Costco: SK-II Facial Treatment Essence $60 off

grumble wrote: ↑ I just took a look at Pitera, and it appears to be a byproduct of sake production - it's a fermented rice liquid. Impact is questionable.

Frankly for face, you really want two items:

1. Am moisturizer with some SPF in it. Cerave AM is excellent.
2. Pm moisturizer without SPF in it. Cerave PM is excellent.

If shower in evening, put PM on immediately after showering before skin fully dries. If shower in morning, put AM on right after instead.

That has your ceramides (locks in moisture), hyaluronic acid (draws water into skin), SPF (protects from blemishes, skin damage, cancer), niacinamide (can relieve redness), doesn't clog pores. No strong fragrance. Low allergic potential. King of moisturizers. Both bottles put together are like 15-20% of this serum cost.

SKS2002 wrote: ↑ I'm not the poster but CeraVe is in drugstores (like Shoppers) and some products are at Costco. In general, CeraVe is a safe line where most of their products will have some (or great) benefit to skin. They also do have body lotions and creams as well (that's what I linked for Costco).

In general, you want stuff that's unscented, without sensitizing ingredients (like fruit acids, lots of alcohol), and with beneficial ingredients like antioxidants and vitamins. Sunscreen for the day is essential. In general, it should be from thinnest to thickest (so from liquids to creams). Beyond that, price is not indicative of the product's strength or quality; you can build a solid routine using drugstore brands like CeraVe or even the "cheap" lines like the Ordinary or Inkey List; likewise, just because something is expensive does not mean that it's actually amazing for you (SK-II, La Mer, etc.).

The main issue with skincare is that people have to do their own research. Products are only regulated to a point and companies can sell stuff that can make your skin even worse. For the most part, a single brand can sell stuff that's both great and horrible for skin, so you have to pick and choose your products. Like, stuff that has made headlines (like parabens and that sunscreen ingredient that bleaches coral) are actually less of an issue that things like fragrance. Lastly, skincare is an individual thing; I've gotten much more interested in it over the years not only because I'm Korean but because my skin got ridiculously sensitive to various things over the past few years. What works for me may not work as well (or at all) for you and vice versa.

Paula's Choice has good informational posts about a lot of different things, including setting up a skincare routine. Their products are good (to great), but taking into account the USD/CAD exchange rate, there are better options.

pprider wrote: ↑ I looked at some of the reviews at Shoppers from your link and it seems like the sunscreen face lotion has a rating of 3.0/5? With that many negative personal reviews, it can't be good right?

I've heard about Paula's Choice but I heard that a lot of their products have alcohol or parabens.

SKS2002 wrote: ↑ Pitera is now used in other skincare products (and at one point, Clinique -- a P&G company just like SK-II -- had a dupe that was, like, 20% of the SK-II price).

Goonish wrote: ↑ Yo stop calling me out, she’s gonna see this…

kejongliu wrote: ↑ This product is good and is cheaper in Asia. I had to get a refund on a previous purchase, $269 plus tax, from Costco. I paid $190 incl. tax in Taiwan during the the last blk Friday. Nevertheless, this price is good in Canada.

abshahul wrote: ↑ What about parabens in Cerave lotions? Isn't that bad? Their creams don't have but most of their face lotions have some parabens.

grumble wrote: ↑ Parabens aren't a big deal:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness ... an-beauty/

Basically the two risks associated with parabens are 'they are estrogenic' and 'they cause cancer'. Both sound really scary, but both do not appear to be a concern.

1. Some estrogenic activity was modeled by a chemist about twenty years back, but in vivo looks like common parabens are more like 1/100,000th the strength of estradiol, and you wouldn't see any impact until you used tens of thousands of times the concentration you find in common beauty products. If you're eating meals of straight parabens then it isn't ideal, but this is very weak activity that you'd find more powerfully in zillions of other common products (like say soy, rice, beans, oats, apples, sesame, coffee, beer, etc.). Personally not worried.

2. The study this comes from was the finding of very small amounts of parabens in breast tissue in a 2004 study, which prompted fear that, because parabens have the above estrogenic activity and because estrogenic activity in breast tissue might lead to breast cancer, caused a freakout. Well, we know the estrogenic activity is very low, the concentrations of parabens in tissue is very low (it's rapidly metabolized by the liver), and there's no indication that this tiny paraben concentration has any causative activity in breast cancer. The scientific community hates this study and has been dunking on it so much that the author released a statement saying that he never intended to indicate that parabens cause breast cancer, it was just a neat finding that tiny amount of of parabens were found in the tissue.

So, minimal estrogenic activity, rapidly cleared, no evidence it causes cancer, FDA has a 'no limit' sign on it, EU can go up to 0.8% in cosmetics, it's in like 90% of the packaged food you buy in the grocery store, and the alternatives used are either worse (like MIT, a contact allergen) or ineffective (a bunch of paraben-free beauty products have been recalled due to mold or bacteria and their shelf life is quite short).

That being said, if you're jittery about parabens I respect that and point you to their paraben-free generic moisturizing cream.

abshahul wrote: ↑ Thank you for the elaborate response, personally I'm a fan of Cerave body cream but I have been avoiding their moisturizing lotions because of Parabens, if the ill effects of it are negligible then I might as well give them a try.

grumble wrote: ↑ Everyone who has a concern should look into it themselves of course, this is just my take, as noted if you prefer to avoid them for any reason the general moisturizing cream jar is a perfectly fine alternative, it lacks a couple of the face cream bonus ingredients but it does the most important stuff the same (manages moisture in the skin). Would want to use an SPF with it in the morning though (no matter if you're going outside or not, or if it's winter, or if it's cloudy - wear sunscreen every day, start young and you'll look way better as you age (and really reduce skin cancer risks).

davisml wrote: ↑ Correction - Clinique is not a P&G brand. It's owned by a competitor, Estee Lauder, which also has never been part of P&G.
I can't confirm or dispute anything else you said but this part is wrong.

JWubbles wrote: ↑ $190 incl tax for the same size?