Better Skin Challenge

I just made this up so bear with me. I'm attempting to give myself better skin by taking special care of it. I'm at an age where I only get blemishes once a month but the past few weeks have been a lot worse than ever before. I was reading/watching some stuff about taking care of your skin and set a challenge for myself. Since I wash my face more thoroughly at night and just rinse with water and maybe a light cleanser in the morning, the format will be a little different.

(will be updating this whenever I remember and resetting the post date as day of. But it is officially posted for the first time on August 25, 2016)

Below is a list of products I used in order of appearance:
-The Body Shop: Seaweed Pore Cleansing Facial Exfoliator (combination skin)
-First Aid Beauty: Skin Rescue Deep Cleanser with Red Clay (for sensitive skin)
-The Body Shop: Vitamin E Hydrating Toner. Alcohol-free (for all skin types)
-Equate Beauty: All-Day Moisturizing Lotion (non greasy)
-Fresh: Soy Face Cleanser
-First Aid Beauty: Ultra Repair Hydrating Serum (for sensitive skin)
-First Aid Beauty: Ultra Repair Cream Intense Hydration

Night 1 8/24: Exfoliate with Body Shop Seaweed, wash with First Aid Beauty Red Clay, Body Shop Toner, and Equate Beauty moisturizer. - Washed hair
Day 1 of Results 8/25: Wash with Fresh Soy cleanser in the morning. Woke up in the morning with a hot lump on my cheek - the one where you know a pimple will form. Instead of waiting three days for the pimple to form, the white ripeness appeared in the afternoon and I popped it right away. Just a quick squeeze to get the white stuff out and that's it. Swollen went down by night time but is still a bit red. Also the chin blemishes I've had for the last two weeks seem to be laying flat and just healing over.

Night 2 8/25: Exfoliate with seaweed, wash with red clay, toner, First Aid Beauty Serum, moisturizer, and First Aid Beauty Repair Cream on spots
Day 2 of Results 8/26: Morning wash with soy cleanser. My cheek pimple went down completely, you can still feel the small dry skin bump from where the skin broke the day before. It's just a tiny red dot and I'm hopeful it'll be gone tomorrow. Face feels nicer, I've been working on touching my face less which I think I'm starting to control better.

(Writing this stuff up on 8/29)
Night 3 8/26: Seaweed exfoliant, red clay wash, toner, serum, moisturizer, repair cream. I kinda squeezed out a few of the black and whiteheads on my nose and chin. One of the bigger nose ones started bleeding (oops). Splashed some water on it and it stopped; I'm sure the repair cream will work wonders for that. Skin definitely looking better - although it might be my positive thoughts.
Day 3 of Results 8/27: Don't really remember but I did put some eyeliner and mascara on and it didn't look terrible because my skin had cleared up so much just after a few days of this experiment.

Night 4 8/27: Seaweed exfoliant, red clay wash, toner, repair cream. I was too tired after a going to the mall with my friend today so I didn't do the usual routine.
Day 4 of Results 8/28: Ate some yummy brunch today, I'm pretty sure it will end up in my face in the upcoming days but we can hope it won't. But face feels great!

Night 5 8/28: Seaweed, red clay, toner, serum, moisturizer, rose face mask I got from my mom, and washed my hair! After all the greasy food (also had sukiyaki for dinner) from the day, it was super nice to wash everything clean.
Day 5 of Results 8/29: I know I'm not supposed to touch my face but I couldn't help it today, my face feels so smooth and perfect! Although pretty late into the afternoon, I started to feel a hard lump in my chin (probably will become a pimple and ready to pop in the next two days.) I'm really annoyed that I keep getting blemishes on my chin. So often that it's kinda permanently red from all the squeezing I've done.

Night 6 8/29:
Day 6 of Results 8/30: I could not stop touching/patting my face all day at work today. I know you're not supposed to touch your face (maybe that's why people wear makeup!) because oils and germs but I can't help it. My face skin feels so smooth and soft. It's amazing! Oh yeah, chin thing is gone. It was like one of those whitehead like things that you can pull right out of the pore. I did that and now it's fine.

Night 7 8/30: Seaweed, red clay, toner,
I'm getting tired of writing these things every day. I'll probably just add stuff when something interesting happens.










Thoughts:
-Reason for doing this: I never paid attention to skin care (nor anything care) instructions until recently. I've been watching and reading a lot of beauty/lifestyle videos and blogs so I've been wanting to get more into it.


Products:
-The Body Shop: Seaweed Exfoliator
 Bought this with my mom during The Body Shop's buy 3 get 3 (or something like that) sale. The things in it are a little rough so maybe don't try it on your whole face if you're a bit more sensitive until you find out if it's okay for you. I personally like the feeling; and it smells great!

