It could break down, or not really dissolve into solution and therefore not be available.
I am not sure what you mixed it into (sound like another product), but it could also shift the pH of that product making it less effective, though it was listed as a buffer (a buffer has components that make it more resistant to pH changes).
Thank you.
It is SO CLOSE to the range they are calling for lol. Like, it crosses over it because they call for 5+ to mix it with, this is 4.5 to 5.5. I would like this stuff to be easier, please.
Nothing “bad” has happened, but I also can’t tell if anything “good” has happened. Perhaps the Buffet just cancels out the Niacinimide with the wrong ph levels. I don’t suppose there is any actual way to know. I can get one of the products they recommend, but want to use up the big bottle I have first, so I suppose I will continue mixing these. Since I am not seeing adverse effects, maybe some is being absorbed? I did leave a message on their website, but they are so backed up it takes forever right now to get a response. I figured I would just ask here. 
You can get pH strips (often for gardening) and try checking the pH of the buffer before and after adding the niacinimide.
For easy reading of the strip, you would want a pretty narrow pH range detection. They are dry strips with a plastic backing and a detection patch on one end. You just put on a drop of the solution and the color of the patch changes. You compare the color to the guide on the package. There is also pH paper, a thin strip of paper that comes in a small roll. Same principle though, that it changes color depending on the pH of the solution you are testing.
I have bangs pretty much solely because I have forehead wrinkles that also get huge zits inside the wrinkles, and it is unsightly.
Now that it’s quarantine, though, I decided to grow them out. I will probably regret this, but I feel like the bangs may be worsening the breakouts (due to hair oil resting against face). I don’t know. I’ll probably give it up and chop them off again.
They absolutely can, especially if you use any product. But even just conditioner residue, friction, and holding sweat etc there can worsen breakouts.
Eta it’s like (a lot of options for) makeup with sensitive skin. It becomes a vicious cycle of causing and hiding breakouts.
These are all excellent questions!
This is why I basically haven’t bothered doing anything to my skin my entire life other than washing it with whatever soap I have in the shower, sometimes using a scrub to cut through the grease (which I now know was not a good thing for my skin personally), and treating breakouts with OTC acne meds. It’s only very recently that I even moisturized, because I feared I’d just break out even worse and I was so greasy all the time. A change in birth control a couple years ago helped this a LOT. I still break out sometimes but I don’t drip grease.
It IS a rabbit hole, and one that I don’t understand, and the few times I dabbled in actual skin products, I didn’t see results in a few weeks so just gave up. I figured, what’s the point, am I going to spend hundreds of dollars with no result and then try something else and just keep throwing my money in the garbage?
I am terrified of any/all medical procedures so, although my particular issue (face skin slack, drooping and sliding toward knees) probably would require a facelift, I wouldn’t get one. My eyelids are also super droopy and apparently if they get to the point that my vision is blocked by the loose skin insurance sometimes covers surgery for that, but, YIKES, surgery on eyes, SHUDDER.
I’ve had terrible skin my entire life but now that I am Old, I feel like, I need to step up my game so that I don’t end up looking even worse as I age. Like, there’s this woman I work with who’s maybe in her late 50s and, like, her ENTIRE face is crepe paper texture. I don’t want that. Can I prevent that? I don’t know?
As far as goals: I would like to look less tired, have people stop assuming I am a battered woman, and maybe have less of a resting-I’ve-been-up-crying-all-night face. Even Boyfriend whom I have been with for 16 years and thus should know this is just how I look, regularly asks me what’s wrong just because my default no-facial-expression expression is “I am sad and miserable and have been crying a lot.” I assume this is because of the constantly swollen eyes. The caffeine serum does seem to be helping a little. Not with the darkness, but with the puffiness. I have tried many, many concealers and none of them really cover up the black circles very well. (This is also why, as mentioned elsewhere on this forum, I was trying to drink way more water, as I’ve read that will help with water retention around eyes. I gave up though because I just could not take the constant peeing.)
I would like my face to not be bright red, particularly my nose area, and I would like fewer breakouts and less general blotchiness even in the absence of zits. Right now I have a huge painful zit by my forehead hairline and I woke up with another one starting on my chin. Mask-ne is a thing!
And it would be nice if, even if I can’t lessen the appearance of current wrinkles, they at least do not get any worse or any deeper. Ideally they’d get less deep but that is probably too much to ask.
I don’t know if this is pseudoscience, but how are your iron levels and do you have allergies
@wooljaguar recommended Frownies (sticker that you put on your forehead at night) and I read reviews and apparently it’s a miracle for forehead wrinkles! .I resisted buying them because this isn’t a problem I have (and I think Marmalade would object to me putting stickers on his face), but if I did, I would try this product.
I haven’t had my iron checked in a while. I am veg so I could be deficient; I do take a multivitamin that includes iron. And yes, I have had allergies all my life; they have gotten much better as an adult but I still have them.
I saw that elsewhere, and yeah, I didn’t buy them because I think Boyfriend would be thoroughly grossed out. I may do so anyway though!
