Porosity Nerd

For my first hobby project I wrote the hypothesis down, did the experiment, got a mess, and concluded I had done science badly. What I had actually done was a pilot, which is what everyone does first, and the correct response was to fix the measurement and run it again rather than to write it up as a failure. Nobody had told me that the first version of an experiment is for finding out what you are actually measuring.

I bought a light meter out of curiosity and it recalibrated my expectations permanently. A metre back from my east-facing window on a bright morning read a small fraction of what the same meter read outdoors in open shade, and the difference between one metre and directly on the sill was larger than I would ever have guessed by eye. Our eyes adapt logarithmically, so a room that looks bright to you can be close to survival lighting for a ficus. Before repotting, try moving it as close to the glass as it will physically go for a season.

The cheap one you apply properly, every time, and it isn't close. Performance is dominated by how much you put on. The tested figure assumes a genuinely thick layer, and applying half of it does not give you half the protection, it gives you considerably less than half. A rationed premium bottle is the most common way people end up under-protected while feeling careful.

The only thing worth holding out for is a texture you'll tolerate daily, because a sunscreen you skip is worth zero at any price. If the supermarket one feels acceptable, buy it in bulk and stop thinking about it.

I am absolutely pivoting on it. That's exactly, precisely what I do all day.

Booking a physio. Also taping some foam over that desk edge tonight regardless.

The heuristic that has held up for me: purging is faster in and faster out, in your usual places, and it's the same kind of spot you normally get, just more at once. New locations plus a new shape, small uniform closed bumps rather than your usual chin spots, reads more like irritation or a comedogenic reaction. Three weeks is at the outer edge of plausible purging and still getting new ones is the part I'd weigh most.

What I'd do: stop for two weeks, change nothing else, and see. If it clears, reintroduce every third day. If it doesn't clear, it was never the azelaic acid and you've learned something more useful.

If it becomes painful or spreads, that's a dermatologist conversation rather than a forum one.

Ten seconds that fully resolves, on skin you've said is compromised, usually means the barrier isn't intact yet rather than the product being wrong. Things that would normally sit on the surface are reaching places they shouldn't.

The test is whether it's shrinking week over week. Mine went from about fifteen seconds to nothing over three weeks on a bland routine. Same or worse at week four, or redness and itch afterwards, is a different thing and I'd stop.

Meanwhile: no acids, no retinoids, no scrubs, lukewarm water, and give it real time. Over-exfoliated skin takes far longer to come back than it took to break.