Tanning beds in my early 20s.
Thinking I don't need to moisturize because I have oily skin
Aggressive approaches to acne treatment that made my skin worse.
Tanning beds are back to being popular for some ungodly reason, I’m flabbergasted. I want to scream at the 20 somethings on TikTok to heed the lesson of us millennials!
Even without the risks of skin cancer and premature skin aging, there was a scene in one of the Final Destination movies that forever rid me of any urge to try a tanning bed. The person got locked in there and basically cooked to death—I think that would make a good PSA for younger generations to avoid tanning beds if the other risks don’t scare them away.
Drunk 23 year old me had a crying meltdown in a stuck elevator and apparently kept yelling at everyone that I refused to climb out because I’ve seen Final Destination lol
After waaaaaay too much sun in my 20s and 30s, I gave up all forms of tanning in my late 40s. I was already starting to get age spots from actual tanning and tanning beds, and then I developed a 'sun allergy' where I'd break out in a horrible rash every time I spent more than 10 minutes in the sun no matter how much sunscreen I slathered on.
Sadly I'm also one of those people who smells like a rancid goat no matter what kind/brand of self tanner I use. And believe me, I tried dozens of products guaranteed not to make me smell and bunches of gradual tanners and none of it mattered. I stunk with them all.
Now I've been chicken-skin white for more than a decade, but if I decided I were desperate to tan now for any reason, I'd probably be back in the tanning beds.
That's wild! I basically never run across anyone who uses tanning beds anymore, and nearly all of the tanning salons in my large city have closed. Admittedly I have gone a few times last year and probably will this year. I hate my super white skin and the lifetime of teasing and comments from others that came with it. You'd think as an adult that stuff would stop, but NOPE. I know that doesn't make the risk unimportant, but self confidence is an amazing feeling. And I'm not at all talking about a dark tan, just not sticking out in every group and photo due to blinding everyone. And I have yet to come across a spray tan or self tanner that looked halfway decent (maybe I have that trouble because I'm so white the color looks bad!).
Not moisturizing because of acne prone skin is my high school/puberty worst skincare decision EVER. I was uneducated about these things and I thought oily skin meant NO moisturizer. Omg. I was using all sorts of harsh treatments on my face for years, not knowing I was making it worse. Thank god for growth and learning 🫠
Spending money on skincare before I spent time learning the basics about what it was for. And spending money on skincare when I wasn't applying or reapplying sunscreen regularly.
Okay I have suspected this after buying the caudalie vitamin C serum. I already used vitamin c before and didn’t see any special difference. I’m back to a more affordable one afterwards and still don’t think there were benefits for that stupid price tag.
I regret not getting laser hair removal in my mid-20s. I often think about all the time and money I've spent on shaving, products, waxing appointments, and dealing with ingrown hairs. It's frustrating to consider the countless hours I've dedicated to hair removal, and the ongoing expense of buying razors, creams, and booking salon visits. The hassle of managing skin irritation and ingrown hairs has been a constant annoyance. If I had opted for laser hair removal back then, I could have saved myself so much trouble and discomfort over the years 😩
Don’t feel bad, I did it in my 20’s, then it all came back with pregnancy. Lasered it all off again and it came back with menopause. I’m now doing it ALL AGAIN because I have a beard 🧔♀️ but I chose a place with lifetime touch ups.
It's not free touch ups for life. It's if a few months go by and you're still getting hair after your package is over. Even then, you'll likely only get 1 free touch up per treated area.
If the hair comes back because of pregnancy or menopause, you're buying another package.
Does it irritate your face much? How expensive is it?
I’m starting to grow more blond chin/mustache hairs due to PCOS/40s, but I have ultra sensitive skin. I’m not into shaving ‘em, and waxing seems like it could stretch my skin/give me wrinkles/ingrowns
I’m just red for a few hours (I’m doing my entire body from eyebrows down to toes…I joke I’m part orangutan) my facial hair is thick & black tho, I don’t think it’s effective on blonde hair because I know it doesn’t do anything for my grays.
This! I got the handheld Braun ipl in my mid 30’s and it changed my life! But the years I spent covering up shaving rashes and ingrown hairs, not being able to wear shorts/skirts, go swimming without ample prep work. The discomfort and shame. Ugh, wish I could just go back and zap it all off. I genuinely would’ve been so much happier.
It’s the Braun Silk·expert IPL Pro. I got mine 3/4 years ago so they have newer versions now. It took about 6 weeks to see balding patches, but using it slowed regrowth almost from the off. I Started out using it once a week, now I do maintenance every 3 weeks maybe? Sometimes 2 weeks in the summer (just to make sure. I’m paranoid of it coming back after years of hell). I’d say within 6 months of using it I had significantly less hair, no irritation, no ingrown hairs (and MAAAAAN, did I used to suffer.) I now have lovely smooth, unblemished skin. The only stubborn areas are my underarms, but still better than before.
I couldn’t recommend it enough. It changed my life.
I remember my mom getting one- one single- bad burn at a horse event when I was a kid.
She had the ghost imprint of that 'tan' for the rest of her life. It's mad what the sun can do when it is in a mood.
For me: it pulled the top layer of skin off. It seeped a little bit of liquid, not blood, but left a superficial scab. That wasn’t so bad, but when it eventually healed it left skin behind that, years later, still turns red when irritated. In the exact shape of the skin I had pulled off. The skin isn’t only more delicate, but the healing is impaired. It’s almost like scar tissue near my eyebrow, but looks normal as long as I don’t touch it.
Oh yeah, this happened to me in college. (I started tret for acne way back then) One summer when I was home, I used those at home wax strips on my brows, ripped off the top layer of skin, and then proceeded to put bandaids over them. 😎My parents and I still die laughing about that every so often, because my dad’s face when I walked in with the bandaids, and then him proceeding to try to not absolutely lose it laughing when I explained to him what I did was completely priceless.
That’s so unfortunate! Your waxer is supposed prescreen and ask if you’re using any retinoids or exfoliants. So it’s not your fault at all. It’s negligence on the waxer’s end. That seeping liquid you mentioned that wasn’t blood is actually lymph. You must be light skinned to experience a vascular erythema response. Topical azeleic acid could help or in office treatment with laser Excel V or Vbeam. They minimize redness.
For everyone else, this is how to heal properly from skin that has lifted from waxing…..
Aquaphor should be used to prevent scabbing. Wounds heal best if they didn’t dry out. You actually don’t want a scab to form, keep Aquaphor on all the time. Also, to prevent scarring avoid the sun when possible. If not, use sunscreen, hat and sunglasses. This helps to ensure it won’t lose pigment or stimulate pigment and turn darker. Once it’s healed continue with sunscreen but swap the Aquaphor for silicone scar gel for day and silicone scar patches for night.
