My Acne Journey: 2 MONTHS!! 🤭

It’s been 2 MONTHS on this acne journey…

This is what happened! 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

The plan for this week was to use tret 1-2 times only but that changed immediately as I noticed my skin could tolerate using it more often. I bumped it up to 2-3 times a week at first. Hoping to use it every other day. Next thing ya know it, I’m using it every day (almost every day, I take breaks when necessary). I didn’t expect this to happen but it happened. I’ve experienced some irritation like dry skin and peeling skin. Peeling skin doesn’t bother me much. It just means that tret is working on my skin. I really do enjoy removing the dead skin off of my face at the end of the day. 😂 After removing the dead skin, my skin feels smoother and sometimes breakouts reveal themselves (if there’s any, more on this soon). I’m not fond of the breakouts, but I know it’s working. My skin wasn’t too dry at first until the end of the week. That’s what bothered me the most. It was the type of scaly dryness. It felt kind of painful too. I knew that I needed to add a heavier moisturizer to my routine ASAP! Gel moisturizers weren’t doing it. That’s what I ended up doing. I couldn’t take it anymore. I noticed bumps on my forehead from the dryness. My skin had a harder time healing from the peeling too.

Moisturizing my skin again 💦

So I started using GUERISSON 9 Complex Cream again. Yay! This product arrived this week! I’ve been waiting for it and so excited for it! I missed it so much! The creaminess of the product and texture is just so amazing. I actually purchased it again to use as an eye cream. I’m removing a bunch of eye creams that I use and decided to replace them with this cream. It’s just taking forever for me to finish the eye creams that I have. There’s too many of them. But one day at a time! 👌🏻 lol. The GUERISSON 9 Complex Cream works just as well as any moisturizing eye cream that I have without having to pay more for a tiny little bottle of eye cream that’s more expensive. 💵 I have two rich, moisturizing facial creams. The other one is Eucerin Q10 Anti-Wrinkle Face Cream. I love the GUERISSON 9 Complex Cream so much more compared to Eucerin Q10 Anti-Wrinkle Face Cream. That’s why I brought it back. 🙂

Sadly, both of these creams break me out when used too often on the face. Recently it was the Eucerin cream that I stopped using on my face. I didn’t like the texture of it. It made my skin feel heavy and feels like it’s clogging my pores. It felt like it just sat on my skin. I only use it as an eye cream and neck cream now. I used GUERISSON 9 Complex Cream at the beginning of this year. I stopped because it broke me out at some point. All I know is that it gave me pimples. So that was when I was using a ton of skin care products. Since my skin care routine has dialed down a lot, I’m going to give it another chance. I really, really need something that is very moisturizing to heal my skin. I’m going to go for it. With that in mind, I’ll start it off slow and see how my skin takes this cream, but I’m avoiding it in the morning. I think it’s too moisturizing for the AM.

After a night of using this cream, my skin felt so much better. It helped to alleviate dry skin the next morning. I still had flaky skin and some dry patches, but my skin didn’t feel overwhelmingly, intensely dry anymore. I developed some bumps on my forehead too from dry skin. This cream did a wonderful job at moisturizing my skin and helped to remove dead skin much easier and effortlessly. My skin looks more glowy, dewy, and pretty afterwards. In other words, healthy-looking and not torn up, especially on a drying acne treatment! I know it’s not perfect skin, but my skin doesn’t look raw and dry anymore. After adding a richer, more moisturizing moisturizer back into my routine, it looks like my skin can benefit from it. It’s just that it’s very difficult to find a moisturizer that works well on my skin without causing breakouts in the long run. 😟 Let’s see if this one works because I really do love it.

My results after 2 MONTHS!!

Last week my skin was clear. This week it took a turn due to the increase use of tret. I developed some acne in places where I’m prone to breakouts after being clear. 😭😭😭 It looks like the initial breakout or purging hasn’t ended yet or I’ve postponed from using tret on and off. Who knows. I’m just glad to know that it’s working on my skin. I’ve been peeling a lot more even though I’m using it every day. I tried using it every day before, and my skin just went dry without any peeling. This time, it’s different. This time, there’s a lot of peeling. Along with that comes with dry skin. The reason why I had to add a moisturizer that actually moisturizes and heals the skin while peeling. Mid-week results consisted of new breakouts coming out from underneath the surface. I didn’t know they even existed until they popped up out of nowhere. By the end of the week, my skin is almost clear again. The pimples just appeared then disappeared quickly. Breaking out is an on and off thing right now.

For the breakouts, I tried using benzoyl peroxide to kill off the pimples, but it seems to leave red marks on my face. I ended up using an antibiotic cream instead of benzoyl peroxide on my pimples. I’ll try benzoyl peroxide again some other time. I think my skin is just too dry for it right now. The red marks that it leaves behind are really annoying. Benzoyl peroxide does work though. It helps to shrink pimples quick! I always wake up the next morning with less swollen pimples when using benzoyl peroxide. Too bad it leaves noticeable red marks on my face afterwards. Overall, my skin looks pretty good after this week besides the breakouts, haha. I’m still surprised that my skin was able to take tret every day so far. I think I’m going to try my best to push it through this time. I’m seeing results and my overall complexion looks so much smoother. Let’s do this! hahahah! 🙌🏻

What else this week???

