I woke up last week in love with my face, for the first time in a long time! Even before the acne I didn't love my skin, I just saw all the slight imperfections. But in the midst of the stress acne, I would look back on old pictures like "I took you for granted skin" and "I would kill to have my old face back." Sadly I wouldn't find relief until over a year later.
My acne flared up what seemed like overnight, so quickly I thought I was having an allergic reaction. I tried everything to get the "allergic reaction" to go away. A few months later I learned what type of acne I had, "Stress Acne." And during this time I was STRESSED! Stressed about finances, stressed about starting my org, stressed about almost everything including my face! A few months before my acne showed up, I started to have anxiety so things that wouldn't normally stress me out were stressing me out, making it even harder to get rid of the breakouts. So my solution... Don't Stress About Anything. If I saw stress coming I'd run in the opposite direction. Which for the most part was easier said than done.
If you don't know stress acne is hormonal, which means most of the acne is subdermal, under the skin. It's painful, large, and was destroying my face. You can't just "pop" subdermal acne you have to wait until it comes closer to the surface of the skin if it does at all. This acne was all over my chin and forehead to include regular acne in between all of that.
I was so embarrassed by my skin that I just wanted to hide all the time. I wore my hair out more so people wouldn't notice it. I wore makeup all the time. I was barely creating content because... yeah no one is about to see this face. So I reposted lots of old content or didn't post at all. I hardly ever had my face on IG stories or anywhere without a filter or some Photoshop magic.
These are the products that worked for me at different stages of my journey.
CLEANSERS:
- Neutrogena - Stress Acne Wash
- Neutrogena - All-in-1 Acne Control
- Ancient Cosmetics - Perfectly Even Hyperpigmentation Face Wash
- Ordinary - Squalene Cleanser
- Rosen - Earth Cleanser
- Rosen - Super Smoothie Cleanser
TONERS:
- Paula's Choice - 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant
- Dickinson's Witch Hazel
- Rosen - Gold Tides Toner
- Rosen - Tropic Toner
MOISTURIZERS:
- Skinfix - Correct+ Dark Spot Corrector
- Ancient Cosmetics - Perfectly Even Hyperpigmentation Moisturizer
- The Ordinary - Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA
- Rosen - Moonlight Moisturizer
SERUMS:
- The Ordinary - Hyaluronic Acid 2%
- The Ordinary - Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%
- The Ordinary - EUK 134* 0.1%
- Volufiline 15 - Eye Essence
- Rosen - Paloma Serum - Use as a moisturizer
SCRUBS AND MASKS:
- Neutrogena - Stress Acne Scrub
- St. Ives - Blackhead Clearing Scrub
- St. Ives - Apricot Scrub
- Raw Holistics - Ocean Crystal Detox Mask
- Rosen - Enzyme Scrub
- Rosen - Tingling Mud Mask
SPF:
*What I use currently is in bold.
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Now my skin isn't perfect, I still get breakouts but they are way smaller. Basically one or two subdermal bumps here and there. And a few blackheads and whiteheads will also pop up. My hyperpigmentation has drastically improved like even with just using Rosen there has been a significant improvement over the last month or so. I'm sharing my journey so you know there's light at the end of the tunnel. I pray that this encourages you and that you never give up!
