 Hi guys, this is Monica and in this video I am going to be sharing with you my fifth year retinae update. So if you're curious about retinae and what my path and my journey has been like, stay tuned. Thank you so much for joining me. This video is a collaboration and it is a collaboration with Natalie the Beauty Diva. I gave you probably know Natalie so I'm not going to go into a huge long intro into her because she's been on YouTube for quite a while. She's one of those YouTubers that is just super supportive of so many different content creators and she is so engaging with all of her subscribers. She's a wonderful, wonderful lady. If by any chance you don't know her, make sure you check the description box below where I will have her channel and her retinae video posted and linked. So Natalie, I think she's 20 years of retinae use and I'm five. So I will have to truthfully tell you that my retinae journey, the pathway was paved for me by ladies like Natalie and Mary Ellen and Melissa 55. Mary Ellen after 60, Melissa 55 and Natalie the Beauty Diva were the first three women that I started to watch on YouTube when it came to retinae and I forgot to know these ladies. They are wonderful, wonderful ladies. They are a wealth of knowledge. I'm going to make sure I link all of their channels, but Natalie in particular has really been super helpful with me in my retinae journey and we have collaborated. I'm not too sure if this is the third time that we've done a retinae collaboration video, meaning she's done an update. I know we did, I did one like six months, I think a year and Natalie, you know, would join me on that. After a while, your skin is going to get probably as good as it can get. If you've been using retinae and you've been using skin care, there's going to be a point where you're not going to see those, the rapid improvements. It's going to be sort of more of a very slow, subtle pathway that you're going to walk. So for me, that's really where I'm at and Natalie at 20 years, you look at her skin. She probably looks 20 years younger than she is without a doubt. I mean, she's, I believe in her mid 50s and she's probably looks like she's in her mid 30s, if that. Her skin is absolutely beautiful and so is Melissa 55 and Mary Ellen after 60. Those women have inspired me, both Melissa and Mary Ellen are in their 60s. So very close to my age, if not the exact same age and they've all inspired me. So my retinae journey, I'm going to link the playlist that I have for retinae so that you can see and some of my earlier videos. I do have to tell you it's right now I'm going through a transition phase where I've gained weight over COVID. I've had a number of things that have gone on in my life that have happened that have impacted basically my weight and my health. So when I look at, when I started retinae and I go, wow, you know, I look so much younger today, people will tell me that all the time. There is also that factor of the fact that I'm fatter every year. So, you know, my skin looks plumper, but I don't think that's it. Wrinkles, my, my wrinkles are, they're so much less visible, noticeable than they ever were, basically. So I believe that the retinae has helped diminish my wrinkles. It has helped improve my skin texture. I firmly firmly believe in daily collagen. I take a collagen powder and I drink that every morning. So two tablespoons twice a day since 2016. When I started this whole journey and the same thing with retinae, the first six months of my retinae use, I went through the uglies like you wouldn't believe my skin would flake, it would peel, it would get awful. I would do all sorts of different things, exfoliation. I would do everything I could to minimize that because I had to go to work. And who wants to go to work with your skin peeling off? After about a year, it did kind of settle down and I got into a routine where I, you know, increased my, my percentages of retinae, what I was using and how often I was applying it. And I just kept going at a very steady pace. And I would see the differences in my skin because I saw them day to day. I could see myself in the mirror and I could see the changes that were happening. And so could my husband and so could other people that were really close to me. So retinae is my ride or die. I mean, it is my holy grail. It is I will never give up retinae. And so I say that retinae is not affordable. It is not something that is in general in the States, in my neck of the woods, affordable for people. So I've found and have been very happy with a way to purchase my retinae that has made it very affordable for me. So currently I'm almost out of my retinae and I'm waiting for my shipment to come in. If it wasn't for that, I don't, I don't know. I would have been a much tougher struggle financially, but I would have found a way to make it happen because that's how much I believe in retinae for me. And I know there are some people that can't use retinae and there are some great alternatives in the market that you can get serums that have retinol in it that produce results. They just may not produce results as rapidly or as good as, say, the holy grail of retinae itself, of retinoling. So I definitely I buy mine overseas. I have a special checking account set up because the money comes out of my checking account. So I've always protected myself in case there was any kind of hacking. I've never had an issue. I've never had an issue. And I have been buying my retinae for almost five years now this way. When I first bought my retinae, I bought it from a Canadian pharmacy. It was still a bit more money, but it was a lot less than what I was paying for here in the States. And then I discovered LiableRx where I'm buying it now and where I've been buying it for almost five years. A tube of retinae costs me US dollars. You see, I'm almost out. It's like, but a tube of retinae US dollars for me would be under $7 plus shipping. It makes a big difference. It really does. So what I do is I use the 0.1 percent retinae, tretinoin, and I do that probably three times a week. And I also use the hydroquinone. This has got the tretinoin mixture in it. I buy both of these from an overseas pharmacy for very, very, very affordable and I alternate. Now I'm very careful because I've been going through a bout of dry eye and even though the my eye doctor doesn't think it's got anything to do with it, you have to do your own research. And there are some people that have said, yes, that it can affect it. So I really don't know. So I've eased off of my retinae as far as how high I was applying it. And I was applying it to my brow bone, you know, right right underneath my eyebrow. And I believe that has really helped with my eye wrinkles, with my deeper wrinkles. So I've kind of eased off on that, but I'm still suffering from dry eye. So I have seen no change in my using off a little bit on the tretinoin near my eye. But typically right now I'm at three times a week, maybe four times a week. I concentrate on below here instead of going up high and I make sure I do my forehead. I have some pretty deep lines in my forehead starting. And so I'm like looking at them in my lines on my foreheads and my lemons get really bad