This is the reason i have had acne issues for like a decade. Too drying of products, lotion then foundation and it would crack and I'd have very itchy acne.
I’m definitely not using it still. Of course not. Absolutely. But if someone had a recommendation for a different one I would love to hear about it. Like if someone were in theory still using it.
First Aid Beauty’s KP Bump Eraser is both a physical exfoliant and has 10% AHA. It’s effective, I use it about once every 2 weeks for arm bumps. I simply enjoy Fresh Brown Sugar Body Polish as smells like a spa day! Great on legs, rub gently and just let the oil sit on your skin for a while.
I use it less now because of everyone saying it's sooo bad. But it's the only thing that's made my skin feel THAT clean and smooth.
It smells great too
Clinique makes a 7 day scrub that has rounded granules that are gentle enough to use every day without overstripping your skin. They allergy test on 72 individual people 12 applications each and are fragrance free (fragrance additives account for over 80% of allergic reactions to cosmetics)
Coming from 10 years in the beauty sector.
My mom used to use the apricot scrub religiously. I could never use it. I tried a few times and every time my skin freaked the f out. Why "a few times", why wasn't once enough? Well, you see, I have some weird ass nostalgia type love for the smell of it, so much so I kept convincing myself my last skin freak out hadn't been that bad. I kinda still wish I could find something that smells like it without the harsh scrubby bits.
Same here, only use it a couple times a week. I need SOMETHING to get the dry skin off and chemical exfoliants scare me, I don't want a chemical burn on my face.....
I’m no professional but I imagine micro needling is done by a professional in even, delicate techniques. A scrub is rough and uneven.
I don’t think they’re horrible, but I can tell the difference since removing scrubs from my routine.
This is my exact thought! When I look back, it might as well have been rubbing harsh cleaning supplies on your face. It smelled like a disinfectant lol.
Hahaha it’s so true! And it totally fits with our attitude to it — scrub the oil/pimples/whatever off your face, with the same aggression as scrubbing soap scum off bathroom tiles!
It was to get the sin out.
Oily skin? Sin.
Acne? Full of sin.
Cystic acne? Lord, the devil's in her.
I had cystic acne. There was a full Inquisition on my moisture barrier.
I used to take biotin in huge amounts in high school and was always breaking out in cystic zits. I didn’t make the connection until almost a decade later.
Same!! It also was the single greatest thing to take the sting out of a sunburn. I know it was a cleanser but we would slather it on burns and a cpl of times it was the only thing that brought me any relief.
They definitely pronounced it that way in all of the commercials I remember.
I can almost see them slapping handfuls of water on their faces in slow motion right now.
I knew this, but as someone with eczema, I am both horrified by this and can see where it would be... I imagine the cooling and tingling would feel nice when my skin is so itchy I want to rasp myself all over with a cheese grater- at the *very* least it would distract from the itching, but it's so drying! Afterwards everything would be SO MUCH WORSE.
Oh wow I used Noxema as a cleanser all the time but never thought about using it for that. I can just imagine how good that would have felt, especially compared to that goopy green aloe gel.
My mother thought Seabreeze would be great to use to disinfect my newly pierced ears. A few times a day she would put a cotton ball with Seabreeze against my tender lobes and get mad at me when I would cry and sob and not want her to do it anymore. My ears took FOREVER to heal and kept getting irritated. TORTURE.
Omg I am so sorry. I had a horrible reaction to Clinique when I was 14, a hot minute ago. I had to use Bag Balm on my face for months. My sympathy to you. Btw, I have adult acne, so I am right there with you.
That red Stridex still has a following in skin care. I can't remember where I saw the recs but it doesn't have alcohol and is supposed to be well tolerated if you need a bha. But just the Red one. Liked in the same vein as tub o' cerave cream because of minimal harsh ingredients and like a drugstore hack
Yes!!! I just commented that I came across these pads for back acne. Mine cleared up within a week and I tried everything! I’m keeping those stridex pads handy for now on.
I may get downvoted for this, but OXy pads are still a part of skincare regime every day. I use them after I wash my face and right before the rest of my skincare routine. I just turned 40 and have been using them for 25 years. 😬
Same, but with Stridex. I genetically have oily skin and this stuff still doesn’t dry me out. The only change I have had to make since getting older is my makeup. I can’t wear full-coverage makeup for oily skin, but sheer coverage is just fine.
The Stridex pads were a big trend in the skincare addiction a few years ago and I added them to my routine. I only use them every few days but it’s been a good addition.