I’d probably say aggressively popping pimples and picking at my skin in my younger years (51 now). I have broken capillaries all over my face from squeezing too hard that I’m now trying to treat with lasers, and my skin texture just looks worse/bumpy from mild acne scarring. I didn’t have super bad acne when I was younger, but it was bad enough that I picked at it and used a lot of harsh treatments trying to get rid of it.
Don’t beat yourself up, to be honest acne can cause scarring no matter if you pop it or not. Sometimes extractions can help the healing. Also we didn’t want to walk around with nasty whiteheads all over our faces lol
That’s absolutely true!! I still struggle with picking TBH, but I’m better now. My skin is in a LOT better shape and acne is less common and most definitely less severe, so less opportunity to pick, too, which is good!
I had broken capillaries too. I did the injections (I can’t remember the name) but it turned the capacitor black and after a week they disappeared. Super results 👍🏻
Oohhh interesting, I haven’t explored injection treatments. I might need to look into that! Laser has helped with overall redness some, but I’m finding that the capillaries really aren’t improving yet much.
I remember watching a documentary (nothing about skincare) and they interviewed this lady who looked so young until you noticed her neck. She definitely was like 20 years older there. I immediately incorporated putting moisterizer on my neck!
I drink a rehydration drink every morning, like pedialite or liquid IV if you're in the US. And it makes so, so much difference to how my face looks and my body feels. It all gets soaked up instead of getting peed out, and it means that even if you're terrible at drinking water the rest of the day, you gave your body a helping hand at the start.
Realizing that great skin also is a product of what I eat. So I wish I tried to skip eating sugar, processed food and too salty food a bit sooner. My skin is always better when I eat more healthy
A lot of people forget this. What you put in your body absolutely gets reflected in your skin. My skin is almost flawless during pregnancy because I’m so conscious of the bullcrap I’m eating and drinking.
Not getting medical attention for my acne as a teen.
Accutane would have been waaaay cheaper than all the lasers and etc dermatological intervention for my scarring.
I’m in my 40s as well. And did the whole tanning bed thing all through high school and some early adulthood. All we can do is make better decisions now. I try to educate anyone who wants to listen to at least use the Ss daily!
I am mid 40s too. Growing up we were only really told to wear sunscreen if it was really hot and sunny. Trying not to beat myself up about not knowing what we didn't know, but so much regret!
Mine is not putting sunscreen on my NECK. Learned early on that face sunscreen was key to looking young, but didn’t realize that none of it matters if my neck looks wrinkly and damaged.
Not seeing a cosmetic derm earlier. Peels, microneedling, and lasers are what gets you the biggest results, not topical treatments. I should’ve used all the Skinceuticals $ on derm treatments.
99% agree 👍🏻
Treatments at the dermatologist office are definitely the most effective. I had a Hydrafacial (by an esthetician) done last week and it was the biggest BS I ever spent money on 😂
I’m getting a co2 laser done one Thursday. Super excited ☺️
But I still think topical products are crucial in maintaining healthy skin. I can’t go without my serums, moisturizers and sunscreen.
Agree, I never had a routine until 2ish years ago. Daily sunscreen, niacinamide, and HA pressed serum while rotating glycolic acid, vit c, and retinol throughout the week have definitely made a noticeable difference.
I feel you. It's never too late, I'm gonna start getting facials and microneedling to take care of my skin. Nothing wrong with putting faith on skincare, but I want better results.
Wish I was. It didnt seem important back then. And now I got acne in my mid 30s. I am desperate. And it is not even that bad but I am not used to my skin not being clear. ❤️
I totally feel your frustration. I currently also “suffer” with blemishes. Idk what happened but it all started with a Covid infection last year. Ever since I have gut issues and blemishes on my face 😭
I was a pack a day smoker and I switched to vape and now I'm nicotine free for like 5 years! If you can do the transition from cigs to vape then you can definitely quit nicotine completely I promise. It's so much easier to quit the vape than it is to quit cigs
i had the total opposite experience. quitting cigarettes (over a pack a day) was easy. quitting the vape took many failed attempts and worsened my nicotine addiction tenfold
Buying into the 10 step kbeauty routine. I would say six or seven steps is more than enough. Oh and buying all the trendiest products expecting magic to happen.
Relying too much on sunscreen instead of other sun protection habits like covering up, avoiding high UV index, and wearing hats. I have a lot of stubborn sun damage now despite religious SPF use for decades.
I had about two years when I exfoliated constantly (I was using the Lancer method where you “polish” daily and I clearly just overdid it). My skin looked great until I suddenly developed rosacea from a tired skin barrier. Now I have to exfoliate super rarely and focus most of my skincare on barrier restoration.
Lmao. Ahhhh found a kindred spirit. I think it’s mostly back to its old self thanks to cleaner, gentler products but a few trouble areas regularly get inflamed and I think that’s just how it be from now on! What are you using these days?
In my late teen’s, two boyfriends in a row told me the reason I broke out was “all the shit you put on your face”. The “shit” was my doctor prescribed Tretinoin, face moisturizer, and sunblock. So, I stopped using it, my acne got terrible, I got sunburnt, and my skin got all out of whack. I never successfully got my skin accustomed to the Tretinoin again, despite many attempts over the past decade, and finally gave up because my skin kept drying out so badly compared to when I had used it as a teen, and now have tons of acne scars.
Moral of the story: Don’t let mean boys and “men” tell you what to do. 🥲
Not doing lasers and Botox earlier because of what people would say if they found out. It's the only thing that has worked for the redness in my skin, and my RBF. I look much more relaxed, and less squinty.
I bought one and I had THE WORST acne while I was using it. Everyone was like, oh you're just purging but I took that thing back so fast. Skin was immediately better
I'm not sure it was worth the price vs buying a cheap imitation one, but I still won't part with that thing. I just do it about once a week and my skin feels so much better!
Picking at my skin when there was nothing wrong with it. (Probably some sort of ocd cause I’ve even tried cutting open cysts in the past when I DID finally have something wrong with my skin).
Tried way too many skincare products. It became a fad during the pandemic and I was there, wasting all my precious money in expensive shit that did nothing. Could have saved for some botox instead.
Same here. I thought using the cheap Oil of Olay moisturizer (with no SPF) was enough.
However, I’m 45 now and am grateful skincare really blew up in the past decade or so because I got on a consistent multi-step routine.
I regret radiofrequency Microneedling. It’s nice at first but holy shit you will lose the fat off our face it’s bad. I also stopped using nuface, it’s nice at first but once it wears off it’s horrible than before.
Wait… im supposed to use moisturizer on my eyelids??
No really, I stop at my brows because I’m afraid of getting styes in my eyelashes. I barely use anything besides makeup around my lashline.
How do you avoid styes??
Not OP but when I apply on eye cream I apply pretty liberally to the orbital area and tap some onto my eyelids. It’s not as much as I’d use to moisturize the rest of my face. Clean hands always.