*No Makeup*

I gave up on makeup for a month! I’ve been focusing more on protecting my skin from UV damage. I’ve been reapplying my sunscreen more often. It’s been really effective! My skin looks softer and smoother. Not wearing makeup has helped me become more comfortable in my own skin too. While on this acne journey, my skin looks so much better without makeup. If it doesn’t, I don’t even care. haha. Maybe makeup just makes my skin more oily and just worse? Also, wearing makeup makes it more difficult to reapply sunscreen. And reapplying sunscreen is obviously more important considering the state of my skin. My makeup contains SPF too, but it’s not as effective compared to my sunscreen lotion that I reapply often and liberally throughout the day. No wonder why I developed freckles over the years! I didn’t reapply enough! But we’ll see if they’ll disappear or fade after sticking to this routine.

The sunscreen I’m using is La Roche-Posay Anthelios Body & Face Mineral Sunscreen Gentle Lotion SPF 50. I finished a whole bottle within 3 weeks. I used it on my face and upper body. I reapplied often and liberally. I was pretty much on it to prevent my skin from sun damage, since my skin feels a little bit thinner and more sensitive to the sun. My skin does look better after using sunscreen throughout the day. The difference in softness and texture is amazing, and this is just from reapplying sunscreen consistently. BUT! I gotta say. It gets really annoying having to reapply. I’m trying to get into the habit of reapplying. To the point that it doesn’t feel exhausting. I can feel the burnout, but at the same time, my skin looks so good! 🙂🙂🙂 I might have to find other ways to reapply if I ever start wearing makeup again. Going no makeup makes me miss wearing makeup sometimes. hehe.

*New Cleanser/Makeup Remover*

I started using The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser to aid in my sunscreen/makeup removal process. Even if it’s squalane-based, I haven’t had any breakouts from it, but it’s not left on my skin long enough to clog my pores. I always follow up with another facial cleanser afterwards to make sure my skin is clean and free with any sticky residue. I think it has helped to boost my cleansing routine but do I really need it?? No. At the moment, I’m enjoying it while it lasts. Don’t forget to check out my full thoughts on The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser right here!

That’s my 2 month update! Now let’s move on to the THIRD MONTH!! 😊

If you missed out on my acne journey, here it is!!

My Acne Journey: 1 Week In…

My Acne Journey: 2 WEEKS!! 

My Acne Journey: 3 Weeks Results!

My Acne Journey: 4 Weeks Results!

My Acne Journey: 5 WEEKS IN!

My Acne Journey: 6 Weeks Results…

My Acne Journey: 7 Weeks Results

My Thoughts on SOME BY MI Niacin 30 Days Miracle Brightening Sleeping Mask After Finishing My First Jar!

I finished a whole jar of SOME BY MI Niacin 30 Days Miracle Brightening Sleeping Mask! It took a little over 2 months to finish a whole jar. I used it in the morning and at night to help moisturize my skin a little more. I didn’t have any issues with it compared to another SOME BY MI product that I tried — SOME BY MI Yuja Niacin Brightening Moisture Gel Cream (read!!). After 2 months of using this sleeping mask, here are my thoughts on it!

This is a nice watery-gel moisturizer. It’s supposed to be used only at night, but since I didn’t have any issues with it (breakouts, redness, other skin irritations), I used it twice a day. I just take a dab of the moisturizer and gently pat it into my skin. This moisturizer soaks into the skin very nicely. It just absorbs into the skin and feels calming, cooling, and soothing on the skin. It feels very refreshing! I always look forward to using it. I just love the way it feels on my skin. As for moisture, it’s not the most moisturizing skin care product, but it gives my skin some moisture. I do have oily skin and have trouble handling heavier, richer moisturizers, so this gel moisturizer works perfectly fine on my skin. It doesn’t leave my skin looking shiny, greasy, or oily. As I said before, it just sinks into the skin while leaving the skin feeling somewhat hydrated.

With this product, it’s just not only the hydration that I’m after (even if it’s just some hydration). I love the ingredients in it too. I think I mentioned this before in another post that I wrote about SOME BY MI Niacin 30 Days Miracle Brightening Sleeping Mask. The ingredients in it are very nice. It contains citrus junos fruit extract (70.5%), niacinamide (5%), panthenol, and jojoba seed oil, hippophae rhamnoides fruit extract, arbutin, glutathione, ascorbic acid, and biotin. And it looks like the ingredients/formula of this product is compatible with my skin type. I have experienced NO clogged pores while using it. YAY! As for results, I noticed my skin looking brighter every time I use it. I’ve tried a bunch of other skin care products that contain niacinamide and none of them worked to improve my complexion. This one worked on my skin! It helps to brighten my skin and hopefully helps to fade acne marks and dark spots along the way.

So it’s only been 2ish months of using the moisturizer, but I’m very excited what results it may bring in the next couple of months. I’m ready to pop open a new jar! Cheers!! 🥂

Here’s my empty jar of the product and a new, freshly opened product! I’m so excited! 😃

If you missed out on my previous posts on SOME BY MI Niacin 30 Days Miracle Brightening Sleeping Mask, don’t worry, it’s all here!! 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

My Thoughts on SOME BY MI Niacin 30 Days Miracle Brightening Sleeping Mask

1 Month Results SOME BY MI Niacin 30 Days Miracle Brightening Sleeping Mask!!

Trying out SOME BY MI Yuja Niacin Brightening Moisture Gel Cream…