u/isolophiliacwhiliac

So one to prevent the pimple. And one to get rid of old scarring or prevent scarring of the occasional, inevitable (sometimes hormonal) pimple.

I'll go first:

Pimple type: almost always a deep under the skin pimple if any. sometimes red spots (rosacea?) and sometimes a tiny whitehead (occasional dirt or hormones maybe)

Pimple preventing product: COSRX 0.1 retinol (8/10) and COSRX BHA power liquid (5/10). I think the retinol has helped A LOT with preventing deep pimples, esp notice this when I run out of product. BHA has been meh, maybe a bit preventative at best but CCs around the nose are there. Currently trying PC's BHA.

Scar eliminating: I haven't implemented a product solely for this yet but I think the retinol and doing consistent skincare overall for 2 years+ has SLOWLY helped with scarring over time - however some scars are more stubborn than others. Obviously, this means that scarring sticks around longer because I'm not targeting it with anything.

I think this applies to AB as a whole but I would really like to focus this discussion on scarring/hyperpigmentation and exfoliation.

Unlike western skincare, AB offers a LOT more for skin evening and scarring especialy

There's common knowledge is retinol/retinoid of some kind should be a pillar of your routine.

BHA or AHA is for exfoliating. But it is suggested to help with evening skin tone.

Vitamin C is known as a staple for scarring and works faster (apparently..?)

Niacinamide is in a lot of products and is suggested to help with skin evening too.

And then there's the newer stuff or stuff that's suddenly getting popular due to trends even if its been around forever

• azelaic acid is getting more popular due to trends and its suggested to help with PIE/scarring and overall skin tone evening.
• Alpha arbutin
• Rice..?
• There are serums or miscellaneous products I have come across as well for example Arencia Hysseop serum claims to help with skin evening.
• the list could go on forever.
• Arencia face washes claim to "clear pores" as do a lot of others

While it does stand that different products work differently for different people, I think the consumerist nature of AB has made it so that there is so much out there that claims to do a thing, we buy it, it somewhat works, we keep buying and buying, but really we haven't gotten the fundamental ingredients/products down for this skin concern. I'm not talking about HG vs non HG. I'm talking, I think we're missing what really should be done before we add stuff on. Or focusing on superficial products that sorta work.

Recently I got an azelaic acid for scarring. Apparently its a long game with this ingredient compared to Vitamin C for example. But it made me wonder hm is there something else I should have done before adding this seemingly "superficial" product? I already have a bit of a solid routine down - but it still needs tweaking and I've been thinking about all this in the process (for the record I already use a retinol and a semi effective BHA which needs to be replaced with something better)

The question isn't which is better as a whole - to which I'd say AB.

There are some western products that are still very popular even among the AB community. And I wonder if they (and others?) remain to be more effective than AB or if there are AB products people haven't discovered yet that do it better. Sometimes its also just a standout product that doesn't do better but works really well despite western skincare overall not being as good as AB as a whole.

Very popular ones I see are:

Paula's Choice BHA - the closest competitor I've seen is BHA power liquid by COSRX but personally I found it not very effective

The ordinary glycolic acid - and a lot of other the ordinary products.

Claudalie serum is an honourable mention because its in its own category I think and can't be compared to a one AB category - but it seems to be a very effective product

Edit: Adding La Roche Posay Anthelios sunscreen (sensitive eyes) - its been really good especially for my eyes, I previously reacted to the BOJ sunscreen and currently where I live many AB sunscreens are no longer imported due to SPF ratings being inaccurate.

The outcome will be different on each person, but I am getting the idea that the ones I mentioned do it better than AB, or are just up there in best skincare products regardless of place of origin.

Are there any other western products I didn't mention?

Before you think this is like every other question asked on here - I don't mean activities like "watch a movie each week" or "go outdoors every Saturday" necessarily. In a way, doing these activities kinda still keeps a sense of repetition (with the wrong intention).

