Have you spent too much money trying to find the right skincare products? Got rosacea?? Fell for ProActiv and whatever 3-step, 4-step acne/sensitive skin/ perfect skin product line and still had the same damn problems?? Same. But I think now I’ve got the right *formula* and am no longer falling for advertising tricks or dropping hundreds a year on *experiments.* …Are you ready for it?
I hope you just got my Taylor Swift reference. Anyway..
Looking back at my teenage years and through college and really, up until about two years ago, the number bullshit products I’ve slathered on my skin and expensive ones I blew my hard earned money on is ridiculous. Easily $500 a year if not more depending on how desperate I was or how well a Clinique skincare line was sold to me. If only I could have that money back; if only I knew what I know now.
My Skin Type
When I was a teen I had my bouts of acne, but I mostly dealt with redness and mild rosacea. I fought any pimples with a bottle of rubbing alcohol and cotton pads, Clearasil pads and cleanser; my mom bought me Proactiv (which I think actually worsened my sensitive skin with those scraping little microbeads). Nevertheless my redness and T-zone zits persisted, as did the accompanying dryness whenever I ‘cleansed.’ I thought I had unfixable, patchwork skin that no one medicine, but rather only a combination of a hundred, could cure.
(I would show you a picture of young, teenage me with all the redness and zits, but I avoided cameras like hell and I’m not sure I’m emotionally ready to go digging into my old MySpace… ask me in ten years, maybe? Anyway…)
I didn’t realize I had rosacea until I started connecting my *flare ups* and minor menopause-like hot flashes to my perpetually flushed skin. The thing that sucks about rosacea is that it has no clear cause and thus no cure. You just have redness forever. Luckily, mine was mild and I caught it early. But figuring out how to control it (especially those annoying flare-ups) took some time, experimenting, and naturally, money.
Anyway, long story short, I now control my skin with the following rules, methods, and products, and I’ve never felt better!
Below is a picture of my face. I’m not wearing any makeup so you can see some of the residual and perpetual pink on my cheeks and a few lil zits, but overall my skin is relatively smooth and even.
And maybe, just maybe, these tips and suggestions help your skin (and save you a lot of money and experimentation!!).
1. DRINK. MORE. WATER.
Yooo, I really hate to sound like every other health blog out there, but seriously, you need to drink more water if you want nice(r) skin.
Especially if you have rosacea. Rosacea is really sensitive to changes in temperature and I would flare up in both the cold and heat.
If you drink a lot of water, the water will regulate your body temperature and keep you from going from one extreme to the other — so there are less hot flashes and uncover-up-able redness.
Whenever I feel one coming on, I chug water, and as prevention, I chug water (so I spend a good part of my day in the restroom…)
Also dehydration and excessive heat used to make my skin oily thanks to the sweat, dirt, etc dripping all over my face, so the water prevents that from becoming an issue in my day-to-day life.
2. DON’T TOUCH YOUR FACE WITH YOUR NASTY HANDS EVER.
Your finger tips are dirty as hell. Keep them off your sensitive face!!
I never touch my face with the tips of my fingers unless they are freshly washed and squeaky-squeaky clean. I carry hand sanitizer with me most of the time and always wash my hands before touching my face. Any other time, I wipe my face or scratch an itch with the back of my hand or back side of my fingers. But never ever ever ever the tips. And I never let anyone else touch my face… unless I feel like fighting someone. 🙂
And don’t let your pets lick your face like a lollipop either.
I don’t care what science says about dogs’ mouths being cleaner than anything or anyone else’s, if the tips of your fingers can’t go on your face, then the tongue of your housepet can’t either.
3. Buy oil cleansers, even if you have acne and especially if you have sensitive skin.
Typical cleansers for acne tend to strip your skin too clean so that it’s so parched and raw that you have to put on a moisturizer or your skin will peel off (and that’s how companies get away with selling you those expensive multi-step skin care systems). After cleansing with one, your face will feel *clean* but in the sense that it doesn’t feel like skin at all anymore but more like a thin strip of latex rubber pulled tight over your skull.