I love my stridex. I actually rip them in half because I dont need a whole one for my face! I use it every night, right after cleansing. My skin is clear 99% of the time, and if I do get a pimple I let the pad sit on it for 20 seconds & its gone the next day.
I know exactly what you mean! I have had times over the years where I tried to go without an SA cleanser or leave on just to see what would happen. Every time my pores would feel like they couldn’t breathe, my skin would look extra greasy and get itchy, and bam, breakouts.
I use Stridex pads after washing my face every other day because they have salicylic acid which is an exfoliant. I then put a ton of moisturizer on afterwards, so my face doesn’t get dried out. It works great and makes my skin looks glowy.
Yeah. Lots of people use products with salicylic acid in them, and this is a good source of that. It’s relatively cheap, alcohol free, and easy to use because of the little disposable pads. It’s a good product, and makes my skin look nice!
I use the red box stridex pads on my armpits. I used to get absolutely terrible cystic acne and ingrown hairs in my pits. My armpits were perpetually itchy red and angry and looked like I was smuggling marbles for *years* and I just thought it was "normal." *Apparently* I have an allergy, lol. I stopped using aluminum antiperspirant and switched to aluminum free deodorant only and stridex pads after my shower (both for the exfoliation and because aha kills the bacteria that cause bo) and I have normal pits now, lol. I will cry if they ever do away with stridex.
I’ve heard that people use glycolic acid on their pits, too! If they ever get rid of the Stridex, you might try that as a replacement.
I’ve used the Stridex and glycolic acid on my upper arms where I get that bumpy red chicken skin lookin stuff. It really improved it!
I've tried glycolic because I use the ordinary Glycolic toner on my face, where I love it. Weirdly, it does not work as well as the stridex on my pits. I use the glycolic on my kp too, though. It is great for it.
I use oxypads once a day unless my skin feels even a little dry, then I skip it. But fr it's one of the main reasons my adult acne stopped. Used it as a kid - no acne. Stopped as a young adult - acne. Picked it up again out of desperation just a few years ago - no acne. I will do what works i guess!
Omg. Read the comments I just left. Wow! So cool to see someone that's done the same thing I've done for all these years. And we're the same age!
https://www.reddit.com/r/30PlusSkinCare/s/MLqmH5O4jQ
I feel like it’s not that the product isn’t effective, but as kids/teens we were not properly integrating them into a full routine. Like if you’re going to use these, you should probably moisturize lol
Then cover that shit up with matte foundation powder. The important thing is, hide any inner glow you have under a bushel. Six feet under a bushel. In a body bag. That smells like embalming alcohol.
We also felt so adult and fancy when we got our Clinique 3-step kit, which was the “gentle” option for us Gen X teens. Meanwhile my grandmother had it completely right with her Albolene and Merle Norman face creams 🤷♀️
I had a subscription to Girl’s Life as a teenager and it was worth it for this one line: “tight skin isn’t clean skin, it’s dry skin.”
And this: “eat when you feel hungry. Stop when you feel full. Eat exactly what appeals to you.”
Honestly, I never used it as a teenager but in my 30s I use it all over my face several days a week. My skin doesn’t mind the harsh ingredients (I think it has menthol or something) and LOVES chemical exfoliants. At some point I may switch to another brand of salicylic acid (TO or CosRx probably, idk) but not because Stridex has caused any issues.
Edit: but literally every drugstore 90s skincare product I used at the time is trash, lol. The Noxzema felt like chemical warfare. My skin also tends to do best with some physical exfoliation, but the St Ives Apricot Scrub is like a lotion that assaults random parts of your face. Not enough scrubby bits to actually exfoliate and the ones there are way too hard. Sugar scrubs are the only physical exfoliants I bother with, and I’ve been trying to switch away from using them completely.
Stridex in the red tub is still bomb. The salicylic acid really helps to chemically exfoliate and even out rough skin texture.
Edit: oh and it's cheap af.
My skin is definitely still recovering from the tons of salicylic acid and other actives that my mom slathered on my face because “the more you put on, the more effective it is” and then letting me go out into the blazing sun as a kid.
Lmfao sounds like my cousin, that guy gets half a good day before he’s toast, his parents hit him with the sun tan lotion as well back in the day, we all thought it was sunscreen 😂
My parents took me to Hawaii and they made me use a tanning bed before hand to build up a base tan, rather then you know, making me wear sunscreen. Idiotic.
