Beauty Tips For Body Care
Long time lurker, first post. Agonized over whether to share this or not, but decided to. Disclaimer: intention of this post is not to badmouth any company.So I hopped onto the bandwagon and bought the Niacinamide 10% & Alpha Arbutin 2% from The Ordinary line. I have combo-oily, pretty sensitive skin, and was hoping to strengthen my skin and get rid of some of those age spots (35 yo). I received the products about a week ago and tried the Niacinamide first on my right cheek. My skin felt a little tight, but it was okay. The next day, I tried the Alpha Arbutin on the left cheek, and it was the same. I did email them to ask if I could use them together, and their cust. service said yes, and to use niacinamide after arbutin. So on the third day, I did exactly just that. 30 minutes later, my face felt really warm. Perhaps a better word is 'burning', but honestly, I haven't had such a reaction before so I don't know. I took a quick look at my skin; it was red, bumpy, a little itchy but didn't hurt.My first thought was niacin flushing. But arbutin is not an acid (even though it has a pH of 4.9). Even though I have sensitive skin and experienced dermatitis before (always from seafood), I thought to myself that perhaps it'd go away. I was rushing for deadlines anyway. I was so wrong.Next morning. Status quo. It didn't get worse, but it didn't get better. I don't know how to describe it, other than my skin looks really angry and as if it's burning from the inside. I started to panic. For personal reasons, I dread going to see doctors and I know my GP is gonna give me hydrocortisone cream, and I really don't want to go down that route. I tried various lotions, creams, moisturizers that I've been using all along but nothing worked. I even tried using some passionfruit seed oil; it didn't work. 3 days later, my skin remained the same. My partner (who never gives a f about my skin) actually said, "Go see a doc."In a last ditch attempt, I recalled that SCA folks like Cerave PM lotion because it has niacinamide. I'm already using their foaming cleanser and I like it. So I thought, what the heck, my skin can't get worse and if my skin won't calm down then yes, I'll drag my ass to the doc.I went to the drugstore, picked it up, came back, showered, and put a very thin layer of the PM lotion on my face. I honestly wasn't expecting anything. Then, my skin miraculously began to transform before my very own eyes. I know this sounds like I'm bullshitting but I kid you not. In less than 5 minutes, the redness almost disappeared (80%?). No more itch. I literally teared. I mean, I've not seen my skin so ugly since adolescent days and I almost got on my knees to prostrate before the tiny bottle of lotion.It's been 3 days since then, the redness is 95% gone, bumps have become smaller but are still around. When my skin itches, I wash my face with cold water and apply the PM lotion. Then bam, no more itch! Out of gratitude and awe, I sent a feedback to Cerave Canada through their website to thank them. Their brand manager actually got back to me offering to send me more samples and coupons. Gobsmacked.On the other hand... I told Deciem cust service about my experience. No apology was offered and they suggest to me to try their Hylamide instead.I just want to state very clearly that I'm not bashing these products. Everyone has different skin but I really want to write down my experience here because I'm sure there are many other ladies out there with sensitive skin. If you have their products, do a patch test first, and don't use these two together if possible, unless you have very strong, healthy skin.TL;DR: Using Niacinamide 10% & Alpha Arbutin 2% together gave me severe contact dermatitis. Skin not 100% healed yet. Cerave PM lotion saves the day.
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by ysy_heart
No comments:
Post a Comment