u/EsthiPerpective

I've been considering getting nano brows, but one thing that's made me hesitant is how it might affect my skincare routine long-term.

I use actives like retinol, vitamin C, and exfoliating acids, and I know certain ingredients and treatments can potentially contribute to fading or changes in cosmetic pigmentation over time. While you can generally resume using actives on fully healed skin, you may need to be more careful around pigmented areas.

It got me thinking about people who get tattooed freckles, permanent eyeliner, or other cosmetic pigmentation. Are you having to avoid certain areas when applying skincare? And what happens when you want to get treatments like chemical peels or laser resurfacing?

I love the convenience of permanent makeup, but I'm not sure I'd want to limit my skincare routine or future treatment options to maintain it.

For those who've had cosmetic pigmentation done, has it actually affected your skincare routine? Do you feel like the convenience is worth the extra maintenance and precautions?

I wanted to share my daily concoction that I drink to address internal and external aging. I have been becoming increasingly interested in supplements that reverse aging biomarkers and this is my current drink routine that I stick to.

I started off drinking "tadpole water" which is just water with lemon juice and chia seeds, but this has evolved over time to a mega-potion of supplements.

I make one big drink most days and add everything in, mostly as powders or tinctures. I’ll throw in a little healthy juice too just to improve the flavor, but fair warning: this is not for anyone wanting a sweet, sugary treat drink. It definitely tastes healthy lol.

What I use:

• Collagen — skin firmness + elasticity (no flavor)
• Glycine — collagen building block
• Creatine — cellular energy + healthy aging
• NAC — glutathione/antioxidant support
• Chlorophyll — antioxidant/plant-based add-in (a little goes a long way)
• NMN / NAD+ support — cellular energy + aging pathways
• Resveratrol — antioxidant support
• Fresh lemon juice — vitamin C for collagen production
• Copper peptides — collagen + elastin support
• Chia seeds — omega-3s + fiber

Glycine and NAC definitely aren’t the most well-known supplements, but here’s an interesting study on GlyNAC and how it affected several age-related biomarkers in older adults: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35975308/

Also be warned that Glycine + NAC supplements tend to have a lemony taste, so sometimes I save that exclusively for my lemon waters.

Most of it just gets dumped into one large 30+oz. drink because I’d rather do that than take 10+ different things separately. I like

Obviously this isn’t replacing SPF, skincare, protein, sleep, etc. I just really like the idea of skincare from the inside out.

Anyone else make some kind of daily skin/anti-aging concoction? I'm really interested in what everyone else is doing and if they've seen results! 😊🍵

I swear the best thing I’ve done for my body skin (at 38) is dry brushing before I shower and then putting on a retinol infused body lotion right after.

If my skin feels extra dry, I’ll add a little squalane oil on top too.

I also use applying the retinol lotion as an extra step to complete a general lymphatic drainage all over the body.

It’s made a huge difference in how my skin feels and looks. Way smoother, less dull, and just more alive-looking overall. I’ve tried a million random body products and this is the one routine I actually keep coming back to.

I still take collagen, but I stopped treating it like the main thing that’s going to keep my face looking youthful.

When I was in esthetician school, one of my instructors told me that even if you take collagen consistently, the visible changes in your face can be pretty subtle. You can still get benefits from it, which is why I still use it, but I realized I was putting way too much faith in one supplement.

That’s what made me start looking more at cellular aging instead of only thinking about collagen. I got really interested in things like cellular regeneration, oxidative stress, mitochondrial health, and DNA support, especially telomeres, which are basically the protective end caps of chromosomes.

Now I make this giant glass every day with a little juice and throw everything in together. Mine usually has:

• collagen for skin structure
• resveratrol for antioxidant support
• NAD+ support for cellular energy
• NMN as an NAD+ precursor
• NAC for glutathione support
• chlorophyll for antioxidant and skin support
• methylene blue for mitochondrial activity
• copper peptides for collagen signaling
• lemon juice for vitamin C, since vitamin C is needed for collagen synthesis

It probably sounds like a ridiculous science experiment when I list it all out, but I actually look forward to drinking it now.

I’m definitely not saying any of this is some magic anti-aging cure or that everyone should copy my exact routine. I just personally feel better about taking a broader approach instead of expecting collagen powder to do all the heavy lifting. For me, the biggest mindset shift was realizing that if I care about what my skin looks like on the outside, I also want to think about what’s happening at the cellular level underneath it.

I used to hear skincare professionals say things like “you don’t necessarily need to wash your face in the morning” and I remember thinking absolutely not. I could never be that person lol.

I was so used to needing that freshly scrubbed, squeaky-clean feeling before starting my day. If there was any oil on my face at all, I felt like I looked greasy or unwashed.

I’m an esthetician now, and over time I’ve completely changed how I look at cleansing.

For me, the real cleanse happens at night. That’s when I’m removing sunscreen, makeup, oil, pollution, and everything else that’s accumulated on my skin throughout the day. If I’ve been out wearing makeup and SPF, that’s when I’ll double cleanse. If I’ve barely left the house and don’t have much to remove, sometimes a gentle gel cleanser is more than enough.

Then I actually enjoy doing a more luxurious nighttime routine. I’ll layer toner, serum, and cream, and sometimes use a sheet mask beforehand. I like going to bed with my skin feeling really hydrated and cushioned rather than stripped.

Once I started doing that consistently, it made less and less sense to wake up eight hours later and immediately scrub all of that away.

Now in the morning I’ll usually just wet my fingertips and lightly dampen and refresh my face. It still gives me that clean, awake feeling I apparently need psychologically lol, but without completely removing the natural oils and moisture I worked to support the night before.

This was a huge change for me because I grew up absolutely abusing the dreaded St. Ives apricot scrub and thinking more exfoliation = cleaner, softer skin. In reality, I was constantly red, dehydrated and oily at the same time.

Once I stopped trying to eliminate every trace of oil from my face, my skin became significantly more balanced.

I’m also pretty conservative with physical exfoliation now. About once a week is plenty for me. The idea of not doing a serious scrub in the morning used to feel almost illegal, and now I can’t imagine going back.

Anyone else become a morning no-cleanser convert after years of thinking you had to fully wash your face twice a day?