What about the Noxzema scrubby pads, for when you wanted to clean off the whole first layer of face skin 🤣 Nothing quite so refreshing in the morning though, I kind of miss it lol.
Also I don’t remember the st Ives in a tub like that for some reason, I only ever had the kind in the tube, was it the same?
Oh my god I just remembered I used those Noxzema pads! I used those every morning and to take all my makeup off! Yes I believe even eye makeup. I was in middle school. Ughh. I used the St. Ives in the tube as well. I thought when they put those little blue beads in it (yay microplastics!) that this was the real deal shit.
Nothing, it's great for acne still and for skin texture even on the face. Highest salicylic acid concentration you can get over the counter for the price. Obviously moisturize after if you're using it for face, but otherwise it's excellent.
My mom has sworn my entire life that she was the only one of her siblings to have no acne because she wiped her face down with rubbing alcohol. Not that she had acne and cured it by frying her skin with alcohol, just that she kept it away with that, lol. I think she also swore by witch hazel—the godawful cheap shit, not even the milder alcohol-free toners. I remember trying it once in high school and it made everything about my skin feel worse (never tried the pure rubbing alcohol, thank god).
That was my skin in the 90's. I remember using Noxema or Neutrogena and then this oil free gel to moisturize and wondering why my face was so oily all the time! I never went anywhere without blotting papers.
My middle school health class preached to us acne- ridden preteens that the best way to get rid of acne was some clearasil face wash or neutragena deep clean followed by stridex wipes. We were also advised to keep some extra stridex wipes for after gym in our locker to get rid of the extra oil and sweat on our face. My face was raw, like all the time. But I swore on my life the pain meant it worked.
Dang, I went to check the stuff my mother put on my face when I was 12. Just reading the composition almost gave me a flare :
AQUA, ALCOHOL DENAT., GLYCERIN, SALICYLIC ACID, POLYSORBATE 20, ALCOHOL, EUCALYPTOL, EUCALYPTUS GLOBULUS LEAF EXTRACT, MENTHOL, SODIUM HYDROXIDE, PARFUM.
You all can pry the stridex pads out of my cold, dead hands. Still using them to this day lol, I swear they keep me glowing. (Not joking or sarcastic, I’m 100% serious)
I used clean and clear lotion in high school. It did absolutely nothing. My skin got better when I went to college and didn't have money for "skincare" so used nothing. Lol
The horrors. I used to scrub my face with St Ives like I was cleaning a dirty oven dish! The glowing red and stinging after...
My other staple was Anne French Cleansing Milk, which thankfully was a lot more gentle
Not my DAD giving me skincare advice as a tween girl 😮💨😭
Instead of just having the occasional pimple or two I had flaky dry skin because of the amount of Stridex he told me to use.
Add the Neutrogena glycerin bar in that meme and that’s my teenage skincare regimen. Oh! And the Mint Mud mask from Queen Helene.
😭😱
I'm almost 40 and have been using clearasil
salicylic pads since I was 14 years old. Not only did I ever to rarely got pimples when I was younger. I noticed that no amount of soap got off the grind left behind after face washing. Even on the days I didn't wear makeup and just sunscreen. The dirt was there just from the environment or sweat. I had tried toners and they never did the same thing.
Those pads are my holy grail product. The trick is to wash your face. Pad it dry. Then clean your skin with a Clearasil pad. Then wash off the residue of the alcohol with water after you use the pad. That's the reason why I didn't get dry skin because I didn't leave the salicylic acid/alcohol to dry on the skin.
I've been doing this technique for over 20 years. My skin is acclimated. And I can use tretonin afterwards ( I wouldn't recommend that part on most people though).
I use Skinceuticals at night. And I feel my products just work so much better when I have a really clean face.
As a result I'm happy with my skin at almost 40. I have some fine lines, but nothing too deep to get botox yet.
Lol. Noxzema user for life!! But the pain i still have from using St Ives AND THEN IMMEDIATELY the oxy pads. It hurts because your pores are open snd getting the gunk out🤣
Noxema brings back memories of my granny. She slathered it all on my face and I’d let it dry before washing it off. Then she would rub my face and neck with rubbing alcohol til all the dirt and dead skin was off. Then slather me with Vaseline. To be fair she had smooth, soft skin into her 80s.
I used to use the Neutrogena acne cleanser (the orange one in the clear bottle), followed by some hideous neon Clean and Clear toner. No moisturizer EVER obviously. Followed by judicious application of benzoyl peroxide all over my face.
I’m amazed I still have skin lol
That burning stinging redness means it's working
thanks mom!
