today, I'm going to show you my updated skincare routine. At the age of 68 going on 69, it's been a challenging year healthwise so I've had to tweak a few things, apply things a little bit differently, and add a new thing or two. I wanted to insert a little note here. I had worked on my hair to condition it, and I added oil, and I added way too much so my hair is super stringy in this video. I didn't realize it till I got through filming. I started to wash my hair and refilm it, but I thought no, that's silly. I'm not going to do that because I think we've all had those days where our hair is really stringy, so thank you. Hey everyone, it's Melissa. Like I said in the intro, it's been challenging. My skin, I could tell, was suffering, starting to suffer, and in fact had suffered. Just the hormonal changes, the physical changes, the cancer on top of me already having the Crohn's disease. It was hard. So, you know, I looked

at my skin. I knew going off the HRT and going on the other medication that was going to further suppress my hormones was really going to affect my skin. Everybody said it would, and I had read that it would, so I started watching my skin to be careful of it. I think I told you in my last video, y'all know, those of you that are new here, um, I I don't use moisturizers on my skin. I don't like them. I feel like it, I feel like my skin just is firmer and fresher and peels better and shows nicer skin underneath if I don't use moisturizer. That's a personal opinion, but after I went through all this surgery and started on this new medication, I did start noticing those changes that I I knew were going to happen. So my skin, for one thing, got really dry. First thing I did was order some Lancome cream, quite expensive cream because it is from Lancome, and I used it a bit and I realized why I didn't like to moisturize. It was just, it's my skin.

sagged. It was heavy and the wrinkles were worse. It just, they just were, you know. And so I sent it back, got my money back. Now before I kind of get into it even more, let me tell you a little bit about myself. Um, uh, I mentioned that I'm aged 68. I've made the decision. I've always tried to take really good care of my skin because of the Crohn's disease and now cancer. I've made the decision not to ever have botox or fillers or plastic surgery, um, just for health reasons, you know, just decided not to do that. So I'm going to do the best that I can with skincare and my skincare videos are the most criticized. People don't like it that I do certain things. They don't like it that I don't moisturize. They don't like it that I use retinol. They don't like it that just different things. I get so, so much criticism, but and I always swear every time I'm never going to do another skincare routine again, but I've

changed things and any of you that are interested in what I what I do use I wanted to let you know. But anyway, just because I do it doesn't mean it will work for you, and it doesn't mean it's the right thing for you. This is just I have really experimented, but but especially now when my skin had gotten to its very worse, it had been uh, I tweaked, I experimented, I did some things, and this is this is just what I like. This is what works for me, doesn't mean it'll work for you, and doesn't mean I'm telling you to do these things. It's just what works for me, and I know your dermatologist may say she. This Woman's crazy. I talk to my dermatologist; she says keep on doing what you're doing, you're doing fine. So, and she's the one that examines me. Any other dermatologist that you might have talked to, I'm not their patient, so okay, there we go, always have to get out of the way, okay. So after

I sent back that La Mer moisturizer. I really got down to brass tacks, and I looked at my skin and I tried different things, even application wise. Now, I have kept things the same. I'm briefly going to go through it. I will link what, you know, the products that I've used before. I use my cleanser is from Chaso. It's a clarifying cleansing foam. I take it off, and I will demonstrate these things. I make a foam on my face and on my neck, and I use washcloths that I knit. And the method of application with this, because I like to do like pull my skin up and really give it a lift, twice a day, in the morning and in the night, and at night. But the way that I was doing it, I experimented. I thought, is which is the best way to do it. Do I look up, so I put a mirror in the top. I have a rack that goes over the top of my sh. I put a mirror at the top, and I looked up, and I pulled everything

up that way. No, that actually was worse and made more wrinkles. So, what works for me is actually looking down, almost down completely like that, into a mirror and pulling my skin up. And what I'm going to show you is I took my cell phone, I took my cell phone, I rubber banded it to the mirror that I look into when I do, you know, pull it all up. So, you are going to see me with my face sagging toward the phone while I pull everything up. You can even see the veins popping out. You can see all the sagging that I have. You can see all the wrinkles that I have. But that seems to work best for me. For some reason, for me to pull my skin up while I look down into a mirror. I don't know why. It's just a part of everybody. Find out what's best for your situation. This is what's best for me. The proper application for, for me to do. And I really give myself a, you know, pulling up, pulling up. And you'll see when I do it.

