What I tried this week

Product: A'pieu Madecassoside Cream

Purpose: I really like the Cosrx centella cream for PM (as a penultimate spot treatment before my heavy night cream) but it does not play well with makeup or really anything else. Heavy white cast, pilling, ugh. I wanted a centella product for daytime use.

Skin type: Dry, sensitive, recovering from hormonal breakout. I attempted to introduce a retinoid a few weeks ago and my skin immediately reacted badly, so I'm focusing on products that promote calm and healing.

Place in Routine: I'm still working on this. It doesn't seem to matter if it goes before or after my hydrating step (Scinic honey) or if I mix it with oils (tea tree, neem, rosehip). The past few days I've been doing the following:

First cleanse - raw white honey mask + massage

Second cleanse - Cosrx good morning

Hydrate - liberal amounts of Scinic honey AIO

Moisturize - A'pieu cream + one drop tea tree oil

SPF - Olay complete SPF 30

Makeup - It Cosmetics CC+ cream

Testing schedule: Tested on wrist and neck AM and PM for three days, then half face for three days. Then I stopped use for two days just to see what would happen, and re-introduced. No signs of irritation, yay!

1st Impressions: The A'pieu cream is cheap, has an inoffensive ingredient list, and layers beautifully with my other AM products. It absorbs quickly, visibly reduces redness caused by dryness, and so far hasn't caused any additional acne. I think this is a slow worker. Hopefully with more time I'll see more exaggerated results.

Introducing aquaphor at night is a good idea. You might also add a separate moisturizer in the morning b/c you really don't have a lot of moisture in your routine right now. (For example, I layer tret, two humectants, cerave moisturizing cream + squalene oil, and vaseline at night.) Adding more moisture to your routine could reduce the irritation and help you increase the tret frequency. You could also try buffering your tret by using moisturizer first, especially when adding another night of use, to see if that lessens the irritation. But if you find that's not enough, stick w/ four nights. You'll still see results, it'll just take longer.

For the redness, something like Dr. Jart's Cicapair cream that contains centella asiatica might be really helpful. It's super calming & soothing, and is amazing on red & irritated skin. There are less expensive options available too (A'pieu Madecassoside, Cosrx Centella Ampoule, Etude House Cica Balm, Cosrx Balencium).

Apieu has a madecassoside gel in the jar (also available in a tube format) but I prefer the cream https://www.amazon.com/APIEU-Madecassoside-Cream-50ml/dp/B06XSRM69M/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1550612178&sr=8-1&keywords=apieu+madecassoside+cream I found the Dr. Jart Cicapair cream to be too heavy and shiny let alone the laundry list of ingredients

I think you can find it on Amazon too. I buy almost all my K-beauty from there. :) Here's what I found:

https://www.amazon.com/APIEU-Madecassoside-Cream-50ml/dp/B06XSRM69M?qid=1537669011&sr=8-3&srs=9387553011&ref=mp_s_a_1_3

 https://www.amazon.com/APIEU-Madecassoside-Cream-Large-Volume/dp/B07CGZ62R3?qid=1537669060&sr=8-13&srs=9387553011&ref=mp_s_a_1_13

I'm not sure if this helps but the brand A'pieu has similar type packaging? I found this in amazon: [A'PIEU] Madecassoside Cream 50ml https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XSRM69M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_QaiiAb1384793

Sweetcorea.com has a sea buckthorn and glycolic acid cream. Sorry if it doesn't help!