Hello everyone!
Today's post is one I'm a little apprehensive to post as it is going to feature some pictures of my skin at the end of last year when it was the worst it has ever been, so please be nice or I'll cry!
If you saw my 2017 New Years Resolution post then you would have seen the first thing I wanted to do was sort out my skin. I was so self conscious about it, and even though now it is is not half as bad as it was, it still makes me feel a little vulnerable putting up pictures when it was at its worst.
That being said, I am going to be showing the products that transformed my acne skin back to being way more manageable and that is exciting, so I hope you enjoy this post and it helps you if you are having skin issues and feeling a little low too.
So I'll just go right ahead and show you my skin before.
I know I look miserable and my hair is a mess but I felt so ugly with bad skin, it just made me want to give up on everything else. Although I didn't have lots of spots, the ones I had were huge, painful and impossible to cover up. I was getting them a lot on my cheeks too, which is such an obvious place and I felt so so down about it.
I did a lot of research about face mapping and how to decipher what was making my skin so bad and improve it. Cheeks for example can be down to having a dirty phone which rests against your face a lot of the time, so I was cleaning my phone more regularly, and trying to drink more water. I do believe you should listen to your skin, as it is a good indication of what is going on inside your body. However when you read things like 'stress can make you break out' that is a little harder to control.
I stripped back all my skincare to basics, with just a cleanser and moisturiser which I know had worked for me in the past, however it still wasn't clearing so I decided to take matters into my own hands and try a new brand I had heard so much about.
Enter Deciem, and in particular the Ordinary range.
I had read so much about this range, as it provides top notch skincare but at a quarter of the high street price and is sold at cost price. This sounded perfect as I did't want to splash out on a product that I wasn't sure would work for me.
I had a scan of the The Ordinary range and read every single description of what each product did.
It is also worth mentioning that I purchased my products from victoriahealth.com and Gill who runs the site puts out a newsletter each month which is so so helpful so shes is worth subscribing to because she wrote some amazing stuff about The Ordinary which was really insightful.
They sell lots of different strengths of retinoids at a really low price, and they are great for acne, however my skin is very sensitive and although my spots were bad, I didn't think they were acne worthy. After a long think, I decided that the Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% was the treatment I needed to sort my spots. It reduces congestion and the appearance of blemishes and can be used as an acne treatment. For just £5, I put it in my shopping basket and then looked for the Pure Rosehip Oil. I knew they sold this and for the very lovely price of just £9. Organic rosehip oil can be as much as £40 because the process of creating it is so delicate and slow. How they can justify this price tag I don't know, but rose hip oil is great at targetting redness as well as reducing scarring, and as I am someone that can't leave my spots alone, I do tend to have a lot of scarring.
When they arrived, I was so excited and started using them straight away.
The first thing I should say is that I love the packaging. It is clean and simple, and I think it looks really professional.
I use the Niacinamide every morning in replacement of my serum as it soaks into the skin and allows me to put my moisturiser on top.
I will admit that the consistency of this product is really strange! when it first goes onto the skin it almost goes a little foamy, but once it is rubbed in it soaks in and leaves a dry sort of residue.
After just a couple days of use I could see it improving my skin, and I was so happy. The only thing I would say is that it does dry my skin out a bit but that is expected of treatments designed to look after spots, so I have upped my moisturiser to a super quenching one and it is absolutely fine now.
Combating the dryness is the Rose Hip oil as well, I use this at night as it is a bit unsual walking around with a thick layer of oil on your face in the day. It is so hydrating and it is slowly but surely reducing my red scars and blemishes. I also love that they have dark glass to preserve the oil as sunlight can ruin oils like this. As I said before, this product can be so expensive so I love using this little slice of luxury for the small amount of money I paid for it.
So how is my skin now?
Well it is far from perfect and you can see my scars are going to need longer to heal, but as for the spots, they may look raised in pictures but I can assure you my skin is even, and smooth. The redness can be easily covered by makeup and it is something that takes a while to heal so I am not worried about that.
I am so happy with the results of these products in just a short space of time. I've been using these products for about four weeks now and the results are amazing.
If you are having problems with your skin and you don't want to break the bank, the The Ordinary is the way forward. They are also launching so many new products so keep an eye out!
