My Personal Acne Routine

My Acne Journey -

Last April, I walked out of the doctor’s office in tears. I had just been told that my devastating skin condition was nothing more than a “minor irritation” that could only be cured through Acutane or other harsh chemical treatments. Last April, I once again had my hopes of clearer and healthier skin crushed with another dead end. Last April, I decided that enough was enough. I would no longer sit there and let someone else tell me what my skin was going to be and how I should treat it. Last April, I decided to take matters into my owns hands. And now, a year later, I am so incredibly happy that I did.

After that devastating appointment, and a good cry in the car, my sister and I decided that we would research the skin and figure out a way to help my condition in a healthier and gentler way. We figured at this point, there was nothing to lose. So that night I said a prayer asking for guidance and inspiration on a way to treat my skin and the next morning we began our adventure into the land of skin and essential oils. And I am so grateful that we did. Now a year later, I have the best skin I have had since I was in my early years of middle school. I no longer feel the incessant need to cover my skin with copious amounts of makeup or avoid my own reflection because I hated what I saw. Now I am comfortable and in love with my skin! And I have grown to love and appreciate me as I am! Flaws and all. And now, I would like to share my experience with you.

I know how hard it can be to deal with skin like this. To hate looking in a mirror. To look at others with jealousy and think, if only I could have the skin they did. I know what it’s like to hide beneath makeup scared of what others would think if they saw you. So I hope by sharing this with you, you can gain more confidence in yourself. That you can grow to love yourself again. So here it goes. I hope that what worked for me will work for you! But please remember, that no matter what, you are beautiful and loved for exactly who you are! Please, don’t hate yourself like I did. Understand we all have our struggles and they don’t make us any less beautiful! Getting clearer skin won’t help your self-love. That can only come from you.

My Road to Clearer & Healthier Skin

When I first started researching the skin, there was SO much information it was hard to figure out where to start! My four step plan was as follows: 1. Change Diet, 2. Get rid of all unneeded/nasty facial products, 3. Find a facial cleanser and moisturizer that worked with my skin type, and 4. Get Essential Oils. The Essential Oils were a BIGGIE in helping me get clearer skin! If I were to go back and only do one thing, the essential oils would be it.

Clean Eating & Water

So first thing I did was I changed my diet to include less sugars and started drinking a lot more water and cleaner foods! You can check out the science behind drinking more water here, but suffice it to say that water is a super detoxer. It helps to flush out your system of nasty toxins that could be making your acne worse. It also helps to nourish the cells and encourage growth which helps to heal and get rid of acne. It’s amazing how much better your skin is when it is getting all the proper nourishment it needs. When it is getting nourished, it is actually getting the ingredients it needs to promote healing and health!

Cleansers, Moisturizers, & Toners

Second, I went through all my facial products and pretty much got rid of all of them! When I started going through the ingredient, I was shocked to see how many of my products had unnecessary additives and harsh chemicals in it! Trust me, the more additives and such in it, the more irritating and harsh it is on your face. For me, I had to be even more careful because most products are based on coconut oils. Now for most people coconut oil is amazing! Seriously, if you can you should be incorporating this baby into your skin routine (see the coconut cleansing method here). It has a lot of amazing medicinal properties and has made a huge difference in a lot of my friend’s skin! However, I am terribly allergic and one trip down the road was enough for me! That is actually what triggered my first round with this cystic acne. It was terrible! So please, make sure you are looking in your products for any food allergies etc. You don’t want to do what I did and make it worse by adding an allergic reaction into the mix! I personally went to my local Sprouts and started reading the back of the bottles and googling all the ingredients I didn’t know. There were so many products that had coconut oil or a derivative of coconut oil that it took me a long time to find a cleanser that worked. I found that there were a couple of cleansers that were based in citrus fruits and other oils (grape seed, jojoba, almond, etc.) that I could use that would still break down all of the dirt and makeup that inevitably ends up in my pores. I eventually found a facial wash called “NOW” and another one that was “Simply Organic” that worked pretty well. I personally avoided “acne washes” because I wanted to stay away from products that had drying reagents or other acids in them. Since I was adding oils to my routine, I didn’t need the acids and oil diminishing products.

