The Spotty Girls Guide To Clear Skin

Here is a list of tips if you are like me and suffer with oily skin. For anyone that does not suffer with this condition they may not realise just how irritating it is. What looks flawless for one skin type can look disastrous on a oily skin type, so, here are my best tried and tested tips to stay on top of the extra moisture in our skin. If you are an oily skin gal like me then worry not, I have your back….

1. Always look at the ingredients  Now I am not going to bore you with thousands of ingredients that are good and bad for oily skin. The only thing you need to look out for is….. if it is oil or water based, and this goes for foundation as well as moisturisers. If you have oily skin then you already have too much sebum, that’s the name of the oil that causes the blocked pores which then goes on to cause spots, blackheads, whiteheads breakouts, do you need me to go on?? Always check your foundation to see if it is water or oil based, it should tell you this on the back of the product, either within the ingredients or around where the ingredients are listed, and, if it does not say then go and ask one of the girls that are working on the counter, if they paid attention during their training then they should be able to give you an idea as to what foundation is best for your skin type.  If you are still unsure then Google is your best friend here. Use this same theory when choosing moisturiser and even primers. This should reduce the amount of oil that you see during the day, and will prevent your makeup from sliding off. Not only that but it will drastically cut down the amount of oil on the skin so there will be less chance of those pores getting blocked and creating bigger problems.

2. Get a night time routine – I cannot stress just how important it is to have a night time routine.  Yes you should always have a morning routine of course. Your night time routine, however, should consist of a couple extra steps and maybe a different moisturiser in comparison to your morning routine. In the morning you could have a routine that consists of, washing your face with an exfoliating facewash. With oily skin you must exfoliate in order to unclog all of the oil thats resting in your pores, if these are not cleaned then you will definitely get breakouts, blackheads and more, so let this be a warning, No exfoliation = big spots!! After you have washed your face all you really need is to mousturise and you can be done with your morning routine.  Which to be honest is all I, myself have time for in the morning so at night, when my skin is getting its beauty sleep I make sure I add a few extra steps.

Your skin does regenerate during the night so this is a really important time to make sure you can make the most of your skin. I will give you what my nightime routine looks like, you can switch it up to suit your lifestyle.

My night time routine goes like this: Wash with Garnier Skin Active Micellar Cleansing Gel Wash, this removes makeup, cleanses, and mattifies. If you look on the ingredients list you will see that the first thing on the list is aqua which means water which also means that this is a water based face wash. If my skin is feeling horrid I will also use Creightons CharcoalDeep Cleansing Scrub, I have used loads of exfoliating face washes and some of them tend to be a bit rough for my skin for everyday use, but this is awesome, it unblocks pores, exfoliates skin, and removes impurities. After I have exfoliated I moisturise with Nivea Q10 plus anti-wrinkle night cream, I am in my 30’s and can see fine lines starting to appear so I thought it would be best to incorporate an anti-ageing product into my skin care routine, I apply this liberally, and then I follow this with some gradual tanning moisturiser, I use Palmer’s cocoa butter formula, face and body lotion, it smells amazing, isn’t heavy on the skin and gives my horrid pasty skin a warm glow by morning. There are several products designed specifically for night time to tan and care for skin, but, I find that this is what works best for me. You will more than likely have to mess around with the products you use as well, what works for one person may not work for another, that’s why I find following someone else’s skin care routine doesn’t always hit the mark.

I suggest you should use your time getting mini’s, such as the kind you get in monthly beauty box subscriptions and messing around with them to find your ideal routine. I am not showing my routine expecting you to copy it, it’s more of a guideline for you.

One step I intend on adding to my nightime routine is a serum or oil. These penetrate deep down into the skin, but can sometimes be a little heavy so I would not advise using them every single night, maybe once or twice a week.

3. Do not ever, ever go to bed with your makeup on – This is just an extra warning that if you are not in the habit of your nightly routine yet, or you do not have a routine, YET! Then please, at the very least, take a face wipe and wipe off your makeup, although I would not advise that this be all that you do, but I would opt for a wet wipe if that was all I had, as opposed to not removing it at all. It’s a very, very bad idea to go to sleep with your makeup on. It’s a one-way ticket to breakout vill. If you do not already take your makeup off every single night then you really should, even those nights that you can’t be bothered, just do it, once you do something for 30 days then it becomes a habit, you will do it without even thinking about it so I recommend you write yourself out a habit tracker (google how to make a habit tracker, you will love this if you are a crafty girl like myself) and track yourself taking off your makeup for 30 days. Your skin will love you for it, and you will notice a massive difference in your skin, trust me.

4. Stop touching your skin, and never pop your spots ewww! – I know, I know, this one can be hard to master, I have a fringe and I am always touching it, or swiping it away from my forehead and guess what, yep, that’s where I always seem to have a little bundle of tiny little spots, I don’t have them all the time but occasionally I do, this is my problem area. If I notice these little scoundrel’s appearing then I instantly pin my fringe back and guaranteed after a few days they will be gone, damn me and my huge forehead. If it wasn’t for my big forehead I wouldn’t have a fringe but I do, and I do, so there….. I try my best not to touch my skin throughout the day but sometimes this honestly seems harder than you think. As, for those pesky spots, do not ever ever pop them, when you pop a spot, even though you cannot see it, there is always some of that horrible white puss, that will end up else where on the face, and if that stuff gets in to a pore then you can imagine what happens, another spot, and the cycle just goes on and on.

5. Get spot treatment with an anti-inflammatory in it – The only way to get rid of a spot without contaminating the rest of your beautiful face is to get the proper treatment. Tea tree oil is always good for battling spots. But if you have a huge breakout, where you have more than one spot then I would opt for freederm, this is a cream and its great at clearing up a breakout, it’s so effective due to the anti-inflammatory that’s in it. After the first application the redness of the spots is visibly better. I always seem to get really red spots which can make them look a lot bigger than what they actually are, that’s where freederm really comes into its own. I have not tried another spot treatment that works as quickly or as efficiently as freederm does, I would highly recommend giving it a try. It could change the way you wear makeup, give you more confidence, the list is endless. As a teenage sufferer of bad acne, I know just how terrible having really bad skin can make you feel, but I also know just how amazing you feel when you finally find a combination of products that works for you as well as a treatment that works if you need it.

I have put together a quick list of products that I have tried and tested myself or that have came highly recommended by fellow bloggers or influencer’s.  Let this be your clear skin bible to help you on your way to total absaloute goddess status.  Lets face it your pretty much there already!!

I hope this helps anyone out there who was like me with seriously bad skin, or who is like me trying to keep the bad skin at bay. Either way, I know how you feel.

Live, love, slay, every day.