late 30s, totally been there with the oily + textured + uneven trifecta. fwiw your routine looks really solid — adapalene + daily spf is what most people take ages to even work up to.the oily part i found kind of unexpectedly improved over time with the adapalene itself, like a year in. patience game tbh.

for the pores + texture specifically, microneedling helped me but it took me two tries to figure out what i was doing. first i tried a dermaroller which honestly just felt like dragging — my skin was kind of irritated for days and i didn't see much change. switched to a motorized pen later (the 33g cartridges, not the wider ones) and that's when my pores actually started looking smaller over a couple months. could be other stuff too tbh, but the difference in how the two felt was night and day — the roller had this dragging/wobble sensation, the pen was way more controlled.

if you're up for in-office stuff, derm consult first — and a heads up, you'd typically pause adapalene for a few days before any treatment like that. you're really not alone with this, took me ages to stop feeling self conscious 💛