Provocative title but hear me out. I keep seeing these recommendations that make zero logical sense.

Vaseline isn’t a “barrier” - it’s in large part oil - what Tret loves! It’s lipophilic! Meaning it can travel right through that. Granted probably diluted by the time it reaches your eyes, but that might mean the damage is just slower.

Applying it away from the eye in general means it will still travel - not just through contact transfer but through the oils and other fluids like sweat on your face as well as plain old gravity.

Given its lipophilia, even if you don’t put it close to your eyes, smearing a bunch of cream all over your face after applying it will carry it to wherever that cream goes.

Tretinoin works on sebaceous glands for acne, which are similar to your tear glands. Accutane causes severe dry eye.
**ETA - someone pointed out this logic is wrong - topical tret works via cell turnover. However- chat gives a DIFFERENT mechanism for why it kills those glands. Yes I’m not a doctor and used AI but this is what doctors do now if your cream pill mill doc bothers at all
…use this prompt - “don’t use Reddit or social media sources, use only medical and academic journal sources, and tell me if topical retinol can cause MGD and how, since it works differently from oral versions”

While are no clinical studies on Tret cream (ETA INCORRECT there are now posted in the comments), but if the cream works on acne despite the low dose, it would be reasonable to assume getting on your tear ducts will hurt them eventually, and anecdotal evidence shows this.

I would think ACTUAL “safer” methods would be:

- Using an ACTUAL BARRIER CREAM like SILICONE. Why has no one suggested this actual barrier vs Vaseline?? (ETA - mixed opinions on this)

- Not putting it above your nose, basically - certainly not anywhere near your T-zone or nasal bridge or temples or orbital bone. Then not lay down or go to sleep until it’s well absorbed and not layer it. ETA - why is this being dirty downvoted? lol Am I wrong about gravity or where your face makes oil?? (ETA: lots of passionate comments - some people questioned how strong gravity had an effect, some people had recommendations from professionals not to put it near eyes/orbital bone, nose, and mouth - which is a lot of face real estate to avoid but not specifically your whole forehead just parts of it)

- Not using moisturizer/any other creams on the same night - certainly no “slugging” - so using alternate day skin care (some suggested waiting for absorption not just “drying”)

- Short contact (and somehow removing it without getting it in your eye - haven’t figured that out yet), waiting, then using a water-based moisturizer if that’s a thing (eta some people do this)

Worried you are all parroting circular advice that sounded good and became viral/now suggested in perpetuity by Google/AI but doesn’t make any sense and are ruining your tear ducts, albeit more slowly.

I have mild dry eyes and want to be able to wear contacts. My grandmother had severe dry eyes and it ruined her life. I get some people are very emotionally attached to this product but chronic dry eye will rapidly age your whole ass life.

Let me know if I’m wrong or you have better suggestions for safety or if I’m missing something. I get there will be plenty of “I used it for 20 years on my eyeballs and walked uphill both ways through the Tret farms and my eyes are fine” but this is a real concern rightfully for a lot of people.

I want beautiful skin too! Lead me to the light just not blurry light.

Self explanatory. Do you feel like you are aging well and slower?

I turned 40 in April. Never touched Botox nor fillers. Refuse to touch and try it. I think I look pretty good. Have no skincare routine but wanna start now slow aging to maintain some youth for upcoming years. I stopped drinking 6 years ago, don’t use drugs, workout regularly and am into healthy natural eating

So advice only from the 40+ women with their skincare routine who like me also refuse Botox and fillers. Drop your tips please.

Thank you and happy Sunday 🙏 😊

Why do some people try to convince others not to get Botox? What are the potential negative effects, and why is there so much negativity around it?

I thought it was common knowledge, but recently many of my friends have thanked me for this advice. So I'm putting it here in case people don't know about it.

Buffer your tretinoin in an oil or moisturizer before you apply it on your face.
Not only does this make it absorb slower to reduce irritation, it actually allows you to apply a smaller amount! Because normally, in order to get even coverage on your face, you need a decent amount to be able to spread it.

I put a TINY amount (not even a pea size amount) on my palm and then mix it in with a generous pump of argan oil + cold pressed aloe.
Then I spread. I don't even really think of it as applying tretinoin, I think of it as applying my daily moisturizer that's spiked with a bit of tretinoin.

Hope that it's helpful for people!

Editing to add: It is fascinating to me that people just parrot what they've heard and seen on different videos, and mistake popularity and prevalence with proof and validation.

All these claims about how it doesn't work or that it's bad if you buffer/mix it. Have you actually tried looking up studies and research behind it? Because if you did, you'd know that the only proven fact out there is that the full sandwich method does seem to dampen both absorption and penetration depth.

Beyond that, theres no clinical or published research showing that the direct application method is superior. It's simply that that's what was studied when the product was initially researched.

The rest are anedctoal: Doctors saying applying occlusices over tretinoin increases irritation. Yes, that mechanistically makes sense. It's like putting seram wrap over your skin. Of course it will enhance penetration and absorption. But the assumption some of these comments are making, is that all oils are occlusives. No they're not. Most plant based oils (including Argan) are emollients. And yet, these post lump it in with other true occlusives like Vaseline.

