I used differin 0.1% for 2 years which his like tretinoin but gentler (fancier). Had mild acne so was using it for that. I stopped due to dry eyes, which is a risk of retinoids and something I seem prone to. Funny enough, I'm also getting my main daro side effect as dry eyes.
I guess I'm just destined to have dry eyes.
Either way, applying retinoids around your eyes would not be ideal. Otherwise retinoids are pretty good. But they're not powerful enough in the scheme of things to make a massive difference. We need a daro-scale anti-wrinkle solution and I don't know if it exists.
I used to think peptides were the solution, and maybe they still are. I think I just fucked up by going with copper peptides instead of standard peptides. Copper has a tendency to destroy collagen, which helps for breaking down scars, but is not helpful for general daily skin care, where you're not trying to break down a scar. Problem with skin just like hair is it takes time sometimes to be sure of what you're seeing, so you can f*** up. I think that was a big mistake for my own face. Hopefully I can repair it.
I played with tripeptide 5 powder once in the past but it didn't solubilize well in water. Probably I just need to add a bit of ethanol to it. I'm gonna try that if I can still find that stuff and try again.
My best idea for a good composition that can be used around the eyes too would be:
- Azelaic acid 5-15% - procollagen, anti-acne, anti-wrinkle (trouble is by being acidic it may cause instability of other compounds or require pH balancing which is difficult, requires a bit of alcohol to dissolve)
- Basic peptides 1% eg. Tripeptide 5 (trouble is they can easily feed bacteria and make solutions go rancid, perhaps a bit of alcohol in solution though will prevent this, also very expensive)
- Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate 5% - light stable version of Vitamin C, anti-acne, anti-wrinkle, pro-collagen
- Niacinamide 5% - pro-collagen, anti-acne, anti-wrinkle
As usual I think the best principle is to keep the formulation relatively simple so that you don't have an overwhelming amount of work to mix it and to minimize interactions. In this case, the peptide would be the strongest workhorse, but all agents should contribute well to the effect.
If I can find the peptides and my old sodium ascorbyl phosphate I will have all the ingredients to make a test batch in the next week. I think the pH will be the biggest challenge. I think this is doable. None of these agents are controversial. All have good evidence. Hopefully this will help mitigate the damage for my own part from oral minoxidil and also my copper peptide misadventure.
Another thing I have learned worth mentioning is I learned DMSO is also good for scars because (like copper peptides) it helps break down excess collagen. But this makes it bad for general skin care as well. And DMSO and MSM have almost the same formula. I've taken MSM on/off for a few years, as a joint care supplement, and I always thought my skin looked worse on the MSM than off it. Now I'm betting they have the same negative effect on the body, and people who hype MSM as an oral supplement are dead wrong about it. I've stopped MSM dead for a few weeks and won't touch it again.
For oral skin supplements, I think your best bets are things like Omega 3's, maybe borage oil (GLA), Verisol containing collagen supplements, vitamin C 2000 mg a day, maybe antioxidants like resveratrol. Maybe glucosamine/chondroitin.
But most of this stuff is voodoo.
