[Personal] How I destroyed my skin (and saved it!) - Why keeping it simple is so important.

Beauty Tips For Body Care
It started with occasional cystic breakouts and fungal acne. Off to shoppers I went with my new reddit knowledge for an FA safe routine and some nizoral... problem solved! Until I got bored. Time to try some new (but still FA safe) products... because our skin can ALWAYS be better, right? And so began my foray into korean skincare. I introduced some Cosrx, Shiseido, and Hada Lobo. I convinced myself because they weren’t making things worse that they were helping. My skin was just “okay” considering I was now spending a small fortune on skincare. Fast forward 6 months and the fungal acne came back with a vengeance. But was it really fungal? Or was it bacterial this time? Only one way to find out: Slather it in benzoyl peroxide and see what happens. No improvement whatsoever. Time for sulfur. Very little change. Surely my trusty Nizoral will do the trick... aaaand nothing. Glycolic acid peels and serums? Nope. I was devastated. What was breaking me out? Why isn’t anything helping? At this point my skin was FUCKED. My moisture barrier was shot causing a whole new array of issues/breakouts, and these bumps were spreading like crazy. I went through this for another 4 months. My doctor told me to “just keep washing my face” (cue eye twitch) and sent me on my way with some minocycline which drum roll please did absolutely nothing! Luckily my boss is a doctor (thank god) and I broke down asking him for help with my skin. He looked at me like I was crazy and asked why I never came to see him sooner. He berated me for wasting my money and said “Here is your magic in a bottle. It will get worse before it gets better, but you can thank me later”. Off to the pharmacy I went with my script for a tube of 0.025% tret. I was NERVOUS. But here I am one month in, with no purge. No breakouts. No bumps. No peeling. Just massive improvements and a glow I haven’t had in years. I now cleanse with vanicream, moisturize with Uremol, and use tret every night. No toners, no essences, no masks, no serums. I never would’ve thought I could have such a simple routine with such flawless skin. The tret gods are real, guys. I’m so happy I could cry. Don’t waste your money, stop self diagnosing, don’t assault your skin out of desperation, and remember less is more. For those of you on the fence about tret: Make the jump. I avoided it for years out of fear from the dreaded “purge” and want to kick myself for not doing it sooner.Learn from my mistakes: Don’t be a skincare snob and go back to basics when shit gets weird.
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by Bexaroni