When my SIL was in ND school she helped my brother’s under eye circles by figuring out two food allergens. He didn’t care enough about eye darkness to stop eating those foods, but later in life stopped eating them because the allergies were affecting him in other ways. Mine have also gotten better by cutting out allergens. But not all allergens are cut out able. Like my seasonal and dust allergies will keep getting inflamed, and I know live in a wheaty house so I’m always allergic and miserable. Our circles stay because of genetics, but there is some variability in severity based on allergies.
Beyond the amount in a multi, iron supplements can get dangerous if you don’t need it. Hopefully your levels are good, and we can all get more medical care next year!
Yeah, I have heard that which makes me not want to self-medicate with iron supplements. That and getting my D level checked is definitely on the list for when nonessential medical care is safe!
My allergies are pollen, mold, smoke, and fragrance - not all avoidable. Easier at this time of year, except for when my next door neighbors have backyard bonfires. 
Haven’t read the backthread so apologies if I’m repeating anything anyone has said so far.
So my partner will occasionally giggle at my face stickers, and if I’m feeling sensitive about it that day, I’ll just hide them by putting my sleep eyeshade up on my forehead for the short expanse of time between my face routine and lights out. It totally covers them, and we’re used to seeing each other with our sleep eyeshades up on our foreheads because we both do that sometimes in the morning on weekends if we’re planning on falling back to sleep.
Frownies are seriously magic, though—I have the quadfecta of a pretty flat forehead, thick skin, expressive eyebrows, and genetic inheritance (mom had really bad forehead lines and “11s” by my age, 39). I was starting to get the 11s a few years ago and now do not have them noticeably at all. If you get realllllly close to my face you can see one little fine line where one was, but no furrows anymore. And the horizontal lines are significantly faded all the time, and barely noticeable for a day and a half after I’ve used them. (I use once or twice a week usually.)
The other thing that really seems to make a difference in my forehead lines and fine lines in general is hyaluronic acid serum sealed in with a moisturizer (if you have sensitive skin at all, First Aid Beauty’s Ultra Repair Cream is the shit, and they sell it in little trial sizes). I make my own hyaluronic serum from powder and food-grade flower water (rose, orange blossom, or iris—took a few tries to get the ratio right), but there’s plenty of commercial versions.
And I have just started a couple months ago using a bakuchiol oil (supposed to be a less harsh and more pregnancy-friendly since I’m TTC substitute for retinoids) and my partner told me a couple eves ago that my skin was “glowing” and IDK if it was getting more regular about using that or what, but I am beginning to think it’s doing something.
This is what my forehead looks like today after using Frownies once during the week (maybe Tues?) so I’m due for it again, and using all my other stuff every night for the past couple weeks. I don’t have any makeup on my forehead and am in mild natural light, and it’s a crisp enough photo that my pores are apparent. You can see the lines a little bit, but they are SO MUCH more improved and would look even better if I’d done the Frownies last night or the night before.
Your forehead looks amazing!
Wow! I can, like, barely see any lines at all.
I’d be more interested in the patches they make for mouth wrinkles, my wrinkles there are WAY worse and I think contribute to my resting-I’m-fucking-miserable face. Those would be harder to cover up, haha. For the forehead patches, well, I still have bangs! He’ll never know! 
Do they stay on well overnight? I am a face-down sleeper, I’d be worried that they’d fall off and become cat toys.
I’ve been considering this, which has hyaluronic acid and says it works like a retinol but is less harsh - and I know I am supposed to be using a retinol at my age but to be honest I’m not totally sure why, wrinkle improvement I assume? https://hylamide.deciem.com/product/subq-anti-age-30ml . It looks like The Ordinary also has a moisturizer that they recommend for redness, so I might just try that to minimize repeated shipping costs.
I’ve been using “Buffet” from the ordinary, but on the website it says the product you linked is the next step up from that. I think I will order this next time.
Did you see the Argireline from The Ordinary? I just quickly read it, and saw that it’s for deeper wrinkles. Maybe read up on that when you have time? I’m not sure if it’s ok for sensitive skin.
My sister just shared this PDF that she made with recipes for making your own seed butter and oil moisturizers! People she knew were really interested and wanted to see a pic with her in a lab coat 
Edit: she’s a chemist, wanted to make her own stuff, has advice on where to buy quality ingredients. Also, she promised me a foot massage with the balm after spending time in her new steam shower! If not for covid I’d be on a flight right now
I couldn’t upload the PDF here so I stuck it in Dropbox. Here’s the link!
Oh, that Argireline looks good too! Damn… how am I supposed to decide which to try next… this is all so confusing to me.
Right there with you! I’ve always used “moisturizer” which contained whatever and you never knew what percent anything was. I only fairly recently started using “ingredients”, and I find it quite confusing.
I am 100% following The Ordinary’s recommended “For signs of Ageing” regimen and not looking for anything extra, because reading this thread made me realize how much research I still need to do before I go haring off on my own.
