ww – off my ‘regimen’

As a reminder, the ‘ww’ in the title means it’s Women’s Wednesday!  Due to the 3-day weekend in the U.S., Wednesday really snuck up on me.  I had intended to talk about skincare today.  And I still will.  But Memorial Day actually had a bad affect on my skincare regimen.  For the first time in years and years, I got sunburned.  Though not intentional, also not smart.  I wonder how many months of good skincare I wiped out with this lapse?  I’m usually religious about sunblock.  To the point where I’ve wondered if I used sunblock too much because I’ve heard it can keep you from absorbing Vitamin D from the sun.  Well, against everything I know about shunning the sun – I sat in ‘dappled’ sunlight under a tree, and 3 feet from the sand (which is very reflective).  And ‘dappled’ sunlight in the summer in Florida is probably as bad as sitting with one of those reflective silver things anywhere else!

My face was burned enough that I had to suspend my usual ritual in order to apply tons of aloe and industrial strength moisturizer — my sure-fire cure to keep from peeling.  I’ll let you know if it works this time.

Now — on to my intended post — Upon reaching a certain age (!), I acknowledged that it was time to really concentrate on my skin.  I wanted to erase bags, sags, wrinkles and sun damage.  So I did a lot of research and trial and error on products.  And I’ve actually been pretty surprised and happy with the results.  I want to share the regimen I’ve followed for the last 3-4 months prior to above-mentioned sunburn:

1)  Wash face 2 x daily.   I like Honest Beauty’s  Refreshingly Clean gel cleanser.  Do you know I didn’t do this for the first 59 years of my life?  Nope, I went to bed with my make-up on for years.  Did you just gasp?

2)  Apply a 20% glycolic peel pad to face and decollete.  Two to try:  Glycolix Elite 20% Glycolic acid peel pads, or  Peter Thomas Roth Un-Wrinkle pads.  (Funny how I use a peel pad, but I don’t want my face to peel from sunburn.)   You may want to start with a lower percentage of glycolic acid (10%), and/or start with 1 x daily instead of twice especially if you have sensitive skin.

3) Let skin dry and apply a serum.  I LOVE Clarins Double Serum.  Let soak in 5-10 minutes.

4)  Apply moisturizer.  In the a.m. use one with sunblock; in the p.m. apply a good overnight moisturizer (you might want it to have retinol, vitamin A, or salicylic acid).  Neutrogena’s Rapid Wrinkle Repair rocks!

You can amp up your results with once-a-week or once-a-month special treatments which will be coming in a future Women’s Wednesday.  ‘Til then!