Skincare 101.

Skin. A simple word. A single syllable. Yet it is one of the most complicated things in my life.(Its literally the Bain of my life). I've struggled with my skin from pre-teens and it seems to be getting worse as I get older. Now at the ripe old age of 18 I thought it was about time to do something about it. So here goes....

The Acne beginning.

It started off with all the stresses of becoming a teenager and some added stresses that were unnaturally placed in my life, (those matters I will discuss another time, don't want to put a downer on things!) this meant that my skin cycle was way out of sync causing me to breakout like crazy with an extreme issue with oiliness. Therefore I would use anything and everything from Boots and Superdrug to try and counteract the problems without really doing any investigating on what was really happening with my skin.

Step 1: Talk to my doctor. Although this seems never to be an easy task I was lucky that my doctor is my mums best friend and like a second mum, I found it so easy to talk to her about what was happening and what I could do about it. You do get told all the expected things like eat healthily, exercise and her favourite cure 'Drink more water' (in all honesty I hardly drink water, I just don't see the point...bad I know). I was prescribed on every acne tablet under the sun, some with pretty nasty side effects that were not pleasant to say the least! I had ointments, creams, lotions and potions you name it I probably used it....nothing was really working.(I also wasn't very good at remembering to take the tablets or use the prescribed cream or potion..) I wasn't confident in the products that I was using, I felt like they were stripping the life out of my face, my skin was uncomfortable, itchy, sore sometimes even to the extent of some creams actually burning my skin. I thought to myself surely this isn't how skincare is supposed to be... its not how they write it in the magazines, it's supposed to be a time of luxury and relaxation and your supposed to enjoy the experience. I could insert some photos of me with naked skin but the photos are just truly awful....but if there is one or even two if you're lucky inserted count yourself warned!

You may be thinking that my skin doesn't look that bad, these aren't the best quality photos ever and a lot of the spots are only visible to the naked eye as they are more bumps under the skin rather than physical spots, but I also have a lot of scaring.

Step 2: Start doing research of a different kind. This meant taking matters into my own hands, I looked at endless websites and watched 100's of skincare related videos on YouTube and taking advice from YouTuber's with similar skin concerns and issues I was able to start to build my framework for the perfect skincare routine. This meant finding products that would actually work for my skin and these necessarily may not be the ones that you would associate with using if you have oily/acne prone skin. Although I tried most of the products for oily/acne prone skin that was available on the highstreet I felt that these again we just completely stripping my skin of the healthy oils therefore causing my skin to produce more oil. (It was just one big oily mess....*uggghh*). So I turned to the slightly higher range products and this is where I found what the magazines had promised the luxury and relaxation....although this came at a cost. I didn't have a paid job at the time so was relying on pocket money and if I was desperate for the product relying on my parents to buy me it.

Step 3: Finding the routine. I tried combinations of products, different products for night and day and I really just overcomplicated everything. I was using far too many products that it was if my skin was going to self combust, it couldn't take it anymore and the way that my skin responded to this was yes you guessed it breakout more and create more oil! I was so close to giving up when I watched one video by Zoe Sugg and I could relate to her that I had really overcomplicated everything and I just needed to take a step back and strip it all down to the bare basics.

Step 4: Back to Basics. Finally I found the three products that complimented my skin down to the tee.

Products: Emma Hardie Amazing face moringa Cleansing balm, Estee Lauder Clear Difference serum and Nuxe Reve de Miel.

These three products are my success to making my skin healthier, nourished and somewhat beginning to be spot free. You may be thinking where is my moisturizer?!? I only use moisturizer about once a week or when I feel that my skin truly needs it and for that I use a very basic moisturizer from simple skincare or from Vichy.


The balm.

Emma Hardie Amazing face moringa Cleansing balm.

This balm is one of the game changers. I have been using a cheaper alternative from Boots in the past and it did the job but not without some bad points. This Emma Hardie cleansing balm was my dream product but I didn't have the financial backing so to say. Until the month (August 2014...the 29th to be precise) I received my paycheck and this enabled me to purchase 'The Balm' (also using the points and money off on my Debenhams beauty card, which made the transaction a whole lot less painful). I find that using a balm allows my skin to cope with the use of oil to actually cleanse my skin and therefore making sure I wasn't stripping my skin. In the long term that I have been using cleansing balms I have noticed that my skin has become less oily while still looking and feeling nourished and plump.


The Serum.

Estee Lauder Clear Difference Serum.

This serum is the second of the game changers. After using harsher ways of trying to rid my spots for example tea tree and the classic Oxy10 that really just burnt your spots off your face!! I first saw this in guess what Vogue! I saw it was a new release for Estee Lauder as they are a brand that focuses on creating the best makeup to cover imperfections such as acne and its scaring. There are two other products in the range which included a targeted blemish treatment and a bb cream. But the serum is what I was most interested by. I felt that this would double up as a moisturizer as well as a serum and I felt eager to try it as it wasn't in the normal form of an oil, (I already use an oil to cleanse my face I didn't want to go overboard and therefore would be sceptical if this was in oil form) the serum glides over my skin and sinks in super quick again leaving my face feeling nourished and plump. (can you tell these are two of my favourite words?)


The Lip Balm.

Nuxe Reve de Miel.

The final game changer. My lips have always been dry. I believe it all started when it gets to that time in your life when you find out that you are going to need braces. Unfortunately this wasn't short lived for me as I went through 6 years of having braces (YES 6 YEARS!!) this meant that my lips were often very very dry and chapped as well as very sore. Ordinary lip balms weren't really doing anything especially when I find out something about the lip balm I was using (carmex to be exact) actually has a property which your lips actually become addicted to so when you no longer use the balm your lips would have withdrawal symptoms and actually become worse. I had heard about Nuxe but you could only find it in the French pharmacies that I dream to going one day. This was all until I stumbled across a display of Nuxe in my local Marks & Spencer, (I have to admit I did the little scream of excitement in my head and then a quick look round to make sure that I hadn't actually squealed out loud!) yes I got excited about a lip balm what has my life come to?!? But it is truly the best with some really good ingredients for nourishing such as Shea Butter and honey and the replenishing extracts of Grapefruit *insert scientific information about grapefruit that I totally just googled :) * Grapefruit is rich in vitamin C, which is necessary for collagen production in the skin. Of the citrus fruits, grapefruit has the highest concentration of vitamin C. Grapefruit also has the highest concentration of lycopene, a phytochemical that is also found in tomatoes.  Grapefruit also has a phytochemical known as naringin. Naringin reduces toxins in the liver, which results in healthier skin. (I feel so clever with that little insert Im not going to lie).

This has been my rather long winded explanation of my skincare 101.
Also known as 'The Game Changers'

Bye for now x