting video about whether we age slower now than previous generations did on Vsauce:
RE: my skincare routine, part of the reason I started this thread was to keep me honest about my routine. Well I've been fucking up this week and it shows on my face! For example, I did wash and put on sunscreen yesterday (good), but went to bed without washing it off (bad) so today I have a face full of pimples. I washed and used the strawberry serum on the pimples - thus far that stuff has taken my pimples away after two days, it's not instantaneous but I do see marked improvement after one day, so it's worth using for me. Hopefully this experience will keep me on the straight and narrow for the rest of the week.
Two pieces of beginning skincare advice I see a lot are as follows:
1. The minimal skincare routine is cleanser, toner, moisturizer, sunscreen.
2. Only add one product to your routine at a time, so you can tell how your skin reacts.
These would seem to be in conflict. How start?
I've also read that cleansers should be within a certain pH range (which I'd have to look up), but I have seen zero drugstore products that list their pH. (Walgreens has stuff that at least looks like it might be decent quality, but I have no idea what I'm doing...)
Yeah those steps are kinda in conflict, and I'm not really sure how to get around it. I've heard about PH, too, but I don't have the foggiest clue how you find out PH, so I just ignore that? Maybe someone with more experience can chime in here.
As far as cleansers go, I think for the most part this step is the one you need to worry the least about, because other than something like Noxema, even the most basic cleansers are formulated to be "non-stripping." Cetaphil is a brand that's made by dermatologists, so you can start with their cleanser without having to worry too much. If your concerned about your cleanser being too drying, then find a cleansing balm - any cleansing balm - and use that instead. Even Pond's cold cream cleanser works fine here. As I mentioned before, I do prefer products without mineral oil, but as it turns out there's nothing really wrong with using petroleum products on your skin - science says it's fine, and it has less allergen potential than the nut oils that go into "natural" cleansing balms. The only area where I'd really use caution in using petroleum products that stay on the skin is under the nose, due to a rare illness called lipid pneumonia, which is caused by breathing in fats. So I'll continue staying away from carmex and other petroleum lip balms, but a cleanser should be fine.
SPF I also think isn't a step you need to worry too much about adding. Despite what some crunchy influencers might try to say about sun blocking ingredients being "toxic", there is no scientific research that supports that. Whether you get some Banana Boat sunscreen, or opt for the overpriced Unseen sunscreen that I like, you should be fine with whatever. The only ones I personally would avoid are the suntan oils, as mentioned above, because the goal with those is to let the sun in instead of keeping it out - I've also found that they block my pores and cause blemishes like crazy, so just all around bad IMO. Also, if you get sunscreen in makeup be aware that it won't be sufficient for protecting your skin. The recommended amount of sunscreen for your face is one teaspoon, and most people won't be putting a teaspoon of foundation on their face - so spf makeup can help out, but it shouldn't be your only line of defense. Also, there's no significant benefit to getting an SPF higher than 50. The range should be between 30 and 50 SPF, 50 SPF being what you use when you know you're going to be in direct sunlight for an extended period.
So the main ingredient you need to work out when you start is the moisturizer. Don't add toner yet, you can go without that while you figure out the moisturizer. Since everyone's skin is different, it's hard to advise on what to use in this space, but the basics are that it should feel good on your skin and your skin should feel, well, moisturized. If your skin feels dry an hour or two after moisturizing, then that's not the one for you. If it stings or hurts in some way, it's not the right one, either. So you buy a moisturizer, use it for a week and see how it goes. Beyond those first two stipulations, you'll also want to notice if your skin seems to be breaking out more with the new moisturizer than it was without it - things like that are why you add products slowly. There still is some danger that the cleanser you use will turn out to be the problem, rather than the moisturizer - unfortunately there doesn't really seem to be a way around this. I think SPF is the least likely thing to cause a problem at this stage, as long as you wash it off at the end of the day.