Zia Yusuf, Author at 91¿´ƬÍøվ! /author/ziayusuf/ Come for the fun, stay for the culture! Wed, 30 Sep 2026 02:04:52 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.2 /wp-content/uploads/zikoko/2020/04/cropped-91¿´ƬÍøվ_91¿´ƬÍøվ_Purple-Logo-1-150x150.jpg Zia Yusuf, Author at 91¿´ƬÍøվ! /author/ziayusuf/ 32 32 “I Felt Like Nobody Would Ever Love Me” — Why Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) Is a Suicide Risk /her/pmdd-suicide-risk/ Wed, 30 Sep 2026 02:04:51 +0000 /?p=385065 The week before is a dreaded week for anyone who experiences a period. For some, it’s a week filled with irritation, bloating, and the itching feeling that something is horribly, horribly wrong. is a group of emotional and physical changes that occur in a person right before their period. Some of these changes include irritability, anxiety, crying spells, bloating, and weight gain. 

For Dada*, 30, she first noticed that her ‘usual’ PMS symptoms were a little more than that at the age of 26. “I was in a car that was on Third Mainland Bridge, and I nearly jumped into the water. I was so scared because it felt so real; I could clearly see myself doing that. The only thing that stopped me was the fact that I thought about how cold the water would be.”

is a severe form of PMS, and suicidal thoughts are one of its symptoms. It causes intense physical and emotional symptoms every menstrual cycle in the week or two before your period. Symptoms often abate as soon as the period comes. We spoke to Clinical Psychology Researcher about PMDD and how it increases suicidal ideation in women.

What is PMDD?

PMDD affects roughly ; that is, 1 in every 18 women has PMDD. To get a diagnosis, at least five symptoms have to show up in the final week before a period, ease off within days of the period starting, and disappear in the week after the period starts. Because so many conditions can mimic it, doctors are meant to confirm the pattern with daily symptom tracking across at least two cycles before calling it PMDD. Most women never get that far.

The “just” in “it’s just PMS” is where the trouble starts. Women with PMDD have almost seven times the odds of attempting suicide, and almost four times the odds of experiencing suicidal ideation, .

For Dada*, those two weeks before her period meant she was fighting her mind in addition to all the physical symptoms. “I would literally be in a fetal position, crying, and my mind would tell me how worthless and useless and stupid I was, and how I should kill myself because I wasn’t worth the time and space and nobody would love me for me,” she says. “It would stay for two weeks. I’d feel fatigued and exhausted, easily irritated and extremely emotional. It was like my nerves were exposed.” She would start fights with her sister and her partner at the time, and she believes the fog of it kept her in a toxic situationship far longer than she should have stayed. At work, she would lock herself in the toilet and cry for hours, “trying so hard not to die.” She cancelled plans because she felt drained and unworthy of being around people. “There have been times when I thought I was actually going to die. I’ve almost cut myself multiple times.”

For years, she didn’t have a name for any of it. “I didn’t think of PMDD until two years later, when I saw a post on X (fka Twitter). I thought it was just stress. I didn’t even track the frequency of my cycle until I was 27, and even then, I thought it was just usual period nonsense, because it would stop immediately when my period came.”

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Next Read: 11 Nigerian Women Share How Their Mental Health Affects Their Romantic Relationships


The pattern of symptoms that build before a period and lift almost as soon as it arrives is one of the signature tells of PMDD, and one of the reasons it hides so well. Researchers now understand it as a sensitivity in the brain’s response to the normal hormonal changes of the menstrual cycle, not too much or too little of any hormone. The hormones of someone with PMDD would look perfectly ordinary on a test. What differs is how the brain reacts to them, and because the reaction is timed to her cycle, it is easy to mistake it for stress, a bad week, or a personality flaw.

