1 Month + 3 Weeks Experience!

It’s been 1 month and 3 weeks! Honestly, I’m not even counting anymore, lol. I haven’t been using much on my face besides benzoyl peroxide, taz, and sunscreen. Now it’s just benzoyl peroxide and sunscreen. I stopped using taz for most of this week. It made my skin very dry. And I don’t think it was the cause of my breakouts. I started using benzoyl peroxide heavily during the week, and my breakouts subsided pretty quickly. It was like magic. I’m probably going to have to stick to benzoyl peroxide for some time. It seems to be the only acne product that works on my skin. Once I stop using it, my skin starts breaking out again. It sucks but that’s reality. My routine is mainly benzoyl peroxide.

So, this week, not much happened. I’ve been very busy lately and just can’t update as often anymore. 😢 I’m trying to, but there’s just so much to do. So what did I do differently this week??

I started using Neutrogena Visibly Even Daily Moisturizer SPF 30 more consistently this week. I’m slowly running low on the product, but I’ve been using it indoors as my sunscreen. I love how it has somewhat brightened my skin, but it feels way too moisturizing for the day. I honestly don’t know how I was able to put up with this sunscreen in the past. I used it every single day of my life! Keep in mind that Neutrogena Visibly Even Daily Moisturizer SPF 30 is discontinued. I’m just trying to use it up, so I won’t waste money. I have a lot of products to use up. I haven’t been able to get to them either being so busy lately.

I think that’s all for this week. My skin looks OK. Benzoyl peroxide has been a lifesaver when it comes to zits. My skin looks better too using fewer products. Just an observation. I’ve been without an extensive skin care routine for months now, I believe. haha.

That’s my update for the week. If you missed out on my previous posts, check them out here!

Restarting Tret & My First Week Experience

My Week 2 Results With Tret. Changes I’ve Made.

My Week 3 BP Results!

1 MONTH Results with BP!

1 Month + 1 Week Using BP & Some Changes I Made This Week!

1 Month + 2 Weeks Experience!

Update: My Skin Care Routine

Not shown in photo: Taz & BP

Here’s my new skin care routine. 🙂

Face Wash: Neutrogena Hydro Boost Hydrating Cleansing Gel with Hyaluronic Acid Fragrance Free

I’ve been using this face wash for a little over 2 months now. I love how it foams up and feels soft on the skin as I wash my face. It cleanses the skin nicely. But, I feel like it’s kind of drying my skin out. It cleanses my skin very well, but my skin feels a little dry afterwards. It feels chapped. I don’t feel like switching cleansers right now, but I’ll use what I have left. I might search for another cleanser when I’m done. We’ll see what happens.

Skin Treatments: Taz & BP (Acne) & L’Oreal Revitalift 10% Pure Vitamin C Serum (Brightening)

I’m only using taz and bp (not together, separately) 1-2 times a week. My goal is once per week. I also spot treat with bp when I see any pimples forming. As for the vitamin c serum, I’ve been using it on my cheekbones and lightly tap it under my eyes. I noticed brighter under eyes after doing this so I continued to use it this way. I use it on my neck too. I can’t use it on my face because it clogs my pores. This vitamin c serum has a silicone feel to it, and it makes my skin feel very soft, smooth, and silky. It’s been working great for those areas of my skin. Unfortunately, just not my face.

Sunscreen: CeraVe Hydrating Mineral Sunscreen SPF 30 Face Sheer Tint & Trader Joe’s Daily Facial Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 40

I have two sunscreens that I’m using right now. It’s the CeraVe Hydrating Mineral Sunscreen SPF 30 Face Sheer Tint and Trader Joe’s Daily Facial Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 40. I use CeraVe most of the week, but if I feel like it, I use Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s sunscreen leaves my skin feeling moisturized and protected at the same time. It works great as a makeup primer too. My skin feels so silky smooth after I use it.

I’m still trying to keep my skin care routine short and minimal. I’m really not into extensive skin care routines anymore. haha. I tried it. It didn’t work for me. I prefer to keep my skin care routine as simple as possible. It seems like my skin starts to break out when I’m layering on too many products. By the way, I stopped using moisturizer on my face. It’s time to call it quits. I’ve been trying to make it work for so long that it’s just not working. I keep getting random breakouts whenever I try to moisturize my skin. I decided to just leave my skin alone. I never used moisturizers years before either. I guess some people just can’t use moisturizers (like me). 🤷🏻‍♀️

That’s my updated skin care routine! Hope this was helpful. Have an amazing day! 😄

My Acne Journey: 4.5 Months + Clear Skin!!

