When I was a teenager until about 20 years old the only way I cleaned my face was with soap and water. I rarely broke out but I did have dry flaky skin.
At around age 20 or 21 my new friend Lisa told me I need to exfoliate more often and use a facial cleanser. I was thinking "what does exfoliate mean?". I did a little research and everywhere I read they said to exfoliate about once a week and cleanse twice a day, use a toner and a moisturizer. So I started to do this. It was nice to get all that excess make-up and dead skin off of my face, but my face started to break out all of the time. At first I assumed it was just because my skin wasn't used to being so clean. I tried lots different products promising different things. I finally went on proactive. My skin still broke out a lot but it was less than everything else I tried. SO I used it for about 5 years until a few months ago.
My break outs had started getting worse, lots of large ugly zits...possibly cysts, under my skin everywhere, everyday. David kept telling me to see a dermatologist but I am a little stubborn, I don't have good experiences with doctors helping me with my problems... only my obstetrician's have proven useful. And nobody can cure acne only "control" it, probably starting with antibiotics which I didn't want. I know my skin better than a doctor.
I did go as far as the Clinique counter and their only advice was to exfoliate more often... uhhh I was using proactive, which is like exfoliating everyday. I decided then to stop using proactive. This didn't help my skin much, but made me feel better about not putting so many chemicals on my skin.
I stumbled across a beauty blog and the writer mentioned reading recently how not everyone needs moisturizer so in February she went without using any and her skin did better than ever. Eureka! I tried the same experiment, I live in humid Texas after all, moisturizer taken care of. Yes this made all the difference. Finally no more small zits all over my forehead, cheeks, chin, nose, jawline. No more large cyst like zits cropping up in these same spots.
And I'm pregnant, usually my acne is terrible when I'm pregnant, especially in the first trimester. Now I only have a few small zits... which I can handle after the last few years of horrible acne. Not only is my skin mostly clear, it's also not as dry and flaky now that I know that I do need to exfoliate once a week and use a facial cleanser twice a day.
2 comments:
What do you use now to wash? exfoliate? I think the most gentle thing is Dove soap, or Cetaphil is great. I don't wash twice a day, just once. I haven't exfoliated in a long time, but baking soda works well. I tried more expensive products but they irritated my skin too.
I don't always wash twice a day either actually... I'll try the baking soda, I'm always looking for natural remedies. Once in a while I'll do a honey/sugar/olive oil combination for my face and body, it works well for me, the sugar can be a little rough on the face for some. For my cleanser I just use Oil free Neutrogena face wash now.
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