My Skin Story

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be telling you my skin story! This post will include my bare face, gross photos of acne, and a lot of talking. So if you're not up for that, feel free to skip this post!

I decided to make this post because I've been testing skincare for about 6 months! I thought it would be useful for you guys to see what my skin is like and what I'm looking for in my skincare, so that my skincare reviews will make more sense.

What's my skin type? 

• Combination skin, with an oily T-Zone and dry cheeks. 
• Prone to blackheads and have large pores. 
• Lots of acne scars and hyper-pigmentation.
• Hormonal breakouts and mild cystic acne 
• Allergic reactions (possibly Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, and Steareth 20)
• Fine lines, wrinkles and redness

What am I looking for in my skincare regime?

• Acne treatment
• Allergies
• Whitening/Brightening
• Anti-Aging

Acne

As a teenager I was never plagued by pimples and zits, however, blackheads and enlarged pores have always been an issue for me. I was on the contraceptive pill at a fairly young age for extreme PMS, which was very successful until my second year on university when i ran into problems with migraines and visual disturbances, and had to come off it. Ever since I stopped that pill, my skin has gone from; oh yeah, pretty good, to, ohmygod what happened to your face. 

My main problem is my chin. I get a few pimples on my forehead and cheeks (never really my nose, that's where the blackheads dominate) but my chin is really just a landmine. This photo shows my chin on a really good day. There are like, 3 small pimples, sure, but what we're really looking at there is the scarring. The cystic pimples scar the worst, even if they don't come to head they still leave a huge hyper-pigmented scar. 

I try not to take photos on days where my skin is absolutely disgusting, because it means a lot less work editing the photos afterwards, and it just makes me feel sad to look at my skin in such a bad state. I can't show you how bad it gets, but it does get pretty bad, so finding skincare that helps me banish the acne is always first on my list!

Allergies
One morning, after having a lovely calming face mask the night before, I woke up to find my chin covered in small pus filled bubbles like this. (Enlarge if you're brave)
 

It took me months to figure out that it was caused by a skincare allergy (although it really should have been obvious). I suspect that I'm allergic to Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, and Steareth 20, which are common acne triggers. I first noticed the disgusting chin allergy after I was using one of my favorite face masks. After I took off the face mask and let the serum absorb into my skin, I found that my chin was SUPER itchy, so instead of being intellegant and washing the serum off, I scratched at it with my long nails. In the morning I found that the places I scratched (aka: everywhere) had erupted into tiny yellow pus bubbles, and I cried for hours. 

The first time it happened was the worst, (the above photo is pretty mild, I don't want to make you guys vomit) and it was all over my chin. It was so itchy, painful and humiliating for a grown up 20 something year old to have! It took 3 weeks for the allergy to go away. If you want to read a similar story, but on a horrifyingly large scale, check out BunBunMakeuptips Facial Story. (WARNING this post is incredibly graphic)

Whitening / Brightening

Many people are quite disgusted when I say that I use Whitening skincare. This is a common misconception where people think I want to bleach my skin to make myself look whiter! Whitening skincare actually brightens your complexion, and lighten scars and hyper-pigmentation. I do not bleach my skin.

Also, I'm not a vampire! My pale skin comes from my fathers English heritage, and my warm/yellow tone comes from my mothers tanned Olive skin. If I tanned for long enough, I would have Olive skin too! So why don't I "just get a tan" instead of complaining about not being able to find pale foundations? Four Reasons.

1 - Tanning darkens scars and hyper-pigmentation. No thank you!

2 - I have a facial birthmark that tans faster than my face. I take great pains to make sure that it's hidden 99% of the time, like leaving my hair down and taking photos from one side only etc. If you guys are curious I can make a separate post about it, but for now I'll just leave it here.

3 - One time at the beach, I was very badly burnt on the tops of my shoulders. My back was protected by my hair and my face was away from the sun, so I was very fortunate that it was only my shoulders that were burnt. It's the worst burn I've ever had, my shoulders bubbled and blisters in the most horrifyingly disgusting way and it was the most pain I'd ever had from sunburn. I was left with freckle covered shoulders (which I think are actually pretty cute now thankfully) and an obsession with sunscreen on my shoulders. Unfortunately this didn't spur on an obsession for sunscreen for my face, so whenever my body saw the sunlight, my shoulders were protected by sunscreen, neck and chest was protected by hair, but my face was left to fend for itself.   

That, resulted in this. My face is a totally different colour from my neck, chest and shoulders. It's crazy, and it makes it hard to get Foundation and BB Creams to match, because they have to be quite full coverage to cover the redness and tan. Now I'm religiously using facial sunscreen, and am looking for brightening skincare to undo the damage I've already done. If I could go back in time, slap myself and then tell myself to wear sunscreen everyday, I would.

4 - I like being pale! 

 Anti-Aging

Excess sun damage results in a sped up process of aging, and I'm not keen on that. I would rather use Anti-Aging skincare before I get substantial wrinkles and fine lines. Once the wrinkles set in, it's much harder to fix, than it is to prevent.

At the end of the day, I can buy as much expensive makeup as I want, but if the skin underneath hasn't been taken care of, then it's never going to look good. Here is un-edited proof of lovely makeup on bad skin. Don't judge me too harshly.

I'm not ashamed of how I look without makeup. I'm making this post for the benefit of my followers who may have the same problems as I do, and as a preface to further skincare reviews that I will be doing, so that I can reference back to this post.

Everyone has problems and nobody is perfect, so if you feel like you want to judge me for the way I look, take a look at yourself first, and make sure that there's nothing that you feel insecure about too. 

*PHEW* If you guys got to the end of this, I have a huge hug and a hi-five for you! If you have any product recommendations for me, I would absolutely love to hear them!