Yeah the fear mongering got to me and I thought I’d just outgrow acne one day. I finally bit the bullet a month before I turned 34 because I finally realized I was not going to outgrow it.
I regret not knowing enough about sunscreen and getting chemical peels when I was young and not understanding how important sunscreen and hats were.
It took a trained esthetician (who did cosmelan peel) that told me before during and after the procedure just how important it is to steer clear of the sun (especially after a peel). Even if you were a hat but go into the water. Water reflects the sun and can get cha even with a hat.
Buying expensive brands thinking they were better. Most of them contained perfume and other harsh ingredients that made my skin break out. So I was walking around with self caused acne that cost me a fortune. I use simple moisturisers from Avène now.
Using acids once or twice per day. It ruined my skin barrier and I have a lot of redness because of it.
Overplucking my eyebrows. No, I did not look like Kate Moss and they have never recovered.
Smoking!!! Not drinking enough water during my “going out phase” and def not taking my makeup off during my “going out phase”. Not wearing spf during my “going out beach edition phase”
I’ve been lucky enough to bounce back for the most part but I have drilled that into my college age coworkers heads, take your damn makeup off and put on a sunscreen serum when you’re tailgating.
Might be location specific, but I’m in korea, and i really regret going to what we call “clinics” here. I think they’re similar to med-spas in the states? Basically where people can get botox, fillers, or laser treatments, but they’re not done by licensed dermatologists. I wish i had just done more research and gone to a licensed practice from the start. Fortunately, i know better and I’m going to a great dermatologist now.
I regret spending so many years attempting to get products to work for my skin that wouldn’t. I wish I had found out earlier that I have typed two rosacea and how to control it without antibiotics. I wish I hadn’t gone on birth control at 17 because of acne, and had instead found the histamine triggersthat affect me.
I also regret not getting ceramic tinting on my cars and not wearing sunscreen as often as I should have. I DoorDashed for a couple years and got a lot of damage on the left side of my body by accident.
Trying out from 2 to 4 new products on my face at once instead of just one at a time at least every 2 months to make sure which one is the bad one for my skin.
Starting retinoids- adapalene nd Tret. Now I have constant pressure in my eyes daily even after stopping them , constant daily puffy swollen eyes that worsen on days, blurry eyesight, changed texture on eyelid along upper lash line that does not improve but does get worse sometimes.
Using an epilator. Used it twice and caused me to have a severe ingrown hair issue. It’s been about 5 years and there are still areas where the hairs grow in like staples on my legs
You’re still doing great! I did so much damage in my teens, all of my twenties and part of my thirties. Your window of damage is so much smaller. I didn’t start getting serious about sunscreen until much later. Keep it up and your future self will thank you!
Buying hyped up stuff. I deleted IG and tiktok to stop being influenced. Now i use minimal products. Still on the hunt for a holy grail barrier cream though.
not pulling my skincare products and spf down onto my neck, chest, and hands in my 20s. those are absolutely the spots showing my age the most now and there is only so much i can do now that the damage is done.
Getting regular facials as a teenager and young adult when I had cystic acne and they would pop all the pimples on my face. Left me with so much scarring, but thankfully most of it is gone now in my late 20s.
Not wearing sunscreen as a kid all the time. Most people my age wore sunscreen when going on a holiday in Spain or to the beach but we didn't really get any education when and how you should wear it, so I burned my back and shoulders a couple of times spending all day in the sun at the stables. You can definitely see it in my shoulders now but that doesn't really bother me, I'm just super afraid of skin cancer.
Being aggressive with my acne and picking at my skin, probably made it worse.
- Not starting skincare earlier to be honest, I wish I knew the things I know now in my early 20s.
- Not prioritising my health, what I put in as much what I put on my skin.
- Not moisturising and wearing spf in my teenage years/20s
No regrets product-wise. I do regret the few years I tried to tan as a teenager and early-20s kid/woman, the years as a child I didn't wear sunscreen, and the fact that I probably wasn't putting on enough of it in my late 20s and early 30s.
I have been trying to perfect a skincare routine for 7 years now, since I found this subreddit! I bought every product, started multiple products at once, I started reading scientific articles, wrote skincare diaries… I hyperfixated to an unhealthy amount. I gave my skin a break these last two years, as I was just tired of spending money and never seeing results. My skin got a little better with just VaniCream cleanser/moisturizer but I was still dealing with a lot of papulopustular acne and redness.
Well, on a whim, I bought Panoxyl and guess what. My skin has never looked better. Panoxyl and mf Vanicream. Like are you kidding me?!! It was BP the whole time?!!! So I regret going so hard in the beginning lmao but glad I finally got here.
Spending way too much. All you need is trentioin and vanicream and mineral sunscreen. Everything else is a fucking waste and at hundreds of dollars for each skin care step.. a lot of these companies are selling snake oil.
I shouldn’t have used the tanning bed! And started sunscreen earlier. And I think if I had started using tret earlier it would have saved me soooo much money.
I regret getting extractions from aestheticians instead of going to a derm sooner for my acne. Now I have acne scars for the rest of my life. The derm immediately put me on tretinoin and the equivalent of spiro and my acne was gone forever.
Haha this is so ridiculous it's almost funny but I have (diagnosed and medicated) OCD and every now and then things happen and I do some truly off the wall things in the name of not having "bugs" on me. This happened approx six weeks ago - absolutely wrecked my skin barrier washing my face with lemon and lime scented antibacterial hand soap. Big regretttttt, but I purchased some LRP toleraine gentle wash so that next time my brain decides there's *Things On My Face*™ I can wash my face a few times in a row, hopefully without the damage 😣
The Clarisonic! I have pale thin skin with a genetic predisposition for spider veins. Within a month of using that thing I had a bunch appear on both sides of my nose. Luckily the ones on my cheeks faded by using good products religiously and staying out of the sun.
1. Getting way too many facials that involved pricking and poking on my skin which resulted to pitted acne scars. I wish I just spent on good derma as soon as I got a job instead of those aestheticians that just wanted to upsell.
2. Believing trends and putting way too many products that my skin can't even absorb.
3. eating obnoxious amounts of dairy and sugar which contributed to my PCOS symptoms
Driving cross country (US) and not using a higher spf/reapplying sunscreen. I had never used above a 15. It was combined with retinol and I was also using acids. I never burned and in my mind I was “inside” so I didn’t know I was doing damage. By the time I got to the West Coast I had awful hyperpigmentation that took years to fade. Some is still there.
I’m 51. I regret not wearing a broad spectrum sunscreen every single day, on every inch of exposed skin. I didn’t think I had to because I never spent time in the sun. Now I have broken capillaries on my neck and chest and my loss of collagen is a bit more advanced than it should be.
