Average 40 y/o guy getting serious about skincare routine. I'm lost and need advice.

[PalmettoMike]

Spoiler

Hello all! I recently started noticing sign of aging over the past few months on my face, especially dark circles and puffy eyes, and decided to do something about it. 

I have went all in over the past month on skincare, so to say, and I feel a bit lost and need some advice about any mistakes I may be making. I have started an advanced daily routine recently and would love your feedback.

I'll just start off by saying that I have slightly sensitive skin with some red patches on my cheeks I believe from dehydration. I also have some dark spot discoloration around my eyes, temples and forehead. I have a couple deep pitted acne scars on my face, as well.

My ultimate goals are to reduce puffiness and dark circles around my eyes, reduce redness and discoloration, reduce forhead wrinkles and fine lines, reduce the size of my pores, and create a more bright, youthful appearance. Lofty goals, right? 😆 

I have tried to research as much as I can about what goes together as far as serums, creams, and moisturizers, but being new to this, I'll just lay out my advanced routine of products for evaluation and critique. 

Morning routine:

1. Exfoliation using Rugged & Dapper Facial Cleanser for Men

2. Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser

3. Thayers Facial Toner w/ witch hazel

4. Murad Resurgence Replenishing Multi-Acid Daily Peel

5. Revision Skincare C Correcting Complex 30% Serum

6. Paula's Choice Pro-Collagen Multi-Peptide Booster Serum

7. Neutrogena Hydro Boost Hyaluronic Acid Face Serum

8. Brickell Men's Restoring Eye Cream with Aloe, MSM, and protien peptides or Baebody Beauty eye gel (rotating daily)

9. Spot treatment with CeraVe Acne control gel and Murad InvisiScar Resurfacing Treatment for acne scars

10. Brickell Men's anti-aging face cream

***Should I add a Vitamin C cream here instead???

11. Neutrogena Hydro Boost Face Moisturizer cream w/ Hyaluronic Acid

12. ISIDIN Eryfotona Actinica Zinc Oxide and 100% Mineral Sunscreen SPF 50+

Night Routine:

1. Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser

2. Thayers Facial Toner w/ witch hazel

2. Dr. Dennis Gross Retinol & Ferulic Texture Renewal Serum

4. The Ordinary Lactic Acid 10% + Ha 2%

5. Revitalift 1.5% Hyaluronic Acid Serum

6. ROC Retinol Correction Eye Cream

7. Spot treatment CeraVe Acne Control Gel

9. Spot treatment Murad Invisiscar Resurfacing Treatment for acne scars

8. ROC Retinol Correction Deep Wrinkle Night Cream

9. Revitalift Triple Power Face Cream w/ Pro Retinol, Hyaluronic Acid and Vitamin C

10. Burt's Bees Facial Oil with rosehip or Real Barrier Extreme Cream Skin Barrier Repair w/ Hyaluronic Acid (rotating nightly)

Every few days I will use a mud mask followed by hydrating Facial mask.

As you can see, I've tried to build a solid routine, but my concerns are:

1. Am I canceling things out as far as ingredients are concerned?

2. I have researched the correct order, but does my routine need revised?

3. Should I exfoliate every day or every few days? Should I use the Murad Multi-Acid Peel Serum every day or every few days

4. What about repairing my skin barrier? Should I take a day off a week to allow my skin a break and just use a Cleanser and moisturizer?

I appreciate any and all critiques. I have a thick skin, pun intended 😉 , and welcome any advice on any mistakes I may be making.

Thanks so much!!! 😊 

[JoSometimes]

Hi @PalmettoMike! That’s quite the skincare regimen! I think it’s amazing that you’re taking it so seriously. I went off the deep end too last summer. I have dry, sensitive skin, mostly due to eczema, so my knowledge of products is mostly in that area, but I’ll try to help where I can. Hopefully others will chime in here.

Exfoliation doesn’t need to be daily. You can get away with doing it once, maybe twice a week. If you do shave and are trying to go for a smooth a shave as possible, doing this before will help prevent your razor from snagging on your the debris on your skin.

