Skin care routines

[JaxVictoria]

Hello everyone this is my first question and I'm new here. I'm a 31 year old female so I'm at that age where I'm starting to notice very fine lines on my forehead. There's this one very defined line going vertically in between my eyebrows on my forehead which really bothers me. So now I have to deal with this on top of all the other skin issues I've been dealing with since I was a teenager. I have extremely oily skin(which I was hoping would delay any wrinkles till later on in life). I have large clogged pores from all the oil my skin is producing and it's very annoying. I've used all kinds of products to combat the oil. When I use oil blotting sheets it's pathetic the amount of sheets that I go through until the oil is sopped up. It's so frustrating because this issue is only on my face and also on my scalp and my ears so basically above my neck. So I'm having issues dealing with this and I have acne scars and discoloration from picking my skin. I wouldn't say my skin is sensitive although it does tend to be on the red side and I have fair skin. I can handle most products without them burning me though. So I have all these products such as Murad chemical peel, Murad InvisiScar Resurfacing Treatment, Insta Natural glycolic peel, go-to exfoliating swipes, SATURDAY SKIN 10% glycolic acid pore control complex, Clean Skin Club VITAMIN C BRIGHTENING BOOSTER, SUNDAY RILEY A+ High dose retinoid serum and a bunch of other skin care products that I don't know if I should be using and if I do can I use them together and in what order. Right now my current routine (at night) is washing with Neutrogena salicylic acid acne wash and then using witch hazel and then Murad chemical peel followed by Sunday Riley retinoid followed by Clean Skin Club vitamin C brightening booster. My morning routine is usually just using either witch hazel or Garnier micellar cleansing water for oily skin followed by my skin primer and then I put on my foundation and the rest of my makeup. I guess what I'm asking is there anyone else out there who is suffering from extremely oily skin and also trying to combat the signs of aging as well as the signs acne scars? I just bought my first chemical peel Last Summer I'm pretty new to that and I'm very new to retinoids so I was also wondering can I use multiple products in one night that contain glycolic acid even if one is considered a "peel" and one is a "toner"? and is it okay for me to be using my Murad chemical peel every night with the retinoid serum?

[quspork]

@JaxVictoria A few thoughts from a fellow oily-skinned person 🙂 One, I didn't see moisturizer listed in your list of products? It's absolutely necessary for oily-skinned people to use moisturizer in order to help keep our skin balanced and to limit oil production. If your skin is dehydrated (because of a lack of hydration and moisture) then it overproduces oil. Especially since you've mentioned using some active ingredients/exfoliants that are known for drying out the skin. Two, are you wearing sunscreen when you go out? With active ingredients like retinoids, AHAs (glycolic acid for example), etc you're skin becomes more sensitive to sun damage, so if you are using those types of products without sunscreen in the morning, you could be causing more damage to your skin. 

Third, to be honest, your evening routine sounds very stripping right now. You've got the SA cleanser, an astringent toner, a retinol, a vitamin C, and a multi-acid peel in one routine. That's just way too much exfoliation. The classic signs of over-exfoliation include oiliness, redness, texture, breakouts... so you may be experiencing this right now. It's best to rotate different active products so you don't overwhelm your skin. Most people really only need to exfoliate a couple times a week, certainly not multiple times daily (though this is highly skin dependent for different folks). 

I'd focus on getting your base routine (cleanser, moisturizer, sunscreen) set before trying to work in too many treatment products. You mention using a salicylic acid cleanser daily, and that may also be contributing to drying out your skin since many don't need to exfoliate daily. You may want to consider switching to a cream or gel cleanser for some days (and still use the SA cleanser on other days) or switching out the SA cleanser completely for a leave-on BHA (salicylic acid) product that may better treat the clogged pores (since it stays on your skin rather than get washed off after only a few seconds). Once you have that base routine set, you can add treatments back in but I'd focus on one active at first working it in slowly (vitamin C is great for hyperpigmention, glycolic acid can really help with textural issues, retinoids are great with anti-aging and handing breakouts). But even once you've worked multiple actives into your routine, you may want to space out their usage, say use retinol on Monday, use Good Genes on Tuesday, etc.