New week, new results! Here we go! 🙌🏻

It’s been 4.5 months, and my skin is finally clear! I didn’t get any new breakouts this week. I didn’t get any last week either. Benzoyl peroxide is really knocking out my acne breakouts! I had a small initial breakout when I first started using it. Now, my skin just looks so good. It’s amazing! Soooo what now? I do have some acne marks to take care of, but I’m not going to add any new products to get rid of them. Honestly, I just don’t want to spend on brightening serums or whatever. I’ve used plenty to help with acne scars/marks, and I didn’t think they were worth it. I don’t really need them. What I’m going to do is leave my skin alone and simply follow what I’m doing — cleanse, treat, moisturize, and protect. Seems like my skin does better on a basic, plain skin care routine. Everything is going well. Blackheads are gone. Sebaceous filaments I was dealing with have decreased. No new breakouts. D*mn, this is really working, and I love it! So that’s all I’m going to do. Just leave my skin alone and stick to the basics. 👍🏻

P.S. I have so many skin care products I have to use up. I’m trying my best to decrease my consumption of skin care products too. 😩 I wonder how long it’s going to take! 😭

Photo: Mizon Peptide Ampoule Cream

You can catch up on my acne journey if you missed out!! 😊

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 Acne Journey: 2 MONTHS!! 

My Acne Journey: 2 Months + 1 Week Results!

My Acne Journey: 2 Months + 2 Weeks!

My Acne Journey: 2 Months + 3 Weeks Results!

My Acne Journey: 3 MONTHS!! 😃

My Acne Journey: 3 Months + 1 Week Results

My Acne Journey: 3 Months + 2 Weeks Results

My Acne Journey: 3 Months + 3 Week Results

My Acne Journey: 4 MONTHS!!

My Acne Journey: 4 Months + 1 Week Results.

My Acne Journey: 4 MONTHS!!

I’m 4 months into my acne journey! Here are my results! 😀😀😀😀😀

4 Months…

I stopped using salicylic acid and started using benzoyl peroxide instead. After a single night of using benzoyl peroxide, my skin looked clearer. Benzoyl peroxide helped to treat blackheads, sebaceous filaments, cysts, and all of the other acne issues I was having very quickly. Much better and more quickly compared to salicylic acid. I’m not sure if I’m going to use salicylic acid or not. Maybe later on? But right now, I’m going to stick to benzoyl peroxide. Maybe I’ll add salicylic acid when my skin adjusts to benzoyl peroxide first. I don’t want to be using too many products all at once. I want to see if benzoyl peroxide actually is working first. This is one of the benefits when it comes to having a minimal skin care routine. I know what’s working and what’s not. 👍🏻 So it was pretty exciting just seeing results the next day after using benzoyl peroxide for the first time in months (perhaps it’s been over a year?). My skin peeled so much after using benzoyl peroxide and purged. I was shedding for a few days, which was pretty awesome. My skin always looks better after a peel. After all of that shedding, my skin looked clearer, softer, and smoother. My acne is more tamed. It’s working so much better compared to tret too, which I’m still using on other days of the week when I’m not using benzoyl peroxide. It’s working… 😌👌🏻

A Recap on Skin Care Products I Stopped Using!

For the last week or so, I’ve been removing a lot of skin care products from my life. It was actually more than I thought. Here’s the list with some of my thoughts on each one after I stopped using them.

• Benton Fermentation Essence: It took me a while to remove this essence because it’s a lightweight product that sinks into the skin quickly. I didn’t think it was giving my skin any issues. But since I’ve been without it, I honestly can tell now that it didn’t do anything for my skin. It made zero difference. This essence is like applying water to the skin. Expensive water, lol.

• The Ordinary Matrixyl 10% + HA: I wanted this matrixyl product to work, but the texture of the product is not something I really miss. It absorbs into the skin well, but what comes to mind whenever I look back at this product is how plasticky the serum is. It kind of reminded me of The Ordinary Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%, which gave me one of the worse acne of my life (tons of closed comedones along the jawline that took ages to go away). It’s one of the reasons why I started to use so many skin care products to fix my skin. 😫

• Melano CC Vitamin C Essence: I’m currently using the rest of this essence on my body. So it does leave a weird residue behind on the skin? 🤔 My skin felt a little dirty with this essence on my skin. I’m not impressed anymore.

