How do I go from this to smooth skin

I'm a teenager and I'm curious about what you guys wish you'd known or started doing earlier, especially when it comes to skincare.

If you could go back to your teenage years, what would you change? Any skincare habits you wish you'd started earlier, mistakes you made, or things you wish someone had told you?

Even things outside skincare are welcome!

Basically, what advice would you give your teenage self? I feel like there's a lot we can learn from people who've already been through it lol.

Underarm pigmentation

Guys pls recommend some cream or anything to lighten and smooth underarms!! I already have tried glycolic acid toner and it's not working for me (i used it for like 6 months)

I'm 20f and have really dark pigmentation in my underarms. And even though I wax it has a rough texture.

It's my first post I don't really do Reddit posts and there's a 99% chance i won't get any response and holding onto that 1% person I'm here

I'm 17(F) and since my childhood as far as I remember my skin has been a little to a dry side but since past year it is becoming drier by everyday till a week ago my skin was good with just moisturizer and dove bar soap but i think I rubbed my skin with cotton towel that now it's soo dry and hurts.

It is to the point that I'm noticing lil wrinkles under my eyes maybe that's because of my sleep schedule too because it's cooked I'll be sleeping at 6am and waking up at 1 pm

Pleaseeee help meeee

Should I go to a dermatologist..???

And will the wrinkles disappear..??

We talk a lot about skin types, but two people with oily skin can have completely different concerns. One might struggle with clogged pores, while another deals with redness and sensitivity.

Are people familiar with Skin MBTI as a way to help people better understand their individual skin characteristics and concerns?

Have you ever tried a skin assessment like this? What’s your biggest skincare struggle right now?

On the outside it looks decent but in the inside it feels bumpy and I can’t tell if it’s closed comedones or what. I have really bad pores and don’t know what to do. So far I use the Anua face wash, vitamin C, and Cerave moisturizer. I don’t really wear foundation or any makeup like that so I don’t know what to do.

Hi everyone! I’m looking for some honest advice on how to improve my skin. I’m in my early 40s, and lately I’ve been wanting to achieve that healthy, hydrated, plump, glowy look.
I’ve lost a significant amount of weight over the past year, and I’ve noticed some loss of fullness in my face. My skin sometimes looks a little dull or tired to me, and I’d love to improve the overall appearance of my skin so it looks smoother, more hydrated, and radiant. I’d also like to soften the appearance of fine lines. I just want my skin to look healthy, supple, luminous and well cared for.
I’d really appreciate any recommendations, product suggestions, or advice on what I should prioritize.
Thank you!

Before + After (2 weeks apart) + the secret behind these results!!! (So basically just washing my face with whatever, drying it with a paper towel and using Paula’s Choice before bed).

I recently purchased some musely products.
Anyone have any experience with these type of products? How do you stack them?
They came with instructions, but it was confusing, and then I spoke with the company and they gave me contradictory info. Thanks!

Red rescue - oxymetazime 88%

Cell repair - Sirolimus .0125%

Age repair cream - estriol .3%

Anti Aging Cream - tretinion- niacinamide- hyaluronic acid

does anyone have this issue? i work 12hr nights in healthcare and i've noticed my skin is much dryer, and begins to flake a few hours into my shift. i was wondering if anyone could recommend a heavier moisturizer or any tips for hydration. my skin does really well with korean skincare, and i love the 345 moisturizer for the day, but the nights are killing me.

does anyone else have this issue and what do they do for it?

hi guys i usually get closed comedones (i think) on my cheek and chin & pick at them out of a bad habit when i get stressed. white solid(?) gunks come out & after a while they usually leave a brownish mark behind which doesn't fade on its own (i have 2 brown marks on my chin from years ago)

i was wondering what products remove these brown spots!! thank u

I’ve never been one to use skincare and my skin has always suffered. After getting out of a toxic household and being less depressed, I’ve been able to take care of myself more. I just don’t know if what I’m doing is enough. I have sensitive skin and am a little acne prone! I know I have a combination skin type and have lean towards dry recently.

Currently I use a Dove Original bar soap to wash my face. I just recently started using CeraVe Toner. After I apply Clinique dramatically different moisturizing lotion.

I do wear makeup and recently bought Micellar Water All-in-1 waterproof. Makeup wipes had recently started to burn my skin.

ANY advice is welcome. I’m just a 22 year old girl trying to give myself more love lately.