After going through the struggle of finding a cleanser that I could use, I made some cleansers of my own so I could control exactly what was going on my skin. One that I really liked were our DIY Make Up Remover Wipes. And I made sure to wash my face EVERY morning and EVERY night! Without fail! This is so incredibly important! You should try to make sure you are removing the dirt and oil/sebum from your face to prevent further breakout as well as irritation of the acne that is already there! And don’t “scrub” your face! You should wash thoroughly but gently otherwise you can make the acne worse because of the added irritation. And if you have open acne, DO NOT USE an exfoliator! Seriously, those tiny little apricot chunks or whatever exfoliator they use will get into the open acne, collect the bacteria, and then spread it to other areas on your face which can cause new breakouts. So avoid those until they have closed up! And it might take a couple of tries before you find a cleanser that you love and that works with your skin. Give it a month before you switch but if you don’t notice any change in your skin (keep in mind your skin won’t clear up magically in a month) then you can try switching to a new cleanser. Feel free to comment below if you would like further recommendations on cleansers. I’d love to share some more that my sister and I have found over the years that have worked for us! Kaydie has found a lot of success with coconut milk cleansers as well as the coconut cleansing method.

After finding a good cleanser, getting a good moisturizer was the next step! Please, do not skip out on a moisturizer! I know it can be a little counter intuitive to add oil to your skin when over production of oil could be the cause of your acne but this is so important! When your body is producing that much oil, it is because it thinks it needs to. And when you take away moisture and/or add in “acne washes” that strip your face of its natural oils, the body thinks it needs to produce even more. And so goes the vicious cycle. But when you are supplying your face with moisturizer, it eventually adjusts and produces less oil! So do not skip out on this! Again, some people I know found great success in coconut oils or other products based on coconut oils but for me I had to think a little outside of the box. I knew I wanted a good moisturizer but I wanted to make sure that what I was putting on my face was good for it and promoted healthy skin. So after a ton of research, I found that aloe vera lotion and Jojoba or Cocoa oil worked great! You can find these at pretty much all of your local super markets, but again be careful! Make sure to check that ingredient list! You are looking for products that are pretty much 100% quality. When I got my cocoa oil, I made sure the back of the list only included the good stuff. The one I got was from Sprouts and it had rosemary oil incorporated into it but other than that it was 100% cocoa oil so I knew it wouldn’t aggravate my skin or have other components that could potentially make my skin worse. This, just like the cleanser, can take time to find the right one. Personally, I don’t like really runny moisturizers but I do love having an oil that I can put on my face and allow it to soak in while I sleep. So try a couple and see which one you like the best. Again, if you have any questions or want more recommendations, comment below or contact us!

Essential Oils

Now for the biggie. The one that if I were to do it all over again and only do one thing from my list, it would be adding essential oils into my routine. This was my game changer. After one night of this, I noticed a change right away! Not necessarily in the way my skin looked but in the way my skin felt. The first night I started the oils, I used Melaleuca (aka – Tea Tree Oil), Lavender, and Sandalwood. Up until this point, my skin was so bad that my entire face was one giant bruise. There was so much inflammation and open acne, my skin literally hurt. It was bad enough that I would ice it at night to help alleviate some of the pain and inflammation. After using those three oils, I woke up the next morning and the bruised feeling was gone. I can’t tell you what a relief that was. It was then that I knew that I had found what I needed – that God had guided me to the right solution. From there I used oils every single night and morning after I washed my face. I would adjust it as my needs changed but I tried to never miss it. In the beginning, to help with the allergic reaction and bacterial infection, I used Melaleuca. This baby is pretty much anti-everything so it helped to fight my current infection while helping to ward off future ones as well. That isn’t to say that more breakouts didn’t happen, but it did help. Lavender was another one I used pretty much all year. Lavender is so soothing and is a great anti-inflammatory oil so it helped reduced the pain from the acne as well as the inflammation and redness. Sandalwood is very similar. I could go on forever about all of the different oils I used but it would take another five pages I’m sure. However, Google was my best friend during this journey. I would be on there for hours researching all the different oils and how they could help me with my symptoms. That is one thing I loved about this. The oils were so customizable and if I couldn’t use one due to an allergy or I didn’t have it, there were others listed that could help with the same symptoms. My main source for oils was Doterra since they gaurentee there oils are 100% pure and they had tons of information for me as well. I also liked that they only collect there oils from places where it is optimally grown and that they test every oil for pureness before it is shipped out. So I never had to worry about there being additives or other things in it like I did for the Now oils etc. Currently, I am using Doterra’s HD Clear Blend to help me reduce the scarring since it has lemon oils as well as a ton of others that help increase blood flow and lighten the skin. Depending on your symptoms and what stage your acne is (open/closed, bacterial/hormonal, etc) different oils will help. So make sure to do your research! And I am more than happy to help you find the oils that you need! Just comment below or send us a message! At this point, I know so much about all of the different oils! And I’d love to share that knowledge with you!

