I forgot to put in the Micellar water I use. I wanted to include 10% Niacinamide, Azelaic acid, Bakuchiol, and Resveratrol in there too. Thoughts?
P.S. I'm 41, with very fair skin, and some sunspots and hyperpigmentation. I live in Florida, where it's always hot and humid. My skin is generally normal, but dry around my eyes and neck. I've been using retinoids and exfoliants for many, many years and am not very sensitive to them.
Thank you so much for your detailed reply! It sounds like The Ordinary peel is enough exfoliation, and I should drop all the others? I can do that!
Can you recommend a toner with 10% Azelaic acid? My Tretinoin, from Curology, has 5% Azelaic acid in it, which is probably enough... But I want to get rid of my hyperpigmentation. 😆
What are your thoughts on this Bakuchiol serum? https://whatsinmyjar.com/product/cleen-beauty-tm-bakuchiol-antioxidant-renewing-serum
Thank you so much!
Yes, I think dropping the other exfoliators is a good idea, or at least reducing the 2% BHA to once a week as well (so you'd exfoliate on Wednesday with 2% BHA and on Sunday with 30% AHA-BHA for instance - if you are confident your skin can tolerate it given the other actives - tretinoin, ascorbic acid)
For azelaic acid, with 10% (and 10-20% is a good concentration) it will rather be a lotion-type texture. Some good options:
- https://whatsinmyjar.com/product/dermatica-azelaic-acid-20 (they ship to the US I believe)
- https://whatsinmyjar.com/product/the-ordinary-azelaic-acid-suspension-10
- https://whatsinmyjar.com/product/revox-just-azelaic-acid-10
- https://whatsinmyjar.com/product/the-inkey-list-ca-supersolutions-10-azelaic-acid-serum (contains fragrance).
5% in the Curology product is an option too - especially using it 2x daily (higher percentage will be more effective though).
Re the bakuchiol serum from Cleen Beauty, it has 2 great actives: niacinamide and bakuchiol, but it also has a bunch of unneeded potential irritants (fragrance / essential oils). You already have niacinamide in your routine. For bakuchiol, a good alternative would be:
- https://whatsinmyjar.com/product/revolution-skincare-1-bakuchiol-serum
- https://whatsinmyjar.com/product/bybi-bakuchiol-oil-1-booster
I think you can trade the Good Molecules Niacinamide toner for a 10% azelaic acid product (Topicals contain around 3% niacinamide, and it's enough especially ifyou are using it 2x daily. Topicals also contain azelaic acid, but only around 0.5%, which is nothing).
I would't go out of the way to include resveratrol just because it is unstable and there is no way to know if it actually works in a product you'd get (and how long it is effective after openning). Bakuchiol though could be a good addition - you could add this product (bakuchiol 1% + squalane) https://whatsinmyjar.com/product/bybi-bakuchiol-oil-1-booster, it would go nicely on top of your Vichy Mineral 89 serum at night.
I'm not saying anything about the peels :) I do think you are seriously risking over-exfoliation with the BHA 2% every other day + 30% peel weekly + tretinoin, but you know your skin best! You could consider though increasing tretinoin to daily while reducing peels, I think you'd get better results this way (if your skin can tolerate a daily tretinoin).