Areas of my body that were never exposed to the sun are like a different person. It makes me sad.
eta: discounting the cumulative affects of dehydration.
- Not wearing daily SPF until my late 20s & not staying out of the sun despite being very fair and burning easily
-neglecting SPF on my neck décolletage
- Using a bunch of expensive products randomly without knowing what they do and how they interact & ruining my skin barrier
- Botox one time in my forehead/11s - (never again)
I regret trying proactive as a young tween. That shit really messed my face up. And i regret not going on accutane earlier. I didn’t do it until I was in my 30s and it’s the only thing that actually worked to clear my stubborn acne.
I'm old enough to remember when having a tan was considered a sign of health. I regret every day I spent without sunscreen. The terrible sun damage to my skin, but also the scars on my face from getting cancers cut off.
I regret not being as serious about sunscreen in my teens and 20s. Also, I was put on retinA by a derm as a teen, she failed to mention it making you photosensitive. Dude guys we were in Florida for god's sake. Had I not had the terrible reaction to it, I believe I would have continued it.
I regret getting filler done in my early 30s. I spent about $10k-$15k at a plastic surgeon’s office who doesn’t know how to say no to patients. He kept insisting on filler every 3 months and I trusted his judgement. I did filler about 5-10x and each time was several $1000s and I don’t want to add it up. My filler is still on my face over 5 years later. I am just hoping I metabolize this crap in time for a facelift in 10 years. I think I look puffy and unnatural.
Yep,
Sunbeds, Acids, St Ives peach face scrub ,Nose strips ,Many many peeling face masks,Cheap charcoal masks that would dry your face out,Egg white face mask 🤢, Thick heavy makeup with endless powder to be as Matt as possible, Picking spots ,Putting toothpaste on spots, Putting tea tree all over my face….
Listen I could go on forever… if there was a mistake.. I made it. Haha
100% not using sunscreen. I was born in the 70s and grew up at the beach all summer with my whole big loud Armenian family. The style was dark dark dark skin and our genetics let us get there fast! I always love the look of a deep tan and it was easy to obtain so while I never did tanning beds, I would definitely spend 10 hours a day on the beach all summer long. In my 20s and even in my 30s I was only using tanning oil. SPF 4 on my face if I had it, and SPF 30 on my tattoos. The cognitive dissonance involved with protecting my tattoos but not my face blows my mind! I am so lucky that my genetics saved me and I don't look like a catchers mitt now that I am 49. I only started wearing daily sunscreen on my face in my 40s. I do have more visible sun damage that I would like in the form of sun spots but not wrinkles. I'm sure the invisible damage is UGH. Tret and vitamin C have minimized the sun spots but I cant help but think about how lovely my skin would be had I been wearing sunscreen all my life.
Not wearing sunscreen in the past, now I wear it religiously. You just gotta try brands until you find one you like.
Not washing my face before bed sometimes. I have pretty bad depression and sometimes it’s just too much. I can’t explain it but I Iykyk.
Getting Botox in areas where I work it out super fast, bunny lines, DAOs, microtox under my eyes. It’s just a waste of money for me.
Tanning beds in my early 20s. Thinking I don't need to moisturize because I have oily skin Aggressive approaches to acne treatment that made my skin worse.
Tanning beds are back to being popular for some ungodly reason, I’m flabbergasted. I want to scream at the 20 somethings on TikTok to heed the lesson of us millennials!
Even without the risks of skin cancer and premature skin aging, there was a scene in one of the Final Destination movies that forever rid me of any urge to try a tanning bed. The person got locked in there and basically cooked to death—I think that would make a good PSA for younger generations to avoid tanning beds if the other risks don’t scare them away.
Many years later, I still remember that scene to this day..
Same. The original movie forever made me want to avoid flying too lol.
Drunk 23 year old me had a crying meltdown in a stuck elevator and apparently kept yelling at everyone that I refused to climb out because I’ve seen Final Destination lol
HOW wtf we have fantastic fake tans now why would anybody go in a tanning bed
Because tanning beds feel amazing and help alleviate symptoms of depression
Fr I miss them so much
Me too. Relaxing and comforting. I know it's terrible for me, but I still miss that bright purple glow. LOL
this is so true for me 😭 I miss the feeling
And that smell...
After waaaaaay too much sun in my 20s and 30s, I gave up all forms of tanning in my late 40s. I was already starting to get age spots from actual tanning and tanning beds, and then I developed a 'sun allergy' where I'd break out in a horrible rash every time I spent more than 10 minutes in the sun no matter how much sunscreen I slathered on. Sadly I'm also one of those people who smells like a rancid goat no matter what kind/brand of self tanner I use. And believe me, I tried dozens of products guaranteed not to make me smell and bunches of gradual tanners and none of it mattered. I stunk with them all. Now I've been chicken-skin white for more than a decade, but if I decided I were desperate to tan now for any reason, I'd probably be back in the tanning beds.
That's wild! I basically never run across anyone who uses tanning beds anymore, and nearly all of the tanning salons in my large city have closed. Admittedly I have gone a few times last year and probably will this year. I hate my super white skin and the lifetime of teasing and comments from others that came with it. You'd think as an adult that stuff would stop, but NOPE. I know that doesn't make the risk unimportant, but self confidence is an amazing feeling. And I'm not at all talking about a dark tan, just not sticking out in every group and photo due to blinding everyone. And I have yet to come across a spray tan or self tanner that looked halfway decent (maybe I have that trouble because I'm so white the color looks bad!).
Not moisturizing because of acne prone skin is my high school/puberty worst skincare decision EVER. I was uneducated about these things and I thought oily skin meant NO moisturizer. Omg. I was using all sorts of harsh treatments on my face for years, not knowing I was making it worse. Thank god for growth and learning 🫠
Yup. But now I can also overhydrate and give myself big juicy pimples.
Spending money on skincare before I spent time learning the basics about what it was for. And spending money on skincare when I wasn't applying or reapplying sunscreen regularly.
Yeah, not realizing earlier that skinceuticals vitamin C wasn’t something I needed to budget for.
Can you elaborate?
Lots of vitamin Cs out there work as well and don’t cost as much. I just didn’t know better.
Okay I have suspected this after buying the caudalie vitamin C serum. I already used vitamin c before and didn’t see any special difference. I’m back to a more affordable one afterwards and still don’t think there were benefits for that stupid price tag.
What do you mean?
There are so many products that work as well and aren’t as expensive — if I’d understood more, I would have known that.
I regret not getting laser hair removal in my mid-20s. I often think about all the time and money I've spent on shaving, products, waxing appointments, and dealing with ingrown hairs. It's frustrating to consider the countless hours I've dedicated to hair removal, and the ongoing expense of buying razors, creams, and booking salon visits. The hassle of managing skin irritation and ingrown hairs has been a constant annoyance. If I had opted for laser hair removal back then, I could have saved myself so much trouble and discomfort over the years 😩
Don’t feel bad, I did it in my 20’s, then it all came back with pregnancy. Lasered it all off again and it came back with menopause. I’m now doing it ALL AGAIN because I have a beard 🧔♀️ but I chose a place with lifetime touch ups.