pulling up. Keep in mind, I'm looking straight down so you can even see everything's upside down above me. I'm looking straight down so everything goes, you know, look down in the mirror right now and you'll see how everything just sags forward. So keep that in mind, okay? So the products I use, the cleanser, the washcloths that I make myself. Daytime, I use, uh, SK. Right now, I'm using SkinCeuticals vitamin C hyaluronic acid. It's outrageously expensive, but let me say one thing. I'm going to use it up, go mix it in with Timeless, make it last for a while. This has lasted months because I just use one drop here and there every once in a while when I feel like it needs a little boost. I'll do two or three drops, but it will last me a while. But let me tell you, this has a patent on it, so nobody else can use their formula the exact way they do it right now because they've tried and they've gotten sued by SkinCeuticals and won.

because they have a patent on it. Um, and it just, it's marvelous. It's head and shoulders above every other vitamin C, I think, on my skin. It is, but their patent expires in 2025, next year, and then you're going to be able to get other companies doing generic on this. It will be, you'll be able to buy it for 5 or 10 dollars, probably. They're getting all their money that they can right now, SkinCeuticals, because they know this is so good, and they know that everybody's going to be able to copy it in one year. So hang in there for another year if you're paying regularly for such an expensive one. I don't do it regularly. I do it occasionally, but if you're paying for it regularly, hang on in there because everybody will be able to copy it next year. People know the formula, they're just not allowed to use it. Okay, I've got to go to the doctor. I will be back, and I might be more disheveled, but

I'm determined to finish this skincare video so I will see you all in about an hour. Okay, it's a couple hours later so I am back and a little disheveled but I'm going to continue on. Okay, I ended with they're going to be able to replicate this formula and we'll be able to buy it for very inexpensive, you know, after next year. So hang in there if you love that one. Now, these are the things that I've always done and the only thing basically that I've done is tweaked the direction that I kind of pulled up on my skin. But there's one big thing that I have added that I think is very important and has really helped my skin a whole lot through all these changes that I've been going through, and that is red light therapy. In particular, I bought the Omnilux, yeah, the Omnilux Contour mask. So it's this one and I love it. I started noticing a difference pretty quickly, and I will tell you

how I got started and who who the people that I credit on this but I got started um they have the the omnilux has the and there's a lot of different brands so they have the one this mask this is their Contour mask they have one for the neck and I think they have one for the hands too and I think they have one like for acne just you know they I I did some research and I liked that company so that's the one that I decided to buy my red light therapy from I can't tell you how much I like this. I think red light therapy is to me it's going to be the skincare of the future. I think it's going to replace a lot of things. I think that we'll be able to use less products. I think being able to do this I do it three times a week U that's what it said and look looking at the results from other people I just I believe in it and I believe it's like I said it's going to be our

skin care of the future is something like this. Now, this is pricey. Doug wanted to use it. I wanted to use it on my scars for my breast because it helps with scars. It helps with pain. Doug wanted to use it on his knee. So, we did invest in it. And I didn't use it at first as much, but then I got on a regular schedule. And it really, really started making a difference. Now, I want to sort of give credit to some women that I love and that have helped me and answer questions about red light therapy. And they use red light therapy themselves and they have proven how well it works on them. I am in a little text group. We've been together for texting for a long time. We did lives together. And we got into a text group because of our lives years ago. And we call ourselves. Our text group is named live stream. It's myself, Monica with Monica's Beauty and Lifestyle, Carol from the O Carol Show, Mary Glitzy Fritzy, and Mary Ellen.

60. I always want to say over 60, but I think it's after 60. So, 60. So, it's us five. And so, I questioned each one of them, and I watched their videos, and they have demonstrated and supported and really, really loved their red light therapy. These women, they're gorgeous. We are all pretty much the same age, similar, similar ages. Mary, Glitzy, Fritzy, is the baby of the group, but we're all close to the same age. These women have beautiful skin. They've always done good skin care and swear by red light therapy. And I started watching their videos and others too, but in particular with them because I was texting with them. And so, I would look at their videos and question them and how enthused they were and how much their skin improved and how behind these masks they were, this therapy they were. And it convinced me. And I tell you what, I have never, maybe except for retin-A, I have never seen such a change to my skin as I

did when I started on red light therapy. Um, I'm going to list, I've asked them to each give me a video if they have discount codes. I want to put that down, but I want to put underneath, and I want you to make sure you check it out, their videos that they have done showing this, their skin, their improvement with red light therapy, and how they do it, and any discount codes they have in the device that they use. You'll get a wide variety, you will see what they think of it, you will see how they use it, and, uh, you know, you'll get a good idea of it. Okay, now continuing on with my regular skincare. After in the morning, after I use my C and ferulic acid, I use exfoderm by oaji. This particular product oaji has two lines. They have their regular line that you can buy online, and then they have U, I guess a medical line that you have to buy like through a dermatologist or a doctor. And I buy three two products that are for the doctor and one that I

can just buy online. The one online is in the morning. It is exfoderm and it is a mild acid. Because I'm doing a lot of other things to my skin, so this is a mild acid that I use in the morning. And then I use a sunscreen, put on my makeup. That's all I do. Very simple, very easy. This is after I do my washing of my face. Okay, as you can see, I am bending over upside down into the mirror. So it's very pleasant, very saggy, everything's moving forward. But anyway, that's my cleanser, my cheso cleanser that I apply. And it's a foaming cleanser, but it's mild. And I put it on my face and my neck in the shower. I do it on the back of my neck also. And then I go up on my neck first. Sometimes I do my neck and my face separately, soap them separately. But this is what I do twice a day. And I bend down. I'm still. It's hard to tell by this angle, but I am.

