Reviews and Confessions of a Glam Junkie: Here's a money saving secret on good skincare

Not even a tip I found in a magazine or online, just started taking a close look at an unusual group of beauty products to see if they compared to my pricey stuff (or requirements in "stuff") in good ingredients that work.

First you should know that solid science tells us there's not many of ingredients in skin care that honestly "work" and the only one you should really be worried about getting in as many of your products as you can layer, is Retinol.. aka.. retinyl palmitate (most common in skin care ingredient lists) vitamin A, retin A, retinoic acid. All of these are topical retinol that is applied to the skin, safe and the only thing truly proven to help wrinkles with regular use, because it accelerates cell turnover, stimulates collagen and basically keeps renewing your skin as long as you use it, thus slows down the appearance of aging. It also kicks sun spots and uneven skin tone problems in the butt.. Again, because of the turnover and how it works. "Skin Correctors", the rage lately, are simply adding or boosting retins in their formulas, with some complimenting soothing and antioxidant ingredients. It's their particular mixes that hey patent.

There are indeed useful ingredients that can also helpfully go into skin care that help retin do it's job well or better... peptides deliver it deeper into the skin, other vitamins and fruit extracts can exfoliate or be antioxident making retins easier to absorb all in one step, other ingredients help with sensitivity or encapsulate the retin to release it in a controlled way to help with irritation, oils, butters and squalane soften skin and help seal it in and the unpronounceable ingredients, so long as they aren't parabens are usually fine and necessary to keep it all from stinging, or to keep it fresh, cohesive and emulsified, because retin breaks down fast & separates ( part of why it works), so never buy huge tubes or jars, they will have too much preservative and junk in them.

Confused? Don't be, just be sure you can find any of the aforementioned retin or Vit A derivative names in the list of ingredients and NOT as one of the the last ingredients. The higher an ingredient on a list, the more of it there is... This goes for all labels, so no excuses for too much salt, sugar and other crap in your food either....
But Ask if you're unsure, get the sales assistants to read those infernal microscopic labels for you.

But back on topic, have at least one (pref 2, a day and heavier night one) really good, high dose retin product and add as many others as you can sub in for your old stuff like, primer (Too Faced has brilliant one) foundation (many of them now), cleansers, night cream (philosophy's appropriately named, Help Me night cream is great), that also have at least a bit of retinyl palmitate, (don't pass up drug store brands, Neutrogena has a fabbo tinted moisturizer with sunscreen, I use on my neck and chest every day and it's faded all my sun spots, plus gives me a nice unwrinkled cleavage (bonus!) and it's cheap ! Don't forget sunscreen in your products, retin makes you more sun sensitive because it turns over your skin cell renewal so much faster, you burn easier.

One more tip for this wonder ingredient, it can take getting used to if you haven't used it much or at all, because it IS active and it DOES work so it CAN cause redness, peeling and breakouts to start with. Ease into it and bear the uglies... persist for a few weeks.. Start with one product twice a week, then every 2nd day when you skin is handling it, then to everyday, all the layers AND exfoliate to take off the dead skin cells layer so it can get right in there. A clarisonic is your best skin friend.

SO.. The secret ?

MEN'S skincare. I found a good brand serum today that was for men, that had identical ingredients, word for word, order for list order as the woman's version. The price difference. $95 and $36
Shocker... Of COURSE men Will Not spend big bucks on skin care, if you can even get them to use it, but for wrinkles and moisture delivery into the skin, there's no difference in composition and need (other than individual results) despite mens perceived tougher hides.

So for my money, even if it doesn't smell girly (and I don't want it clashing with my perfume anyway), I'm in !

I ordered today and I'll let you know what I observe initially and after 4 weeks, by which point you should see results for a product containing retins if it has more than a pin head drop in it.

This product below is the one I'm trying, versus Lancome Primordial, Murad, Perricone, PT Roth and other brands I looked at or have used. Clinique laser doesn't even compare because of the tiny amount of retin in it, which is the problem with most of those things, hence the emphasis on a good serum or treatment AND night cream, then layer the other incidental stuff like primers, foundation, eye creams, moisturizers with sunscreen, that have the same small amounts, etc for extra oomph.

I'll see how this goes.