My First Attempt With At-Home Dermarolling

I've been procrastinating on whether or not to buy a Dermaroller and try this at home  myself for a while now.

Reviews of at-home dermarolling all seemed to be very positive, and most people stated that it doesn't hurt as much as you think it would (rolling needles into your face) which I think was the main thing holding me back!

 

I'd already decided that I'd start with the smallest needle size I could get (in this case 0.3mm) but took a while deciding where to buy from.

 

Whilst previously buying from Clamanti.co.uk I'd been really impressed with the Bielenda Professional range and noticed that they had everything you'd need for Derma-rolling at home.
I bought the Bielenda Professional Dermaroller (0.3mm) for £10.49 and a box of Bielenda Professional Active Concentrate with Plant Stem Cells (10 x 3ml glass vials) for £17.99

I have to give huge props to Clamanti  - they are well-priced (althout VAT is added) and are very quick to post out to you. They also sent me some samples (of other items I was interested in, so that was a bonus).

This was the skincare routine I decided on. I chose a lot of soothing and hydrating products.

Cleanse: Thoroughly cleanse the face with a double-cleanse routine. Start with Eve Lom cleansing balm - also removes eye make up. Second cleanse with Avene sensitive skin gentle cleanser.
Tone: The Body Shop Chinese Ginseng and Rice toner (this is the most gentle toner I have).

Dermaroller

I did watch another video on You Tube earlier in the day (just to double make sure I knew what I was doing) and the woman in the video was quite vigorous in her rolling ( she was using much longer needles and her face actually bled!). I first rolled vertically, then horizontally and then in a criss-cross motion - I didn't time myself but it was probably no longer than five minutes.

I was pleased that it didn't physically hurt - although obviously there was a slight stinging sensation. Being my first time I wasn't sure how hard to roll, I'm not sure if I was a little bit vigorous too.

Afterwards, I was slightly red all over my face, no blood and not too much in pain.

Treat: I broke open one of the 3ml glass vials of the plant stem cells and applied it all over my face, as I would when applying toner. 3 mls is actually quite a lot so I kept applying 'skins' until all the serum was used up.
I let the serum soak in and waited for about 10-15 minutes and then for good measure, applied some of The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid. This usually gentle and non-irritating serum did actually sting a tiny bit and then I noticed that my face felt a bit redder and a lot hotter!

Moisturise: I waited another few minutes and at this point, with a hot face, I wish I'd bought one of the Bielenda Algae soothing and cooling modelling packs as recommended on the Clamati website. I thought about using a sheet mask but flapped about which would one to use, so in the end, skipped that idea and went in with the Jane Scrivner Skin Elixir. Again, this caused slight irritation and as this facial oil is usually so comforting I started wondering and slightly panicking if I'd done it all wrong!
It's not great when the self-doubt takes hold but the only way to go is forward so I continued with my routine.
Waited a while longer and then applied a small amount of the Avene Sensitve skin moisturising cream on top. Still had a red, hot and stinging face!

When I lay in bed that night, my face felt hot and tight (like when you have sunburn on your back) and was ever so slightly throbbing!

The next morning
I was relieved that the sunburn-feeling skin had significantly lessened and I just felt mildly uncomfortable. I had read pretty much everywhere that you can expect to wake up with hydrated, plumped skin and felt a pang of disappointment and a little more doubt that my skin looked quite puffy and felt slightly greasy. To be fair, I noticed that I had a couple of (rare for me) blemishes coming up before I derma-rolled and these had progressed and weren't helping the state of my skin.
I applied my make up as usual, but wasn't happy with the way my foundation was sitting - I had a couple of dry patches plus the blemishes, so all in all was not feeling great skin-wise.

The next day
No irritation at all and my skin was feeling better but still not looking too great. With some alarm I noticed that I had a couple of areas of what looked like track marks! Definitely the width of the tracks of the dermaroller needles - one under my eye and one on my chin. The self-doubt really crept back after that.

The next day (Today)
Apart from the one ginormous blemish, my skin felt and looked a lot better than it had done in the past couple of days. Not the best it's looked, but certainly not the worst. This is the first day it's at least felt normal.

Thoughts after my first attempt at Derma-rolling:
I've been caught out so many times before with having high expectations but I'm really not sure how I feel about the experience. Will it get better? Am I to expect bad skin for a couple of days after (which wouldn't seem worth it after the low results I experienced)?Did I do it wrong? Maybe there was a below-surface improvement that I can't see? It's almost like the stages of grief!! Denial - Anger- Bargaining - Depression - Acceptance!!

I'm planning to use this once a week and see how it goes before progressing to longer needles. I'll report back in a few weeks with either more helpful and better results or to say that I've given it up already!