How can I/should I even be using all of these products?

[Christy929]

Hi beauties! I have some great products but I am not sure how to make a “routine” out of them or if I am need to put some on hold. I am welcoming any advice on these products - what days to use and if I should use them morning or evening. I am 37 years old with normal skin (maybe slightly combo bc my nose gets oily sometimes by end of day.) I am wanting to focus on fine lines and dark spots/hyperpigmentation on my cheeks and forehead that popped up in my early 30’s during pregnancies. This list is so overwhelming to type so I can’t express how much I appreciate your help/input. Thank you I’m advance! Also, I do wear sunscreen everyday, I just listed the products that I have that I need help creating a routine with. I understand I won’t be able to use all of them, but I have spent weeks trying to figure this out to no avail. I love all of the Sephora employees - they are great here at all the Sephoras in my area. I have brought this list to them -they get confused as well and end up walking out with MORE products. Please help!! Thanks again! 1.) KS Exfolikate Intensive Treatment 2.) KS Exfolikate Glow Moisturizer 3.) Kate Somerville RetAshpere- Micro peel 4.)KS wrinkle warrior 4.) Drunk Elephant Littles kit 5.) Sunday Riley Good Genes 6.) CosRx snail mucin essence 7.) CosRx snail mucin moisturizer 8.) CosRx AHA 7 Whitehead power liquid 9.) CosRx AHA/BHA toner 10.) YouthToThepeople Maqui +Açaí prickly peargojiGlowOil 11.) YTP Adaptogen moisturizer and the hydrating mist 12.) SUNDAY Riley auto correct eye cream 13.) SR CEO+Tumeric glow oil 14.) inkey list polyglutamic acid 15.) FAB facial radiance pads 16.) dr Dennis gross universal daily peel pads 17.) tatcha the essence 18.) Kiehl’s tumeric and cranberry seed mask 19.) Elemis papaya enzyme peel 20.) Boscia cactus water hydrating cream 21.) Dr Jart Ceramidin Liquid toner

[kel70]

Honestly!! My hands are on my cheeks. My mouth is wide open and so are my eyes. How did you end up with so many products at once? I know because I've been where you are and I can sympathize with your confusion. You have to keep in mind that when you walk into any store, be it a Sephora or a department store beauty counter, the sales person's job is to sell, sell, sell. Most all sales people, no matter what area of sales, have a quota to meet every month. Then here we come, relying on their knowledge to help us, because we don't know about all this stuff. You bought a lot of really expensive things, so did I, most I don't or can't use and a lot of the same things, that do the same job.

In my opinion, I would take it ALL back(if you can) and start over. You must have spent several (500-600-800 dollars)) on this stuff and some of it does the exact same things. These products are not cheap, by all means and if you are just starting out, mixing so many products is not good for your skin. Product overload is real and can damage your skin, sometimes without it being able to repair itself. So you can get permanent damage, if you are not careful.

If I were you and I was, not too long ago, I would start off with some serums and a basic cleanser, exfoliator, toner and a good CLEAN moisturizer. This way, with serums especially, you know (for the most part) what is in them. Try starting with The Ordinary products. They are cheap, good quality and they work!  You can email Deciem (The Ordinary's parent company... Go to The Ordinary.com)) and they can recommend a twice daily regimen, based on your concerns and issues. You can send them picture of your face and a breakdown of your issues.  They will email you back with a specific list and when to apply what. These products are clean, just the good stuff, no filler, scents, alcohols, dyes, parabens, ect. Go to The Ordinary site, see for yourself. They explain every product, what is in them, what is not and why it's not. I learned ALOT just from spending a few evenings reading on their site.

I am honestly a little scared for you, if you go in with this huge list of skin care products all at once. If you cannot return these products, then I would start off slow and with one brand at a time. You have a lot of peels, exfoliators, masks, retinoids/ retinals, moisturizers. A lot of these things are abrasive to your skin and using them in conjunction with each other will not turn out well for you. Please, do some research and find out just what all this stuff is and what it does and what you have that is the same as another product from another brand. Try taking them back. Start over. That is what I would and did do. I couldn't return it all, so I did get stuck with some, but learning to incorporate them slowing into my normal routine.

It's your skin and your face. I actually have goosebumps just thinking about your list. I'm sorry, I am not trying to scare you, but I really have given you my best advice here. Good luck on your journey. I wish I could help you more.

