SKINCARE ROUTINE | COMBINATION / OILY SKIN

My skin is my biggest insecurity since my teenage years. I might have combination to oily skin type. Sometimes my face can be oil greasy skin, sometimes my skin feels tight and sometimes my T-Zone tends shine but the skin the rest of my face is dry/normal. But my big concern here is my acne.

I have acne since I was a teenager but it was kind of mild back then so I didn't really give a damn of it. I'm kind of love hate relationship with pimples because it come and go. The good thing is I never had massive acne, just mild pimples, prone to blackheads and whiteheads. Pimples usually pop out around my forehead and between my brows only.

Thanks to my mom, she helps me a lot with my problem when I stay with her in Dubai, 2012. I finally get rid from acne and clear face. And it last for 3 years and my pimples came back last year. My hormones were all over the places, my life routine was flipped upside down and messed up since I became a college student. I slept super late and sometimes I didn't sleep at night, skipped meals, ate a lots of oily, spicy, fried and junk foods since we didn't have much choice food in college. My acne deteriorate from mild to moderate. You can see my pimples from picture below. Even with filter can't hide my blemish.

"Posting this photo was a really difficult decision for me to make. This was a vey painful and insecure time for me"

I constantly trying different products and testing out new things. I switched to a skin care routine with products that were suitable for my skin type and my acne started improving. But it didn't heal smoothly. I kept getting breakouts in between improvements.

However, after 1-2 weeks after I arrived here last December, my acne eventually advanced from moderate to moderate-severe. Some people says it is because moving across the country cause my acne. Thrown into a new climate with different humidity levels, my skin initially have a hard time adapting. Again, I keep changing my skin care products, being impatient as I wanted to get my acne healed as quickly as possible. as a result, my skin broke out even more. I panicked each day when my acne seemed to get worse and worse instead of getting better. Honestly, I felt downhearted each time I broke out. Once again, my mom came to the rescue by brought me to the beauty spa. Thanks mom.

DISCLIAMER : This routine and products listed that helped to treat my acne, may not have the same effect on you because our skins are different and react differently to products.

Morning Routine :

As soon as I woke up, I just wash my face with warm water only. I stopped using soap or any cleanser few days ago. I don't use soap in my morning face wash unless I've been hot while sleeping and feel sweaty. You might think I'm crazy to not needing cleanse your face in the morning. Well, not gonna blame you because that was my first impression too. I got this tips from Eunice on YouTube. Hey, celebrities like Alexa Chung, Ginnifer Goodwin and Lady Gaga admitted to not washing their faces.

"Rinse your skin with just water because when you go to sleep, that's when you skin restore and it makes a great ingredients. You use a foam cleansing in the morning, you gonna get rid of every good ingredient that was restore at night and takes away even a little of oil that we need in our face, and will take away moister which will slow down the restoration of our skin. In fact, you can even damage you skin." - Eunice.

After I remove the water lightly on my face, then I use Oil-Free Acne Stress Control toner. And in the morning, I don't use pad to apply toner on my face. I just simply put onto my palm and pat on my face.

Then I gently apply Garnier Skin Active Clearly Brighter Sunscreen Anti-Sun Damage Daily Moisturizer to under eye area and entire my face and neck.

Last but not least, I apply Garnier BB Cream Miracle Skin Perfector for Combination to Oily Skin. This is optional. Usually I don't apply this if the weather is cloudy.

Night Routine :

At night, I definitely wash my face with cleanser because our skin filled with dirt from the whole day. I'm using AcneFree Advanced Deep Cleansing Duo. It contains Benzoyl Peroxide that comes with a cleansing brush that helps exfoliate and deep clean on your skin. This product helped my skin feel cleaner and fresher.

After cleansing, I use the same toner that I used in the morning. But this time, I choose to saturated on cotton pad and swipe across entire face, eyelid and neck.
Lastly, I'll apply Clean&Clear Advantage Mark Treatment on my acne scar.