Along with the oils, I also incorporated homemade mask into my routine every Friday. Sometimes, if I found I had the time, I would do a mask a few times a week. As long as you find that your skin isn’t getting irritated, you can do masks more frequently. I really liked the Bentonite Clay Mask (great for pulling out toxins from the skin), the Honey Cinnamon Nutmeg Mask (great for lightening scars as well as its anti-bacterial properties), the Super Mud Mask (this is the do all mask! Great for detoxing, soothing, and moisturizing the skin), and the Avocado/Banana Mask (great for moisture and its soothing effect). You can find a lot of recipes and DIY tutorials on Pinterest! That is where Kaydie and I found a lot of these! Mask are a great way to give the skin a little extra umph! And just like the essential oils, you can cater the masks to your needs. During the beginning, I did a lot of the anti-bacterial masks to help fight off the initial infection. I can’t tell you how many times I watched TV while wearing the honey mask and a bandana to catch the “drips”! Once I noticed the acne starting to get a little better, I incorporated detoxifying masks to help pull the toxins from my skin and fight off further breakouts. That was when I also started to experiment in the kitchen a bit more and started making my own masks! We pretty much had a joke going that if anything ended up in the fridge in a mason jar, it was a eat at your own risk type of deal. That was actually how I found the avocado mask!

Last Words of Advice

            I do want to include some pieces of advice that I discovered along the way. The first one is so incredibly crucial! If you can, and I know it’s hard, but please do not pick at your acne! This is so terrible for spreading the acne as well as causing some nasty scars known as “ice picks”. These scars are very hard to get rid of and come directly from picking at your face! Red and purple scaring will fade and go away but the ice pick scars take a really long time and have a good chance of never going away! So prevention is key! Do whatever you have to do to keep yourself from picking at your acne. My sister actually helped me with this because I was a subconscious picker. If I touched my face and felt the acne, no matter what I would do I would inevitably find myself picking or scratching at my face. Whenever Kaydie would see me doing this she would bring it to my attention and tell me to stop. Sometimes she would lightly hit my arm to kind of “jolt” me out of my subconscious picking! And it really did work! And it made a huge difference because now I am really only dealing with the purple/red marks instead of a whole bunch of ice pick scars.

         

             The last piece of advice I can give you is to find your support group. Along the way, you are going to have setbacks and bad days. Those will be the hardest. Those were the days that I came home and cried because I was so frustrated that I had another breakout or I wasn’t seeing enough progress. It was those days that having my mom or Kaydie’s support made such a difference! I can’t tell you how many times Kaydie stood with me in the bathroom mirror telling me how much of an improvement she saw and that she could tell my skin was getting better. Or helping me to look at my weekly progress pictures and point out where I had clear spots that weren’t there before. And they were always quick to remind me that no matter what, I was still beautiful exactly as I was – acne and all. And with their continued support and love I never gave up on my skin! It is so easy to get down on yourself but this type of treatment takes time. I am so sorry to say this, but you will not have clear skin in three days let alone a couple of months. It takes time and dedication and if you are doing this by yourself, that can be extremely hard. So, even though it might be tough, ask a friend or family member for help. Ask them to be a part of your support group. Someone you can call on those bad days who can help you not give up! I would never have gotten to the point I did without all of my friends and family backing me up. It is mainly because of them that a year later, I am almost completely healed. They kept me going.

           

            And that’s my story. Pretty simple. Definitely doable. And I hope that this has inspired you to start your own journey! I hope that this is the solution you are looking for. And I hope you find success as I have. And thank you for being so kind to me. Having your support in this has made a huge difference! And I hope that I can return the favor to you. Please feel free to contact me with your questions and concerns. I will do my best to find the answers for you. Good luck my friends!

“Encourage yourself, Believe in yourself, Love yourself”