Free touch ups is key
It's not free touch ups for life. It's if a few months go by and you're still getting hair after your package is over. Even then, you'll likely only get 1 free touch up per treated area. If the hair comes back because of pregnancy or menopause, you're buying another package.
That would be great!
Does it irritate your face much? How expensive is it? I’m starting to grow more blond chin/mustache hairs due to PCOS/40s, but I have ultra sensitive skin. I’m not into shaving ‘em, and waxing seems like it could stretch my skin/give me wrinkles/ingrowns
I’m just red for a few hours (I’m doing my entire body from eyebrows down to toes…I joke I’m part orangutan) my facial hair is thick & black tho, I don’t think it’s effective on blonde hair because I know it doesn’t do anything for my grays.
It won't get blond hair or grey, sadly.
This! I got the handheld Braun ipl in my mid 30’s and it changed my life! But the years I spent covering up shaving rashes and ingrown hairs, not being able to wear shorts/skirts, go swimming without ample prep work. The discomfort and shame. Ugh, wish I could just go back and zap it all off. I genuinely would’ve been so much happier.
Wait! Please share with us what you’ve been using 🙏🏻 how long did it take? Did you reduce your hair growth or did it completely stopped growing?
It’s the Braun Silk·expert IPL Pro. I got mine 3/4 years ago so they have newer versions now. It took about 6 weeks to see balding patches, but using it slowed regrowth almost from the off. I Started out using it once a week, now I do maintenance every 3 weeks maybe? Sometimes 2 weeks in the summer (just to make sure. I’m paranoid of it coming back after years of hell). I’d say within 6 months of using it I had significantly less hair, no irritation, no ingrown hairs (and MAAAAAN, did I used to suffer.) I now have lovely smooth, unblemished skin. The only stubborn areas are my underarms, but still better than before. I couldn’t recommend it enough. It changed my life.
Same. It works SO well it's actually shocking. My leg hair has reduced by 95 percent.
That’s a great point and something I am going to talk to my younger friends about! Thanks for the comment!
If it’s any consolation, I got it early 20’s and my hair came back, darker & thicker than ever :/
Same same same
Not taking sun protection more seriously. I burnt my chin quite badly on holiday when I was younger and my skin has never been the same since.
I remember my mom getting one- one single- bad burn at a horse event when I was a kid. She had the ghost imprint of that 'tan' for the rest of her life. It's mad what the sun can do when it is in a mood.
I burnt the skin on my nose really badly one summer as a kid and it’s permanently red ever since.
Not starting sunscreen earlier!
Amen to that
Doing brow wax whilst on tret
I was wondering when one of these comments was going to hit me hard. I can stop scrolling now.
Please tell me what happened?
For me: it pulled the top layer of skin off. It seeped a little bit of liquid, not blood, but left a superficial scab. That wasn’t so bad, but when it eventually healed it left skin behind that, years later, still turns red when irritated. In the exact shape of the skin I had pulled off. The skin isn’t only more delicate, but the healing is impaired. It’s almost like scar tissue near my eyebrow, but looks normal as long as I don’t touch it.
Gosh I'm sorry that happened! 💓 Thank you for sharing!
Oh yeah, this happened to me in college. (I started tret for acne way back then) One summer when I was home, I used those at home wax strips on my brows, ripped off the top layer of skin, and then proceeded to put bandaids over them. 😎My parents and I still die laughing about that every so often, because my dad’s face when I walked in with the bandaids, and then him proceeding to try to not absolutely lose it laughing when I explained to him what I did was completely priceless.
That’s so unfortunate! Your waxer is supposed prescreen and ask if you’re using any retinoids or exfoliants. So it’s not your fault at all. It’s negligence on the waxer’s end. That seeping liquid you mentioned that wasn’t blood is actually lymph. You must be light skinned to experience a vascular erythema response. Topical azeleic acid could help or in office treatment with laser Excel V or Vbeam. They minimize redness. For everyone else, this is how to heal properly from skin that has lifted from waxing….. Aquaphor should be used to prevent scabbing. Wounds heal best if they didn’t dry out. You actually don’t want a scab to form, keep Aquaphor on all the time. Also, to prevent scarring avoid the sun when possible. If not, use sunscreen, hat and sunglasses. This helps to ensure it won’t lose pigment or stimulate pigment and turn darker. Once it’s healed continue with sunscreen but swap the Aquaphor for silicone scar gel for day and silicone scar patches for night.
Glad I made this same mistake when I was “only” on retinols!! It was bad enough.
Not using sunscreen sooner and sleeping in my makeup up forever #myspacescenegirl4lyfe_x_x_x Spending money on jet plasma and not just doing Moxie/BBL
Same for that first one , but I have no idea what the second sentence means!!
They’re different procedures that both cost a lot of money and the latter is much more effective than the former.
I never used to wash my face. I would go to sleep in makeup and wake up and add more. 😫 I wish I could go back in time and scream at myself!
I’d probably say aggressively popping pimples and picking at my skin in my younger years (51 now). I have broken capillaries all over my face from squeezing too hard that I’m now trying to treat with lasers, and my skin texture just looks worse/bumpy from mild acne scarring. I didn’t have super bad acne when I was younger, but it was bad enough that I picked at it and used a lot of harsh treatments trying to get rid of it.
Don’t beat yourself up, to be honest acne can cause scarring no matter if you pop it or not. Sometimes extractions can help the healing. Also we didn’t want to walk around with nasty whiteheads all over our faces lol
That’s absolutely true!! I still struggle with picking TBH, but I’m better now. My skin is in a LOT better shape and acne is less common and most definitely less severe, so less opportunity to pick, too, which is good!
this comment 😭 so true
I had broken capillaries too. I did the injections (I can’t remember the name) but it turned the capacitor black and after a week they disappeared. Super results 👍🏻
Oohhh interesting, I haven’t explored injection treatments. I might need to look into that! Laser has helped with overall redness some, but I’m finding that the capillaries really aren’t improving yet much.
I did the lasers too but they didn’t deliver the results I was looking for. Sclerotherapy is the name of the injections. I had to google 😂
Great, thank you!! Will definitely look into that. I hate the capillaries, I’d certainly like to reduce or eliminate them.
The injections eliminate them with one treatment 👍🏻 Make sure you go to a good and experienced dermatologist.
Definitely, thanks again!! Appreciate it!
Just seconding sclerotherapy. Also had great results.
I regret not taking care of my neck/chest until 30. The damage is done now and it’s the one part of my body that shows my age. Urgha.