Basically, anything with alcohols and acids will strip your skin, not help it. Not moisturize it. Not clean it, but kill it. It’s bleach. And bar soaps are similarly bad.
I started using oil cleansers because I wanted to remove makeup more efficiently. The first time I used one, I was terrified – I thought I’d have a slimy layer of oil on my face forever. But I didn’t! In fact, my skin felt really soft and actually clean, not latex-rubber-hospital clean, but *pure*, untainted, fresh clean. Now anytime I use a standard face wash, even those that tout themselves as “moisturizing,” my skin feels stripped and parched.
That being said, it does depend on which kind of oil you use (the store-brand oil cleansers are very thick and greasy, and if they’re *only* for makeup removal or eye makeup removal then they may be a bit slimier), but I recommend *natural* ones like:
- L’Occitane Shea Butter Face Cleansing Oil
- The Body Shop Camomile Silky Cleaning Makeup Remover Oil
- Etude House Real Art Cleaning Oil Moisture
4. Use Natural Cleansers & Scrubs
Keep that artificial shit off of your sensitive, precious face!!
No ProActiv. No weird science-jargon-filled ingredient labels. Even if you have acne, and especially if you’ve sensitive or dry skin!!
My first venture into natural cleansers was when I was annoyed with my rosacea and went into a Lush. I bought “Angels on Bare Skin” and it changed my life. My skin felt good and it wasn’t as red. I’ve been a Lush loyal ever since, and I recommend it if you want something very light and gentle to your skin.
Now I use primarily one of the aforementioned oil cleansers and a Lush product (currently “Let The Good Times Roll“).
5. Use a good moisturizer.
I swear by Nivea and their classic, giant jar, good-smelling blue-label Swiss-made Nivea Creme. This is the best.
And it is extremely cheap and can be purchased almost anywhere in the world, even at convenience stores! (I can affirm its existence at convenience stores in Japan, Thailand, and Taiwan!)
They also have a Soft version which I use sometimes but I stick to the thicker version — which seems a bit scary and potentially oil-ridden but just means you don’t need much to get the right level of moisture for your skin type.
Other moisturizers sting or their effects seem to disappear within a few short hours. But not Nivea. Nivea comes through all day. And at 240 yen or less for a little portable bottle or only $6 for a big can, how can you beat it???
6. The less products, the better.
Stay away from multi-step lines and chemical-filled potions. Keep it basic.
I use a Lush scrub, an oil cleanser, and Nivea Cream. That’s it. No toner. No masks. Three things, and most of the time just two of them.
7. If you need to cover redness, use Cicapair.
After blowing tons of money on worthless redness relief creams and whatever miracle Rosacea cure Amazon or department store cosmetics staff suggested to me, I gave up on finding something that actually worked.
Until I was clicking around on Sephora’s website and came across this Cicapair Tiger Grass cream that had hundreds of four- and five-star reviews.
What?? Something that actually works?????? No way! I thought. But yes way. It really works.
I had to buy a $50 bottle of it to find out (I decided that if this highly-reviewed product didn’t work then I would give up the search for good). I opened the bottle and put a dab of the green goop on my face then watched as it magically turned to a whitish-nude color. My cheek was a bit paler than before, but that’s because all of the red had vanished. Vanished, I say!!! I stared at my reflection in shock with my mouth agape.
It also has SPF 30 so you can just put it on and go outside – although don’t go swimming with it, it will start to look a little patchy if your face is wet, so be mindful of sweat and the like to keep your face red-free!
In summary…
I hope you try some of the products above and let me know if they work for you. Maybe my current lineup of products only work now because my skin gave up resisting the other products of the past. Maybe this is all a fluke and tomorrow, just to spite me, I’ll wake up with a serious breakout and splotchy, unmaskable redness.
Whatever, yolo.