Like many I have been feeling like my life is just one long week where the weeks all look like each other. I just want to feel a sense that I can actually FEEL that another week has passed and engage in practices that can instil that. To be more mindful about the passing of each week.

I've been thinking very small like using a different colour in my planner each week...or giving a few weeks at a time a focus on a book or a show/movie series with deliberation. Or dedicating a month to a certain theme or a day of the week to a certain activity. Spam account posts or recap posts. Have any of you tried this?

Essentially, like creating markers in your memory.

I’m sure there are others that I’m missing here. but AB offers a lot of ways you can get chemical exfoliants on your skin. theoretically the liquid should be best but im wondering if there are other product types that are just as effective, or even better?

I’ve seen cleansers and toner pads that contain chemical exfoliants. Cosrx cleanser, theres somebymi miracle line, a LOT of toner pads aimed at pore clearing. TBH I haven’t had much success with aha bha liquids, or I just haven’t found my hg yet.

If any of you have used these variations, do share your experience!

Or is worth repurchasing?

Mine is cosrx 0.1 retinol. Out of everything I keep repurchasing this. HOWEVER…still haven’t quite found the aha/bha product that works or does anything.

Not necessarily the best but memorable ones apart from the best? AND NO SPOILERS!!

There are so many lists for the best episodes on here but they boil down to like 5 or 6 episodes across all 10 seasons. The show is great don’t get me wrong the best episode lists get me excited for upcoming episodes/and kinda act like milestones for me.

Im in the middle of s4 right now but feel free to recommend iconic episodes from before season 4 as well! An example of an iconic episode was Transference and it wasn’t in many of the best episode lists that I found (probably because there were better episodes), which meant that I didn’t expect such a special episode and it surprised me.

That's all.

I kept rewatching that scene especially especially the moment where Lionel as clark walks in and clark in lionel's body innocently looks on and the "i've got big plans for this clark kent" then the final swap moment.

And the song? Wow.

Just a very iconic moment in this show.

This scene right here made all the episodes leading up to it worth it all of a sudden. The acting was also really well done like they really emulated each other's mannerisms so well. I saw a lot of people mention this as a stressful episode and while I agree it's also a memorable one.

Some people on this sub have said that using AHA helped to get rid of gunk that BHA brought to the surface. Others have said that BHA was sufficient for their CCs/SFs/whiteheads. This might even be a skin type thing so I'm curious about your experience!

I personally used an AHA BHA (BoJ) for a year and didn't feel like it remarkably made a difference (and also don't quite remember the results). I then used Cosrx BHA which also wasn't remarkable or bad. I think it may have helped for preventing breakouts but I still have some CCs and small whiteheads especially around my nose and I'm wondering if its because I didn't implement an AHA at the same time.

Product recs are very very welcome but please mention skin type. (mine is normal/combo)

Like does it not smudge and then potentially go everywhere and clog your pores?

I have a lip mask but I never wear it at night. I stopped putting anything in my lips before bed a long time ago just because it could clog and that was BEFORE I was aware that thick masks exist for lips (back when my entire lip balm world seemed to be reduced to sticks of beeswax and vaseline).

edit: lmao the general consensus seems to be that this is a non issue but I like tucking myself into my fluffy blankets in the cold tyvm

edit 2: lots of repetitive comments but I stand corrected - this seems to boil down to being either a back sleeper or side sleeper

edit 3: to the side sleepers or anyone who feels uncomfortable wearing anything on their lips at night, highly recommend tocobo lip mask i use that in the day IF my lips crack. works in minutes dare i say

A toner pad that’s like really nice for self care and something that you’d repurchase/have repurchased? The type you could actually keep on your face for a long time and feel refreshed, without it just being a wet toner pad on your face.

I deleted another post I did on this toner pads earlier because it wasn’t as specific but some recommendations under that post were:
Carrot skin food toner pads
Skin1004 toner pads
Torriden dive in toner pads

I’m curious about mediheal as well.
Also no actives please!

edit: the kind of toner pad you’d put on your face after a long day and there would be no consequence keeping in on for a while (like a mask)

think, no actives or almost none so anyone can use it with no consequence (so maybe something hydrating) that also doesn’t feel so useless that i wouldn’t want to repurchase again. i just want something basic that i can use sometimes to elevate my routine or use as face masks.

feel free to recommend anything that works.

