Axon said:
Please share the info bro! I'm real interested in skin care, I want to reduce my leftover scars and blemishes.
Hey Axon... Believe it or not, she recommends washing your face with SOAP and water twice a day. No, not just any soap, like Ivory, but with a mild soap with a ph level that is simlar to that of the skin or something like that... whatever. I just asked her to recommend one, and she told me to try the Lever 2000 moisture response. I then told her, why a normal soap like Lever? I have always been told that using normal soap on your face dries and strips the skin of oil. She said that it is true that it does. But, you need to keep your skin clean and you need to break up the bad skin oil and dirt that accumulates on it. There is NO product, despite what labels say, that ONLY takes off the dirt and bad skin oil, and leaves the good oils on the skin. So called "moisturizing facial soaps" will indeed leave your face moisturized, but don't get rid of the accumulated oil and dirt in the skin and, in effect, just add more oil to the skin.
After the soap and water wash, she says follow up with a cold water rinse. Then, apply alpha hydroxy acid product. They can be found over the counter in formulations all the way up to 10%, which is the max that the FDA allows. She bought me a product that has 10%, and I use it twice a day. The product can be bought in different carrier substances, lotion or cream and you have to find the right carrier substance that works with your skin type. Test it before hand to make sure you don't react to it... I can tell you from personal experience that this sh*t starts to sting after a while, but after about 4 weeks of it my face looks f*****g fantastic. AHA is, in effect, the same stuff used in chemical peels, it is an exfoliant. By using a mild 10% amount every day it constantly exfoliates the skin and increases the cell turnover, making the face look younger.
In the mornings, after AHA, I apply a sunscreen SPF 15. You really need to do this if you use AHA because the AHA makes your skin VERY sensitive to sun exposure and you can FEEL it when you are out under the rays. In the evenings, I just apply the AHA and I'm done.
If your skin is really bad, which mine is not but as I get older it might get worse, she recommends getting a prescription for Retinol 5% from a dermo. The Retinol 5% would be used in the evenings instead of the AHA, and would be applied to the wrinkled or more damaged areas... along with an all-over application of it a couple times a month. Some over the counter products say they have retinol in them. They are bs products. As opposed to the AHA which IS effective at over the counter formulations, the over the counter formulation of retinol will not do any good, you would have to get it from a dermo.