 Hi guys, it's Monica. I am a little bit late on this, but I am going to give you my four-year retinae update. Oh, yeah, four years. I can't believe it's been, it's actually been over four years that I've been using retinae. So if you're interested in hearing about my journey, stay tuned. Thank you so much for joining me. I've had a few of you reach out to me and ask me to do this update. And I think because August was such a difficult month, July was a difficult month, actually the whole summer was, you know, not the best with my dad passing. I just think I haven't really been in the right frame of the mind to do this. But this morning I got a, and I think I might have mentioned this in a previous video. I'm not too sure when this is going to be published, but this morning, which is Saturday, I'm filming this Saturday, September 19th. So this morning I got a notification, yesterday I got a notification actually that one of my very early videos that I filmed nine years ago had a comment. And it was a comment from one of my YouTube fellow content creators, actually Mary Ellen, after 60. And she left me a comment on that video and it was to the tune of like not being able to believe the difference between them and now. And I was like, I looked at it and I went, wow, look at me, nine years younger, but I look so much older. And then a little bit later, I think it was like maybe about four or five hours later, I got another comment on that video from another lady on YouTube here who said basically the same thing. And that inspired me to do this video because I had been feeling kind of like, you know, blasé and all that. But that really inspired me. So first of all, let me tell you, hocus pocus, makeup does a lot. It really does. So over the course, even though I'm 66 at the time of this filming, but over the course of the last five years, maybe four years for sure, maybe about five when I started to do more makeup, yeah, I was, I always wore makeup. I always wore mascara, but I never wore eyeshadow because I had horrible hooded eyes. You can never see my lids. And I just would look stupid in it. But I always wore a little bit of foundation, a little bit of lipstick and mascara. And that was really about the extent of my makeup. And it's also the extent of my skincare was washing. Sometimes I would use a, you know, moisturizers and stuff like that, but I really didn't do much of anything with my skincare my whole life, including sunblock, which is the number one anti aging or slowing down the aging process tool you all should be using is sunblock. So anyways, I'm going to superimpose that video either here or here, some of it so you can see it along the side. Of course, my hair was shorter. I was talking real estate. I wasn't talking beauty or anything of that nature. I was just talking all about real estate. I think my weight might have been a little bit about the same. I'd go up and down and wait in the last few four years. My weight was really good for a while. But then this last year, my weight just spiraled again. You know, it started to gain weight. I'm trying to really curb that. I'm trying to get back, you know, on track slow process for me. But my weight had everything had fallen by the wayside with, you know, when you have a family member that's sick, even if you don't think you're stressed, you're stressed. So anyways, I'm hoping to be back on track. I will never do keto again. I will always do low carb of some sorts, but I can't do pure keto. I think pure keto contributed for me personally. A great part of my hair loss journey was, I can't blame it 100% on keto, but I think keto's probably sped up that process, which is not a good thing for me. So what have I been doing? The only thing I've really changed, I mean, you guys all know I use my Retin-A. I use my Retin-A almost most every night. Probably, you know, on average, at a minimum of five times a week, sometimes six times a week. But I use my Retin-A, I use 1%. I currently have the 1% cream, Tritinoin, 1% cream that I have. I have used 1% gel. I've used many different variations of this. I buy my Retin-A overseas at ReliableRx. I will link all the information below. I am an affiliate of that. I became an affiliate because I really believe that every woman should have the opportunity to be able to afford something like Retin-A, because it is the gold standard. It is the tried and true. You're going to do all these other things to enhance this, but this is the big guns. So anyways, I will link that below. It makes it affordable. I've never had a problem using them entirely up to you whether you choose to use my link or not. But I use my Trentinoin that I get from them and I also use the Hydro Canone. This is the Trilumia. I can never say it right, that I also get from them. And this is for the dark spots. So obviously, I'm not going to use this and this at the same time. One is going to be used then offset because this has a good amount of Trentinoin in it as well. If I'm using this one night and next night, I might work on my dark spots, which I have right about here. I might really work on that, but I might use this once or twice. And I'm not going to, if I use this on the dark spot, I might use this on the rest of the