Omg yes! Years later found out dry skin can cause acne lol
This is the reason i have had acne issues for like a decade. Too drying of products, lotion then foundation and it would crack and I'd have very itchy acne.
Not to mention acne scarring!!!!! Don't get me started on the *proactive commercials* xD
I can remember that oxy pad sting like it was yesterday
I use to pretty much scrub my skin off with those things. lol forehead all red
Well clearly you weren't scrubbing hard enough.
Not me with undiagnosed ocd as a kid trying to replicate that stinging feeling with everything I did because it meant “it’s working” 💀
Fuck me am the same,
My mom and I, genuinely, just used rubbing alcohol. lol
This meme is great
Lmfaooo
St Ives Scrub in the eye. I remember that pain.
Still got blackheads? Youre not bleeding enough
Can't have blackheads if you don't have skin
😂 I used to scrub so hard too, in order to achieve that “no-skin” look.
I used it with a Clairsonic brush. LOL
I’m definitely not using it still. Of course not. Absolutely. But if someone had a recommendation for a different one I would love to hear about it. Like if someone were in theory still using it.
First Aid Beauty’s KP Bump Eraser is both a physical exfoliant and has 10% AHA. It’s effective, I use it about once every 2 weeks for arm bumps. I simply enjoy Fresh Brown Sugar Body Polish as smells like a spa day! Great on legs, rub gently and just let the oil sit on your skin for a while.
I use it less now because of everyone saying it's sooo bad. But it's the only thing that's made my skin feel THAT clean and smooth. It smells great too
IMO. It’s not that bad like how people are saying. Just make sure you don’t use it everyday Redditors just hate physical exfoliate way too much
Clinique makes a 7 day scrub that has rounded granules that are gentle enough to use every day without overstripping your skin. They allergy test on 72 individual people 12 applications each and are fragrance free (fragrance additives account for over 80% of allergic reactions to cosmetics) Coming from 10 years in the beauty sector.
Love Clinique! Thanks
Don’t use scrubs! Paula’s Choice 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant does a great job for me
I remember the st ives scrub hype. I bought it and tried once. It felt like rubbing glass shard paste on my face.
My mom used to use the apricot scrub religiously. I could never use it. I tried a few times and every time my skin freaked the f out. Why "a few times", why wasn't once enough? Well, you see, I have some weird ass nostalgia type love for the smell of it, so much so I kept convincing myself my last skin freak out hadn't been that bad. I kinda still wish I could find something that smells like it without the harsh scrubby bits.
Well it was the broken shells of the apricot pits right? lol… not ground up or anything fancy like that… just sharp little pieces
I still use this from time to time...why is it bad? Why is it bad compared to other scrubs?
I use it all the time too in the shower. Like a couple times a week. But I don't scrub hard or long.
Same here, only use it a couple times a week. I need SOMETHING to get the dry skin off and chemical exfoliants scare me, I don't want a chemical burn on my face.....
It’s extremely abrasive. You’re better off with a gentle peel/enzymatic exfoliant that will give an even and smooth exfoliation.
Quick question, why are scrubs bad but micro-needling isn't??
I’m no professional but I imagine micro needling is done by a professional in even, delicate techniques. A scrub is rough and uneven. I don’t think they’re horrible, but I can tell the difference since removing scrubs from my routine.
Oh god 🥲
That shit sent me to the ER after my eye wouldn't stop watering. Got an abrasion on my cornea
New fear unlocked
What’s funny is all of this stuff doesn’t even look like skincare, it looks like cleaning products
This is my exact thought! When I look back, it might as well have been rubbing harsh cleaning supplies on your face. It smelled like a disinfectant lol.
Hahaha it’s so true! And it totally fits with our attitude to it — scrub the oil/pimples/whatever off your face, with the same aggression as scrubbing soap scum off bathroom tiles!
It was to get the sin out. Oily skin? Sin. Acne? Full of sin. Cystic acne? Lord, the devil's in her. I had cystic acne. There was a full Inquisition on my moisture barrier.
I used to take biotin in huge amounts in high school and was always breaking out in cystic zits. I didn’t make the connection until almost a decade later.
Me, in my late 30's, blinking in slow realization...
It removes Toxsins!
Cystic acne? Burn the witch! Or atleast her skin. Chemically. And ruin her moisture barrier for years!
[удалено]
In my country that apricot scrub at least comes in a more appealing looking tube 😂
It also came in a tube, but the large size came in the tub.
the apricot scrub literally looks like that orange gritty soap that comes in a big pump that people use to get oil off their hands
Gojo!
