Skin Care

(a normal title for once)
(I wrote this last night and I'm posting without any edits)
(cool)

A little background as to why I'm doing this first. Firstly, I used to have very clear skin from grade 11 (16 years old) until about last year (19 years old). So about 3 years I was acne free. Then, everything changed when the fire nation attacked…literally. I went to India with my mom last summer (2016) and since I'm from Canada, the heat was just unbearable for me. I got some weird acne under my eyes and it just wouldn't go away. It wasn't until a few months later that I found out that its super under my skin. Basically, it was a bunch of sebum trapped under my skin and because of how much I exfoliated, I made it worse since my skin was getting weaker.

Anyway, my days of perfect skin were over and I now had to start a new skincare routine. I tossed out all my old things and had my mom buy some expensive face wash and moisturizer. You'd think that throwing money at your problems would work but SURPRISE! I started breaking out all over my face from this. I know, crazy!

Anyway, I went back to my old stuff and let me tell you, it worked. For a bit. Now, I'm starting to cut out junk food, sugar, and laziness out of my life and this is working wonders.

 tl;dr this is where I start telling you my routine

1. I can't stress this enough, you need to find what works for you!
• My sister uses the same stuff that made me break out and it works for her
• What I use, doesn’t work for everyone
• Shop around, get testers from Lush, Body Shop, expensive, cheap… doesn't matter. You just need to find the right thing for you
• Make a note though, you won't see full results until your skin renews which takes a month.
• (old cells die, new ones replace them… take around 25-30 days so you need to be patient)
• Don't use all different stuff all at once
• Find a full routine, see what works and what doesn’t. takes a while but its worth it
2. EAT HEALTHY
• THIS IS ANNOYING BUT, seriously, cut out that McDonalds, Chipotle, Popeyes, Nando's… whatever, and replace it with good food
• If you like to eat fast food: Subway, Cultures, and Freshii are decent priced and way healthier
• This saves money too, like pack your own healthy lunches
• Sugar, fats, MILK are the worst for your skin. You probably already know what makes you break out and what doesn't
• If you are gluten free as in you have celiac, don't use any products with gluten on your face it actually is shit
• The vitamin E line at the body shop uses wheat germ as a source for the vitamin e. Vit E is amazing for your skin but if you're allergic to wheat: STOP and use something else, you'll break out
3. Drink water
• Wow is this ever not said enough
• It gets annoying but
• Drink
• A
• Lot
• Of
• Water
• Everyday
• I have a water bottle that is only 2 cups worth so I need 4 of those.
• That’s 1 cup every hour
• Do it
• It's not hard
• Keep a water bottle with you
• Everywhere
• You
• Go
• Get a cute one
• That matches your personality
• Its not a waste of money
• It's an investment on your beautiful skin
• And health
• OK BUT WHY WATER
• There is no added anything. It's pure H2O
• Gets rid of any toxins in your body because that’s what the pee does
• Your pee needs to be next to clear
• It tastes good with everything
• You can get it sparkling if you want and it's not even that bad sometimes (Montclair and san Pellegrino > Perrier I'm not sorry)

This is the part where I tell you what I use

Let me get this out of the way first, I am not sponsored by the body shop or anything I just used to work there so I got all my skincare at like 50% off so it was a good deal and it works for me :)

• Make up remover
• COCONUT OIL IS THE BEST
• But make sure to wash it all off before using face wash
• If you are allergic to coconuts or don't like it, olive oil works well too but it's a lot heavier so you'll want to only use a little
• I also like the body shop make up removing butter (idk what it's called lol) but that's very similar to coconut oil, has a nice scent and it works the same way. Just wipe it off before you wash your face because it doesn't play well with water