places in my face. I'm concentrating on my upper lip area. My upper lip area or my smokers wrinkles or whatever you want to call it is what I'm concentrating on. So I'm doing my Trentinoin and at night, I still use my Olay Pro Retinol Eyes. I have one more of these left and then I will try to buy. This is the UK version. This is just what I use for my eye. I mean, there are many other retinol products that you can use around your eyes, but I do use this. I tap it on and I go right up to my open alone above, right below my eyebrow and all around my eyes on both sides. And I use this at night when I do my Trentinoin. I put this on as part of my whole routine. So I definitely, these things have stayed with me and they're my tried and true. What I have changed lately is that I have incorporated using the New Face device and I've already talked about the New Face device. I'm going on a month of using it now and I'll tell you, even though, I mean, you can have the New Face, you have to get a Conductor Gel for it. They do have one. It is pricey and there are many people that have or have mentioned off-brand products that are different. I think you have to do your research because what you put on your face might not be the same thing that you should be putting on your body, you know? So when you're going to buy a replacement Conductor Gel, and I'm still searching for one that I like, this one is the one that I got off of Amazon. This is Pure Aloe Vera Gel. It doesn't have a whole lot of additives or anything of that nature. I like it, but it's very waterly and I wish that it was a thicker consistency. This dries pretty quick, but the New Face device, even though it's too soon, and this was, I should full disclosure, this was sent to me in PR, it's too soon for me really to swear up and down, but this has been a game changer. If I've only been using it a month, I use it currently a good six times a week every single morning. I do my morning routine, you know, do my whole face. I do that. When I get up in the morning, I wash my face. I've had my Retin-A usually the night before, so I'm not gonna, you know, do anything. I'll look at my skin, does it need to be exfoliated? How does it look when I get up? If I have to do an exfoliation, I'll do a number of different exfoliation products that I use, but after my skin is clean, I go into my red light therapy. I have the Trophy Skin, the, and I'll link it below, it's the red light where you can lie down. I've shown it many times and you have this cover that comes over you and I put it on my right on top of my face. I lie there for five minutes. My eye shot, I have eye safety goggles on, my eye shot. Lately, I've also been doing it for my hair. I think I was watching Penn Smith Skincare and she was talking about using that for her hair or for hair loss, for hair thinning. So I've been starting to incorporate that yesterday and today, so it's too soon to really know if that's going to help, but I've been, I've been incorporating that. So I get up in the morning red light therapy after I wash. That's my routine. Face and this morning and yesterday morning hair as well. When I'm done that, I will normally, depending on the time it is, but I'll normally go into, I'll put on my serums. So I normally will put my vitamin C serum. I've been using a lot of different vitamin C's, but I keep going back. The one that I repeatedly go back to is going to be my timeless. I just really like this. I also like open formula. These are the two vitamin C's that I've used that I like. Open formula, very good vitamin C, timeless, very good vitamin C. I keep it in the refrigerator. I put it all over my face. I let that dry into my skin and then I go into the bathroom and I'm going to use this device. I'm going to do the new face. Put the conductor gel or my aloe vera right over that and I know that I have my vitamin C on underneath it, but that's okay. I think this, the micro current of this while it's stimulating my face muscles and hopefully lifting my gel that it's also helping to sink some of my product in deeper. So that's the major change was the new face. I still use my trophy skin. Everyone always asks me about this because I don't talk about this one a lot. I still use my trophy skin. I put the little filter in here. I keep it in this container and I will, this is my deep exfoliation. I only do this maybe once a month and I go into my really troubled areas and I exfoliate where I have those troubled areas. I love this. Almost every morning I use my spatula that I also got from trophy skin. My microdermabrasin system I bought from trophy skin. My spatula I bought from trophy skin. My red light therapy was sent to me in PR, so I just full disclosure on that, but I use the microdermabrasin maybe once a month, maybe a little less. I have been wanting to incorporate on a regular basis going back to derma rolling and I want to work on work on going back to derma rolling my scalp particularly and also certain troubled areas, my upper lip. The areas that I am going to really, that I have a lot of trouble with so I want to go back into incorporating that in there. I kind of fell off the bit on the off the wagon on the derma rolling so I'm going to go back and do that but