Ibukun*, 23, an artist, spent years doing exactly that. She had always had depression, so when things got dramatically worse in the days before her period, she filed it under her existing diagnosis. “I just thought that was me being me,” she says. “I wasn’t very good at relationships, so I always thought it was a me problem. I just thought,” Oh, my depressive episodes get worse before my period. Cool.” 

In that week, she would stay in bed, struggle with basic hygiene, cry at everything, and pick fights with the idea of cutting people off entirely. “Every time I have an issue with a friend before my PMDD hits, I just consider cutting them off when I’m in a PMDD rut.” 

When she was younger and severely depressed, that same week came with self-harm. “A week before my period, I would constantly cut my arms. I’ve stopped that, thank God.” She only learned PMDD existed in 2021, when a friend posted about it, and she educated herself; she was formally diagnosed in therapy in 2023. Even now, she is unmedicated. “I’m not medicated or anything. I’m just aware that okay, yeah, it’s PMDD, and I rawdog it.”

Adesuwa*, 26, also had to find the word herself. The first time she noticed something was wrong was in 2020, and when she told a friend how she was feeling, the friend ‘jokingly’ told her to kill herself. She assumed it was the pressure of school. Her worst days bring body weakness that keeps her in bed, anger at the world and then at herself, and a depression deep enough that she thinks about dying. Her darkest moment came while cooking, when she caught herself wishing the gas would explode and kill her. Her period arrived less than an hour later. Like many Nigerians, she read about PMDD online and immediately recognised herself in it. Naming the feeling was her first step to coping. She sees a therapist now, and while she has no formal diagnosis, her therapist gives her techniques that help.

Some women never get that close to an answer. Funmi*, 23, started experiencing worsening anxiety and feelings of low self-worth about two weeks before her period, around the age of 20, and she dismissed it herself. “I really just thought this was what everyone experienced when they said they experienced PMS,” she says. She has no official diagnosis and had never spoken to anyone about it until last year. Her lowest point came during her medical board exams, when worsening premenstrual symptoms collided with exam anxiety. “It was such a haze, honestly, and I can’t even say how I got through it. It’s a blank space in my memory.”

The women who did seek medical help often came back with nothing useful. Dada* was repeatedly told it was stress and that she should improve her diet and exercise more. “The gynaecologists kept saying it was normal, which is crazy,” she says. She was only diagnosed in the end because her therapist was working carefully to rule out ADHD and autism. “I wish women weren’t always dismissed with ‘that’s how it is’,” she says. “It irks my soul every time I hear it.”

Why is Getting a PMDD Diagnosis Hard?

Like most mental disorders, PMDD doesn’t come alone, and that is one reason it hides for so long. Between 42% and 49% of people with premenstrual disorders also live with a . An existing diagnosis can become a hiding place. Ibukun spent years filing her worst weeks under the depression she already knew she had, because a worsening of what you already have does not look like a new condition.

The overlap with ADHD is even sharper. Provisional PMDD in 31.4% of women with an ADHD diagnosis, against 9.8% of women without ADHD. Women carrying ADHD together with depression or anxiety were the most at risk in the entire sample, with more than four times the risk of women without ADHD. Dada*’s experience sits inside this pattern: her PMDD was only named because her therapist was carefully ruling out ADHD and autism first.

PMDD is also . Women with mothers and sisters who experience PMDD are more at risk of developing the disorder. 

PMDD rearranges lives, especially in Nigeria, a country where women’s diagnosis is a Herculean task. Funmi missed classes for days at a time, absences she couldn’t afford and had to scramble to make up for. Adesuwa* can’t do meaningful work in her bad week and now plans her workload around her cycle. Ibukun*’s executive dysfunction deepens. And because Nigeria’s mental health support is largely private and largely unaffordable, therapy, the thing that moved three of these four women forward, stays out of reach for most. “I just wish everyone could afford mental health support services, because they go a long way,” Adesuwa says.


Next Read: Body Dysmorphia: It Is MORE Than Hating Your Body


So what actually helps? 