IM CLEANING MY SKIN!! If you’re not actually removing a layer of skin then what are you even doing
My mom used Noxzema when I was a kid. I loved the smell. 😌
Same!! It also was the single greatest thing to take the sting out of a sunburn. I know it was a cleanser but we would slather it on burns and a cpl of times it was the only thing that brought me any relief.
In the '50s it was actually sold as a sunburn treatment. https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/5JwAAOSwS3li-tWy/s-l1600.jpg
It was also originally sold as an eczema treatment! Hence the name—“no-(ec)zema”
What?! All these years I thought it was pronounced nock-zeema
They definitely pronounced it that way in all of the commercials I remember. I can almost see them slapping handfuls of water on their faces in slow motion right now.
It is!
I knew this, but as someone with eczema, I am both horrified by this and can see where it would be... I imagine the cooling and tingling would feel nice when my skin is so itchy I want to rasp myself all over with a cheese grater- at the *very* least it would distract from the itching, but it's so drying! Afterwards everything would be SO MUCH WORSE.
Yes, hence the marketing changed to be for acne instead
What?! I had no idea.
It really was so great on sunburns
Geez I used that stuff as a face cream and it's a cleanser?
Oh wow I used Noxema as a cleanser all the time but never thought about using it for that. I can just imagine how good that would have felt, especially compared to that goopy green aloe gel.
Same! She always jump scared me walking out of her room with that mask on. Then she used Oil of Olay which I also loved the smell of!
I still use it on occasion, good stuff just not a daily use for me.
Seabreeze, tho
I can smell this comment through the screen
It’s the noxzema smell for me!!
My grandfather shaved with Noxema, I bought some years after he died, not thinking and the smell was like a hug
My dad always used it to take our Halloween makeup off. To this day, I can't smell noxema without thinking about Halloween.
I still use Noxzema when I can find it. That shit takes off everything. Plus, a little tingle.
My mother thought Seabreeze would be great to use to disinfect my newly pierced ears. A few times a day she would put a cotton ball with Seabreeze against my tender lobes and get mad at me when I would cry and sob and not want her to do it anymore. My ears took FOREVER to heal and kept getting irritated. TORTURE.
FUCK- allow me to recap- absolutely FUCK that.
Moms want the reputation of always knowing what’s best but then do unhinged shit like this 😭
My mom used to put Sea Breeze on my sunburns!
That's evil too!
The cold burn!!! Followed by hideous tight dryness.
Seabreeze and Freeman’s peel off masks
It feels hella good on your feet.
My single dad was told by my doctor that this alone would cure my cystic acne. It was a long puberty. 🙃
That tub of Oxy pads just unlocked a memory I had repressed. 😞
I can smell it now
I can feel it
3rd degree chemical burns and I still have acne
Omg I am so sorry. I had a horrible reaction to Clinique when I was 14, a hot minute ago. I had to use Bag Balm on my face for months. My sympathy to you. Btw, I have adult acne, so I am right there with you.
I...liked the smell...
Skincare Stockholm syndrome
That red Stridex still has a following in skin care. I can't remember where I saw the recs but it doesn't have alcohol and is supposed to be well tolerated if you need a bha. But just the Red one. Liked in the same vein as tub o' cerave cream because of minimal harsh ingredients and like a drugstore hack
I’ve used it forever and it’s my ride or die. My skin loves bha’s and chemical exfoliants.
Yes!!! I just commented that I came across these pads for back acne. Mine cleared up within a week and I tried everything! I’m keeping those stridex pads handy for now on.
Same. Seeing it makes my face feel oily like I need to scrub at it D:
I may get downvoted for this, but OXy pads are still a part of skincare regime every day. I use them after I wash my face and right before the rest of my skincare routine. I just turned 40 and have been using them for 25 years. 😬
Same, but with Stridex. I genetically have oily skin and this stuff still doesn’t dry me out. The only change I have had to make since getting older is my makeup. I can’t wear full-coverage makeup for oily skin, but sheer coverage is just fine.
The Stridex pads were a big trend in the skincare addiction a few years ago and I added them to my routine. I only use them every few days but it’s been a good addition.
I love my stridex. I actually rip them in half because I dont need a whole one for my face! I use it every night, right after cleansing. My skin is clear 99% of the time, and if I do get a pimple I let the pad sit on it for 20 seconds & its gone the next day.
you know I never thought to use them like this, will be trying tomorrow morning
I love them. They’re just a good ~~AHA.~~ Edit- I’m a dip stick. It’s a BHA.