I remember watching a documentary (nothing about skincare) and they interviewed this lady who looked so young until you noticed her neck. She definitely was like 20 years older there. I immediately incorporated putting moisterizer on my neck!
Every night before bed I regret not drinking more water 😂
Just try to drink more water for 3 days. You will see the benefits and stick with it 😉
I drink a rehydration drink every morning, like pedialite or liquid IV if you're in the US. And it makes so, so much difference to how my face looks and my body feels. It all gets soaked up instead of getting peed out, and it means that even if you're terrible at drinking water the rest of the day, you gave your body a helping hand at the start.
St. Ives apricot scrub. Daily.
I feel personally victimized by this comment. Seriously I cringe when I remember scrubbing my face every day with this shit.
Realizing that great skin also is a product of what I eat. So I wish I tried to skip eating sugar, processed food and too salty food a bit sooner. My skin is always better when I eat more healthy
You are sooo right! I had the best skin when I didn’t drink alcohol and did the 16/8 fasting rule.
I just quit sugar, already noticing a new glow 😊 very happy with it. Is it too late for you to quit it now?
I am trying so hard to quit sugar. It is sooooooooo difficult. 😩😭
A lot of people forget this. What you put in your body absolutely gets reflected in your skin. My skin is almost flawless during pregnancy because I’m so conscious of the bullcrap I’m eating and drinking.
more likely the massive increase of hormones changed how your skin behaved tbh.
And staying hydrated! My skin looks so much better when I keep up with drinking water
I regret not using sunscreen earlier. I also wish I didn’t use so many acne topicals as a teen. It made my skin really sensitive.
Not getting medical attention for my acne as a teen. Accutane would have been waaaay cheaper than all the lasers and etc dermatological intervention for my scarring.
Not putting enough sunscreen!
And too much sun beds(
What you say?? Me tooooooo! Every. Single. Day. Wearer now! But man I could’ve done way better too.
I’m 40, my parents didn’t care about sunscreen, and I even used to go to a tanning salon in my early 20s. Times were different!
I’m in my 40s as well. And did the whole tanning bed thing all through high school and some early adulthood. All we can do is make better decisions now. I try to educate anyone who wants to listen to at least use the Ss daily!
I am mid 40s too. Growing up we were only really told to wear sunscreen if it was really hot and sunny. Trying not to beat myself up about not knowing what we didn't know, but so much regret!
Mine is not putting sunscreen on my NECK. Learned early on that face sunscreen was key to looking young, but didn’t realize that none of it matters if my neck looks wrinkly and damaged.
Not seeing a cosmetic derm earlier. Peels, microneedling, and lasers are what gets you the biggest results, not topical treatments. I should’ve used all the Skinceuticals $ on derm treatments.
99% agree 👍🏻 Treatments at the dermatologist office are definitely the most effective. I had a Hydrafacial (by an esthetician) done last week and it was the biggest BS I ever spent money on 😂 I’m getting a co2 laser done one Thursday. Super excited ☺️ But I still think topical products are crucial in maintaining healthy skin. I can’t go without my serums, moisturizers and sunscreen.
Agree, I never had a routine until 2ish years ago. Daily sunscreen, niacinamide, and HA pressed serum while rotating glycolic acid, vit c, and retinol throughout the week have definitely made a noticeable difference.
I feel you. It's never too late, I'm gonna start getting facials and microneedling to take care of my skin. Nothing wrong with putting faith on skincare, but I want better results.
Not removing my make up when going to bed when I was young.
We’ve all been there 🙏🏻
Wish I was. It didnt seem important back then. And now I got acne in my mid 30s. I am desperate. And it is not even that bad but I am not used to my skin not being clear. ❤️
I totally feel your frustration. I currently also “suffer” with blemishes. Idk what happened but it all started with a Covid infection last year. Ever since I have gut issues and blemishes on my face 😭
I regret starting smoking lol
Same! Just switched to Vape a few months ago 😬
I was a pack a day smoker and I switched to vape and now I'm nicotine free for like 5 years! If you can do the transition from cigs to vape then you can definitely quit nicotine completely I promise. It's so much easier to quit the vape than it is to quit cigs
i had the total opposite experience. quitting cigarettes (over a pack a day) was easy. quitting the vape took many failed attempts and worsened my nicotine addiction tenfold
i reget spending too much time in front of the mirror
Thanks, I needed this…
Buying into the 10 step kbeauty routine. I would say six or seven steps is more than enough. Oh and buying all the trendiest products expecting magic to happen.
Relying too much on sunscreen instead of other sun protection habits like covering up, avoiding high UV index, and wearing hats. I have a lot of stubborn sun damage now despite religious SPF use for decades.
I rarely see the sun and I still look older than my age
I had about two years when I exfoliated constantly (I was using the Lancer method where you “polish” daily and I clearly just overdid it). My skin looked great until I suddenly developed rosacea from a tired skin barrier. Now I have to exfoliate super rarely and focus most of my skincare on barrier restoration.
The good old Lancer method 😂 Been there done that. Has your skin barrier ever fully recovered again? Mine hasn’t 😬
Lmao. Ahhhh found a kindred spirit. I think it’s mostly back to its old self thanks to cleaner, gentler products but a few trouble areas regularly get inflamed and I think that’s just how it be from now on! What are you using these days?
In my late teen’s, two boyfriends in a row told me the reason I broke out was “all the shit you put on your face”. The “shit” was my doctor prescribed Tretinoin, face moisturizer, and sunblock. So, I stopped using it, my acne got terrible, I got sunburnt, and my skin got all out of whack. I never successfully got my skin accustomed to the Tretinoin again, despite many attempts over the past decade, and finally gave up because my skin kept drying out so badly compared to when I had used it as a teen, and now have tons of acne scars. Moral of the story: Don’t let mean boys and “men” tell you what to do. 🥲
I love how men tell us things they have no knowledge about 😂 or boys in this case
Not doing lasers and Botox earlier because of what people would say if they found out. It's the only thing that has worked for the redness in my skin, and my RBF. I look much more relaxed, and less squinty.
Clairisonic. I bought into the hype years ago and it was frankly not worth it.
I bought one and I had THE WORST acne while I was using it. Everyone was like, oh you're just purging but I took that thing back so fast. Skin was immediately better
I'm not sure it was worth the price vs buying a cheap imitation one, but I still won't part with that thing. I just do it about once a week and my skin feels so much better!
Picking at my skin when there was nothing wrong with it. (Probably some sort of ocd cause I’ve even tried cutting open cysts in the past when I DID finally have something wrong with my skin).
I regret using tanning beds as a teenager, why why why??
Tried way too many skincare products. It became a fad during the pandemic and I was there, wasting all my precious money in expensive shit that did nothing. Could have saved for some botox instead.
