Skin journey: How I cured my skin. I went French!

Dear readers,

Ever since I moved to the UK I realize that my makeup consumption has increased quite drastically. Trust me I did wear makeup, but just as simple as setting powder and some BB cream if I am in the mood. Heavy make-up special occasions only. But this past year I have been using makeup pretty much everyday. BB cream, sometimes foundation, concealer, not to forget I also use a primer underneath, you name it. My skin type is basically sensitive and acne-prone. So if any product does not work on my skin, just wait a few days and zits will start to come. I knew that. I was just stubborn. You see like many of you, I see makeup as fun. Who doesn't like looking 'better' right? But from the accumulation of makeup I have worn over the past few months, I have successfully grown and harvested myself an amount of zits and oh the bonus, acne scars! It sounds disgusting, I know. Apologies.

For all of you having had acne, yes, yes. It is frustrating! It is painful and confusing. I thought my days with zits should be over. Well now you know, that you don't have to be a teenager going through puberty to get acne The more I wear makeup, the more I grow acne, and the more I feel that I need to cover them up. And by covering them up I even aggravate them, and they got even worse and it goes on and on. Having acne is just very exhausting (Both physically and mentally). My acne was light to moderate, but it bothered me so much, you'll be able to see the marks and the zits if I didn't use concealer to cover them.

So today I'd like to share you my skin journey how I got my zits and the things I did to cure them. So from months and months of trying to figure it out, I got my acne by wearing too much makeup. At first I thought it was the skincare that I was using. Because even though I wore make up I made sure that I double cleanse my face, always! But even though I double cleanse, I still get acne. Maybe it's also some sort of internal denial that it is actually the makeup that is causing me to break out. At the time the products I was using were Nivea eye makeup remover, Pond's cold cream, Cetaphil gentle cleanser, Bioderma Sensibio Micellar Water, La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL spf 50+ fluid, Nip+Fab glycolic acid scrub, Nip+Fab glycolic acid pads, Nip+Fab glycolic acid serum, Vichy Normaderm, Vichy Aqua serum, Vichy eye cream, clean and clear salycylic acid.

At the time I used Sudocrem to treat zits. It works fabulously, it dries the zit in one-three days. 

However I still get so much acne so another thing I did was I tried Acne.org. Trust me I did a whole lot research before doing this. During the treatment, I used Cetaphil gentle cleanser, Cetaphil lotion and of course The Acne.org Benzoyl Peroxide 2.5% treatment . I tried to follow the regimen until the fourth week, (and tried again). I know by this time it is encouraged to keep going but it was just such a painful process and I just couldn't go on. By using the Acne.org I could see my skin purging and from the purging process it left marks (ugh!). But the more I use it it seem that the acne is under control (which is good). However as the BP dosage increased it stung my skin so bad. And the process of waiting for the BP to dry and using two pumps of moisturizer day and night. My skin felt odd I'd say. It was oily from the moisturizer but yet so irritated and dry. So it's dry and oily at the same time. My eyelids were irritated, I literally had 3 eyelids, my lips were dry and they turned into a weird color! My skin was burning. I was so tan as if I was sunburned (trust me I wear sunscreen!), it was dry and itchy, irritated, it made the skin look old and I could see lines appear just because of how tight my skin was. And guess what I did to make self look and feel better? Of course I wear makeup! Long story short, I felt a little scared seeing how my skin progresses, it looked old and I could see fine lines from the dry skin! Nu-uh! So I quit the regimen. I absolutely cheer for everyone who keeps going with the regimen, because I know that it is painful, especially the first months into it. I've seen great results from people on the regimen though. Moreover lots of people say that you have to keep up with this regimen (forever?) to maintain your skin from getting acne back. Hmm... I don't think it's for me.

So from this irritated, crusty, burned, hyper pigmented, old looking skin I tried to go natural! I stopped makeup a little bit. Wearing them just sometimes. I treat my acne with natural mask everyday (thank you Youtube, thank you internet). I use egg white, honey, turmeric, lemon juice, plain yogurt, potatoes as mask. I was very playful with it, mixing around 2-3 of those ingredients together and leave it around 15-30 minutes on my face everyday! and It absolutely worked! I find potatoes super great to treat hyper pigmentation. My face calmed down and my 'real' skin was back. I use sudocrem every night to calm the skin and the redness. At that time I did not use any of the glycolic acid. And at that time that my skin was okay again, I started wearing makeup (again).