-First Aid Beauty: Cleanser with Red Clay
 Got this in my July Sephora Play box. And I have to say, I am absolutely in love with it! It is a gel consistency and has a weird smell that I'm not a fan of. But I have a really oily t-zone and after using it, the t-zone feels as smooth and non-oily as my cheeks do!

-The Body Shop: Toner
 The bottle is pink and my mom swears by it (she gave me half a bottle to use). I still don't know what toner is but I'll use it like a good girl.

-Equate Beauty: Moisturizing Lotion- I believe this is a walmart brand
 I actually thought the brand was "All Day" until I wrote this post. A bit embarrassing to say but I've had this same bottle for a few years. I needed one at the time so I went to get it at wal-mart. I chose it because it smells a bit like my mom/her bed back when I was little and would crawl into bed with her at night. It's exactly how her pillow used to smell. Not sure how it smells now but this moisturizer is such a great smell to me. It's 6 oz so it's taking me quite a long time to use.

-First Aid Beauty: Ultra Repair Hydrating Serum (for sensitive skin)
 Received this on 8/25 in the First Aid Beauty free trial. No opinions yet. Not sure what a serum is for though

-First Aid Beauty: Ultra Repair Cream Intense Hydration
Received this on 8/25 in the First Aid Beauty free trial. No opinions yet. Apparently this magical lotion/cream is supposed to heal you really fast. Looking forward to that!

Dealing With Acne

How To Deal With Acne

Acne! We all have it and we all hate it!
Now that I'm older, I have so many stories that I can tell about having acne. I am lucky enough to not get it that often anymore, it's more of a once every 1.5~2 months basis. My sister used to only get it on the back of her arms but now it's starting to grow on her face too. Mine has always been on my face but I heal quickly. Which brings us to number one:

1. Know your skin type.
From experience I know that my skin heals quickly and I don't scar easily. Make sure you know what your skin is like before picking or squeezing. Usually I wait for a spot/pimple to be ripe before squeezing it because if you don't, you'll just leave red marks on your face and not have accomplished anything. But generally it's not recommended to pick at acne.

2. Keep clean
If you do decide to pick or squeeze, make sure to wash your hands and tools (if you use tweezers or needles) before you touch your face! Wash everything again after you're done and don't touch your face for awhile, it's still a little sensitive.

3. Be nice to your skin
Your face is the first thing that people see, you want to treat it nicely. Wash your face the appropriate amount. Do not over wash (might end up drying your skin and causing it to flake off) and remember to moisturize. I have generally oily skin and I like to use oil blotting paper on my t-zone to avoid washing my face too often. If I do have to wash it throughout the day, I just use water. You should generally wash your face once in the morning and once at night. Even if you have oily skin, you need to moisturize to put the necessary oils into your skin to protect it. Sunscreen is also highly recommended because the sun has harmful rays and even though you can't see it, it is affecting your skin under the surface.

4. Makeup
No matter how much you think you need it or want to use it, you don't. Using makeup is actually terrible for your skin. You're basically covering it and not allowing it to breathe. This is results in getting unwanted things into your pores. I have noticed the people who use a lot of makeup generally us it to cover up blemishes. This is actually ironic because using makeup actually makes it worse than not using makeup. It is more likely to go away if you have a fresh face for a few days as opposed to having cover-up or concealer on it.

5. Sleep
We all know that it is good for our bodies to get a good night's sleep. It'll help your skin too! Just make sure to clean your face of all the day's oils before going to sleep. You don't want to marinate in the grease all night long.

6. Diet
A diet doesn't mean eating less food or losing weight. "Diet" means the type of food you eat and what you eat. If you're having a bad skin month or week or even day, you might want to consider putting down the pizza for awhile and go for food that hasn't been fried or dipped in delicious oil. Remember, I say this not because I'm judging but because I eat a lot of pizza!

Disclaimer: I am not a professional, I have not done any research on this subject. This is all just my personal opinions.







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Youtube - Cattyliu816 - subscribe to see when I upload videos
Twitter - Cattyliu816 - follow me to see when I update or just to read my thoughts
Cat's Disney Obsession Blog - I really love all things Disney
Summary of Things Blog - see just about how many things I watch
Tigger Adventures Instagram - my Tigger toy loves going on Disney adventures with me
Personal Instagram - Just a bunch of selfies (not really) and Disney things
Facebook Page - I post blog updates and random links I find online (check this last)






This is my face. I don't have makeup or any product on. This could be you if you treat your skin right:

(yes I really was on the phone)