The women have answers they built themselves. For Funmi*, she optimises her life around her cycle, and keeps her closest circle to people she doesn’t have to apologise to, reminds herself that some of what she feels in that week isn’t real, and protects her school attendance so that the days she truly can’t show up don’t cost her. 

Adesuwa* tracks her cycle to plan and leans on music. She goes to therapy, watches comfort shows, and surrounds herself with friends and family who make things feel lighter. 

Dada* tracks her period with an app and her calendar so she can catch the shift early, and finds that exercise, eating well, and sleeping well all help. “Having a safe community of people who can listen without judgment, and who can care for you in the aftermath of an episode, is extremely important,” she says.

Modern medicine has answers, too. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists strongly SSRIs, a class of antidepressants, for the mood symptoms of premenstrual disorders, and lists hormonal treatments, counselling, exercise, nutritional therapies, and self-help strategies among the options. Many patients do best with a combination. A diagnosis matters because the treatment for PMDD is specific, and because a woman who knows her calendar can prepare for her hardest week instead of being ambushed by it.

The week before a period should be uncomfortable at worst. It should not be a week a woman has to survive. For the roughly 1 in 18 women living with PMDD, “it’s just PMS” is not reassurance, and for some women, the distance between that dismissal and a bridge, a blade, or a kitchen is one bad cycle. As Funmi puts it: “People make a lot of jokes about ‘oh, it’s that time of the month’, but it’s not normal to feel like you want to jump off a bridge because of your period.”

It’s more than mood swings. It always was.


If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide or self-harm, you can reach out to someone:

  • Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative (MANI): 08091116264 or 08111680686
  • International Association for Premenstrual Disorders (IAPMD): iapmd.org
  • Find a Helpline: findahelpline.com

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7 Nigerian Women on the Lies They Told Themselves to Accept Bad Sex /her/her-nigerian-women-excuses-accept-bad-sex/ Mon, 28 Sep 2026 16:10:00 +0000 /?p=384929

“Maybe he’s tired, maybe it’s me, maybe this is just how sex feels.” 

When sex isn’t good, the majority of Nigerian women make explanations rather than tell a partner what isn’t working. In some cases, it was a matter of protecting said partner’s ego or avoiding the uncomfortable conversation. 

We asked seven Nigerian women about the excuses they made for a man who was bad at sex, what accepting it looked like in the moment, and when the story they were telling themselves finally stopped making sense. 

Woman sitting on bed dejectedly

1. “Let Me Not Judge Him From One Experience” – Ola*, 23

I met him at the gym, so I had high expectations. I was thinking, “This one is a gym bro, at least the energy will be there.” Unfortunately, I was very wrong. The foreplay was not giving; he finished really quickly, and I felt like I was doing most of the work. Instead of admitting the sex was bad, I told myself, “Maybe he’s just tired. Maybe he’s stressed. Let me not judge him from one experience.”

It became my favourite excuse. I liked him, and I wanted there to be a reasonable explanation. I was attracted to him, and I’d already built this whole image of what he’d be like sexually. I became an Olympic-level excuse maker. During sex, he was giving pillow princess while I did most of the work. I didn’t have a serious conversation with him because I was still in my ‘maybe he’ll do better next time’ era. Then we had sex a second time. I thought this was where things would improve. Instead, this man judged me for swallowing his cum. Some of you men have a lot of confidence for people who should be focusing on their own performance.

If the same thing happens twice, you have to start questioning your theory. I wasn’t making excuses because there was a good reason. I was making them because I didn’t want to admit the sex was simply bad. I stopped trying to convince myself that everything was fine. I was lowering my expectations and calling it understanding, and questioning whether I was asking for too much when I wasn’t.

I should be able to say what I like and need, and attraction isn’t enough.  I can find someone extremely attractive and still realise that, sexually, the chemistry is giving a grand total of nothing. Omo, I ghosted him o.

