How My Acne-Prone, Oily Skin Became Clear!

Well, hello there! 

I think I haven't posted anything in... a year? Hhhhhuh, I'm honestly so sorry about it! Life is happening, but now I have a whole afternoon to write down something. 
Instead of a review I prepared something more informative and hopefully helpful: how I cleared my skin and how I maintain it in the name of clearness! (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑


I would love to separate this post into 3 sections:

1. what causes MY acne
2. what FREE things I can use/do to prevent acne
3. what are the actual products I use regularly 

 1.) I think it is important to note that this is all about my skin. What may have worked for me may not work for you, what causes me acne may not irritate your skin at all! (⊙_ʖ⊙) This is a complete pig in a poke but I learnt my whole skin-care routine by reading others' remedies and tips, trying them out, experiencing on myself, so this is why I'm writing this down too - hoping it will help somebody! ȌᴥȌ 
This may be long but I highly recommend reading it if you have some spare time! Learning my "case" before jumping into the tips and tricks is logical and evident, right? :D
- I have break-outs before, during and shortly after my period. As a girl I have to suffer from this every month but with my routine I can clearly reduce the amount of these pimples. During this time of the month big, red, angry pimples can form on my jaw, sides of my face, and around my mouth. These are clearly hormonal acnes - due to the hormonal changes your body goes through during every period - and as suddenly they appear they vanish almost immediately after my period. I learnt to not be mad about these since this is something I can't control completely (well, with medication it can be possible, but I don't have the budget for it) and this is how my own body works. (My mother said after I will give birth all of these hormonal things will be gone forever lololol)
- The second most common thing that causes me pimples is stress. This IS something I can do something about! During a really stressful period of time pimples can form on my forhead, between my eyebrows, the side of my nose and on my cheeks. These are almost as bad as my period-acnes but only one appears at a time. That one heals really slowly and usually leaves a mark but we can fought that down! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧ Preventing is more useful tho... I love herbs, especially chamomile! Chamomile tea can calm me down almost in an instant and there are some herb-pills (mixes of chamomile, valerian, lemongrass) which I like to take when I feel anxiety is knocking me out. I don't like exercises, I was never the human of sports, but I take my dogs for a 30-min walk every night and that, my friend, is a huge help in destressing myself before going to bed! Also a long shower or a good book can do wonders! ( ⁼̴̤̆ ළ̉ ⁼̴̤̆)
- And the last "bad guy" here is the well-known, stereotyped unhealthy diet. It is as simple as it sounds; the more oily, greasy, salty and fatty food I eat the more pimples appear. These pimples are small, yellow, they can be poped out easily but there is a LOT of them normally around my nose and chin. They disappear fast but they can leave marks. Since I gained some weight due to my office job last year and since I want to get rid of acnes completely, I cut down the amount of these type of food. Sadly I enjoy these THE MOST hahaha... ლ(｡-﹏-｡ ლ) But I don't believe in a diet which doesn't feel good so from time to time I eat a bag of crisps or eat a whole bar of chocolate without feeling bad! :3 

With this I cleared the factors which can cause break-outs for me. Now let's jump on the second section!


 2.) In my opinion many of us doesn't even know the fact that there are several things already accessable in your home to make acnes heal faster and vanish! 
- One thing that brought drastic change in my skin-care routine is washing my face after I wake up and after I come out of the shower at night with COLD WATER. It took me 2-3 weeks to get used to this xD I swear to God, it was so uncomfortable at first but now I can't imagine myself washing my face with luke warm or hot water... Cold water closes pores, make blood circulation faster which works well with healing and you will feel so much more fresher, cleaner! In the mornings I only use cold water to wash my face.
- After washing yourself always PAT DRY your skin with your towel! Drying your skin aggressively can make frictions and micro-bruises on the surface of your skin and if they get infected by any minimal dirt, etc., they can easly be reborn as pimples.
- SWEAT like a horse! With sweat you can sweep away dirt and unnecessary oil from inside your pores, it softens the skin and your dead skincells melts aways like wax! My skin looks the clearest during summer because I sweat out half of the liquid inside my body hahaha but you can sweat during exercising, cooking (lol) and you can make a facial therapy by boiling water in a pot, bending your face over the steam (but not too close, it can burn you!!) and putting a towel over your head, covering and trapping the steam inside betweem your face and the pot! Leave your face in the steam for 10 minutes then rinse it with cold water. It will be a hella experience and craziness of sensations but it DOES help with improving problematic skin! 
- The next tip is self explanatory: DRINK water :D Think of water as a fuel to skincells to work fine (actually for the whole body to work fine). Water fills up the skin with moisture from THE INSIDE which gives you an instant natural glow and it get rids of flaky skin and big flakes of pimple scars easily and faster! If your skin feels moisturized the oil production will be reduced slowly and magnificently too. Like, all you need to do is drink about 2 l of water per day and it will do the job without any effort! ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿
- DON'T TOUCH YOUR FACE! I don't know if you noticed it but for me the part where I lay my face into my palm to rest my head is the main part on my jaw to get break-outs! It is kinda annoying to stop this habit but the less contact my skin has with other parts of my skin (lol this sounds so weird) the less pimples I have. Also, your hands can have invisible impurities which can mix with your sebum and that's a great cocktail for acne...
- Change your PILLOW CASE frequently! Pillow cases can collect all kind of nasty things from you, from your enviroment (from my dogs) and it is an easy access to your face. I change mine every weekend - it really takes 2 minutes but helps a lot and it just feels good to my soul too to sleep on a clean pillow :3