that's pretty well the procedures or the routine that I have. My nighttime routine sometimes I'll do my red light therapy again at night, sometimes. I have not done the new face twice a day or anything else twice a day but my red light therapy I've done that at certain times if I just feel like I'll lie there at night and certainly if I miss the morning of it I'll do it at night but that's my basic routine. It's like nothing super complicated but I'm hoping by the video I showed and I'll link some of my earlier videos and you can see my weight has gone up and down you know full transparency, the fatty you are, the full of your face looks right. So when you lose weight you have to make a, and I cried and moaned about this, you want to lose weight you're going to have to sacrifice your bum to save your face or sacrifice your face to save your bum you know what I mean? If you're going to lose the weight and you're going to have a small bum, smaller body, be healthy, be fit your face is going to look different I think anyway so yeah I shouldn't have to pick my face over my butt. I'm going to try to find that middle line you know what I mean? I'd like to take off 20 pounds that's what I'd like that's that would be my goal right now and I have a wedding coming up in Atlanta in March so it was postponed from this year because of COVID so I'm going to make that my goal I'm going to lose that 20 pounds then I'll fit back into a lot of my goal. I'm a big girl I'm never going to be a tiny petite girl never ever ever and 20 pounds lighter I still look good when I get beyond that I look sunk and sick and not good I just want to be healthy so I think retina and the changes in my skin especially when you look at that earlier videos the biggest changes for me that I've noticed is my forehead. I noticed my forehead I mean you know I still have those lines and I have lines I still have them but I noticed that my forehead is a heck of a lot smoother my lines are not nearly as deep as they were and the same thing with my eyes I probably have more eye wrinkles today nine years later I probably have more eye wrinkles they don't look as bad as the ones I had back then you know I can see the lines I can I've lived you know I can see the lines and um and when I smile and I look at the the lines I treat those areas you know I'm treating those areas so there's a couple of different things that I'm doing you know the other thing that I probably shouldn't mention because it goes hand in hand with my nighttime routine and my daytime routine for the longest time now I've been using CBD oil on my face and I use the Makoo CBD oil I love this CBD oil I have a link below I have a coupon code but with Makoo if you sign up for their newsletter they frequently have specials and some of the specials are like 50% off anything so that is a fabulous fabulous price when Jay and I were up north camping was last year I had bought a bottle of Lazarus Naturals CBD tincture and I bought that and it's not as and I've talked about this comparing to the Makoo the Makoo is a a pretty formula you know it it smells it does have the woodsy smell but it's not as strong where this is a little bit more stronger smelling and not quite as clear I don't know if I'm making sense I'm all out of my Makoo I have to order more but since I have this open I like to I don't want to have too much product I don't want things to go out of date I've learned the lesson the hardware is stocked up back up back up back up and then all of a sudden after the second backup I'm using something different and I'm like oh my god what am I going to do yeah so CBD oil whichever one you want as long as it's you're happy with the quality of the CBD and the amount of CBD in it and you feel comfortable with the lab reports use whatever you want I think that's I think that's a huge huge thing is to have a good CBD and I will use that as a moisturizer I've been using on my eyes and this is even naturals this is a really nice eye gel I keep this in the refrigerator along with my my vitamin C I keep that in the refrigerator and I will just tap that around my eyes in the morning and it's a cool soothing eye gel I really like it but I've got a number of different eye creams a number of different eye products some of them that I really like some of them that you know that are okay I've stuffed that for you know your dark circles I really like this a lot this is you know 100 pure this is their caffeine eye cream I get my Olay is my favorite so I have a lot of different eye creams and products and all that that I try but I have my core basics that I love in my routine not much has changed probably other than the new face and maybe different variations of products so anyways I'm at the time of this filming I am a 66 year old grandmother yeah I'm okay with being 66 obviously I have no choice um life has its ups and downs as you all know but I am all for slowing down the aging process as much as possible so that's what I'm doing and I will call it anti-aging for sure so anyways that's my journey that's my four-year update thank you all so much for watching I appreciate every single one of you please thumbs up the video please leave me a comment and I'll talk to you in my next video