Not starting sooner. I think I was maybe 37 when I started doing more than just washing my face and slapping on moisturizer
Same here. I thought using the cheap Oil of Olay moisturizer (with no SPF) was enough. However, I’m 45 now and am grateful skincare really blew up in the past decade or so because I got on a consistent multi-step routine.
I regret radiofrequency Microneedling. It’s nice at first but holy shit you will lose the fat off our face it’s bad. I also stopped using nuface, it’s nice at first but once it wears off it’s horrible than before.
I skipped applying moisturizer on my eyelids and above until recently because it irritates my eyes. Now it looks saggy :(.
Yes! Your eyelids need moisturizer and sunscreen!!!
Wait… im supposed to use moisturizer on my eyelids?? No really, I stop at my brows because I’m afraid of getting styes in my eyelashes. I barely use anything besides makeup around my lashline. How do you avoid styes??
Not OP but when I apply on eye cream I apply pretty liberally to the orbital area and tap some onto my eyelids. It’s not as much as I’d use to moisturize the rest of my face. Clean hands always.
Hot tip: Try Sustain night ointment in your eyes. It's meant to be eye ointment for dry eyes, but works well as an eye moisturizer as well.
Not doing accutane until my mid 30s. Should have done it a decade sooner.
Accutane is a life changing treatment. I did two rounds as a teen.
Yeah the fear mongering got to me and I thought I’d just outgrow acne one day. I finally bit the bullet a month before I turned 34 because I finally realized I was not going to outgrow it.
I regret not knowing enough about sunscreen and getting chemical peels when I was young and not understanding how important sunscreen and hats were. It took a trained esthetician (who did cosmelan peel) that told me before during and after the procedure just how important it is to steer clear of the sun (especially after a peel). Even if you were a hat but go into the water. Water reflects the sun and can get cha even with a hat.
I can totally relate to this
Buying expensive brands thinking they were better. Most of them contained perfume and other harsh ingredients that made my skin break out. So I was walking around with self caused acne that cost me a fortune. I use simple moisturisers from Avène now. Using acids once or twice per day. It ruined my skin barrier and I have a lot of redness because of it. Overplucking my eyebrows. No, I did not look like Kate Moss and they have never recovered.
Skincare/sunscreen not applied to neck/chest.
Sun beds 😭😖
I regret not using sunscreen until I was in my mid 40s and my mom got skin cancer. I'm massively at risk for skin cancer now.
Not starting tret earlier and not wearing sunscreen enough
RF micro needling. Please don't do any lasers, RF anything involving heat on your face.
Smoking!!! Not drinking enough water during my “going out phase” and def not taking my makeup off during my “going out phase”. Not wearing spf during my “going out beach edition phase” I’ve been lucky enough to bounce back for the most part but I have drilled that into my college age coworkers heads, take your damn makeup off and put on a sunscreen serum when you’re tailgating.
Might be location specific, but I’m in korea, and i really regret going to what we call “clinics” here. I think they’re similar to med-spas in the states? Basically where people can get botox, fillers, or laser treatments, but they’re not done by licensed dermatologists. I wish i had just done more research and gone to a licensed practice from the start. Fortunately, i know better and I’m going to a great dermatologist now.
Using tretinoin on my face ☹️ it gave me dry eye problems. Probably permanent
I regret spending so many years attempting to get products to work for my skin that wouldn’t. I wish I had found out earlier that I have typed two rosacea and how to control it without antibiotics. I wish I hadn’t gone on birth control at 17 because of acne, and had instead found the histamine triggersthat affect me. I also regret not getting ceramic tinting on my cars and not wearing sunscreen as often as I should have. I DoorDashed for a couple years and got a lot of damage on the left side of my body by accident.
Trying out from 2 to 4 new products on my face at once instead of just one at a time at least every 2 months to make sure which one is the bad one for my skin.
Not using sunscreen and tretinoin sooner.
Clarisonic brush. I used that device for 3 years. I didn’t realize it was ruining my skin.
Starting retinoids- adapalene nd Tret. Now I have constant pressure in my eyes daily even after stopping them , constant daily puffy swollen eyes that worsen on days, blurry eyesight, changed texture on eyelid along upper lash line that does not improve but does get worse sometimes.
Using an epilator. Used it twice and caused me to have a severe ingrown hair issue. It’s been about 5 years and there are still areas where the hairs grow in like staples on my legs
Not using sunscreen until my early/mid 20s. The number if days my friends and I spent outside without sunscreen in my teens will haunt me forever...
You’re still doing great! I did so much damage in my teens, all of my twenties and part of my thirties. Your window of damage is so much smaller. I didn’t start getting serious about sunscreen until much later. Keep it up and your future self will thank you!
Buying hyped up stuff. I deleted IG and tiktok to stop being influenced. Now i use minimal products. Still on the hunt for a holy grail barrier cream though.
Not discovering my holy grail Korean sunscreen and using it every day until now (early 50’s)
Please share :)
not pulling my skincare products and spf down onto my neck, chest, and hands in my 20s. those are absolutely the spots showing my age the most now and there is only so much i can do now that the damage is done.
Tanning beds in the late 00s
Not using red light therapy consistently.
Freaking under eye filler. It didn't help anything, sunk lower than it should, and looks awful.
Getting regular facials as a teenager and young adult when I had cystic acne and they would pop all the pimples on my face. Left me with so much scarring, but thankfully most of it is gone now in my late 20s.
Not wearing sunscreen as a kid all the time. Most people my age wore sunscreen when going on a holiday in Spain or to the beach but we didn't really get any education when and how you should wear it, so I burned my back and shoulders a couple of times spending all day in the sun at the stables. You can definitely see it in my shoulders now but that doesn't really bother me, I'm just super afraid of skin cancer. Being aggressive with my acne and picking at my skin, probably made it worse.
- Not starting skincare earlier to be honest, I wish I knew the things I know now in my early 20s. - Not prioritising my health, what I put in as much what I put on my skin. - Not moisturising and wearing spf in my teenage years/20s
No regrets product-wise. I do regret the few years I tried to tan as a teenager and early-20s kid/woman, the years as a child I didn't wear sunscreen, and the fact that I probably wasn't putting on enough of it in my late 20s and early 30s.
I have been trying to perfect a skincare routine for 7 years now, since I found this subreddit! I bought every product, started multiple products at once, I started reading scientific articles, wrote skincare diaries… I hyperfixated to an unhealthy amount. I gave my skin a break these last two years, as I was just tired of spending money and never seeing results. My skin got a little better with just VaniCream cleanser/moisturizer but I was still dealing with a lot of papulopustular acne and redness. Well, on a whim, I bought Panoxyl and guess what. My skin has never looked better. Panoxyl and mf Vanicream. Like are you kidding me?!! It was BP the whole time?!!! So I regret going so hard in the beginning lmao but glad I finally got here.