2. “Maybe It Was First-time Jitters With A New Partner” – Enkay*, 35 

It was my first time with a new partner, and we’d been heavy on the foreplay for weeks. Then the day of the deed came, and it was over in five minutes. It was like he’d just jerked off because the whole experience felt like I wasn’t even involved. I told myself maybe it was first-time jitters with a new partner, and a friend validated that. I’d only had two other partners, so I also wondered if I was the inexperienced one. Maybe this was just how it was.

After a while, it became predictable: it’ll be over in ten minutes, then you’ll go back to whatever you’re doing. I’d give myself that timeline. During sex, I tried to draw pleasure from how turned on he was by my body. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. I always tried to make sure we were at my place so I could ask him to leave as soon as it was over.

It was temporary. I was only in that location for a year, and we really did vibe over movies, anime and work. I didn’t want to look for another partner or risk being seen as slutty in such a small community. I never directly addressed the problem. A few times, when I was in charge of how sex went, I tried to show him what I wanted instead of telling him. Of course, that didn’t always work.

Around the same time, I had sex with someone who literally worshipped my body the first time. It opened my eyes; I started thinking, “So this is how it can be?” I could finally acknowledge that the other sex had been bad, mediocre at best, and that I should have moved on much earlier. I was still considering his feelings, so I let things fizzle out, especially since my year there was nearly over.

I really had to learn that you have to take charge of your own pleasure. Men will cum regardless. If a partner doesn’t know what they’re doing, you can speak up and tell them what works and what doesn’t. If they’re unwilling to change, feel free to wave goodbye.

3. “I Kept Thinking Something Was Wrong With Me” – Yvonne*, 27

By the second time or so, I realised this couldn’t be it. This was my first encounter with sex, but it just felt wrong. Remembering it makes me angry all over again. God will actually punish that boy. It was just about him. There was hardly ever any foreplay, although he was very particular about me not being hurt. I remember thinking my nerves weren’t sensitive enough.

I pathologised it as I often do, even now. I kept thinking something was wrong with me. Then I just accepted it. I thought that was all there was to it. Overall, he was a terrible person, so I was really warped in the head when it came to him. The adrenaline was really something. I did try to talk to him about it, but he paid me no mind and didn’t even entertain the conversation.

I accepted the other bad parts of the relationship, too, which, honestly, was all of it. I carried that lack of demanding better into everything else. I centred him and basically wanted whatever made him satisfied. After we finally parted, he tried to move toward me one more time. By then, I was disgusted with him, so I turned him down. We were already over, and he stayed gone. I just knew that what we’d had couldn’t be all there was to it, especially when there was hardly ever foreplay.

More women need to learn that sex is as much for you as it is for them, and an orgasm isn’t a myth. If there’s no foreplay, please close the chapter quickly. A man who doesn’t care if sex is satisfying for you won’t care about you in other parts of the relationship either. He centres himself in bed and everywhere else; you’re just a tool.

4. “I Had Sex With Multiple People to See If It Was Me” – Ari*, 25

When I started having sex with men, there was almost never any pleasure beyond the initial thrust. I’m such a people pleaser that I’d fake moans until he finished, and he always took forever. I had sex with multiple people to see if it was me. I liked the idea of sex more than the act.

So I took it like a champ. If I was the problem, why should it be less pleasurable for them? For the longest time, I wouldn’t even say it didn’t work for me. I’d zone out and let out moans now and again. I’ve faked orgasms to end sex multiple times. I read a lot of books growing up, and I thought that everybody couldn’t be lying about how good it is, so the self-blame just kept going.

I liked the prospect of a warm body. It was only during sex that I’d ask myself why I was there. With my first boyfriend, it was painful every time, but he’d convince me, and love would make me do it. With my last partner, I knew he liked sex a lot, so it became a chore I did for him. Conversations seemed to put partners on edge. My last partner liked trying to please me, but I figured he’d give up at some point. Moaning and allowing him to finish was easier.