 3.) Finaly, the part where I can paste photos too! :D
CLEANSING:
For years I used (korean) foam cleansers and they worked so well! I recently learnt that this type of cleansing is not the healthiest since it gets rid of every drop of natural oils from the surface of your skin which can lead to demaging the skin surface and ending in more skin problems in the future. After this fact I still used them but on the meantime I started looking for a more skin-friendly method to clear it from the unwanted, troublemaker oil. The products I used and loved (even despite their unfortunate benefits):

Holika Holika Daily Garden Cleansing Foam (aloe, lemon)

Missha Super Seed Cleansing Foam (blueberry)

The Face Shop Herb Day 365 Cleansing Foam (peach)

After a few months of searching, and thanks to my growing interest in natural/vegan skin care and bio cleansers, I made the decision of trying out a natural soap! I was afraid since the soaps you can buy in stores, which are good for washing your hands and maybe your body as well, dry out my skin like crazy, more than the foam cleansers. My researches pointed out that for oily, acne-prone, combination skin charcoal soaps work the best! I hit up Google and found a cute hungarian brand which makes hand-made, all natural, vegan soaps (and other lovely stuffs) so I ordered one sortly after I ran out of foam cleansers! 

Pom Pom Fekete Gyémánt charcoal soap (vegan)

This black brick is THE MOST IMPORTANT TREASURE in this whole post! (⁎⚈᷀᷁▿⚈᷀᷁⁎) This is a game changer, a life saver, the gold of El Dorado! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖° I would never ever imagined this could work so well, so so so well! I highly encourage you to find a local, domestic shop! Support your people by buying hand-made stuff within your country and also saving your skin from harsh chemicals and artifical stuffs! Charcoal soaps are not newly born ideas, I'm sure it will be easy-peasy to get/order one almost immediately! If there is only one thing I want to pass to you from this post then this is it!! ☜(˚▽˚) I will never use any other cleanser ever again!

PEELING:

You should use a peeling product once or twice a week - for me I use it 2 times. I recommend using chemical peeling gels because those only get rid of the dead skincells and they don't hurt the rest of the skin surface, like those peeling creams which have micro-balls or other physical stuff to scratch off your skin physically. I found the best ones online, from Korean brands. After using this I feel my skin is ready for the good stuff (essence, creams, serums) to enter into my pores! It also feels super smooth and ...new? Yeah!

ekel Natural Clean Peeling Gel (grape)

JIGOTT Premium Facial Peeling Gel (charcoal)

ESSENCE:

I usually use essence 3-4 times a week, when I want to be extra fancy with skin-care - but mainly after peeling. I tried out Korean ones but the BEST which refreshed and slightly moisturized my skin without clogging it and getting it ready for creams, was this The Body Shop one! It feels like a limonade to my skin hahaha! (♥ω♥*) The only disadvantage to this is that this is the most expensive item in my routine so I have to be extra careful and reserve with it.

The Body Shop Drops of Youth Essence-Lotion (vegan)

MOISTURIZER:

Wether you want it or not, most of the oils from your skin gets removed with washing your face - you need to replace that oil/sebum with something that feels comfortable to your skin, which doesn't clug your pores and which can blend with your natural oils well. It was a really long and painful journey to find the right cream for me but now that it happened I would like to share it with the world! 

Rival de Loop Revital Q10 Nachtcreme (vegan)

At first I used this Rival de Loop nightcream. I used it for day and night, especially during winter when my face was really dry - and that driness can cause more pimples then you can imagine... It was wonderful but after 5-6 months my skin wanted something new, something more natural.

alverde NATURKOSMETIK Naturschön Augencreme (eye crem) (vegan)

alverde NATURKOSMETIK Naturschön Gesichtscreme (face cream) (vegan)

And then I found this babe! (。≖ˇ∀ˇ≖。) Alverde is an amazing brand, made in Germany and sold in Europe. Most of their products are vegan and classified as natural cosmetics! These creams are made from olive oils, the face cream smells like lemongrass, which is also a love of my life, and it's THICK but my skin sucks it up in 5 minutes, like drinking something magical! It never ever caused me break-outs and it works in the summer heat too! I'm already using the second jar of it and, as with the soap, I will never purchase anything else once again! The eye cream is also a wonder, 30 ml will last me for a year or more :D

OILS/SERUMS:

Even if our skin is problematic, it also needs extra care, just like dry or sensitive skin. Putting oil on my face was kinda scary due to the extra amount of sebum I've already had but with time I learnt that your skin gets oily because your system thinks it doesn't provide enough moisture to your biggest organ. Helping out your body with this little plus can make you the one in control and you can adjust the amount and type of nutritions you want to add to your skin!