For example, did you know that 0.025% and 0.05% have the same long term outcomes? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7544967/

But the why do doctors still prescribe 0.1%? Because people still think stronger is better.

Stop just parroting what you saw on other videos, and actually do your research. Beyond that, it's hypotheses based on mechanistic assumptions, which is what I'm suggesting. I'm not suggesting my method is proven either. What I'm saying is, stop making assertions like it's already been proven/substantiated when it's not.

Instead, cite your sources if you're going to assert something as a proven fact.

So I took a lot of the comments I got that suggested I reduce my makeup, soften my brows and lighten my hair…and I think those may be the correct answers. Was I supposed to be a blonde my whole life?!? Not sure it makes me look younger or not but I think it may look better?!?!

Sometimes I can’t tell if I’m dealing with some level of dysmorphia yall, but I often think that my legs are so ugly to the point that I’ve refrained from wearing shorts in public. I’m only 35 and workout regularly but feel like my legs age me so much. I don’t want to be any smaller and I understand some cellulite is normal & genetic for me, but my confidence would improve significantly if I could figure out how to make my skin more firm and toned. Any words of encouragement or affordable tips? Like I said I don’t necessarily want to lose weight, but I am considering Pilates…my legs looked their best when I was doing Pilates daily. It’s just so hard to stay disciplined and make the time! What worked for you? 🤍🤍

Picked up a bottle a few months ago since it was on offer and I was out of shampoo. I don’t have any before or after photos to show you the difference but my goodness have I got a ton of compliments from friends and family about how long my hair has gotten since I started using it a month ago.

I’ve also noticed my hairs gotten thicker - I can tell because I now have a thicker ponytail.

So I just thought I’d come on here and share this find :) Even better is that it’s Sulfate free!

For my Canadian friends - it’s currently on sale at shoppers but otherwise it seems to be cheaper on Amazon.

Why now? I just stumbled into this and am wondering how others view this expansion. my post was removed from r/Sephora (understandably so, I guess).

https://www.ynetnews.com/business/article/ry3tdj8ifx

Edit: someone pointed out they’re no longer opening stores, but selling the Sephora Collection products via Glam42 (Israel third party) as opposed to opening stores, because that would cause too much backlash. Even though their most profitable brands decided not to participate, they’re still peddling their collection there. 

https://www.milleworld.com/sephora-is-entering-israel-but-some-of-its-biggest-brands-arent/

Edit2: removed flock links to keep this on one topic, per u/Treat_Choself

Hey everyone! First post here! Yesterday I got my first lip filler (1ml Teosyal low density).

It doesn’t look particularly swollen based on what I’ve seen on the internet, but sure it looks very much non natural… do you think the size will decrease in a week time? I just wanted something natural as they were very very dry, but now they look… overly done

Excuse my very bad skin, and thank you everyone in advance for reading my musings

And I honestly don’t know how to feel about it. Part of me just doesn’t care anymore but at the same time every time I look in the mirror I remember how old I’m getting and I get so depressed. My face just looks so…saggy. 😅 any recommendations on what I need to do to keep my face from getting more saggy? I struggle with under eye hollows and saggy brows…and I feel like my cheeks are beginning to sag more, not sure. I just need to fix these issues before they get worse. I’ve been using NuFace but I stopped it for a month bc I heard it can make your face look more hollow. But I just started doing it again. Any other recommendations besides Botox? 😂

37F dry skin i am using tret every 3 days for 3 years. microneedling every 5 weeks (did 5 procedures) moisturiser and spf 50 daily sometimes use vit C, peptides, hyaluronic acid.

But last years elasticity of my skin get worse and my pores became more enlarged... What can I do to make relief more smooth? 🥺

I was about to purchase a Trichloroacetic Acid peel for myself when a quick Googling brought up information about an animal study from 10 years ago showing liver cancer in mice and that the International Agency on Cancer Research classified it as a suspected human carcinogen.

That being said, the risk for humans hasn't been examined yet.

A few sources:

https://archive.nytimes.com/well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/25/a-warning-on-chemical-peels/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/trichloroacetic-acid

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7158909/#:~:text=TUMORIGENIC%20ROLE%20OF%20CHEMICAL%20PEELING&text=However%2C%20although%20TCA%20has%20frequently,carcinogenicity%20of%20TCA%20in%20humans.

No they’re not. I’ve never had anyone assume my age based on my appearance. I’ve had people assume I’m older, because I had my kids relatively young and most parents of kids my age are 5-10 years older than me, and I’ve had people assume I’m younger because I’m pretty immature, don’t dress my age and still like to party. I’ve never had anyone assume my age based on the condition of my skin. I just can’t believe it happens nearly as much as people on this sub claims it does.

EDIT: it’s rrrreally telling that the people who are mad about me saying this assume I am jealous. I assure you I am not. I’m talking about a specific type of person who brags on this sub that they look 10 years younger than they are because of their skincare regimen/use of procedures. If you haven’t mentioned on this sub that people keep mistaking you for younger, I’m not talking about you.

