I'm familiar with using retinoids but I hadn't heard of tretinoin before. I guess as long as you use it correctly it should be fine, provided you pay close attention to how your skin responds. I wouldn't use any stronger than a 0.5% concentration though, as suggested here.
I appreciate your suggestion. I’m still wary of not knowing ingredients since I have a couple of ingredient sensitivities (and part of me has a fear of India putting random shit in there from manufacturing impurities), but if my main concern is irritation, it will show up. Side note: Tretinoin is a higher strength retinoid, and is the most well-studied. Maybe worth checking out if you’ve been on a retinoid for a while! I recommend the micro (slow release) version to reduce irritation.
I got my first tret shipment from alldaychemist a little while ago and all is well!
I've been using their tret for years, it definitely works!
Fungal acne?
I think you might be right. Doesn’t look as pronounced as the pics I’m seeing on Google images, but otherwise the description sounds about right. Gonna get some ketoconazole and see if it clears up. If it works that would be crazy bc that means you identified the issue based on a forum post when an actual derm couldn’t lmao
Face wash, moisturiser, sunscreen. That's all you need to start, and they don't need to be particularly expensive (if I was going to throw money at one of those steps it'd be the sunscreen, you won't wear it if it stings your eyes and makes you feel greasy). Don't worry about anything else until those three steps are as much of a habit as brushing your teeth. When you're already in the swing of things, then you can start thinking about adding actives, one at a time, to target specific issues.
Is facewash a product or just what you do in the shower? Also is sunscreen even nessesary if ones lives outside traditional vacation countries?(Russia, Bongland, Nederlands, etc)
Facewash is sometimes called makeup remover. It'll clean all your products off and also exfoliates and smooths. You can get it as either a kind of soap you'd use in the shower, or as wet wipes. The soap version is better, but you should keep some wipes in your purse in case you need them.
It's what you use to wash your face. A lot of people have skin on their faces that's more sensitive or has different issues to the skin on their body so they use a different product that suits them better (eg. regular soap might make their face uncomfortably dry but be okay for their body), so whatever works best for you.
What if you wear no products? Just a gentle soap?
You don't even moisturise or wear sunscreen? Those are products too.
Yes, though soap can strip the natural oils from your skin and dry it out so you may prefer a non-foaming cream cleanser if you already have dry skin.
I'm asking more of a general question than my own specific case.