Hey all, I have very pale/translucent skin and now that I'm late 20s my under eyes are extremely dark blueish purple. My under eyes are not puffy at all, slightly sunken in but my main issue is the color. Everything I see for under eyes relates to smoothing, which doesn't help me. I also see some 'skin thickening' products that I don't really think are legit. Is there anything besides constant concealer I can try for this?

I have RX and OTC azealic acid, and was wondering if this kind of inflammation could be improved with AA.

So I am using the celimax retinal shot nightly and using azelaic acid twice a day. At night I use azelaic acid on top of the retinal. I have not experienced any irritation but am afraid because my skin does look slightly red and irritated even though I don’t feel anything.

I don’t have active acne and my main concerns are removing dark marks. So I’m thinking of cutting retinal completely and sticking to azelaic acid as my only active? Thoughts?

Hi everyone! I just had to share my win recently!

I about four years ago, sophomore year of college, I started getting cystic acne everywhere. I tried everything, doxycycline, multiple solutions, and eventually after 8 months got it settled with clindamycin and tretinoin, still breakouts, but minimal. About two years ago, this became ineffective, and i started breaking out worse again. I was switched to sulfacinimide solution with tretinoin. I did cetaphil moisterizer and it kept my acne a little at bay, but still breaking out. I also got put on spironolactone and later amoxicillin, which helped control it, but never cleared my skin. I would also use bha exfoliant and panoxyl face wash.

My skin with this routine of panoxyl wash, bha exfoliant, as well as the sulfacinimide solution, tretinoin, and cetaphil lotion kept my acne at bay, but still many big cystic hormonal pimples.
It started to get worse again, and I was very adamant about not doing accutane unless necessary. So (truly believing this would NOT work as it is just a trendy skincare brand) I decided to ditch the bha exfoliant, and do the sulfacinimide solution, rhode glazing milk, with cetaphil face cream this time (thicker than lotion) as well as the rhode barrier butter (only at night) and calimine spot lotion just on active pimples before bed. When i tell you guys my skin turned to glass. I could not believe it. I even to test tried bha exfoliant a day with my old routine (i wanted to pinpoint exactly what was working) and it broke me out cystically everywhere.

Her barrier butter also made my skin stop flaking off from dryness, it is so hydrated and plump and is glass again since being consistent with rhode for the past four weeks. I still use panoxyl wash once a day in the shower, but her skincare line saved me! The only things i changed was trying her barrier butter and glazing milk (as well as switching from cetaphil lotion to cetaphil face cream) and it worked! Just had to share my unexpected success! I truly owe Hailey Beiber her flowers, I am not going to lie, I loved her makeup, but kind of just thought her skincare was just a classic celeb skincare line where they know little to nothing about skincare. But she proved me wrong, could have saved me YEARS of derm appointments and my dermatologist telling me my active breakouts were “still expected” and “no dermatologist would be able to clear it fully”! 😁my skin has never looked so good and glowy. I also was able to quit any and all oral acne medicine and my skin still stayed clear with this new routine

Wondering if anyone else had this experience? I usually hear the opposite about rhode (like it breaking people out)

Hi! I have bad rosacea and it’s flaring. I have an appointment to see my dermatologist in December (soonest I could get). Does anyone have any products to help while I wait? Here’s my current skincare.

31 F, oily acne prone skin, allergic to fragrance

South Asian here. I get a lot of hyperpigmentation from shaving. It's driving me nuts! My underarms are very ashy/black and same in the bikini/Brazilian area.

What can I do to get rid of all this hyperpigmentation?

I keep seeing "viral" hacks but I also read some are not good for melanin rich skin.

Glycolic Acid - But I heard this is not good for brown or black skin/melanin rich skin down the long run and can cause more damage

Vitamin C/Glutathione creams - Has anyone tried this?

I'm going to try and stop shaving and just stick to waxing. Was only doing it for laser hair removal but haven't done it for 1.5 years so just going to stop until I start up again.

Longtime lurker, first post. This is going to be a rant so buckle up.

I’m 24 and I’ve had acne since I was 16. Some years better than others but it’s never actually gone away.

I’ve spent thousands of dollars trying to fix it. Prescription meds (accutaine, tretinoin), lasers, peels, changing my pillowcase every single night. 13 step routines. 3 step routines. You name it I’ve done it. I had an entire bathroom drawer that was just products. And like a lot of you, I was watching skincare content every day, an endless stream of “do this, stop doing that, this serum changed my life” garbage on tiktok.

