Looking specifically for men but I’m open to all opinions. I’ve been doing some experimenting over the last 2 and a bit years, trying to find what works best for me. I’d love to get some opinions on what has worked for others.
stuff I’ve tried:
- L’Oréal Men Expert (no complaints)
- Bull Dog (not the biggest fan)
- Neutrogena (no complaints either)
- SkinCeuticals (borrowed from my partner who got some as a gift)
I’m in Europe if it helps
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Cetaphil face wash. Bioré AQUA Rich Watery Essence sunscreen from Japan. you can’t even tell you’re wearing sunscreen
Second on the biore sunscreen. I can never go back to regular sunscreen.
Do you have to special order the sunscreen from somewhere?
Anything Burts Bees, I use deep cleansing pore scrub with peach and willow bark. Use it everyday for face wash
I use differin gel for individual breakouts
Ursa Major
That looks brilliant, thank you! Any particular product that you recommend?
I use all their products and love them all. They actually work, and make my skin look, feel, and smell great. The branding is sharp too. First time I’ve felt this way about a skincare line. They have different uses so it’ll be hard for me to recommend just one. See if you can find some samples at Sephora or something. You won’t regret your purchase.
Soap
unscented bar soap. For my body and hair.
At first I was worried that ditching shampoo and other products with moisturizers would leave me feeling flaky and dry, but it was surprisingly easy.
I’ve shifted to the opinion that the overwhelming majority of beauty products are unnecessary and are just a market in search of a problem.
I have dry skin and eczema. Using bar soap on just my hands equals cracking and bleeding. Let alone attempting it on my body or scalp.
Also I have fine, coloured treated hair.
I use pretty standard supermarket brand body wash on my skin and somewhat expensive shampoos on my hair. I use mid range moisturisers. They’re all enough to keep my skin in good condition. I’m not prone to breakout though, so my body doesn’t need too much intervention.
My point is to say that I need that level of care in my products. Not at huge expense, but some. Your suggestion would have me literally itching and bleeding all over.
Everyone is different but there is a market for a spectrum of products. Bar soap is very unlikely to be the answer for most people.
You use straight up bar soap on your hair? I feel like that would just end up stripping most people’s hair of all needed oils. Unless you have very naturally oily hair I guess.
I’ve shifted to the opinion that the overwhelming majority of beauty products are unnecessary and are just a market in search of a problem.
I’m with you on this part though
What do u think shampoo is its soap with a liquifaction agent it does the exact same thing just with double the price and fancy marketing.
While true, there’s different types of soaps. If you put something like laundry soap or dish soap on your hair, it’s incredibly harsh and you’re going to have a bad time. I feel like laundry soap has a chance to even chemically burn your skin.
Plus, I use conditioner afterwards to put some of those oils back in there so I don’t think I could give that up. Whenever I skip the conditioner, my hair seems to suffer a bit.
But then I probably wash my hair too often.
Soap. Two thumbs up. Less drying, less packaging, good for everything.
Gentle exfoliation with a foaming cleanser that won’t dry your skin out and a soft wash rag. A retinoid (adapaline) nightly or every other night, and a moisturizer 2x a day. Use sunscreen and re-apply every 2 hours to reduce sun damage.
This can all be cheap and have good data behind them.
I usually recommend the cerave / cetaphil stuff, especially if your skin is harder to take care of.
Otherwise I refer to the CDA list to double check if it’s recommended. It covers the following
- Fragrance-free or unscented
- Gentle on skin to avoid skin irritation
- Do not contain common allergens
- Do not clog pores
Vouching for Cerave too, got a liter of their moisturizer here, does no leave my skin oily and feels great.
I also use La Roche-Posay exfoliant and anti-sebum cream to combat my forever acne (actually seems like one of the only things that work for me).
I work construction and live in an area with high winds pretty regularly (always getting blasted by dirt). I use the CeraVe face wash and moisturizer. It’s great and really helped my face.
I got cerave as a face lotion, my husband uses it maybe more than I do.