• Face wash
• There are 2 that I use most of the time and both are from the body shop
• Seaweed deep cleansing wash
• Tea tree skin clearing facial wash
• I tried the cream cleansers and I'm not a big fan just because it doesn't give the satisfaction of washing off the dirt but it does actually work. If you have more dry skin than oily then that would work better (also in the winter just because it's drier) but I prefer the wash because it lathers like soap and feels cleaner. If you have super oily, I'd recommend the wash
• Tea tree is really good for acne and it's anti-bacterial. I only use a little of this just when I feel like I'm going to break out a lot soon. It dries out the spots so it'll also dry out your skin, use a good moisturizer with this.
• Both of the washes have a very cooling effect so if you have any irritations or burning spots, it really helps to sooth those
• If you're not into lather but still want water or just something less drying, or anything else, I'm not a big fan of any other of the Body Shop lines for skin care just because they don’t work well on my skin. Lush has a face cleanser called Angels on Bare Skin. It has a bunch of stuff in it that really moisturizes your face while you wash.
•  There are fennel seeds and crushed almonds that work as a very gentle exfoliant that won't damage your skin on a daily. I just started testing this one out and so far, it's been good to my skin. It has a sort of creamy texture, and if you want less exfoliant you can use more water and if you want more, use less water. It's moisturizing to the point that if you don't want to apply anything afterwards you'd be okay (don't recommend that though)

• Exfoliant
• If you don’t want to buy a separate exfoliant, you can always just use a gentle brush, or cloth on your face every so often for a good exfoliant.
• I have the seaweed exfoliant which is, again, from the body shop. It's environmentally friendly as well since instead of plastic or harmful chemicals, it's all biodegradable. It uses sand as the exfoliant with the same base as the face wash so if you wanted to, you don't really need anything special other than a brush or something to scrub.
• Stay away from any machines to exfoliate, they put way too much pressure on your skin, and it can lead to way more damage than you need. You only want to take off the dead skin and dirt, not fresh skin.
• The Angels on Bare Skin is a good exfoliant as well if you want to go extra gentle with it, you can use that just once a week with another gentle facial wash on the other days.
• Don't go overboard with exfoliating, it'll lead to crazy skin that takes a long time to fix. Can lead to sun spots, weird breakouts, uneven skin tone, the works.

• Toner
• People don't use toner but trust me on this.
• It takes away any wash you left behind, any make up you left behind, excess oils, dead skin, anything that your facewash didn't get.
• The one that I use… don't judge me…. The seaweed toner from the body shop is amazing. It's oil balancing, because of my combo skin I can't get a good balance between oily and dry so it helps keep it in the middle. It's reduced my tiny under the skin acne a loooot and it just feels fresh after washing my face.
• If you want something more gentle, Breath of Fresh Air from Lush is also good. It's a little more hydrating than the body shop one and a lot more gentle. If you have sensitive skin, go to that

• Serums and oils
• I don't normally use serums but because this is a skin care post, I'll add the ones I've used and liked
• Vitamin C
• There's a bottle that comes with some liquid and powder. It's a 10 day routine and you just mix in the powder in the liquid and you use it on your face. It's pure Vit C and it's really nice. If you have dull skin, no glow, looks tired and dead, USE THIS. The only side effect is that I'll darken your skin tone and it has a nasty smell. But for 10 days, it’s worth it.
• Grease Lightening
• This is an amazing little serum from Lush. Use it as a spot treatment or preventative for any break outs. It has tea tree oil and a gel base similar to aloe Vera. The tea tree works wonders and the aloe counter acts the dryness from tea tree to hydrate your skin. It's a miracle in a bottle (wow I sound like an advertisement)
• Tea Tree oil
• You can use this as a last resort but putting pure tea tree oil is risky. It can dry out your skin and it's pretty strong so I only use this when I need to attack my acne and black heads.