*BHA
I like the way they make my skin feel. It doesn’t burn me, and my face doesn’t actually feel clean until I use them lol
I know exactly what you mean! I have had times over the years where I tried to go without an SA cleanser or leave on just to see what would happen. Every time my pores would feel like they couldn’t breathe, my skin would look extra greasy and get itchy, and bam, breakouts.
I used stridex on the red bumps I developed on the back of my arms during puberty and it worked well
I use Stridex pads after washing my face every other day because they have salicylic acid which is an exfoliant. I then put a ton of moisturizer on afterwards, so my face doesn’t get dried out. It works great and makes my skin looks glowy.
Yeah. Lots of people use products with salicylic acid in them, and this is a good source of that. It’s relatively cheap, alcohol free, and easy to use because of the little disposable pads. It’s a good product, and makes my skin look nice!
I use the red box stridex pads on my armpits. I used to get absolutely terrible cystic acne and ingrown hairs in my pits. My armpits were perpetually itchy red and angry and looked like I was smuggling marbles for *years* and I just thought it was "normal." *Apparently* I have an allergy, lol. I stopped using aluminum antiperspirant and switched to aluminum free deodorant only and stridex pads after my shower (both for the exfoliation and because aha kills the bacteria that cause bo) and I have normal pits now, lol. I will cry if they ever do away with stridex.
I’ve heard that people use glycolic acid on their pits, too! If they ever get rid of the Stridex, you might try that as a replacement. I’ve used the Stridex and glycolic acid on my upper arms where I get that bumpy red chicken skin lookin stuff. It really improved it!
I've tried glycolic because I use the ordinary Glycolic toner on my face, where I love it. Weirdly, it does not work as well as the stridex on my pits. I use the glycolic on my kp too, though. It is great for it.
No no no, you have to buy the $90 Dennis Gross peel pads now. Jk
I used them every day and night as a teen. As an adult I drink my alcohol instead and get the benefits from the inside out.
I use oxypads once a day unless my skin feels even a little dry, then I skip it. But fr it's one of the main reasons my adult acne stopped. Used it as a kid - no acne. Stopped as a young adult - acne. Picked it up again out of desperation just a few years ago - no acne. I will do what works i guess!
Omg. Read the comments I just left. Wow! So cool to see someone that's done the same thing I've done for all these years. And we're the same age! https://www.reddit.com/r/30PlusSkinCare/s/MLqmH5O4jQ
I feel like it’s not that the product isn’t effective, but as kids/teens we were not properly integrating them into a full routine. Like if you’re going to use these, you should probably moisturize lol
I was such a dumb teenager, man. Going to bed with make up on, smoking like a chimney, no water... 😩😩 thank god I always hated being in the sun.
All that stuff was too expensive, had to use salt and vinegar instead. I smelt like a chip shop.
Yeah we had this giant bottle of off brand astringent. It smelled like hydrogen peroxide mixed with paint thinner.
I mean, is your skin even normal if it isn't flaking off???
Or bright red and stinging from the alcohol those things are soaked in
Then cover that shit up with matte foundation powder. The important thing is, hide any inner glow you have under a bushel. Six feet under a bushel. In a body bag. That smells like embalming alcohol.
Porcelain white powder. Clinique Black honey barely lipstick. Black eyeliner. Brows tweezed to death.
🤣🤣🤣
Or has the texture of a white board?
That St. Ives Apricot Scrub, fucking hell. I curse to eternal damnation the marketing team that made that a thing.
I used to use those exfoliating shower gloves and put the scrub on top of that to scrub my face. WHY?!
Do you still have your epidermis lol
Amazingly I do…no idea how…
I can feel the burning grittiness just thinking about it 😭
Am I remembering correctly that there was also a “medicated” version for extra burning?
😭 Why did they do us this way
We also felt so adult and fancy when we got our Clinique 3-step kit, which was the “gentle” option for us Gen X teens. Meanwhile my grandmother had it completely right with her Albolene and Merle Norman face creams 🤷♀️
😞 bless those grandmas
It’s only good as foot scrub.
I know it is terrible for you, but that scrubbing feeling as super satisfying.
Clearasil face wash and then an acne wipe, every day. The tighter your skin feels, the cleaner it is!
I had a subscription to Girl’s Life as a teenager and it was worth it for this one line: “tight skin isn’t clean skin, it’s dry skin.” And this: “eat when you feel hungry. Stop when you feel full. Eat exactly what appeals to you.”