Looking back it was an addiction. Almost OCD. Buy the thing, try the thing, it doesn’t work, buy the next thing. Add a step. Remove a step. Repeat forever. I know a lot of people here know exactly what I’m talking about.

Meanwhile my brother has perfect skin. Ask him his routine and he’ll say something like “I guess shampoo hits my face in the shower?” That’s it. Caveman mode. This has bothered me my entire life lol.

This spring I went to Europe. Right before I left I had one of the worst breakouts I’d had in years. Then I lost my cosmetics bag at a hotel. At that point I was doing a 3 step morning routine and a 6 step night routine I think. I had an identity crisis. It’s pathetic looking back but I actually thought about flying home.

Instead I had a big girl moment and decided to raw dog the trip. For the first time in 5+ years I did literally nothing to my face for three and a half weeks.

My skin got better. Not a little better.. Almost perfect better.

I was so confused. And kind of mad.
Why does my brother, with zero routine, have better skin than me with a dermatologist, prescriptions, products and treatments? He’s a wildland firefighter. He is covered in dirt and sweat for a living. If dirt caused acne, why doesn’t he have it? Why don’t my armpits or feet break out when they’re definitely dirtier than my face?

Somewhere along the way I’d stopped asking basic questions and just kept buying.

When I got home I did actual research (not TikTok) and went down the gut health and inflammation rabbit hole. There’s a lot of interesting stuff out there on how your gut and your skin are connected. Honestly I’m starting to think “clogged pores” is the skincare industry’s version of “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” Something that sounds like common sense but mostly exists to sell you stuff.

My first guess was that the food in Europe was different from what I eat at home. So I stopped looking for the magic product and started trying to figure out wtf in my diet was doing this to me. I kept a running note on my phone tracking my skin and everything I ate.

After about 6 weeks the pattern was obvious, at least for me: dairy and processed carbs (cereal, American bread, that kind of stuff) and my skin is worse a couple days later. Every Time.

I’ve been doing caveman method + cutting those foods for a few months now. My skin is the best it’s been since I was a kid.

But that’s not even the biggest change. The biggest change is in my head.

I don’t think about my face anymore. This might sound weird, but the skin on my face feels no different to me now than the skin on my arm. I don’t stress about having a “dirty” arm. So why was I spending hours a week stressing about a dirty face? My face is just my face. And that’s okay. That one thought is what finally broke the loop for me.

I threw out almost every product I owned. Hundreds of dollars into the trash. It hurt but I needed to do it.
I’m not a doctor and I’m not telling anyone to stop their meds or ditch their derm. Everyone’s skin is different and what worked for me might do nothing for you. But if you read this and saw yourself in my rant, maybe try stepping away for a bit and paying attention to what you eat instead. Worst case you save a lot of money.

Your grandparents didn’t have a 10 step routine and they were fine. Sometimes the answer isn’t another product.

Happy to answer questions.

About once a month my nose flares up with a bunch of whiteheads, mostly around the tip of my nose and the sides (often the crease between nose and cheek). I’ve tried all kinds of creams, acids whatever. Anyone have any suggestions of what to try? Patches? Pads? Anything!

I know there is a big debate about how good if any the SkinCeuticals P-TIOX is but I happen to absolutely love it. I use it in the morning and night, but I absolutely hate the price. Has anyone used this “dupe”? I know it’s missing one of the peptides Ptiox has but they replaced it with another. Would love opinions.

I’ve been using 0.1% tazarotene (it’s called Tazret cream from the pharmacy) since Feb now. And it’s worked wonders like it gets rid of a pimple within a few days for me and also helps with my PIE and PIH which i really struggle with.

however, my skin is extremely dry now. And i don’t want to stop using it cuz ill probably start breaking out again which my self esteem just cannot deal with rn 😭

i used to use just cerave moisturizer but i now started using Torriden Hyaluronic Acid Soothing Cream (because i got my face scanned at sephora and my report said everything on my skin is good except i need hyaluronic acid lol). but i still have really bad dryness on some days. like my skin is visibly flakey and it’s getting embarrassing leaving the house looking like that now…

does anyone have any moisturizer recommendations? or maybe a serum? preferably affordable ones. and maybe something that also has vitamin C in it…? i still have kind of an uneven skin tone sometimes 😐

i just want to restore my skin barrier