Sephora

@RGbrown Cupcake is such a fabulous brand, I only own one polish but it's seriously one of my favorites. Maybe I'll do a mani in that color

Thanks there r so many to choose.from I will give them a try 🐞🐞

@Anniedaynow78 Girl, get your learn on!! About ten years ago I noticed my first fine line and got VERY interested in skincare, spending years researching it on the internet and going through several buying phases and ordering giant boxes of products straight from South Korean retailers and spending way too much time on Reddit--it's a bottomless rabbit hole if ever there was one. Bloggers were very helpful to me but the ones I read have either moved on with their lives and their real jobs or have turned their skincare interests into a real job. Now there seem to be a lot of"influencers" who are less about knowing things and more about free products and getting their own product lines. I don't blame them, creating content takes a lot of effort and time. Anyway, I am not an auditory learner so I don't listen to podcasts or watch YouTube videos, I read. There is still one very good blog from a reliable source I can wholeheartedly recommend. Dr. Hannah Sivak is a Ph.D in Biochemistry and has a super informative blog I cannot link to but will say the address is just her name. She has written articles on everything from how to layer skincare products to exactly what kind of skincare is best for your mitochondria. She also calls out radical overpricing and the misconceptions around the "clean beauty" marketing and various consumer traps. Because prestige skincare is fraught with lies and insane markups, she started her own brand of skincare that is rich in active ingredients while remaining reasonably priced, but to be honest, the products aren't cosmetically elegant and I have tried several but never emptied one. Every cream I've tried has pulled. Anyway, check out her blog because her science is legit and academically vetted while being very practical. A million people will give you advice, but it's best to go with a professional. I don't even bother with Reddit anymore after seeing so much bad advice going around, some of which I probably gave at one time. Another great blog is kindofstephen which is written by a totally different cosmetic chemist who works in the industry, shares knowledge, and tracks trends. It turns out that most dermatologists don't know much about skincare products because they study diseases and treatments. Chemists are apparently the real experts we need.

@kennyrae Congrats on your XL. Yay glad you like your box twinsies.

@ashmckni @Have you tried going to a beauty counter to get shade matched?

BIGLASHES- Size isn't listed. FRESHRECOVERY- Size isn't listed.

@TraceyEB Brun Roussi is absolutely gorgeous on you. 🌹Thx you so much for showing us. Chanel did good this year so far 👏 PS The quad is also beautiful on you 👏❤️

There are a few directions to take depending on how much acne you get and how sensitive your skin is. BHA will actually help more than any of the AHAs (lactic acid, glycolic acid, mandelic acid, all of which exfoliate at the skin's surface). Salicylic acid (a BHA) can penetrate through oil, meaning it will clean inside your pores where nasty little clogs like to get infected and create lumpy hellzits. It may be as easy as using a product like The Ordinary Salicylic Acid 2% Anhydrous Solution Pore Clearing Serum 1 oz/ 30 mL or one of the BHA products from Paula's Choice. Differin is a prescription strength retinoid that recently became available over the counter and it works really well for clearing deep pore clogs. It does cause some clogs to push their way to the surface early in a phenomenon called "purging" that means your skin will look worse before it looks better. You can clear these zits up more quickly by using benzoyl peroxide gel, and you can actually mix it with your Differin which basically creates the product Epiduo Forte. Retinols are a kind of complicated way to go to get your pores clear, and in my experience it makes more sense physically and financially to go with a prescription retinoid, tretinoin. The easiest and cheapest way to do this is using a monthly telemedicine service like Curology that prescribes and then mixes you a combination of tretinoin and a topical antibiotic (usually Clindamycin) and sends you a bottle every month or two. Because health insurance doesn't cover acne meds (at least not in the US except in very rare circumstances), it actually costs less to use a service like this than to have to plonk down $150 for one and however much for the other and hope you got the right prescription strength the first time around. You also have unlimited access to a dermatologist for all your questions, freak outs, advice needs, etc. without having to wait three months for an appointment every time you want to talk. Retinols (the non-prescription option) and prescription tretinoin will probably also involve some purging, but for me it wasn't nearly as bad as with Differin and it will be more mild if you also use BHA to keep your pores clearer. If all of those are more than you want and you just want to know what to put on a zit, benzoyl peroxide should kill the bacteria. Otherwise, it depends on how much acne you really get, how well your skin heals versus omg everything scars! and how much money and time you have to spend. In any event, BHA will clear your pores and get rid of blackheads, so start there and you may find it's all you need. I myself suffered two or three scars a month for like a billion years and they really add up!! Good luck!

@julieee4 By “makes it worse,” do you mean those 2 products seem to cause even more acne? Differin contains a retinoid called adapalene. Retinoids can cause purging (sudden new acne), and adapalene's famous for that. A purge isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though: think of it as the retinoid evicting crud from your pores. Purging usually lasts only a month or so. Retinoids are also famously drying, depending on your skin tolerance and the retinoid strength. I know it can be hard to stick with something like Differin, but you might see good results if you give it enough time to do its job. Sounds like you’d benefit from a hydrating serum that’ll draw moisture into your skin and hold it there. First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair® Hydrating Serum is a good option: it contains humectant ingredients (2 forms of hyaluronic acid and sodium PCA) plus several good skin soothers (colloidal oats, green tea, licorice root, allantoin, aloe vera). Always apply this serum to damp (but not soaking wet) skin. Apply a good moisturizer soon after this serum; don’t wait for your skin to completely dry down before applying moisturizer. You want your moisturizer to seal in hydration, not dryness. If you still have the Panoxyl cleanser, you can probably still use it—just not every day. Use it maybe once or twice a week (never twice on the same day). On the other days, use a gentle hydrating cleanser. For my reactive/inflammation-prone and mostly-dry combo skin, I use the CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser Bar each night on my face and body in the shower. I don’t use a cleanser in the morning unless I need to*; otherwise, I just gently wipe my face with a wet plush microfiber cloth (like a Makeup Eraser). Anyway, you could try First Aid Beauty Pure Skin Face Cleanser or a less expensive yet very effective option… you mentioned CeraVe and Cetaphil, but I’m not sure if you’ve tried their hydrating cleansers or a different type of product. Your most-of-the-week cleanser (aside from Panoxyl) doesn’t need to contain any acne-fighting active ingredients like benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid/BHA. It just needs to not leave your skin feeling dry, stripped, or “squeaky clean.” *If I do need an AM cleaner, it’s always something extra gentle and non-lathering (either Paula’s Choice Optimal Results Hydrating Cleanser, The INKEY List Oat Cleansing Balm 5 oz/ 150 mL, or Paula's Choice Omega + Complex Cleansing Balm 3.5 oz/ 104 mL). And sometimes I apply AM cleanser only where I need it, like around my eyes. (My eyes water a lot and I sometimes wake up with salty crust in my tear troughs.) Then I just gently wipe the rest of my face with a wet plush microfiber cloth, without using more cleanser.