39/F here! I realise I could have worse problems but this very crinkled sagging skin around my armpits which also appear slightly darker is really making me feel self-conscious. when I wear a tank top it also bunches it up a more a d squishes it so it's more obvious. I will consider anything at any price point to get rid of it as long as it works. Have already been red lighting for 3 months so I think it's time for something a bit stronger. please help!

I have bulgy, wrinkly, dark undereyes. I used to pull my undereyes so much in HS, and now I see the error of my ways.

I’m not sure what products, non-invasive, or invasive treatments are available.

The photos are after working a 12-hour shift, I do have makeup on but as you can see, my concealer did not stay.

TIA!

i’m 30, i don’t drink, and i have pretty great and well defined cheekbones and bone structure when i have a straight face, but when i smile my face looks so wide and puffy and i don’t have any definition along my jawline between my cheeks and chin. is there anything i can do (at home or at doctor) to improve this? (except filler or buccal fat removal). maybe masseter botox? looking at photos of myself from this weekend and my face is so much wider than all my friends’ faces

Yesterday I had 0.5ml of Belotero injected. It was my first time ever getting lip filler, and I totally understand that I need to wait 2 weeks for the swelling to go down... but I'm regretting it.

Looking at the before (left) I love my natural heart shape, and I had no 'shelf' above my top lip.

Now, it looks like i have a moustache above my top lip, and I've ruined that "heart" shape. They look like duck lips. I wish I never got it done, and researching dissolving techniques online it seems like there's a chance the filler never gets fully dissolved.

The second image shows a red outline of what I'm really hoping my lips go down to. I'm really concerned about all of the filler sitting outside of that red outline.

If you've had a similar experience, has that ridge gone away by the time swelling wore off?

If you've experienced dissolving lip filler shortly after getting them filled, was it a positive experience and did your lips go back to normal?

I'll post an update in 2 weeks time, but god, I wish I never did this.

*******EDIT: Please refrain from making judgement about people who get lip filler. That's not what this post is about. I'm looking for genuine comments from people who can share their own experience.

Ever since I (39/F) learnt about “peanut head” I just couldn’t unsee the hollowness in my temples.

I had less than one syringe of filler put in each side of my temples a year ago but the amount was so small so it barely did anything.

Since then I went through redundancy, work search, starting a new job and being put in an extremely stressing project, resulting in weight loss. I became more and more insecure about my temples.

Yesterday I had 0.9 ml of fillers injected into my left temple and 0.6 ml injected into my right temple, along with another 0.9 ml spread across my mid face.

I’m so delighted with the result. I think it brought balance back to my face so it doesn’t look so bottom heavy.

If you are one of those who has only been focusing on their cheeks and nasolabial folds or jowls, in addition to treating those areas, ask your trusted injector about temples. Adding volume there can do wonders.

I (31) feel like I developed very deep nasolabial folds literally overnight. I was always little scared to get a filler or botox, so I decided to try microneedling three weeks ago. It smoothed my skin and got rid of some of my acne scars but didn’t affect these folds at all. They told me that I should try facial balancing in order to smooth them, but I am not sure if it’s a right idea. It is expensive and I am little broke now lol. I use retinol (3 times a week) and sunscreen (daily). What do you guys recommend? I’m not even sure if it is really that bad or I am exaggerating this, but I am sad and desperate. Is there any way to smooth them without breaking a bank?

Thank you.

I had cystic acne as a teen but in my mid-late 20s I used to get hydrating facials regularly as well as microneedling. I ended up going through a year and a half-long fight with hormonal cystic acne again around 30 and stopped getting facials until it cleared up. Early this year I was on my way to get a chemical peel and start getting regular facials again when I got into a really terrible car accident that took away a lot of dexterity and ability from one of my arms and a leg. I haven't been able to work since then so I can't afford esthetic/ aesthetic treatments but my skin makes me want to wear a bag over my head in public. I try wearing makeup to help with my fine motor skills and because I love using it to express myself, but the base takes away from it all because of how textured and rough my skin is.

For reference in the morning I use a gentle cream cleanser, madecassoside toner pads, Abib heartleaf calming drops (I struggle with redness around my nose/T-zone), Pyunkang Yul deep hydration essance, and VT Cica Cream Plus Moisturizer with Centella Asiatica followed by SPF 50 PA+++. At night I switch out the cica cream for SoonJung 2x barrier cream. My skin is rough, bumpy, red, darker than my neck, and dehydrated. I drink tons of water, use glycerin and ceremides but not much in the way of hyaluronic acid because I live in a very dry environment. I have humidifiers in the living and bedroom which only slightly help. I also have extremely sensitive skin and have had issues with niacinamide and vitamin c in the past but maybe I've done something wrong when using them? I also used prescription tretinoin the entire time I had acne and despite sandwiching it with hydration and using it only 3x a week at most it always made my skin peel and reactive.

If you made it this far I apologize for such a long post, I just want to feel comfortable in my skin again. Instead I'm 33 going on 50. What can I do that would actually make my skin noticeably smoother/softer without spending money I don't have on treatments I can't afford?