Out Out Damned Spot (my skin care routine)

Out Out Damned Spot

My skin care routine

Not long ago I showed you all my hair care routine and how it improves my mental health. So now I've decided to show my skin care routine and how taking care of my skin also helps me. 

Now, I have far from perfect skin (I mean come on, I am a teenager...just about...) but trust me when I say compared to how it was in my early teens, it's doing pretty good. But it hasn't come without hard work. For instance, my skin got so bad that I bad to go onto long term antibiotics which you take for a minimum of 2 years (don't worry, this type doesn't become resistant to the body) and these combined with the time I take to take care of my skin it has done wonderous things. 

As for what it's done for my anxiety and depression, we have to go back to when my skin was at it's worst. At this time in my life, it seemed as if it was just thing after another and having acne didn't help, it made my depression get worse as I felt that it was making me an outcast (which in reality it was myself making me the outcast) and my anxiety made me think that everyone was doing nothing but stare at my acne and judging me (again, something that it reality I was doing to myself). But now that it is reducing it doesn't affect them nearly as bad. I still feel underconfident leaving the house because of depression and anxiety, but now it's not because of my skin but instead, it's of other reasons (something I may write about in another post) and if I do have to go out I no longer feel like everyone is judging my acne. It's all about taking baby steps and treating my acne was one of those steps. 

It's also important to take into account that I NEVER, NEVER, EVER wear any make-up. It's just not for me, I've only ever had it put on me once and I didn't feel comfortable and I'd honestly rather stay in bed for an extra 30 minutes in the morning. 

So now that I've said all that, let's get on to seeing exactly what this skin care routine. 

Step 1: After putting up my hair and putting on a hairband I do a face mask. Many people like to end their routine with a face mask but instead, I like to start mine with one so that I can get a lot of the dirt off my face with it and I can also wash it off/wash off any excess during step 2. When it comes to masks I either use a clay mask and wear it for 15 minutes before washing off or a peel off mask which again I leave on for 15 minutes before peeling off. I usually swap between the 2 during the week, using one on one day and then the other on the next day then the next day going back to the first one and so on (I hope that made sense to you, it just about does to me). I know people say not to use masks so often but at the end of the day, this is what works for my skin. Whichever one I'm using, I always make sure that the masks I'm using have tea tree in them to fight any blemishes I may be getting. 

Once time is up I then remove them, either washing them off with water or peeling them off (which I have to say is tremendous fun!).

Step 2: After removing the mask, I make up a cold mug of green tea and leave it to brew (you may be confused now, but all shall be revealed soon). I then get put a few drops of cleansing water and oil mixture on a cotton pad and wipe it all over my face and neck to break down any dirt on my face. 

 Step 3: I next like to wash with a gentle, spot fighting wash and rub it over my face using a handheld gentle exfoliating brush to get rid of the dead skin cells on my face and skin to avoid any blocked pores. I after I rinse my face I place a few drops of toner into my hands and simply just pat it onto my skin.

Step 4: I then like to take some vitamin E body and face oil and rub it into my neck in an upwards direction. This doesn't so much help with acne but I'm doing it more as a prevention for sagging skin in the future as for some reason people always seem to forget about the neck so I've decided to take action now.



Step 5: I take some overnight argan oil serum, place a few drop in my hands and gently pat it into my skin. While I wait for that to soak in, I take around half a pea sized amount (per eye) of eye cream and press this gently around my eyes using my ring fingers to reduce the amount of pressure that is put on the delicate skin around the eyes. Once the serum has soaked in I then do the same thing I did with it except I use a moisturiser which again has spot fighting properties.

 Step 6: (don't worry, we're nearly at the end) remember that green tea from earlier? Well while I don't like the taste of green tea, I LOVE the benefits it has for the skin so what I like to do is soak a plain sheet mask (I got a pack of good quality ones on Amazon for not a lot of money) in green tea by placing it into the sink to reduce mess and keep the mask flat, pour the tea all over it and place it on my face. Just a word of warning, when wearing this you will look a little like Mike Myers in Friday the 13th but sometimes that's the price of beauty so just embrace it!!!

 Step 7: (final step. "AT LAST" I'm sure many of you are saying). I leave the green tea mask on my face until it has dried and then the last thing I do before I go to sleep is place dots of sudocrem on any spots that have somehow managed to survive all this to dry them out and by the morning they are pretty much gone.

 And that's it. To some of you, that may seem like a lot of steps and a lot of products but this is just what works for my skin and remember, everybody's skin is different.

As always if you have any questions or comments be sure to comment them down below and let me know what else you would like me to post about.

Stay happy, stay healthy, from Abbie xx