when I'm squinting. And when my dry eye is really bad, I can't look at light. So I squint all the time. And even though I wear a frowny when you're heavily squinting, that's not going to help. So I've been really concentrating on my forehead. And I'm just going to talk tretinoin use here in the video. I'm not going to talk about some of the other tools that I've been doing that I think help contribute to it. But with the tretinoin and then going to three to maybe four times a week, I haven't really noticed any major change in my skin. It's hard for me right now. Now, if I would lose the 20 pounds I've gained or 25 pounds of gain, let's be honest, if I were to lose that, which is my goal, I'm sure my face would look a little sunken. I'm sure that I might have more hollows and crevices, etc. However, the texture of my skin is it's plumper because I believe that's the collagen and the turnover of my skin. So the actual my actual skin tone itself or the feeling of my skin, it feels more flush. It feels more plump to me. And I'm not just talking fat. I'm just talking that visually the way it looks. And I do think that is a huge part of the the retinae in the collagen. So to me, that goes hands in hands. So five year update, I think I'm feeling good. I'm looking good. I'm 68 or I'll be 68 on Valentine's Day. So I feel pretty darn good for 68. And I think a huge part of that is retinae without a doubt. It's made a big impact on me and I wouldn't give it up. So I'm so happy that I can find it affordable. And I'm so happy that people like Natalie have helped paved the way so that I could learn. So when I got the uglies, I didn't like totally panic, thinking my face was falling off and I was prepared, you know, like my mother used to say and she said it. It was a German phrase that she said, you have to. I don't know how to translate it correctly, but it kind of meant that you have to go through, you know, anything worth having is going to have some pain along the way, right? Anything worth having. And it's the same thing with skin care. So the pain or the uglies of the retinae peels are. So worth having because what's underneath, especially when you get into a really good skin care routine and you exfoliate and you're using good products on your skin and you're letting your skin shine through. It's amazing to me, the end results. So retinae has been huge and I can't wait for my new batch to come in because this is my little retinae stash. What I have in here, I did try this, the A313. Everyone was talking about this. I gave it a good try. I never really noticed anything. It's other, it didn't impact me at all. And I know this was all the rage quite a while ago. I still use my retinal, although not quite as much. And this is the Olay eyes. I'm just really careful with this side because it's only this side that I have the dry eye. This eye, I'm good to go. And this eye is actually the worst looking eye because this is my driver's side. So I'm still using, I'm still using this. No matter what you do, retinae, retinal, whether you, you get it free from your, your pharmacy, your, your, your prescription or whatever, however you get it. And whatever you use, none of it is going to make any difference at all if you don't protect your skin. So I, I can't talk about retinae without talking about sunblock because you can do more damage on your skin using retinae going out in the sun without protection. So a good solid sunblock, sun protection is crucial for your retinae, crucial. So if you aren't into sunblock, if you're, you don't do that, think twice about your retinae. So protect your skin, clean your skin, protect it wonderfully with sunblock, whatever you're using for retinae, make sure you protect your skin and whatever routine you're on. Consistency is key, you know. So some people think I need to have instant gratification. If I don't see change tomorrow morning, I'm not going to keep up and do it. I'm just going to, you know, it's a waste of money. Retinae doesn't work that way. It's going to be a good long time of consistent use before you even notice anything. If, if it might even be a year, it might, but if you keep at it, if you keep at it, you're consistent and you protect your skin, you will see those differences. And then someday when you're my age or older, you can look back. You can be like Melissa 55. She's been on retinae for, I don't know, 20, 20 years as well, right, or longer, I think since her 20s. And Natalie, look at her skin and Marielle and look at their skin. These are women that have used these products for a long time. And I'm sure any one of them would tell you no overnight gratification, but there's a lot of gratification if you continue to use it, if you're consistent. So I'm going to link a playlist here, my retinae playlist. My early retinae videos are, I get the most views on my retinae videos. Sometimes I'll wake up in the morning and I'll have like a thousand, you know, my, my analytics will show I've had a thousand views overnight and I'm like, Oh, where are they? Well, they're on a retinae video. That's where, where, you know, what's being found. So I'm going to link my playlist and for retinae so you can see what it was like five years ago, if you're interested and what it is like today. I'm much calmer about it. I'm much more consistent about it. I love my results. Yes, my face is fuller. I've gained weight. I get that. But that aside, the results are there, the results are there. And I would not go without my retinae. And I'm so thankful that there's an affordable alternative for me to get it because here, a small tube of retinae would cost me, you know, about $285, right? My insurance wouldn't cover it, but I can get the same size tube in some cases by a manufacturer like Johnson and Johnson. I can get it overseas for under $10 plus shipping usually. It's, it's like amazingly affordable. So I'm really curious to see Natalie's update. I think she's probably going to talk about consistency as well, because that is the biggest thing. Hang in there. Don't give up. Don't let the ugliest chase you and protect your skin. Protect your skin. Without that, you're not going to have any results. So five years of retinae. Oh my gosh. I feel better today than I felt five years ago when I started this journey. And I, I overall, I think I look better. My attitude is better. And I'm so pumped for 2022. So pumped. Yeah. So retinae five years. Check out Natalie's. I believe she's 20 years. And yeah, amazing, amazing, amazing. So is that my beauty secret? Is that the secret for staying younger, longer? I think, I think retinae does, um, does contribute to that. But retinae alone is not the answer. There's going to be other things you're going to have to do. Sunblock. And for me, collagen. Those have to go hand in hand with my retinae. So anyways, thank you so much for watching. And, um, if you're here just for retinae, uh, I'll be doing an update again next year, I think. But, uh, I've did update my skin care routine. I will link those as well. But, uh, retinae is it? Yeah, that's the, uh, it's the holy grail. That's the secret. That and sunblock and collagen. And maybe if you have the things. Thank you so much for watching. Bye bye.