still leaning way down into the mirror, and I go up on my jawline, and then I do the same thing with my face. I pull it up, and I bring all the sagginess that I've got going on, you know, I make it, it, it's really sagging, you know, looking into the mirror, and I bring all the sagginess up. Now, this works for me. It may be something that doesn't work for you all. It may be something silly, but it works for me. I've tried different ways of washing my face, and this is the one that seems to work the best. You can see my veins popping out, and then I rinse it and dry it. While my face still is clean with nothing on it, I put on my mask, my red light therapy mask. It looks frightening. Doug likes to take pictures of it and send to the grandkids to scare them because my eyes always look really, really strange with this on. And then you can do it on your neck too. They also have one that goes on your

neck. Then, I go to the little refrigerator in my room and get out the vitamin C serum. Right now, I am using the SkinCeuticals. I'll use it off and on for the next year. Then, I'm kind of looking down again to put it on. This is after I've done all the red light therapy. I do my skincare then. So, I put this vitamin C on. And at night, after I wash my face, I would mix the blender and the retinol and put that on my skin directly. Immediately, I just do the red light therapy in the morning. So, I just work it up again, going up, making everything lift up. I just don't maybe it do help, but it seems to kind of make a difference, I have to say. So, that's what I do. I pat it all up and do it when I cleanse too. And then, there's the final step, which is the Exfoderm by Obagi. You can buy this online, but the nighttime you can't. You have to go to a

doctor so I put that on too, and just kind of do the same thing. And I do put all my products kind of around my eyes, being careful to not get it in my eyeballs. And I do the lifting thing again with it, so I do lifting when I wash my face, when I put on my products. So several times I do lifting of my skin while I look down, and Pat. So there you go, okay. And at night time, I do pretty much one step. I wash my face, I take um retina, which in the US you have to have a prescription for, and I mix it with my blender, which um you can't buy online either, so I get it from a dermatologist. And I do a pea size of that, of each of them, mix them together, and then just put it all over my skin and bring it up this way, kind of like I did with my morning routine, like I showed. I do the same thing at night with just these two um items, and then I go to sleep. That's all, just one step really.

for my nighttime routine and all my skin care I run up through I don't use an eye cream a separate eye cream um my skin. I just I run through my eyebrows taking care just to put in my crow's feet not get too close to my eyeballs and then just kind of do it right down through here and um you know it's real simple. Now on the days that I do my red light therapy mask what you do is you do it on Clean Skin. So I'll wash my face that morning and then I will sit down and do my red light therapy on my face. I'll do it on my neck and then I'll get up and put on my vitamin C serum and do my exfoderm. I like to do my red light therapy in the morning and follow it with this rather than putting retina on. I don't know it's kind of worries me me a little bit to do red light therapy and then put Rea on top of that. I just I just rather not. I rather just do that.

one before that step before I go to bed, and then the morning step after the red light therapy. But I believe in that. I want you all to watch your videos, do your own research, you know, see what you think. I'm not a doctor. These are just the things. This is my updated self-care for my skin. I'm going through a phase of self-care, trying to be the very best that I can be. And it's just, you know, just to feel the best that I can at my age about myself for the rest of my life. You know, that's, that's kind of my goal, just to be the best I can. And for my skin, this procedure with these products and the red light therapy mask, the omnilux mask, which is the one I like, is what I want to do. But be sure, please, please go look at these other four women's videos. While you're there, please subscribe to their channels if you're not subscribed already. You probably already are. They, you know, we've been friends. I've mentioned them all.

several times before. We've been friends a long time, but in case you haven't yet, be sure that you like and subscribe. They're all wonderful women, and you know they've helped me a whole lot, so I appreciate it. Thank you so much for watching. I'm very grateful. Um, everybody, have a wonderful rest of the week. Be sure you like and subscribe, please, while you're here. I would appreciate it so much. And ring the bell always. I've kind of getting in the habit of saying it now. Thank you for watching. Love you all, take care, and I'll talk to you in a couple of days. Bye-bye.

My Game-changing Skincare Routine At Age 68-69

My Game-changing Skincare Routine At Age 68-69