Cerave’s great for eczema!
I struggled with adult acne for a long time. Currently I use:
Toner my aunt makes (it’s basic, she owns a soap business, so it’s not sketchy ha); Some sort of eye cream because I’m getting crows feet, but I haven’t found one yet that I feel does anything at all (taking recs, but I don’t like spending a lot on this stuff; maybe that’s why it’s all been useless so far!); Neutrogena sensitive skin moisturizer; Australian Gold tinted sunscreen.
My skin has changed a lot over time. It got a lot better (less oily) post-kids, but I don’t know if it was baby hormones or age, or if by then I had just gotten the routine down and was no longer super drying it out, which lead to lots of oil.
Sunscreen
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Paula’s Choice ships to Europe and it’s amazing. I’ve been using it for over 20 years
PC men’s skincare: https://www.paulaschoice.com/skin-care-products/mens
Dr bronners for skin and hair (I have very thick indian hair in jata style dreadlocks down to my knees). For a long time I used a charcoal based face wash (lush until they changed their formula for coal face, then some similar brand I found on amazon) but for whatever odd reason after a few years my skin stopped tolerating it and kept breaking out, so I switched to Kate Somerville’s sulfur face wash which works wonders (but does have a bit of a smell to it unfortunately).
Another vote for CeraVe here. I have oily skin and still at the age of 40 get some acne and their blemish control cleanser and the SA moisturiser keep it under control. My skin has never been better.
What’s your skin like OP? Is it dry or oily? Do you work outside? I can better recommend some products if I know what you need.
I work inside all day at the moment (I work fully remote). If I don’t use a moisturiser my skin will get very dry and flakey. During summer I cycle quite a bit so the perspiration can cause some breakouts.
Definitely have a go of the CeraVe SA smoothing cream. A little goes a long way and it will work miracles for dry skin. You can use it all over your body too. I’ve got a big pot of the stuff and it lasts ages. They also have moisturisers with SPF which you can use together with the SA cream. The foaming oil cleanser or the hydrating cleanser would be great for you.
Dove unscented bar soap and whatever unscented shampoo I find at target or Walmart. My wife got alaffia Shea lotion that I like but she didn’t, it goes on without feeling greasy and I use working hands on cold days when my knuckles crack
Seeing that you’re in the UK I recommend Facetheory. Good products and there’s always an offer code for 20% off. https://www.facetheory.com/
Skin care products are required to get no government cetification on their claims. Hence its mostly marketing and giving/taking advantage of people with self image issues. Its the next step in consumerism to take advantage of mens wallets in the same way the beuty industry has been doing to women for years.
Soap and water will clean practically anything and if ya need it maybe some dirt cheap moisturiser for literally any part of your body will do the trick. Hell u can probably find something in ur kitchen that will do just as good of a job as any bullshit product.
Dont buy into the marketing mens beuty marketing is perfectly correllated with self image issues its all designed to make u a good little consumer.
Honestly the best thing u can do for your skin is go swimming in the ocean once a day.
Even soap and water (or hot water) is bad if you do it too often, doing every day is bad for the body, as it removes the natural protection your skin produces and NEEDS, and you don’t need the skin care products unless it is for some issues you have on your skin (medical reason). Those products often creates more issues with your skin. We should always visit an expert on skin care with studies and stop following random people.
Most of the marketing about skin protection is bs.
And sunscreen is also probably better for said protection than some special bs shite.
And yeah medical reasons is a whole different thing entirely.
Paula’s Choice for liquid or gel exfoliant and sunscreen moisturiser - personally I prefer the ultra sheer SPF 15 as the mineral based one feels rough on my skin. I’ll then top up with a higher SPF face sunscreen if necessary, as it usually is in Australia.
I also use Clinique’s All About Eyes cream, All About Clean 2-in-1 Cleansing + Exfoliating Jelly as my daily scrub, and Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion+ if I want a moisturiser without sunscreen.
If you try Paula’s Choice, give the routine finder a go to find the right fit for your skin type.