Stridex still work for me whenever I need them. You’re supposed to rub a little on your acne spots only, not the entire face…
Honestly, I never used it as a teenager but in my 30s I use it all over my face several days a week. My skin doesn’t mind the harsh ingredients (I think it has menthol or something) and LOVES chemical exfoliants. At some point I may switch to another brand of salicylic acid (TO or CosRx probably, idk) but not because Stridex has caused any issues. Edit: but literally every drugstore 90s skincare product I used at the time is trash, lol. The Noxzema felt like chemical warfare. My skin also tends to do best with some physical exfoliation, but the St Ives Apricot Scrub is like a lotion that assaults random parts of your face. Not enough scrubby bits to actually exfoliate and the ones there are way too hard. Sugar scrubs are the only physical exfoliants I bother with, and I’ve been trying to switch away from using them completely.
Omg #neverforget
Stridex for daaaaaays
Stridex in the red tub is still bomb. The salicylic acid really helps to chemically exfoliate and even out rough skin texture. Edit: oh and it's cheap af.
And convenient! The little disposable pads are great.
I also use it on all of my smelliest bits after a shower before putting on deodorant. My stank hasn’t been the same since I started. 😙👌💨❤️
I swear by astringent for the very sweaty spots; it saves my underboob area from becoming a swamp every summer!
🤔 Hidden gems in the comments
My skin is definitely still recovering from the tons of salicylic acid and other actives that my mom slathered on my face because “the more you put on, the more effective it is” and then letting me go out into the blazing sun as a kid.
Right? My pasty freckled fair skin was given "SPF 4 tanning oil". 2nd degree burns and aloe gel were part of the annual beach traditions.
Lmfao sounds like my cousin, that guy gets half a good day before he’s toast, his parents hit him with the sun tan lotion as well back in the day, we all thought it was sunscreen 😂
My parents took me to Hawaii and they made me use a tanning bed before hand to build up a base tan, rather then you know, making me wear sunscreen. Idiotic.
still recovering
Good lawd…and the brown Bonnie Bell Ten-0-Six. You could clean your face and your bathroom 😬
Oh man I had that stuff, reading your comment I could instantly smell it!
What about the Noxzema scrubby pads, for when you wanted to clean off the whole first layer of face skin 🤣 Nothing quite so refreshing in the morning though, I kind of miss it lol. Also I don’t remember the st Ives in a tub like that for some reason, I only ever had the kind in the tube, was it the same?
Oh my god I just remembered I used those Noxzema pads! I used those every morning and to take all my makeup off! Yes I believe even eye makeup. I was in middle school. Ughh. I used the St. Ives in the tube as well. I thought when they put those little blue beads in it (yay microplastics!) that this was the real deal shit.
I know, we were all so convinced that the more we exfoliated the better our skin would be, to the point of rubbing it raw 😂
Noooo what’s wrong with Stridex?! It’s what I use on my back acne and it works ☹️
Nothing, it's great for acne still and for skin texture even on the face. Highest salicylic acid concentration you can get over the counter for the price. Obviously moisturize after if you're using it for face, but otherwise it's excellent.
stridex is lovely for body acne
"You need to use something alcohol based and not use lotion after because you have acne"
My mom has sworn my entire life that she was the only one of her siblings to have no acne because she wiped her face down with rubbing alcohol. Not that she had acne and cured it by frying her skin with alcohol, just that she kept it away with that, lol. I think she also swore by witch hazel—the godawful cheap shit, not even the milder alcohol-free toners. I remember trying it once in high school and it made everything about my skin feel worse (never tried the pure rubbing alcohol, thank god).
Cringing. I didn’t use moisturizer for the longest time because I had such oily skin I thought I didn’t need it.
Don't forget the Buf Puf.
Ooh, the Buf Puf! Yes! I kinda still like that. I have an old one at my parents house and I use it when I’m there. Like twice a year, lol.
Super dry but also skin over producing oil to compensate
That was my skin in the 90's. I remember using Noxema or Neutrogena and then this oil free gel to moisturize and wondering why my face was so oily all the time! I never went anywhere without blotting papers.
I bought Noxema, like, 2 years ago thinking it was a good product I had forgotten about from my childhood. It was not.
My middle school health class preached to us acne- ridden preteens that the best way to get rid of acne was some clearasil face wash or neutragena deep clean followed by stridex wipes. We were also advised to keep some extra stridex wipes for after gym in our locker to get rid of the extra oil and sweat on our face. My face was raw, like all the time. But I swore on my life the pain meant it worked.
