Hands Full of Empties

I believe I know the reason why you showed up in my blog. It is the exact same reason why I've personally scrolled all over the Internet in the past. I had heard about tretinoin - an amazing antiaging skin care product that actually works. But the problem I came upon was that it seemed impossible to get your hands onto it in Europe, at least legally.

European Union has strict laws what comes to tretinoin as it is labelled a medical substance which is restricted under prescription. In order to get your hands onto tretinoin, one would need a prescription. Tretinoin is widely used as an acne treatment and that's what it is prescripted for if you go to a doctor. In general, tretinoin is not prescriped for antiaging concerns. If you bought tretinoin without a prescription online and it'll get stuck in the customs, you could face fine and get a criminal record for violating the law. 

How to get tretinoin legally in Europe, then? I found an UK based company Dermatica, which advertises custom made prescription formula skin care. They tell on their website that they use cosmetic ingredients in prescription strenghts, which can only be prescribed by licenced healthcare professionals. That sounds promising, isn't it? Basically what they do is formulating tretinoin products. They prescribe you a formula according to your skin care concerns, which could be for example, antiaging. 

Although they advertise prescription level ingredients and they're a team of doctors, nurses and pharmacists, nowhere on their website actually reads whether you'd actually get a legal prescription with your custom made skin care product. Dermatica operates in 8 European countries (as of 2021): Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Malta, Sweden and United Kingdom. Their operation area being so limited and Dermatica appearing to be a legal, serious company, I believed they simply wouldn't mail tretinoin without a prescription to European countries where it was illegal. Wouldn't that doom their reputation and bisness in no time? 

I decided to take a risk and see what happens if I ordred tretinoin from them. I created an account on their site and went through their online consulation. They initially prescriped me a lotion that contains tretinoin 0.015% and niacinamide 4%. Since then the percentage has been increased to tretinoin 0,05%. 

On the package is attached a label that looks like a legit prescription to me, at least. The label contains my full name, prescripted substance and its' pertencage as well as instructions and what seems to be a signature of the people who disputed (DISP?) and checked (CHKD?) the prescription. Well I'm not familiar with UK prescription so I might be wrong. 

The parcel contained also an information leaflet.

Dermatica descripes the contents of the parcel as medicine but when making a custom declaration, I've myself marked the contents as cosmetics. So far I've never had any problems with getting my parcel.

Unfortunately as Britain is no longer part of the European Union, all orders by Dermatica gets stuck in the customs automatically. Because of that, Dermatica ships their packages from Ireland but they still come to a stop at customs at least in my country. It is a monthly nuicanse to contact the customs to release my order. Being afraid that the customs starts asking questions about the contens of my packet, I simply go through with the customs declaration and mark there that the packet contains cosmetics rather than go through the hassle of providing them a proof that that the Dermatica parcel comes, in fact, from Ireland and not from UK. Yes, it causes me extra fees as now I unnecessary pay taxes for the parcel every month. But at least I avoid hassle and my mind is at peace. 

I've been in contact with Dermatica's custom service concerning the shipping. Dermatica's custom service has been very good and they've actually paid for my taxes once when I complained them about the issue of the packet always getting stuck in the customs with no reason. I have a high expectation that if ever I got in trouble with the customs for the contens of my Dermatica packet, they would assist me. 

Now I've been a pleased customer of Dermatica and used tretinoin since April 2021. I'll write a seperate blog post about my experince of using tretinoin later. 

If you're interested to try out Dermatica, feel free to use my Dermatica referral link by clicking here. You'll get the first month free (pay only shipping 2,90£) and the next month 25% discount! 

 I usually look for facial creams with words watery in them as I've found they work the best with my skin. This Nature Republic's cream is not an exception. It has perfect watery (its' major ingredient is actually sea water!) and light weight, yet hydrating consistency. It isn't greasy or sticky at all but absorb into skin perfectly and that's why I love it so much. My skin feels hydrated and soft after using this cream. It definitely boosts the moisture level of dehydrated skin! I think this cream is ideal for combination skin. If you need really intense moisturazion (for example during winter time) this might not be your thing. This cream has worked perfect for my normal/slightly oily skin. 

Aqua Super Aqua Max Combination Watery Cream by NATURE REPUBLIC:

Vital Hydra Solution Biome Essence by. Dr. Jart

 I finished and emptied in January 7 skincare and make-up products. One of them is this Total Repairing hand cream by Korean brand MISSHA.