I stick to natural products within this step too. 

alverde NATURKOSMETIK Naturschön Gesichtsöl (face oil) (vegan)

Pom Pom Bűbáj (face oil serum) (vegan)

MASK/PACKS:

If I don't use a mask once a week I really do feel a (bad) change in the texture of my skin - I know a lot of people who don't use any kind of masks at all and they are fine with their skin so meh... this is life ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Here are the ones I love - they calm, heal scars and active pimples and suck the extra sebum out from the pores! I don't use all of them every week, don't get me wrong! Just one of them every other week. 

(The Nivea one is my go-to-travel-mask because it is small, it can be a scrub cleanser and it works as an amazing clay mask as well!)

Solanie Treatment Mask for Oily Skin (aloe-gingko) (vegan)

Nature Republic Bamboo Charcoal Mud Pack

Nivea Essentials 1 Minute Urban Detox Mask

SUN PROTECTION:
Now I'm sure many of you know that sun is really damaging... sadly it can make spots even more darker and sunscreens are very heavy and thick to a combination skin - not mentioning the white cast they can paint your skin with. I tried out several ones before findig this one - a miracle!! The higher the SPF the more protection your skin gets. Never forget this step, okay?

the SAEM Eco Earth Power Light Sun Cream

EXTRA #1 GELS:

When my skin is really, REAAALLY angry and it hates all of my loved prodcuts (it happens once in 2-3 months) I pick something really light, almost watery, which absorbs in a minute. I'm talking about gels! (｡♥‿♥｡) I love aloe vera gels but right now I have one with snail extracts. I put it into the fridge for a few minutes before applying and it leads my flaming skin into heaven xD

the SAEM Snail Soothing Gel

EXTRA #2 DERMA ROLLERS:

I mean, the best friend of those who suffer from large pores and dark spots, scars on their faces? Yes! This tool maybe deserves its own post! I had to mention it here because this is the BOMB! ◟(◔ั₀◔ั )◞ ༘♡ 

It looks scary - a facial roller with tons of needles on it, oh my God - I know, but everything has its own function! The small needles make tiny holes on your skin surface which quicken the skin to produce more new cells, pushing down the old, dead ones, helping fading dark spots and marks faster. Derma rolling is one of the number one treatments for wrinkle-care too because it stimulates the collagen production within the skin. Only do this once every month! After using it make sure to take extra care of your skin for a few days - after all it is full of tiny, healing holes.

For more info please look up this skin treatment in other pages, with more detailed and professional comments of its use! (ᴖ́◡ु⚈᷉) I've been using my derma roller for 3 years now so I can only recommend it! 

+IMPORTANT TIP!

I'm finishing this post but before hitting the submit button I have to tell you something really important and essential in clearing your skin: it takes time. 

It takes time, effort, a bit of money, lot of failures, ups and downs, reasearches, a change of mind and a huge amount of willpower. 

You need to know your own skin, know what can be changed and what is needed to be accepted and loved the way it is. As you can see on the thumbnail picture my skin took 2 years to look the way it looks like now. I will be 26 years old in a few months and I still need to deal with acne - that sucks but this the originality of myself and this is how I have to accept myself. Be gentle and kind to yourself, patient and understanding with the nature of your body, and the healing will start automatically.

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FUHHH THIS WAS A LONG ASS RIDE! But I'm done! :D Thank you for those who have made it so far! （*’∀’人）♥

I wrote down everything I've been using religiously or used for a very long time and I'm 100% confident that you ALONE can make a huge change as regards of your skin.

I HOPE ALL OF YOU KNOW THAT I'M NOT A PROFESSIONAL, I'M JUST AN ADULT WHO HAVE SUFFERED FROM ACNE EVERY SINCE MIDDLE SCHOOL, and since I didn't have the budget for medical support I had to figure out things on my own. Also, as I stated it in the beginning, these are the tricks and tips what helped ME clear and maintain MY skin, don't study my words like you should study the Bible hahaha

I wonder what additional tips do you have! If you don't mind, I would love to read your comments, or maybe your experiences down in the comment section! (๑♡3♡๑)

Thank you so much once again for reading the whole post! I wish you all a sweet week and beautiful, glass-clear skin! (♥ω♥ ) ~♪