• Purito Centella Green Level Buffet Serum: I shouldn’t have stocked up on this serum, lol. I really thought it was a really good serum. Well, not anymore. I haven’t noticed a difference in my skin after I stopped using it. I’m currently using it on my body to get rid of it. It’s going to take forever, haha. I can’t believe I lasted this long on this serum. I don’t miss it at all.

• The Ordinary Resveratrol 3% Ferulic Acid 3%: This is one of the serums I actually do miss. I just wish that it wasn’t so heavy, oily, greasy feeling (like a bunch of The Ordinary products that I’ve used). Ugh! What a disappointment.

• The Ordinary Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG: I’m glad I removed this caffeine solution. My under eyes are officially restored and hydrated. This solution dried the living hell out of my under eyes even with tons of moisturizers and eye creams on top. It just didn’t work after 2 darn years.

• Cosrx Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence: I’m officially over this essence. It didn’t do anything to help with hydration.

• Canmake Mermaid Skin Gel UV SPF 50+ PA++++ (Clear): Recently removed this sunscreen from my routine and my skin feels so much better. I mean, less dry. I was wondering why my skin feels so dry all the time. Look no further, it was this sunscreen all along. Also, I can’t let go of the fact that it burned and made me freckle badly. Can’t use it in the summer, can’t use it in the winter. Out it goes! Finally.

• GUERISSON 9 Complex Cream: That silicone feel that this cream has really bothers me. It just sits on top of my skin. It also has fragrance. Sometimes I can use products with fragrance, sometimes I can’t. It depends on the product. But heavily scented/fragranced skin care products gets to me after a while. I think it’s finally getting to me. Another cream that I don’t care for anymore.

9 products down. 👀 Woohoo! And I’m back on my boring, simple, plain, whatever you want to call it skin care routine. Wow, my skin sure does look better. 😊 I’m glad I removed these products. It feels like a sense of relief! 😌

Here goes my Acne Journey if you missed out on them!!

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 Acne Journey: 2 MONTHS!! 

My Acne Journey: 2 Months + 1 Week Results!

My Acne Journey: 2 Months + 2 Weeks!

My Acne Journey: 2 Months + 3 Weeks Results!

My Acne Journey: 3 MONTHS!! 😃

My Acne Journey: 3 Months + 1 Week Results

My Acne Journey: 3 Months + 2 Weeks Results

My Acne Journey: 3 Months + 3 Week Results

Skin Care Products I’m Using 🥰 + What I’m Doing for My Acne

I talked about skin care products I stopped using. Here are products that I’m still using (for now). I’ve definitely cut down on a bunch of skin care products. If you missed out on products I’m using to moisturize my skin, go here. I’m not going to go too much into detail on those products, since I’ve already talked about them in another post. I’m here to share the other products that I use that’s not in my moisturizing routine.

Let’s start off with The Ordinary products…

I’m only use 3 products from The Ordinary. They are The Ordinary Argireline Solution 10%, The Ordinary Matrixyl 10% + HA, and The Ordinary Amino Acids + B5 that I mentioned in my moisturizing routine. The first two (Argireline and Matrixyl) are my favorite The Ordinary products. I don’t have much to say about the Amino Acids + B5. I’ve noticed better results from Argireline and Matrixyl. Well, I hope it’s actually working. My skin just looks good when I use them both. The three The Ordinary products that I mentioned are the only ones that haven’t broken me out. Now more about The Ordinary products and breakouts!

I actually stopped using The Ordinary Ascorbic Acid 8% Alpha Arbutin 2% and The Ordinary Resveratrol 3% Ferulic Acid 3% on my face. It’s because both serums are way too oily on my face. I kept getting breakouts. The breakouts were really bad too. Left long-lasting acne marks behind too. I’m very disappointed in that. My face would just look like pure grease when I used these serums. It looks good at first. The serums made my skin look softer, dewy, and glowy. Also, a little tan. My complexion looked darker using these serums. That was kind of weird. But, by the end of the day, my skin looked like an oily mess. As mentioned, greasy. And the breakouts were too much for my skin to handle. I love the ingredients in these products. I just couldn’t deal with the oiliness and breakouts any longer. I really wanted them to work. They just didn’t.

