Friday, June 12, 2015

My Favorite Acne Products


I mentioned in my May Favorites how during that month, my skin freaked out. I have seriously never experienced this before, and never seen my face look like this. It feels like I have had more breakouts this month than all of my life combined. Normally, my skin is very dry, so this was new to me. Therefore, I did lots of research and made lots of purchases of skin clearing products. These are the products that I found worked. So many acne products seem like you use them and they either do nothing, or they make you break out even more. These were the products I kept going back to, and saw results from. Here are my new skin clearing standbys:

I found that using a mask a few times a week helped clear the spots I had, and have prevented more from popping up. Both of these felt tight on my face after a few minutes, which I like. I like to feel the masks tightening up as they dry, almost like you can feel them pulling everything out of your pores. The two I found that I really liked and really saw results from were the Origins Clear Improvement Active Charcoal Mask to Clear Pores and Mario Badescu Cucumber Tonic Mask.

I always use a toner after I cleanse my face. Speaking of cleansing my face, I actually did not change the cleansers I used. I did try a more acne specific toner, the Burt's Bees Garden Tomato Toner, and found that this product made a huge difference. This reduced the size of any existing spots literally overnight, and I think really helped prevent more. I did find it to be pretty drying, which is probably why it got rid of spots so well, but almost a little too drying for my non-acne prone areas. I used this over my whole T-zone after cleansing my face, but I used my normal toner on my cheeks, which were still kind of dry and not breaking out. I don't use it all over, every day anymore now that my face has cleared up because it is so drying, but I still use it all over a couple times a week to prevent more, and it works great to pat on any broken out areas.

Speaking of broken out areas specifically, I found three spot treatments I really liked. The Mario Badescu Drying Lotion works great as an overnight treatment, but only an overnight treatment because it leaves a big pink spot wherever you apply it. Two others that work great overnight, but are clear so you can also use them during the day are the The Body Shop Tea Tree Oil and the Origins Super Spot Remover Acne Treatment Gel. The Tea Tree Oil definitely has a strong scent, but I actually kind of like it, and you really don't smell it after you apply it. The Origins one was probably my favorite. It was perfectly clear so I could use it at night or during the day, it has no smell, and it is powerful. As an overnight treatment, the Mario Badescu worked well, but this worked noticeably better. The Tea Tree Oil was a close second, but this was definitely the best.

The last thing I switched up was my daily moisturizer. I still used the same night cream, but during the day I opted for a lighter moisturizer. I used the First Aid Beauty Skin Rescue Daily Face Cream and like everything I've ever tried by First Aid Beauty, I love it! It was moisturizing enough to smooth out my dry patches, but light enough to not clog pores or cause more breakouts. People with oily skin will really like this because it's so light and drys so smooth, yet nourishing. For acne prone or oily skin, this is definitely the must-have moisturizer.


Before
After
In these before and afters, you can see my skin has definitely cleared up, and stayed that way. I still have some hyper-pigmentation from where the acne used to be, but those do lighten over time. If they start to bother me, I'm sure you will see a post on tone correcting skincare too!

Before
After


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