Im a super sensitive, dry skinned girl, and am looking for product recommendations. I am looking for skin brightening products, that don’t Involve Ascorbic Acid or Alpha Arabutin  cuz every product I’ve tried with it has broken me out. 
🙏 Look forward to seeing your recommendations

Dull and Dusted

I am constantly trying new products in my routine, whether its a new cleanser or serum. However, the exfoliation step has remained unchanged for years, mostly due to my own anxiety.
I use the Neogen exfoliating pads twice a week ( Sundays and Wednesdays), and if I’m experiencing a bad break out that week, I’ll pop in the COSRX BHA power liquid on Friday. I don’t  use any other actives in my routine, the rest of my routine is all about hydration and barrier care.
Also, none of this has actually gotten rid of, or lessened my blackheads. 

And although my skin looks glowy, my nose ( and sometimes forehead &chin) are peeling like a snake. My makeup look gets ruined because of this.
This has been an issue for years and I mostly blame hard water for it, but I think this routine plays a part in it. 

Do you think I should exfoliate less? 

Would switching to an enzyme powder, once or twice a week, be a better alternative? I’ve considered the Medi peel Micro-Tea powdered cleanser

Peeling Like a snake (Exfoliation)

Months ago I wrote a post about my skin concerns, and the discussion came down to Retinol being the all-problem solver. My skin was peeling like crazy and my blackheads were post-apocalyptic… 
I started this retinol (0.3%) back in January (twice a week), went through the necessary side effects, cut out all other actives. 
My skin is not bad, I can’t say it hadn’t improved. But the blackheads are just unkillable, they haven’t lessened one bit. As for the skin peeling, it’s also still there, but has improved slightly.
 I was thinking of increasing my %, but with summer coming up I am a bit hesitant.
Opinions?

Am I not Retinol-ing right?

This balm is not for those with oily skin, will probably get clogged pores, and you own oil + the balm with break your goundation up. Will probably feel heavy.

As someone with PATCHY dry skin, a lot of foundations emphasises the issue. So i tried solving it with a good primer, first trying all of the benefit primers that are considered HG, none were strong enough. Then i found this primer at the back of  some shelf at my local HUGE beauty store and was ready to fight anyone who had dibs on it. It was the last one and haven’t seen any since. 
This is truly a BALM. It coats the skin and settles down nicely, i feel moistutised with it on. And it feels like a protective barrier from the layer of make up i usually put one. 
It doesn’t feel heavy once it settles, and doesn’t break the foundation up throught the day. 
Thr glass skin effect is real here!

Am honestly in tears thinking about what im gonna do once I finish my jar, and can’t find another.

• since this contains quite a few emollients, for a long while (too long)  that it sits under the yes, it never feels like it’s sinking in.
• it doesn’t actually feel hydrating nor moisturising.
• the main reason I use an eye cream, after the obvious anti ageing, is so that my concealer sits nicely. This did not help with that, it continued emphasising my dryness and lines. 
• although it did not trigger milia for me, ingredients such as palmitic acid, stearic acid, sunflower oil or myristic acid could trigger pore clogging.

•Although it’s on the thicker side, it did not trigger any  milia! This is a problem I face too often unfortunately. 
•Does not contain alcohol not any fragrance
•Panthenol

Unfortunately, 
•this foundation sticks to dry patches.
•oxidases throught the day
•my shade was too dark to begin with🤷🏻‍♀️
•this was supposed to be a radiant foundation, but the finish was natural, at best. No radiance noticed. 

I personally am a fan of Shiseido foundations, the synchro skin glow luminizing foundation was my HG for years. so when it was  time to try something new, i undoubtedly went straight to the shiseido counter. 

Considering the main point of this product is that its a FERMENTED product, theres a slight possibility of getting a break out. I was unfortunate enough to be one of those slight cases… 
Gave me small, but still there clogged pores. I tried waiting it out, but there was no end. Was very sad to give it up 😭

What caught my attention was the simplicity of the ingredients list. As someone with sensitive skin I always favour products that are alcohol, fragrance and essential oil free. Makes sense right? 
This producr did a great job and hydrating my dry skin, gave it a nice healthy glow, smelled amazing. This product truly felt luxurious.

Personally, the ingredients list includes A LOT of fragrance and essential oils. As someone with super sensitive skin I was not happy about this,however,  i cannot say I saw irritation. 
 My problem proved to be the two types of isoparaffin, c13-16 and c12-14. These guys CLOGGED my pores. I was super let down over this and tried giving it another chance as not my main moisturiser, but as more of a primer under make up, still no. The clogging did not lessen.

Got this product as a packaged deal with the essence. The essence, although contains its own decent amount of fragrance, was really good. Liked it.
I had the same expectations for this cream.

Dagiix