[Christy929]

Omg thank you thank you!!

[WinglessOne]

Hi @Christy929 ! Rather than create a day vs. night routine for you (I’d need to research the claimed results, intended usage, and ingredients of all your products to do that; and honestly, you can use any of those products in the AM or PM), I’ll try to help you sort everything into skincare step categories. That’ll help you see redundancies. From there, you can scan the ingredients, claims, and brand-recommended usage of redundant products to decide which ones best suit your needs. 

Note: The Drunk Elephant Littles set is a full skincare routine on its own, minus a toner/essence step. 🙂 You could exclusively use that set for a few weeks to see how you like it. Just follow DE’s usage instructions for everything. 

Makeup remover & Cleanser 

(None listed, but I’m sure you’re already using one.) 

Toner 

• Dr Jart Ceramidin Liquid toner 
• CosRx AHA/BHA toner (exfoliating toner) — you don’t need this if you use a product from the chemical exfoliant category; or, this toner can be your exfoliant step instead of anything in the chemical exfoliant category. 

Essence 

• CosRx Advanced Snail 96 Power Essence 
• Tatcha the essence 

Chemical exfoliant 

• Sunday Riley Good Genes 
• CosRx AHA 7 Whitehead power liquid 
• FAB facial radiance pads 
• Dr. Dennis gross universal daily peel pads 
• Elemis papaya enzyme peel 
• KS Exfolikate Intensive Treatment: chemical + physical exfoliant 
• Kate Somerville RetAshpere Micro peel: contains retinol and 10% glycolic acid; intended for overnight use 

 I’ve got lots to say about these: 

 

Spoiler

Choose just one of these products to use. Aside from the Elemis enzyme peel, they all contain an AHA which you don’t want to overuse unless your skin can tolerate a high percentage of it. I don’t know the % AHA in all of those; you’ll need to look that up to decide which product to try. Some brands won’t state the %. But I can say the FAB pads are very gentle; I’m sure their AHA content is much lower than 10%. 

[Edit: If you decide to use the CosRX AHA/BHA toner, then you don’t need any of these other chemical exfoliants: you can ditch everything in this category. By “ditch,” I mean return or exchange to retailer if you can; if you can’t do that, you could hold on to them to trial on a rotating basis, or give some of them away.]

About the KS RetAsphere peel: retinol is not an exfoliant, but glycolic acid is—and it’s the strongest type of AHA. I’ve never used this KS product, but I do use a retinol serum plus an AHA leave-on exfoliant and I frequently layer them on the same night. If your skin can tolerate the KS peel (patch test it for at least 2 weeks), it might be a good product to address your concerns of fine lines and hyperpigmentation. KS says this is meant to use at night, but you can use an OTC retinol product during the day—as long as you also use sunscreen with SPF 30+, which we should all use daily anyway. Same goes for any chemical exfoliant: you can use an AHA or BHA during the day, under a protective sunscreen barrier. 

The KS ExfoliKate Intensive Treatment beat my skin up. At the time, I hadn’t realized my skin is sensitive to certain fragrances and essential oils—and this product contains several of them. That plus the scrubby beads left my skin very red and bumpy. I suspect the AHA in this didn’t help matters (my skin hates AHA + physical exfoliation in the same routine), but I’ve read online and heard personally from 2 dermatologists that the usage instructions and pH of this treatment render the AHA ineffective. So, I recommend ditching this product. 

On a more positive note: you can use a chemical exfoliant as your toner step if you want, eliminating the need for any separate toner. That’s up to you. 🙂 I do that during my night routine.

Serum 

• The Inkey List polyglutamic acid 
• KS wrinkle warrior (is this the Deep Wrinkle Minimizer, or the 2-in-1 Plumping Moisturizer + Serum?) 

These are all hydrating serums. I’m not sure which KS Wrinkle Warrior product you have, but I know the two I mentioned above contain more antioxidants than The Inkey List PA serum. I don’t currently use KS products, but I’ve scanned ingredients of the Wrinkle Warrior line before. The Deep Wrinkle Minimizer looked more impressive than the 2-in-1 serum, based purely on ingredients. I didn’t buy either of them because my face is sensitive to certain fragrances. 