One day, I woke up and realised that bad sex didn’t serve me. It was some weeks before we broke up. In those last days, he talked a lot about how we didn’t even have sex anymore. Even though I ended it, I knew it would eventually have been a dealbreaker. Afterwards, I went eight months without sex. I realised I owed nobody sex and thought I was asexual.

Just last week, I came three times from head and twice from penetration. Before, I was going years without an orgasm unless I was masturbating. With my current sexual partner, I told him head didn’t work for me, and I had written it off. He asked me to trust him and, omo, thank God I did. I’ve had so much fun. I’ve started buying and using more toys. I know now that good sex means caring about your partner’s pleasure; most of those partners didn’t really care about mine. If you do rubbish now, I’ll boo you because I know it’s not my shame to bear. I still think I’m on the asexual spectrum, but step by step. I’m getting the pleasure I missed back.

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You’ll Love: What She Said: My Father Is Engaged to the Woman I Called My Sister


5. “ It’s Just My Assault History Playing Tricks on Me” – Morenike*, 25

When I had sex with him for the first time, we had been kissing for a while, and then it led to fingering, and I remember thinking, “The last time I tried this with someone else, it didn’t hurt, so why does this hurt?” It felt like he was stabbing my insides. I told myself, okay, maybe different strokes for different folks.

At the time, I was dealing with a lot around sex because I’d started having flashbacks about being sexually assaulted when I was young. So I told myself, “Maybe it’s just my SA history playing tricks on me, and maybe that’s how sex is supposed to feel. He’s trying his best.” I was inexperienced, but I know now he just didn’t know how to fucking finger.

He was a situationship, and he was really sweet to me. Instead of telling him, “You kind of suck at this,” I let my inner avoidant out after sex. I accepted that he was exceptionally awful at fingering and started ignoring his messages asking me to come to his house. We’re still friends, but that’s just it.

Before I got comfortable enough in my body to want more sexual interactions, I’d prepare myself to dissociate because I didn’t know if it was going to be awful. One time, I texted my friend afterwards and asked them to call me with an emergency so I could leave. Years of staying quiet and allowing things to be done to me without speaking up had affected me. Why couldn’t I tell a nigga he didn’t know how to finger? He didn’t even give head. Na so so fingering without lube. What am I, Kanji Dam?

After him, I started telling people what I liked and didn’t like, and directing them to do better. I haven’t had a lot of sexual partners, but they’ve been pretty understanding once I started talking. I’m more comfortable saying I’m inexperienced now. Good sex, for me, means not being afraid to speak up. I also don’t care much for sex because of my demisexuality. If I build a beautiful emotional bond and desire someone sexually, that’s great. If not, I’m not going to force myself to accept casual sex.

6. “He Didn’t Give Head. Who Does That?” – Kara*, 31

He was my first consensual sexual partner ever, and I didn’t have a frame of reference for what good sex was supposed to feel like, so it took me a while to realise what was happening. The first time we tried having sex, we discovered I had trauma-related vaginismus, and for some reason, he was very frustrated by that. That should have been my first red flag, but I was young, dumb and in love, so I rationalised it away. When we finally had sex, I was a little bit drunk because I had read somewhere that alcohol helped deal with vaginismus more easily, and it did. The haze of the alcohol made me think it was decent sex. Again, with no frame of reference, I didn’t know what I was missing.

I kept telling myself that it was inexperience, and maybe I was broken because of assault. He was a lot more sexually experienced than I was and made sure I knew it by virtue of jokes. Now that I think about it, that was weird as hell. 

It was consistent for a couple of months, and then at some point, I stopped having sex in general because I got busy with work. After a while, I got my spark back and started exploring with other people, which made me realise how nice sex in general was. He lived close by, so we tried to reignite a sexual relationship, but compared to the other people I had had sexual encounters with, it was just mid. 