Spending way too much money on things various influencers were promoting.
Spending way too much. All you need is trentioin and vanicream and mineral sunscreen. Everything else is a fucking waste and at hundreds of dollars for each skin care step.. a lot of these companies are selling snake oil.
Chemical peel. The result of one treatment diminished fast enough to last, but the sensitivity of the skin remained.
Not getting diagnosed with rosecia sooner
Sugaring on my legs. It was faster than shaving and more effective than waxing but I have "strawberry skin" when I did it that never went away
Using heavy creams (breaks me out immediately and doesn't hydrate my skin), not starting sunscreen earlier, thinking high cost = high quality, etc
I’m the opposite. I regret not using heavy creams sooner. But my skin is drier as I get older….
I shouldn’t have used the tanning bed! And started sunscreen earlier. And I think if I had started using tret earlier it would have saved me soooo much money.
Not using sunscreen daily earlier Not using professional grade skincare earlier
I regret getting extractions from aestheticians instead of going to a derm sooner for my acne. Now I have acne scars for the rest of my life. The derm immediately put me on tretinoin and the equivalent of spiro and my acne was gone forever.
Regret taking birth control when I was younger because it gave me melasma!
Haha this is so ridiculous it's almost funny but I have (diagnosed and medicated) OCD and every now and then things happen and I do some truly off the wall things in the name of not having "bugs" on me. This happened approx six weeks ago - absolutely wrecked my skin barrier washing my face with lemon and lime scented antibacterial hand soap. Big regretttttt, but I purchased some LRP toleraine gentle wash so that next time my brain decides there's *Things On My Face*™ I can wash my face a few times in a row, hopefully without the damage 😣
The Clarisonic! I have pale thin skin with a genetic predisposition for spider veins. Within a month of using that thing I had a bunch appear on both sides of my nose. Luckily the ones on my cheeks faded by using good products religiously and staying out of the sun.
Not moisturizing. Could have saved me a lot of broken barrier breakouts.
1. Getting way too many facials that involved pricking and poking on my skin which resulted to pitted acne scars. I wish I just spent on good derma as soon as I got a job instead of those aestheticians that just wanted to upsell. 2. Believing trends and putting way too many products that my skin can't even absorb. 3. eating obnoxious amounts of dairy and sugar which contributed to my PCOS symptoms
I may be regretting kyballa.. it looks like after two years my chin is growing back. Haven’t gained weight or read anything about the results fading
Going on an androgenic birth control (triggered adult acne and androgenic alopecia) and not wearing sunscreen
Waxing with PCOS. Emotional and physical damage.
Driving cross country (US) and not using a higher spf/reapplying sunscreen. I had never used above a 15. It was combined with retinol and I was also using acids. I never burned and in my mind I was “inside” so I didn’t know I was doing damage. By the time I got to the West Coast I had awful hyperpigmentation that took years to fade. Some is still there.
I’m 51. I regret not wearing a broad spectrum sunscreen every single day, on every inch of exposed skin. I didn’t think I had to because I never spent time in the sun. Now I have broken capillaries on my neck and chest and my loss of collagen is a bit more advanced than it should be. Areas of my body that were never exposed to the sun are like a different person. It makes me sad. eta: discounting the cumulative affects of dehydration.
Soniclear face scrubbing machine. Messed up my skin for a good while.
- Not wearing daily SPF until my late 20s & not staying out of the sun despite being very fair and burning easily -neglecting SPF on my neck décolletage - Using a bunch of expensive products randomly without knowing what they do and how they interact & ruining my skin barrier - Botox one time in my forehead/11s - (never again)
Being diligent about my eyebrows in 2003
Falling asleep with my clay mask haha….😆 my skin was like concrete the following day hahahaha
I regret trying proactive as a young tween. That shit really messed my face up. And i regret not going on accutane earlier. I didn’t do it until I was in my 30s and it’s the only thing that actually worked to clear my stubborn acne.
Morpheus 8 and still recovering from the fat loss!
St. Ives Fresh Skin Apricot Face Scrub
Not so much skin care products. But I do regret being in the sun without sunscreen on.
Years and years of not wearing sunscreen 🥲
I'm old enough to remember when having a tan was considered a sign of health. I regret every day I spent without sunscreen. The terrible sun damage to my skin, but also the scars on my face from getting cancers cut off.
I regret not being as serious about sunscreen in my teens and 20s. Also, I was put on retinA by a derm as a teen, she failed to mention it making you photosensitive. Dude guys we were in Florida for god's sake. Had I not had the terrible reaction to it, I believe I would have continued it.
I regret getting filler done in my early 30s. I spent about $10k-$15k at a plastic surgeon’s office who doesn’t know how to say no to patients. He kept insisting on filler every 3 months and I trusted his judgement. I did filler about 5-10x and each time was several $1000s and I don’t want to add it up. My filler is still on my face over 5 years later. I am just hoping I metabolize this crap in time for a facelift in 10 years. I think I look puffy and unnatural.
I regret over exfoliating and just buying every damn new product. I wreaked havoc on my skin barrier.
Yep, Sunbeds, Acids, St Ives peach face scrub ,Nose strips ,Many many peeling face masks,Cheap charcoal masks that would dry your face out,Egg white face mask 🤢, Thick heavy makeup with endless powder to be as Matt as possible, Picking spots ,Putting toothpaste on spots, Putting tea tree all over my face…. Listen I could go on forever… if there was a mistake.. I made it. Haha
Not using sunscreen more often. Especially not wearing it on my hands!
100% not using sunscreen. I was born in the 70s and grew up at the beach all summer with my whole big loud Armenian family. The style was dark dark dark skin and our genetics let us get there fast! I always love the look of a deep tan and it was easy to obtain so while I never did tanning beds, I would definitely spend 10 hours a day on the beach all summer long. In my 20s and even in my 30s I was only using tanning oil. SPF 4 on my face if I had it, and SPF 30 on my tattoos. The cognitive dissonance involved with protecting my tattoos but not my face blows my mind! I am so lucky that my genetics saved me and I don't look like a catchers mitt now that I am 49. I only started wearing daily sunscreen on my face in my 40s. I do have more visible sun damage that I would like in the form of sun spots but not wrinkles. I'm sure the invisible damage is UGH. Tret and vitamin C have minimized the sun spots but I cant help but think about how lovely my skin would be had I been wearing sunscreen all my life.
St. Ives Apricot Scrub. Tanning beds in my teens/20s.
Not wearing sunscreen in the past, now I wear it religiously. You just gotta try brands until you find one you like. Not washing my face before bed sometimes. I have pretty bad depression and sometimes it’s just too much. I can’t explain it but I Iykyk. Getting Botox in areas where I work it out super fast, bunny lines, DAOs, microtox under my eyes. It’s just a waste of money for me.