• Moisturizer
• I have 2 that I use together but I've tried a million and this works best for me
• Seaweed night serum and aloe Vera gel
• You can get the gel from anywhere but you need to make sure it's aloe Vera gel and not the fake stuff that skin care people sell. I got mine from a Punjabi store
• The seaweed serum is again, oil balancing and I only use it at night because overnight is when I get the most oily.
• Aloe Vera I use as a moisturizer just because it's not oily and it's very hydrating. I live in a super dry area so I prefer hydration over having oily skin because I hate break outs.
• If you can find a good moisturizer with spf do not let that go because you need at least spf 15 at all times during the day no matter if it's sunny or cloudy, summer or winter. I might like having freckles but I know that by the time I'm 40, I'll hate these damn sun spots.
• Oh and ALOE VERA is so good for all skin types especially because it’s natural, and has no extra stuff in it
• Coconut oil is good as a moisturizer as well but I only use it on my lips and my hair because I do not like the oiliness on my face.

• Masks
• For oily skin, or summer time, clay masks are good like once every 2 weeks or so. Don't dry them up all the way, just until its dry around the edges
• Tea tree mask works for spots and black heads
• Turmeric masks are really good for swollen spots
• Sheet masks are good for hydration and dry skin or dry weather.
• I leave these on way longer than the intended time, don't do that.
• I like the blueberry and pomegranate ones because I am in love with antioxidants. They keep your skin looking young :D 

• Miscellaneous
• Keep your hair out of your face. Th oils from your hair can cause break outs. So if you have bangs, pin them back when you sleep.
• Get enough sleep. 8-9 hours should be good but also go to bed early. Your skin repair’s itself at night and getting into the habit of sleeping earlier just makes it easy to get the full 8 hours.
• Stress less. Break out from stress are the worst so anything that stresses you out, deal with it and cut the shitty stuff out of your life
• (I promised myself I wouldn’t use any bad words but I had to; its 1 am too tired)
• If you have backne or acne anywhere on your body, you might be using hot water for your showers. Like super hot… lower the temperature and those nasty spots will disappear. Shower regularly if you don’t already…. Which honestly can be hard if you are like depressed or something (I can relate)
• But it not only helps your skin, it helps you feel a bit better too
• Don’t use proactive… doesn’t work and ruins your skin.
• Accutane is the last resort if you have cystic acne but see what helps it before taking meds.
• Steam your face one in a while to get your pores open, let them breathe then extract anything that looks easy to extract. Don't dig too deep for gold, you'll just get scars and more breakouts.
• Add rose water into your routine, the real stuff though not any expensive things with added chemicals. You can get this at Indian stores for like a couple bucks. (Aloe Vera too).
• This stuff makes your skin glow
• Spray it on your face
• Use it as a natural toner
• Use it before or after make up for a dewy look or easy application
• Use it in your steamer
• Bathe in it
• Use it in your hair
• It smells good
• You can eat it too!
• WATER
• Working out really helps in helping your skin. You sweat out all the nasty stuff in your body and then you can wash off your nasty sweat. Wow keeping in shape and having happy skin.
• I don't like to use a lot of oils in general but if that works better for you then do it
• Vaseline is amazing for your lips btw idc what anyone says, it works better than any chapsticks
• Exfoliate your lips before bed with a wet toothbrush
• Apply vaseline
• Go to sleep
• Exfoliate the dead skin on your lips on the morning very gently
• Apply a thin layer of vaseline
• Done
• Your lips are soft and pink and not dead.

I don't know what else to talk about except that since I started following this routine, my skin has been glowing and my acne and scars have been disappearing.

Products mentioned

• The Body Shop
• seaweed deep cleansing gel wash
• seaweed night serum
• seaweed clay mask
• seaweed toner
• seaweed exfoliating wash
• tea tree skin cleansing facial wash
• tea tree oil
• tea tree mask
• seaweed purifying facial cleanser
• make up removing butter
• Lush
• grease lightening spot treatment
• angels on bare skin facial cleanser
• breath of fresh air toner
• The Face Shop
• sheet masks (antioxidant)
• other
• rose water
• aloe vera gel 
• coconut oil
• vaseline
• vitamin c 
• vitamin e

-C.

(P.S. Earlier this summer I had a wedding to attend and I work make up for 5 days straight so I just broke out a lot because I rarely wear make up and that was just too much for my skin so I broke out hella but now it's all gone so yay for happy skin!)