I tried having sex with him a couple more times after that, but I kept zoning out because it was a lot of in, out, bye-bye. I felt more like a Fleshlight than anything else. And he also didn’t give head; who does that? I was a people pleaser at the time, so all I did was just make excuses to not see him when he wanted to have sex. I kept assuring myself that this was how sex was supposed to feel, even when it was very clear to me that it wasn’t.

I tried having a conversation with him one time, where he gave me a bullshit reason about why he didn’t give head and then made the conversation about the ‘magical powers of his dick.’ No, that’s exactly what he said. Incredible. 

Never again. I’m grown, and I have told a man to get up from my body because he was doing nonsense, and it wasn’t working for me. I now move with the audacity of a man. These men would be very vocal when you’re not pleasing them, so why shouldn’t I do the same?


You’ll Enjoy: The Cost of a Better Life’ — Ifeoma Obinwa on love and survival  in A Happy Ending


7. “I Told Myself That Knowing I Could Make Him Feel Good Was Worth It” –  Tolani*, 23

I didn’t realise the sex was bad until years after I’d left the relationship. When I finally had a different experience, I thought, “Oh, this is what it’s supposed to be like,” and chuckled at everything I’d been through before.

He was the first guy I’d had sex with, so I thought it was supposed to feel that way. I was in love with him. He was my best friend, first love, first time and all that. I told myself that knowing I could make him feel good was worth it, even when it made me uncomfortable. There was nothing to compare it to; I assumed Wattpad and erotica stories were full of shit. I pushed for lots of lube because it was cold and tingly and made things more interesting. I tried to bring a vibrator into it too, because I knew I could finish with one. He didn’t seem keen, and I didn’t want him to feel emasculated. Some men think toys are an indictment of their masculinity. Thank God for journey mercies.

I knew some things I wanted even without knowing what sex could feel like. I tried to get him interested in a D/S dynamic, but he just didn’t have that dawg in him. I think he laughed at some of my kinks, so that was that. We had an unsteady relationship; we were friends with benefits, and bigger issues sometimes kept us apart or made things awkward. Towards the end, I started to accept that we weren’t going to be ‘together-together’ and that he wasn’t a good person for me. Sex stopped feeling like, “It’s not good, but at least I get to be close to him and make him happy.” It became, “Yeahh, this sucks.” We’d finish, and I’d wonder what I was still doing in his bed.

We grew more distant. I started talking to someone I found ultra attractive, who was pretty good at being a dom. That made it easier to let go. Later, I had another partner with whom the sex was also bad. This time it was worse: he thought thrusting really hard was the way to go, and sometimes it straight up hurt. I had to psyche myself up to get through it.

I think those small acts of betraying yourself add up. Women are taught to centre male partners, so it was easy to feel proud that I was making him happy while ignoring how I felt. Sometimes I felt bad about myself for letting it happen, even when it bordered on painful. I was afraid that if I made him feel bad, whatever we had would end.

Then I met someone and being with them felt like being back in secondary school: sweet and nice, almost silly. We’d inch closer on the couch and find excuses to brush against each other. The sex feels good. I like the way they look at me during it. The passion isn’t a raging flame; it’s like enjoying an orange so much you squeeze its juice into your mouth as hard as you can. Tangy, sweet, and refreshing, and you don’t want it to stop.

I’m more assertive now about how I want to be touched. I put my comfort and pleasure first because there’s no award for suffering, and I’m here for a good time. I just wish I’d known sex was actually supposed to feel good. I wouldn’t have put up with obvious mismatches for so long while telling myself, “Well, at least I’m getting some.”


You’ll also enjoy: Uzoamaka On Siraam: ‘Sex Isn’t A Dirty Topic, Stop Acting Like It Is’


Names* have been changed and responses have been edited for clarity and flow.