Then after I ran out of Cetaphil cleanser and moisturizer, I switched to Garnier's Skin active Anti-blemish acne-prone skin. I used their cleanser and moisturizer. I kind of like them, I think they treat the acne pretty well. But I still have some acne, but it's okay.

So after contemplating, I though what was wrong were (still) the products I was using. Maybe they weren't gentle enough for my sensitive acne-prone skin. So I turned to more natural stuff. I switched my facial cleanser to a handmade charcoal bar soap that I got at a local market, as they don't use harsh chemicals, and I also incorporate a vitamin E oil from Jason and organic jojoba oil from Fushi. I also started to eat cleaner and watched my diet, I don't consume dairy as much, so I switched to plant based milk such as soya, hazelnut, almond milk. I don't eat as much meat anymore, I eat more vegetables, I switch to olive oil for cooking and I try not to use too much oil in cooking. Also I started to drink juice, that I make myself, mostly it's green vegetables, green apples, carrots, beetroot, lemon, honey, some ginger. And I could see my skin and my overall health improving.

So everyday I wash my face with the charcoal soap, put jojoba oil and vitamin E oil as moisturizer, and use La Roche-Posay sunscreen. And I also use the oils at night. The use of makeup has also decreased tremendously! And I started to see change in my skin. I started getting less acne. However I felt that the soap has made my skin feel rather dry and sometimes acne would still appear, and the skin texture was just a little off. So I decided to stop using the soap too much. I also tried baking soda mask, but it dried the skin out. I don't know.

And by the way, I added an apple cider vinegar toner into my routine. I don't know whether it works (I think it does), but I have seen constant improvement on my skin. I use Bragg apple cider vinegar (raw, unfiltered, with the mother). Since I have sensitive skin I start slowly. I dilute the ACV with water. 1 part ACV : 2 part water (I use bottled water, not tap water). I use this toner after washing my face. Because soap is alkaline and ACV is acidic. Our skin PH is more to the acidic side, so we need to rebalance the PH level after washing with a cleanser. Interesting fact: imbalanced skin PH is one of the cause of acne!

Lately I have been looking for more ways of treating acne or at least calming them down and I came across an article about french skincare. I just fell in love with their philosophy on beauty. French women are just effortlessly beautiful, they don't even look like trying! And what I found was that they don't really wear much makeup on their skin, they just rock the red lipstick. Oh well now that my skin is getting kind of better, I feel quite okay by not wearing makeup. And so I did, and I went French! I quit/reduce almost 100% makeup that I put on my skin. 

  Here's my routine:

AM:

-Bioderma Sensibio Micellar Water 

-Garnier SkinActive Pure Active Anti-Blemish Sensitive Cleanser

-ACV toner

-Vichy Eye Cream

-Garnier SkinActive Pure Active Anti-Blemish Sensitive Moisturizer

-La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL spf 50+ Ultra-Light Sunscreen

Makeup: I don't wear make up on skin anymore on a daily basis (probably special occasions only). Just some color on the lips. I'm currently loving MAC Chili!

PM:

-Bioderma Sensibio Micellar Water 

-Pond's Cold cream

-Garnier SkinActive Pure Active Anti-Blemish Sensitive Cleanser

- ACV toner

-Nip+Fab glycolic acid night pads (1-2 times a week)

-Vichy Eye Cream

-Jason vitamin E oil

-Fushi jojoba oil

-Garnier SkinActive Pure Active Anti-Blemish Sensitive Moisturizer

-Sudocrem on active or red acne marks

My skin has gotten so so so much better. I am so happy. From this journey I realized that it's better to take care of your skin rather than trying to aggravate it (such as by using makeup your skin doesn't like). And for scrubs I don't really use them that often anymore because I think my skin find it to be a little harsh and anything my skin doesn't like turns into acne. 

I hope this post could help anyone fighting acne or overall trying to get a better skin.

I cannot guarantee that this will work with everyone, because we are all unique and so is our skin. What I can say is try to be nice to yourself (your skin!), listen to what it needs, if you think a product is causing you to break out or is irritating, well it really isn't worth the pain. Or if it's really bad I'd suggest you to go see a dermatologist. Good luck!

Cheers and lots of love,

Yasmin