About That Texture That Won't Go Away...
and a few questions for you
Hiya!
Hope you’re doing well.
I’ve been writing Hotline Skin for over 7 years. SEVEN! Over this time, I’ve experimented with various things regarding content and subscriptions, but I’ve always been adamant about keeping the bulk of my written content free because it’s important to me to keep skincare education accessible. This largely influenced my decision last year to stop writing paid-only content and instead introduce Office Hours for paid subscribers—a weekly opportunity in Substack Chat to ask me anything. I’ll be honest, I thought this was going to really take off because I spend a significant amount of my time replying to people’s skincare questions every single day, but the weekly turn out is very low. Occasionally I’ve opened up Office Hours to all subscribers and the response has been great. Everyone seems to want access to an esthetician’s advice, but very few people seem to think it’s worth paying for. Hmm.
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My routine for the past 6+ months has been night 1) Paula’s Choice AHA, night 2) Retin-A, rest, rest, repeat. The texture on my forehead and under mouth area is stubborn and not getting any less textured. Any recommendations for a tweak to this routine or a new product to help?
Without seeing the texture you’re describing and knowing nothing about the rest of your routine, I am still 98% confident in saying that you’re having this issue because your skin is dehydrated. If you’ve ever gotten a facial or consult with me, it’s very likely that you’ve heard this explanation, which I always begin with this question: do you know the difference between dry and dehydrated skin?
Dry skin, like all skin types, has to do with the amount of oil your skin produces. Dry skin produces less oil, oily skin produces more oil. Dehydration on the other hand, refers to water, so dehydrated skin lacks water. All skin needs both oil and water to function properly, but since we don’t produce our own water, we need to hydrate with topical products. Obviously, drinking water is very important for our health, but that’s not enough to hydrate our skin because water is constantly evaporating off the surface of our skin via a process called Transepidermal Water Loss or TEWL. You’ve seen me talk about water/oil balance and TEWL many times, most recently a few weeks ago in this post.
Water is necessary for many of the essential functions of your skin, so when your skin is dehydrated, a lot of things get out of whack. One of these essential functions is desquamation.
Desquamation is our body’s natural skin shedding process, where the outermost layer of skin (the corneocytes in the stratum corneum) is sloughed off and replaced by new skin cells. This is a natural, unnoticeable process that’s happening every single day in normal functioning skin. It’s actually where a lot of the dust in your home comes from…microscopic dead skin cells!
If your skin doesn’t have enough water, it impedes the natural desquamation process, resulting in the accumulation of dead skin cells on the surface of your skin aka the rough and bumpy texture you’re experiencing.
When you have rough and bumpy skin, the inclination is to exfoliate to smooth it out, right? Well, if the cause of this textured skin is actually dehydration, exfoliating is only going to make it worse! Because exfoliation makes it easier for water to evaporate off the surface via TEWL! It seems very counterintuitive, but if you have stubborn texture that doesn’t go away with exfoliation, add in topical hydrators instead.
Every single day, AM and PM, incorporate a hydrating essence or serum before moisturizer. It doesn’t sound like you’re overdoing it with the exfoliants or retinoids since you are taking rest days, but if you are using any other exfoliants, I’d be mindful that you aren’t overstripping your skin. Within a few days, you’ll notice your skin is smoother, plumper and brighter, since your skin will be hydrated and desquamation can happen.
Recommendations:
P.S. For some people, especially acne-prone, this entire cycle can be exacerbated by retinoids, which create even more skin cells that can accumulate! We discussed this a bit a few weeks ago when I explained why mandelic acid is better than retinoids for treating acne.
Three Other Things
I just learned that desquamation comes from the Latin term desquamare, which means “to scrape the scales off a fish”. 🐟 🐠
In case you haven’t heard yet, cult-favorite Australian sunscreen brand Ultra Violette just launched at Sephora! I was confused and concerned when I first heard this was happening, because part of what makes their sunscreen great is the filters they use, which are not available in the US. I didn’t think they would want to sacrifice quality, but I also didn’t see how they could avoid it…word on the street is that I have nothing to worry about. I haven’t tried any of the new formulations yet, but I’ve heard nothing but praise from friends in the know. The annual spring Sephora Savings Event begins on my birthday, April 4th, which I’m taking as a sign that I need to buy one of each. Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried! (Ultra Violette and Violette_FR are unrelated brands, FYI!)
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Every Sunday at 5pm EST, I’ll begin a new thread for the week in Substack Chat, where you can ask me anything. Every Monday from 5-6pm EST, I’ll be in that chat live, answering questions for the hour. That way, if you can’t make it, you can submit any time after 5pm Sunday and still get an answer. If you can make it live, join in! You can ask questions in real time and (hopefully) interact with others in class ;)
Discount Codes
Dermstore: JOLIE for 15% off (they sell Bioeffect here!)
Experiment: JOLIE10 for 10% off
Sachi Skin: JOLIE15 for 15% off
Violette_FR: JOLIE-BBM20 for 20% off Boum-Boum Milk through 4/19
you can find all of my discount codes here
Have a great week!
xx,
Jolie
I live laugh love the Prequel and Slurp hydrators, and loved this post!!
Hey Jolie! Thank you for this, I'm going to try this to help out with some stubborn non-inflamed texture on my chin... Question for you, and sorry if I missed it: When you're incorporating a hydrator, would you still use actives? And if so, when would they be incorporated?
1. Cleanser
2. Hydrator
3. Active
4. Moisturize
or
1. Cleanser
2. Active
3. Hydrator
4. Moisturizer
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