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8 Viral Skincare Products You’re Probably Using Wrong /her/how-to-use-the-skincare-products-internet-recommends/ Thu, 24 Sep 2026 13:18:29 +0000 /?p=384725 Scroll through skincare TikTok for five minutes, and you’ll come away convinced you need a ten-step routine, a fridge for your serums, and something called a reedle shot. The promise is always the same: glass skin. Clear, poreless, and lit from within.

But most of these products weren’t made for your face; they were made for your feed. So we asked Certified Clinical Esthetician Babarinsa Oluwadamilohun to walk us through the products the internet has convinced you that you need: what they actually do, how to use them, and how not to.

1. Niacinamide

What it is: Niacinamide is vitamin B3. It helps with oil, the look of pores, and uneven tone, which is why it shows up in nearly every routine video on your feed.

How to use: Apply at 2-5% once or twice daily. It layers well with almost everything, which is honestly part of the problem: because it plays nice, people stack it.

How not to use: The 10% serums the internet loves aren’t faster results. They increase the risk of skin irritation. If your routine already has seven products, niacinamide isn’t the missing piece. It’s just another layer.

2. Tretinoin

What it is: Tretinoin is a prescription-strength retinoid, and the real thing behind most “glass skin” transformations online. It treats acne, texture, and fine lines, and it works. That’s why people preach it like gospel.

How to use: Start with a pea-sized amount at night, two to three times a week. The sandwich method helps: apply it after a moisturiser, then top it with another layer of moisturiser.

What not to do: start daily at full strength because someone told you to push through the purge. And don’t pair it with benzoyl peroxide on the same night.

3. Benzoyl Peroxide

What it is: Benzoyl peroxide kills acne-causing bacteria. It’s a spot treatment, not a personality.

How to use: Use 2.5-5% as a spot treatment or short-contact treatment, in the mornings.

How not to: The internet’s version has you 10% slathered all over, on the same night as your retinoid, which bleaches pillowcases and skin barriers alike.

4. Reedle Shot

What it is: The reedle shot is a spicule serum: tiny micro-needles that create pathways so what you apply next absorbs better. The tingle is normal. But it’s a relatively new product, and there’s not much research on it. 

How to use: Use it a few nights a week, right after cleansing.

How not to: Don’t use it daily, and don’t stack it with retinoids and acids the same night. More absorption of everything is the problem, not the goal.

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5. Retinol

What it is: Retinol is tret’s gentler cousin. Same family, slower-acting, and available without a prescription.

How to use: Start with a low percentage, at night, and build up slowly over weeks.

How not to: Don’t buy the highest percentage first, and don’t expect tret-level results. And if you’re already on tretinoin, you don’t need retinol too. Pick one retinoid lane.

6. Hyaluronic Acid

What it is: Hyaluronic acid is a humectant: it pulls water into your skin, which is what gives that plump, hydrated look.

How to use: Apply it on damp skin, then seal it in with a moisturiser.

How not to: The mistake is applying it to dry skin in dry air. With no water around to grab, it pulls moisture from your skin instead.

7. Snail Mucin

What it is: Snail mucin is hydration and repair support, and the original K-beauty glass skin poster child.

How to use: You can use it daily, after cleansing, before your moisturising cream.

How not to: Just don’t expect it to resurface anything. It’s for comfort, not transformation. And comfort is fine, as long as you know that’s what you’re buying.

8. AHA (Glycolic/Lactic Acid)

What it is: AHAs are chemical exfoliants. They dissolve the dead skin cells sitting on your skin, which is where the glow comes from.

How to use: Use them one to two times a week, at night. That glow is enough.

How not to: Don’t do daily peels, don’t use them the same night as a retinoid, and don’t skip sunscreen afterwards. Freshly exfoliated skin burns fast.

So, Do You Need Them?

Some of these products earn their place. Some are solutions to problems the internet invented. The difference isn’t the product; it’s whether your skin has a reason for it. The internet sells you routines for glass skin. What your skin needs is a reason for each step.


You’ll Also Enjoy: QUIZ: Does Your Skin Care?

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