Hope me shop: new skin, new beauty products! (Australia edition)

June 2, 2016 4:20 PM

Tell me your favourite winter/stress oily acne-prone skin care products. I’m going into Sydney CBD tomorrow. I know there’s a Kiehl’s, a Body Shop, a Lush, and a well-stocked Priceline. I need new face wash anyway, and probably new… lotion? What do I need? (Reasonably priced is always good too!) Help, I hate shopping and have no idea what I'm doing or looking for!

I followed the advice on Paula’s choice and got a cheap AHA/BHA lotion, some facewash that is not a bar of cheap soap, some toner, and some lotion meant for your face. And it worked! My super dry skin has looked great the last few months. BUT: Apparently this means that when things go wonky, I have oily skin and tiny zits all over my forehead! I’ve never had this before, not even as a teenager (I’m in my 30’s) - and I have *no idea* where to start on getting rid of them. Help.

Things making me break out: we finally had a cold snap – dry office heat, constantly sick (thank you, toddler in daycare), kinda sleep deprived, just had my period, stress and weirdness has descended on my work for the foreseeable future… blah blah blah. Assume I'm doing all I can on this front. Thinking my face will be like this until the weather warms up again? And yes, nice long vacation all booked for September!

posted by jrobin276 to Shopping (7 answers total)

there's also now a sephora in sydney. i am not sure if this holds true there, but here in the US they will give you a small, take-home sample of pretty much anything in the store (including expensive perfumes).

they have also started recently carrying the sheet masks that are popular in asia, and they have some that are for specific issues - moisture masks, etc. here they are roughly $5, but might be a bit more there. you might try one of those to counteract some of the dry office heat.
posted by koroshiya at 5:37 PM on June 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

My skin really likes to keep it simple. It's oily/combination, with hormonal acne around the jaw which gets worse with stress, poor diet etc.. I don't use soap at all, just water. (Sometimes alba cleanser if there's been a lot of sweating but rarely even then.) Then I follow up with jojoba oil, then a homemade mix of aloe and lavender oil (both are ant-inflammatory). That's it. My skin has liked this routine way, way better than the glycolic acid, acne systems, toners and moisturizers. Really, my skin seems to like the minimalist approach, and after a time adjusting to it, my body seems to self-correct. Jojoba is the oil that is closest to the natural oil levels of the skin for the average person so it is pretty weightless and doesn't clog pores. If your skin is prone to being oily, this is the oil I suggest starting with. If you're wanting more moisture than that, sesame or grapeseed oil is good. The less dairy I eat, the less I break out, I've found. So that can be helpful to look at as well.

Our skin is supposed to have oil, so often what we do is strip the natural oil with soap, which the body then tries to correct so we have an overabundance of the oil. My oily skin has become much less oily since I stopped using cleansers.
posted by crunchy potato at 6:26 PM on June 2, 2016 [3 favorites]

I am a PC fan too, and I SWEAR by the skin clearing lotion, I use it all over my forehead and jaw line, and all those bumps went away in a few weeks, never to return. I say just bite the bullet and order from PC Australia. I'm waiting on a big order right now.
posted by Youremyworld at 6:39 PM on June 2, 2016

Best answer: My skin has been pretty settled for a few years so I'm not sure I fit into your skin bracket any more, but I keep it super simple and try to use products with few ingredients. Maybe it's not oily any more because of the Regime but tough to say!
I like the derma sukin daily gentle wash - it's not a harsh cleaner, in texture it's similar to cetaphil if you're familiar with that product. http://sukinorganics.com/collections/dermasukin/products/dermasukin-daily-gentle-wash Available at Priceline. For a day cream I use the daily lotion available in a pump from the same range, and I've started using the sukin sensitive night cream again as the weathers changed and my skin got drier. There are some essential oils and crap in the night cream so it might not be ideal.
The derma sukin wash/lotions are not expensive and I use them to clean my toddler too if he needs it or has dry skin.
Bit of a plug for sukin but the products are so inexpensive to try that it might be worth it before exxy AHAs etc - which I have tried in the past.

If you wear makeup it's also worth checking what's in the foundation - after some experimentation I pay a premium for Clinique foundation that doesn't break me out (I'm not entirely in the cheapo Priceline thrall!)
posted by chiquitita at 9:15 PM on June 2, 2016

MooGoo. It's local and such a great thing.

There's a stockist bit there and loads of places in the CBD that sell it.
posted by soi-disant at 3:07 AM on June 3, 2016

My skin suddenly went from generally good, to awful in my early thirties. Recently I started using QV Gentle Wash (from any chemist) to cleanse my face and it has turned around in a HUGE way. It also takes makeup off, and doubles as a body cleanser too. Super win!
posted by shazzam! at 3:48 AM on June 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

The Body Shop has a lovely tea-tree oil cleanser that should help with the breakouts.

FWIW, I just have totally separate routines depending on what time of year it is. When I'm getting blasted with a furnace 24/7, I switch to the heavier creams/"dry skin" products... in the summer it's all oily skin/lighter stuff. It's annoying, but it seems to work out okay.
posted by getawaysticks at 8:04 AM on June 5, 2016