HA Hyaluronic Acid

Hi there. Your brightening peel has BHA (salicylic acid) which is great for blemishes but quite drying. Twice a day is alot. This peel essence also has a red flag due to the fact is mixes retinol and salicylic acid, as this can cause inflammation. Which causes extra dryness.

I'd say move your peel essence to the evening. Once a day only. Or use a retinol product in the evening and a salicylic acid product after a morning cleanse.

Morning time cleansing should be water only. In the shower, or splashing face. Cleansing twice a day strips the skin.

All other products need to be mild.

Vitamin C should be every day. The Ordinary do a great one in Vitamin F. None irritating. Also use a good peptide serum, Mary and May do a non irritating serum. 6 peptides.

And then a year round application of factor 50. EVERY DAY xxxxx

Hiya!

In reading Captain's comment, I agree with a lot that was said. Here are my own thoughts to add to that. Prep yourself, got a lot of them lol.

The Dr. Brandt peel seems formulated to cause irritation. There are high concentrations of actives that just simply aren't going to help you out ESPECIALLY if you're using it everyday twice a day. Once or twice a week MAYBE depending on what your skin can handle. There is lactic and salicylic acid in it combined with niacinamide and a very high concentration of hyaluronic acid. And a very high concentration of retinol to boot. Oof. The more I read the more I want to tell you to cut it out of your routine altogether.

To answer your question about hyaluronic acid...yes it can and is drying in specific circumstances. There are times it can be helpful. I personally have a sensitivity to the ingredient and try to limit it to less than 0.5% in any one product. And when it is present, I use a very thick occlusive moisturizer to help it to soak into my skin rather than pulling any moisture out. It's a humectant which means it draws in water, but if it's sitting on top of your skin in high concentrations it's very likely to be drawing the water out of your skin instead of drawing the water from the air into your skin.

Unfortunately, the peel has an extremely high concentration of HA in it...which they likely put in there to make it seem like it's not irritating your skin too much. It might actually feel kinda nice on application because of the HA, but what they're not telling you is that its sucking you completely dry over time.

Whew. That being said I like the snake serum and honey gel. I agree with Captain that you don't need to wash your face in the morning, just a rinse with water and snake serum and honey gel. I'd also recommend a sunscreen DAILY. Don't want your hard work to go down the drain!! I currently use the La Roche Posay Anthelios gentle lotion sunscreen SPF 50.

As far as your nighttime routine...

I'm confused by the wishful makeup remover balm as it has some actives in it when it's supposed to be taking things off of your face...? Likely unnecessary. If you want something effective at removing your makeup, use the bioderma sensibo micellar water. Does the job with zero ingredients that would cause irritation.

After removing makeup, I'd use the first aid beauty cleanser which seems appropriately formulated.

The dew of the gods sounds very interesting to me, and has a decent concentration of retinol! (making the retinol in the peel even more excessive) It also has some calming ingredients like Centella and aloe which is great. It does have 2% hyaluronic acid in it, but if you follow up with a thick occlusive moisturizer, you should be okay.

Now for the verso mask...What a hefty price tag on a product that sounds like a normal nightly moisturizer. It likely feels super luxurious and calming on your skin and I'd probably enjoy the formulation too. My recommendation, use the vanicream daily facial moisturizer instead every night to finish off your routine. It doesn't have the allatonin or parkii butter but otherwise the formulation is similar to the verso mask at a fraction of the price, I think like $14 bucks on amazon.

Lastly, it sounds like your skin barrier might be inflamed, if you want to heal it up and moisturize it deeply, calm down the redness, try face basting. Use a thick layer of triple paste (yes diaper rash cream) as the final step before you go to bed maybe once a week. The zinc in it will restore your skin barrier overnight. I do this on nights I exfoliate or microneedle and it heals any irritation and moisturizes deeply.

I hope this helps! Good luck!