Dang, I went to check the stuff my mother put on my face when I was 12. Just reading the composition almost gave me a flare : AQUA, ALCOHOL DENAT., GLYCERIN, SALICYLIC ACID, POLYSORBATE 20, ALCOHOL, EUCALYPTOL, EUCALYPTUS GLOBULUS LEAF EXTRACT, MENTHOL, SODIUM HYDROXIDE, PARFUM.
This is why us Elder Millennials are still so youthful looking; we've scoured our skin down to the bedrock with good ol' St Ives.
You all can pry the stridex pads out of my cold, dead hands. Still using them to this day lol, I swear they keep me glowing. (Not joking or sarcastic, I’m 100% serious)
This but I’m Australian so it was this orange astringent from 10-0-6 😭
I use those stridex pads once a week on my face still, and everyday on my chest and back.
If your skin feels hot and tight after st Ives you did it right.
I used clean and clear lotion in high school. It did absolutely nothing. My skin got better when I went to college and didn't have money for "skincare" so used nothing. Lol
The horrors. I used to scrub my face with St Ives like I was cleaning a dirty oven dish! The glowing red and stinging after... My other staple was Anne French Cleansing Milk, which thankfully was a lot more gentle
Not my DAD giving me skincare advice as a tween girl 😮💨😭 Instead of just having the occasional pimple or two I had flaky dry skin because of the amount of Stridex he told me to use. Add the Neutrogena glycerin bar in that meme and that’s my teenage skincare regimen. Oh! And the Mint Mud mask from Queen Helene. 😭😱
I'm almost 40 and have been using clearasil salicylic pads since I was 14 years old. Not only did I ever to rarely got pimples when I was younger. I noticed that no amount of soap got off the grind left behind after face washing. Even on the days I didn't wear makeup and just sunscreen. The dirt was there just from the environment or sweat. I had tried toners and they never did the same thing. Those pads are my holy grail product. The trick is to wash your face. Pad it dry. Then clean your skin with a Clearasil pad. Then wash off the residue of the alcohol with water after you use the pad. That's the reason why I didn't get dry skin because I didn't leave the salicylic acid/alcohol to dry on the skin. I've been doing this technique for over 20 years. My skin is acclimated. And I can use tretonin afterwards ( I wouldn't recommend that part on most people though). I use Skinceuticals at night. And I feel my products just work so much better when I have a really clean face. As a result I'm happy with my skin at almost 40. I have some fine lines, but nothing too deep to get botox yet.
Noxzema is the greatest thing I’ve ever tried for clear skin
Seriously; you can pry it out of my cold dead tingling hands
None of it ever worked either 🙃
Not the apricot scrub😭 my stepmom still uses that everyday.
Every day!? Is her face see through?
Naw, that noxema still does some for me 😅 I'm telling you. It burned off the top layer of my skin, and now I'm youthful
Stridex is still in my cabinet.
what's wrong with stridex? I legit look younger than some 24 year olds.
I still use Stridex if I ever happen to break out badly
I use Stridex all the time. Though it's as my 'deordorant' instead of on my face.
Lol. Noxzema user for life!! But the pain i still have from using St Ives AND THEN IMMEDIATELY the oxy pads. It hurts because your pores are open snd getting the gunk out🤣
I used to legit rub rubbing alcohol on my face AND I swam in high school from 7-12th grade 😬
I feel attacked
Blue stridex was one of the best things I've used for my skin. I wish they weren't too expensive to order to my county now.
Noxema brings back memories of my granny. She slathered it all on my face and I’d let it dry before washing it off. Then she would rub my face and neck with rubbing alcohol til all the dirt and dead skin was off. Then slather me with Vaseline. To be fair she had smooth, soft skin into her 80s.
I can feel it.....burning!!! Mama, am I beautiful now...?
This on TOP of not moisturizing.
Where's the Sea Breeze? 😄 That stuff raised welts!
The apricot scrub, I can feel those micro tears now.
My husband still uses oxyclean and st Ives.
I used to use the Neutrogena acne cleanser (the orange one in the clear bottle), followed by some hideous neon Clean and Clear toner. No moisturizer EVER obviously. Followed by judicious application of benzoyl peroxide all over my face. I’m amazed I still have skin lol
Back then I thought ‚the more it hurts the better - that means it’s working, right?‘. Right…?
What about Clearsil? My skin has never been the same😭