Vitamin C & Sunscreen 🌞

Melano CC Vitamin C Essence is my favorite vitamin c serum that I use only in the morning. I stopped using it at night due to not seeing results using it twice a day. I really can’t tell if it’s working or not, to be honest, but it doesn’t break me out. I like this vitamin c product more than the other ones I have used in the past. I’m going to stick with it. No breakouts from it. 🙂 It’s also very affordable. Great for travel too. ✈️

I have some sunscreens that I use (more than one!). They are…

Canmake Mermaid Skin Gel UV SPF 50+ PA++++ in Clear

Canmake Mermaid Skin Gel UV SPF 50+ PA++++ in White

I use them both. The Clear version works better than the White. It glides on the skin much easier and absorbs into the skin better. It doesn’t leave a white cast behind and leaves the skin looking silky and dewy. It also works well as a makeup primer too. I haven’t had any breakouts from the Clear version. I’m really happy about that. I’ve gone through multiple tubes of the Clear by now. It works amazingly on my acne-prone skin! Much better than other sunscreens I’ve used.

I also have the White version. I recently just finished a tube of the White. At first, I didn’t like it that much. It leaves a noticeable white cast behind even though it sort of helps to even out a dull complexion. It’s also drier on the skin and accentuates dry patches due to the dryness (higher concentration of titanium dioxide). I like it just a little bit, but I don’t like it as much as the Clear. Unfortunately, I went overboard and purchased a ton of the White version. I’m going to have to live with it and use them all, ha! We’ll see if my thoughts change on them or not. We’ll see soon…

Eucerin Q10 Anti-Wrinkle Face Lotion SPF 15 Sunscreen

Here’s another sunscreen I’m using. I don’t use it on my facial skin. It breaks me out due to how moisturizing it is. I wish it worked on my facial skin, but I’m prone to breakouts. Sucks, I know. So I’ve been using this sunscreen on my neck and upper chest. I love how moisturizing it is in those areas of my body. Also, sometimes I use this sunscreen around my eyes too. It’s just super moisturizing, so it works perfectly for that area of my face. Yes, it’s SPF 15, so it’s not a high SPF sunscreen. Don’t worry, I use Canmake on my neck and upper chest too. I just like the moisture from this product. It works if you have dry skin.

Acne Treatments

I only use tret once a week. I still have it, so I thought I would continue to use it. I tried using it twice a week, and it didn’t work out, lol. My skin started to breakout and looked so bad. It wasn’t the type of breakout where it’s just purging for the moment. My skin just looked terrible. Just random breakouts. Once I stopped using tret, my skin looked better. I know for sure that it wasn’t an initial breakout. I’m not going to wait it out this time either. It’s been over a year on tret. Possibly longer. I think that’s more than enough time to know if tret works for my acne or not. I’ve used tret many years ago before this too, and it worked during that time. I guess it doesn’t work for my acne anymore. But, I’m really over it. Since I still have the product, I’m going to stick to using it once a week. That’s more than enough. I’m done with the weird things that tret does to my skin when I use it more often.

My main acne treatment is benzoyl peroxide. I stopped using salicylic acid, by the way. It did nothing for my acne. It made my blackheads worse. It gave me blackheads. Ugh! With benzoyl peroxide, I only use it whenever my skin needs it. I’m guessing 1-2 times a week. Sometimes 3. But it seems like 1-2 times week is all my skin needs. I just monitor my skin and see how much benzoyl peroxide it can take. So I apply benzoyl peroxide all over my face now and spot treat on days when I take a break from it. The day after using benzoyl peroxide, I’ve been getting breakouts and clearing up at the same time. My skin also peels. It’s working like how tret is supposed to work. Exfoliating my skin. lol. I remember using benzoyl peroxide to treat my acne years ago, and it cleared up my skin due to how it was peeling my skin. I hope it works the same way this time. So far, with BP, my skin has been looking wayyyyy better. It’s the best acne treatment ever for my skin. I’m just crossing my fingers that it’ll give me awesome results again. Not only does it make my skin peel, it kills bacteria too. It zaps away those nasty cysts and pus-filled pimples quickly. Works wonders over night! Wish me luck!

I didn’t go over my favorite eye creams in this post. I think I’m going to save that for another time. If my face skin care routine changes, I’ll make an update. But what I’m doing right now is working very well. Benzoyl peroxide changed the game. I just hope my skin doesn’t dry out! Ahhhhh! More coming up soon! 🙂