Please know I am no skin professional, nor am I promoting any of the products mentioned below. I am simply sharing my experience with you all, and if you’ve got some skin trouble, I recommend to see a professional before trying or doing anything to your skin.
We all know LIFE HAPPENS, and it’s okay to be okay at certain times, so let me explain how the beginning of a new year was unreal for my face(acne skin trouble), and believe me it was scary enough for me to share! It took me a while not to gain confidence, and finally SHARE this with you all.
I truly hope I can inspire/help someone out there going through skin trouble, which let me remind you, it’s totally normal, we’re not perfect, acne happens and it’s okay. I will share with you everything I did to CLEAR my skin in 2-3 months, and honestly it wasn’t much, nor did I waste tons of $$$$$ moneyyyy so, is it possible to clear your skin? It was for me.
Type of Skin + My Skin Trouble Story:
My type of skin – SUPER sensitive dry skin!
I have always struggled with my skin being too sensitive, and it’s always been a struggle finding skin care products that are good for me (even makeup), do you have sensitive skin? If so, please let me know your favorite skin care products and don’t worry I’ll also share mine in this blog.
It was the beginning of 2019 and I was 22 years old, I had never EVER struggled with FACE acne ever! Not even in my teen years when apparently that is “the time” you should be struggling with ACNE, but the Unreal yet Real Skin Trouble happened on February 2019.
There I was the whole year of 2018 traveling… new year comes along and guess what? MORE TRAVELING! By the end of January 2019 I started noticing my face becoming more dry than usual, (at the time I was using Cetaphil face wash + moisturizer, and Bioré skin care charcoal was my fav)
By the beginning of Feb. 2019 I started noticing about 2 pimples on my forehead (top left side), but I wasn’t worried, I mean 2 pimples are nothing to worry about right? Well, next thing you know, I started noticing a bunch of tiny small bumps all over my forehead (proper term: Milia Bumps), did I freak a little? YES and NO. The bumps were not too visible, and makeup helped, but after a few days not even makeup helped! My forehead was no longer SMOOTH.. and not only was my forehead in skin trouble, but my cheeks had joined the trouble party as well! Now that’s when I truly started to freak out..
I gave my skin some time to get better, but it only seemed to be getting worse, and yes, I did have my own dermatologist, but I was not planning on taking any type of medication, because I knew some people who’d gone through acne medication which helped them for a bit and then BOOM! acne came back on them! So you see, I wanted to get my healthy clear skin back, but not through medication. What I wanted was to truly understand my own skin and figure it out. Therefore, I chose not to take any acne medication, and I decided to go on a brand new natural journey of getting to know my skin. (reminder: I am only sharing my experience, I’m not a skin professional)
My Natural Journey Steps:
- Observe + Research
I knew if I wanted to understand my skin I had to be VERY observant of my skin, was it dry? was it red? was it shiny? was it only my forehead?
Start of with being observant.
Next thing, research.
Research everything you observe happening to your skin including symptoms and the products you’ve been using + your face wash routine.
It took me time to really understand my skin, but of course something I already knew was that acne is a BACTERIA so I needed to figure out where this bacteria came from. Was it my diet? Was it my traveling?
WHAT WAS IT?!
It all started on my forehead, then moved to my cheeks, bacteria spreads especially when you touch, so if acne is bacteria, I knew it had something to do with my hair? or my phone? Could it be?
I had researched a bunch, since I never really suffered from SEVERE acne in my life, I was skeptical about even having “acne” because it just didn’t seem like acne, maybe I had some skin allergy?
I wasn’t sure what I had, dermatologists see white red bumps and automatically say acne, but for me it didn’t feel right, I knew what I had was not acne… it couldn’t be, and if it was, why the small tiny yeast bumps on my forehead that honestly did not look like pimples anymore….
My gut was just telling me otherwise, it wasn’t acne.
After doing my own research, here’s what I discovered about my supposedly “random acne” on my face: I did not have acne. BAM!
Nobody will ever understand your skin better than YOURSELF!!!!
Why do I say it wasn’t acne? well, after all the research I did, I discovered I had “Malassezia” and not acne. I made sure I was right, I switched up all of my products to free malassezia products and turns out, it was indeed Malassezia and not Acne.
What is Malassezia?
Malassezia yeasts are members of the microbiota of healthy human skin. Malassezia Folliculitis is fungal skin condition caused by Malassezia yeasts that infects hair follicles. The infection causes acne-like breakouts on the t-zone area of the face, shoulders, chest and back. These breakouts appear in clusters of small whiteheads, often accompanied by itchiness and inflammation. Due to similarities in appearance, Malassezia overgrowth is often misdiagnosed as common acne and traditional acne solutions are used as treatment. Yet whereas typical acne is caused by bacteria–Malassezia is a fungal issue. If treated as common acne, the condition may persist for many years without resolution.
Overall, Malassezia Folliculitis is quite NORMAL and anyone can get it especially if you use products that PRODUCE the Malassezia which infects hair follicles and then causes the acne-like breakouts.
Like I mentioned before, I am no skin expert/professional. I’m simply sharing what I learned about my skin, and what I did to get my healthy skin back. I’ve never suffered from severe acne, but even if I had, it’s very important to know what’s in the skin care products you use daily.
Whenever I’d go to the store for some skin care products all I cared about was the reviews and what it said on the front label, NEVER did I ever cared to read the ingredients label because let’s be honest, who even understands that? am I right?!
I took my skin products very seriously including the ingredients, just until I had my experience of a face full of tiny yellow yeasts, and big red bumps.
Once I learned more about the ingredients, I discovered all of the dangerous chemicals I’d been putting on my skin and HAIR for years.
Let me also tell you, PRICE don’t matter, ingredients do!
The reason I say this is because even if you go to the most expensive brands of Skin Care or brands that should be “good quality” because of their expensive prices it does not mean their products will help your skin ASAP, so please check the ingredients.
Here’s a link that is SUPER helpful and that helped me discover so many SAFE and Malassezia free products to use: https://www.sezia.co
I also tried to be more hydrated, water is very important!
As for my diet, I didn’t eat as many sweets (candy, cakes, etc;), ate more veggies, & fruits high on antioxidants such as berries.
(I try my best to eat some organic foods, but it’s not all the time)
My Routine:
It is important to use a Face toner, serum, moisturizer, and sunscreen. (every day)
– Face wash (zinc bar soap)
– Face Toner
– Serum
– Moisturizer
– Sunscreen
ORGANIC FACEMASKS (DIY)
Wear for 5-10 min only at NIGHT
– Natural Aloe Vera Plant + organic raw honey + Lemon (vitamin c)
My Favorite Products:
– Mario Badescu Skin Care Aloe Vera Toner
– bareMinerals Foundation
– Eucerin Original Healing Cream
– Juice Beauty Serum + Moisturizer
I truly hope this blog helps some of you that might be struggling with acne or something similar, know that you are not alone. Nobody is perfect, and if I was able to clear my skin in 2-3 months, you can too. I know 2-3 months seems like forever, but believe me, it’s worth the journey of understanding your skin; if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me.
This is not a sponsored blog post, please know I am no skin professional, nor am I promoting any of the products mentioned above. I am simply sharing my experience, and if you’ve got some skin trouble, I recommend to see a professional before trying or doing anything to your skin.