The witch hazel toner, you might be able to do without. It’s a great ingredient for dealing with irritations like bug bites, but is also quite drying when used regularly, especially if you already have dry skin. 

The multi-acid peel and the acne scar might be redundant. Scaring is usually dealt with by exfoliating, which both of those products are doing to your skin. Same with the vitamin c. Vitamin c does help with brightening and is also an anti-inflammatory. If you want to experience it’s benefits, you can rotate between them. 

The addition of SPF at the end is a good move. That will help prevent more damage from the sun. 

For your night routine, I see 3 different retinol products. Retinol is also an exfoliant and a great one at that. Most people’s skin need time to adjust to it and will start out with one very low concentration product every few days to build up tolerance. You can eliminate two of them or rotate through them if they each have an additional benefit you want to experience. You could also remove the acne control gel as retinol will also help with scarring too. Retinol can help with wrinkles and scars too, so you could eliminate a few of the other products that also help with this. If you feel like it’s not enough after trying for a week, you can always reintroduce them. 

The ordinary lactic acid + ha and the recitalift are also redundant. Ha is just short for hyaluronic acid.

I would say take a break from your routine and build it back slowly. Everyone’s skin is a bit different and skin also needs time to adjust to new products. By building it slowly, you can find what products are really causing you issues. If something causes irritation after reintroduction, it’s a sign that it doesn’t agree with your skin. Add a new product back into your routine once a week or at least once every few days and see how you feel.

A simple routine to start off with would be a cleanser, a moisturizer, and sunscreen. I would say 2, 11, 12 based on the products you have. At night, cleanse and moisturize. I would say 1 and 10 or even repeat your am routine, just without the sun screen.

In terms of the order of applying products, you generally want to go from thinnest to thickest consistency, with sunscreen at the very end. Cleanser, serums, moisturizers, creams. If two products are about the same consistency, check their key ingredients online and see if one would be better first over the other. (Vitamin c is particularly finicky and degrades easily when in the wrong pH level or even just exposed to the sun)

Good skin is a LOOONG game. Just like any injury, the body needs time to put itself back together. I know how hard it is to have to wait. I wish there were a miracle sauce I could swim in to make my dry, eczema prone skin better, but that just isn’t a thing. Hang in there though. You’ll eventually get there. 

[PalmettoMike]

JoSometimes, thank you so much for the reply and advice! This is something I definitely needed to hear. I think guys, myself included, jump right into a problem and give it their all hoping that it will fix issues quickly, but like you said, "great skin is a long game", and I can see that as true. I wish I had picked up great habits when I was younger, but unfortunately like most men, I would shower, wash my face with the average body scrub, shave, splash my face with some water and call it good. 

I will take your advice and rebuild my routine. Simplifying will also help me to stick with because life does get hectic and I honestly can't see myself running through my current routine every day due to time. Thanks for also pointing out what is redundant. That definitely helps with needlessly using products and wasting them. I'll begin rotating them also.

I guess I am just fascinated at this skincare world I've jumped into that I really didn't know existed. I've been married before, had many girlfriends, etc., but I really had no clue at how expensive and time consuming it can be for those wishing to have great skin. The best thing I have found so far is that it does produce results over time and that is encouraging and even fun. I can see why it's a multi-billion dollar industry.

Thanks again for the welcomed advice and best of luck to you! 😊

[JoSometimes]

Don’t worry @PalmettoMike. I was exactly the same when I was younger. It was as simple as splashing some water on my face and MAAAYBE some moisturizer in the winter. When my eczema flared up on my face and I was constantly clawing it off, I didn’t want to rely on prescription medication to control it so I had to do something about it. And yes, it can get expensive really quick. There are so many different products just for skin alone! You just never know if a product will work for you until you give it a try for a few days. Luckily, Sephora’s return policy is pretty relaxed and returns are generally easy as long as you’re not trying to return a nearly empty container.

Also, a quick tip: Sephora doesn’t automatically notify people when you’ve replied. We get around this by tagging them with the @ symbol. Otherwise, messages sometimes get missed. I’m glad I didn’t miss your reply. And welcome to the club! 🙂