Mask 

Kiehl’s tumeric and cranberry seed mask: physical exfoliant (scrub) 

I wouldn’t use this on the same day/night I used a chemical exfoliant. If it didn’t have cranberry seed scrubbies, that’d be a different story because my skin likes turmeric. But my skin can’t tolerate AHA + physical exfoliation in the same routine. I can’t even do physical exfoliation the morning after an AHA night. Your mileage may vary, but it’s safer to avoid using scrubs and a chemical exfoliant together. 

Mist 

YTTP Adaptogen hydrating mist 

I’m giving this its own category because you can use a mist after various steps of your routine, as well as throughout the day—even on top of makeup—for a hydration boost. I’ve considered trying this YTTP mist myself. If you use it, let me know what you think of it. 🙂 

Moisturizer 

• KS Exfolikate Glow Moisturizer: contains lactic acid (an AHA) for exfoliation 
• CosRx Advanced Snail 92 All In One Cream 
• YTTP Adaptogen moisturizer 
• Boscia cactus water hydrating cream 

If you use either the CosRX AHA/BHA toner or an AHA chemical exfoliant, you don’t need to use the KS ExfoliKate moisturizer. Otherwise, any of the other 3 moisturizers may work well for you. I’ve tried those YTTP and Boscia creams but didn’t like them; that doesn’t mean you won’t like them. They just didn’t play nice with my skin. I do use (and adore) a different YTTP moisturizer. 

Facial oil 

• YTTP Superberry Glow Oil 
• SR CEO+Tumeric glow oil 

You can use an oil in place of a cream moisturizer. Or you can layer an oil either under or over a cream moisturizer (depends on your personal preference). I have the YTTP oil and a few others. I don’t use them every day, but when temperatures drop below freezing I’ll probably layer the YTTP oil with my cream moisturizer daily. 

Eye cream 

Sunday Riley auto correct eye cream 

Sunscreen 

(You already use one. Hooray! It’s the most important anti-aging skincare step.) 

[newcarlee]

Awesome breakdown of the products into categories, @WinglessOne, and great advice.  @Christy929 - I too have accumulated too many skincare products and have found the need to trial each one separately by adding only 1 at a time into my routine and staying on that same routine for at least a week or so to make sure the new product isn’t causing any problems.

[Christy929]

Thank you for taking the time to give me such a detailed breakdown of all the products. I appreciate it so much!

[Christy929]

Thank you sooo much! You are awesome!

[quspork]

This is a truly great breakdown of the categories that @WinglessOne did for you, @Christy929! It will really help you see where you can pick and choose your items. 

I do want to clarify one thing- the CosRx toner only has .1% AHA and .1% BHA so it's not so much an exfoliating toner as a pH adjusting toner. That's why I asked what cleanser you might be using. If your cleanser is already a pH balanced cleanser then you really don't need the CosRx toner at all. 🙂

[WinglessOne]

@quspork  Ah, thanks for pointing out the AHA % of the CosRX toner! I wondered about that but couldn’t quickly find the info listed. (I did see that the BHA is betaine salicylate and willow bark instead of salicylic acid.) 

With that in mind, @Christy929 : it’s probably fine to use a chemical exfoliant in addition to that toner, or instead of any toner. Depending on which skincare doctors and experts you ask, toners are generally either “a must-have in your routine to rebalance your skin’s pH” or “unnecessary since your skin can rebalance its own pH after cleansing.” Folks in the latter camp consider toners more of an extra makeup removal step and/or a pre-serum antioxidant delivery system. So, whether or not to use a toner at all is entirely up to you. I use a toner only when I don’t use a chemical exfoliant. And as quspork mentioned, your cleanser might work as a pH balancer, further negating the need for a toner. 

[quspork]

That's quite the list, @Christy929! Can I ask what cleanser you're using? That would help know some of the items to incorporate. 

Just a piece of advice, that while many of the products are really fantastic ones, be sure to add them into your routine slowly. If you add too many things at once and then have a negative reaction, you won't know which product is the culprit. If you have a cleanser and sunscreen that you like right now, I'd start with one of the moisturizers and then if all goes well you can add in the next item, then the next, etc etc. Also, I'm sure you know this already but a lot of these items overlap as far as function and ingredients, so some of them will really be backups now anyway until you've tried out one version and see how your skin likes it. 

[Christy929]

Thank you!!! I appreciate your help!

[Christy929]

I use tatcha’s oil cleanser and then fabs face wash as my second cleanser