Initially I didn’t want to over complicate exercise. Just some muscle workouts and cardio (hiit) for health and overall body strength so I can become stronger to do more challenging things. Overall wellbeing.

Then I became more aware of mobility workouts. And then stretching to not only prevent injury but also for mobility. Then there are warm ups. Part of my goal of overall wellbeing is to maintain good movement to prevent issues in the future like back pain (which I already have a bit of) and stiffness etc. i really want to prevent injury at all costs and i have had exercise related injury in the past.

There is so much information out there. I’ve been so confused and it’s actually made me feel resistance towards exercise in general. I’m not looking to do anything complicated but even trying to find some simple guideline is confusing as I don’t want to neglect any part of my body.

YES NO MAYBE?

The product in question is the popular azelaic acid that is green and the brand starts with a which I can’t seem to type out.

since january there’s been a mental switch where i’ve been more focused on life’s demands. i wouldn’t say these demands have changed but i noticed that i lost touch with my introspective side/thinker/observer side. partly exhaustion and other things as well, kind of entered a state of autopilot.

I didnt realise til now how reading kept me in touch with that part of me. not all books helped me achieve this but the ones that have include: pachinko, east of eden, a little life, (maybe secret history?) and other lesser known titles but main feature is that they’re big on great prose without being purple prose, the plot isn’t always linear but the book had me in a flow state kind of. the writing was observational without being 3 pages about landscape description (not a bad thing but i’m more interested in human experience type books).

it was “freak of the week” for a long time with a few occasionally different episodes and then…the louise and joe affair? that episode was so dramatic i loved it. followed (after an episode) by lex’s breakdown? i hate to see it but the plot thickening in a direction is nice and i’m just amazed at the way it was filmed at points.

honourable mention to insurgence even though that was season 2 the cinematography was very cool in that one.

Recently I started wearing sunscreen regularly. I think I started breaking out from it though and am going to try some other ones. It could also be the following:

The main issue is how it’s interfering with my routine. Typically I don’t want to keep the sunscreen on so when I get home, I quickly rinse with my foaming cleanser not for long, then double cleanse before bed (to get remaining residue off).

Why I don’t do it the other way around? Oil cleansing is more stripping and I cope with my skincare after. If I put skincare too early it gets washed off later somewhat by brushing my teeth. I also like having a bare face for a few hours before I put skincare on and reset for the night.

Sorry if it’s confusing. How do you guys navigate this?

They both do different things but also have their similarities. From my research there seem to be a lot of people leaning towards recommending azelaic acid first as it’s gentler. Vitamin c seems to be more aggressive and more likely to cause a reaction for people?

I guess both could be used together (not at one time ofc) but if you’d recommend one or the other for someone to add in their routine which would it be.

Feel free to recommend specific products.

This isn’t like make up obviously because the actives within skincare may stop working effectively after some time. I’m just wondering how long you can actually go before you should really stop?

I have some actives (aha and bha) I got almost a year ago. Their shelf life is 12 months on the packaging and for both of them I barely got through halfway. They weren’t ineffective they just don’t get used as often. I feel bad throwing them out as I will be replacing them.

Lately I’ve been getting into fitness again by doing some home workouts. Resistance and HIIT for cardiovascular health and muscle strength. Want to get into Pilates, calisthenics and running after this. I know that subjecting your body to any kind of muscle resistance and cardio exercise will still be of benefit.

My main issue with this is form. Many videos don’t focus on teaching the correct form (and that could mean injury!).

I also found myself overwhelmed by how many workouts are out there. I don’t want to neglect some muscle groups by choosing one type of workout over the other. Just don’t know how to acknowledge it all.

Any recommendations for videos that teach form and also others that you benefited from?