WHAT HELPED MY ACNE + MY CURRENT SKINCARE ROUTINE

Whew! I’m FINALLY sharing what helped clear my acne and my current skincare routine. Ultimately, my dermatologist told me that less is more. I LOVE trying new products – skin, makeup, body – so it was (and still is) actually incredibly hard to just stick with the same products and trust the process. But below, I’ll break down a few tips/tricks that helped resolve my acne as well as my daily skincare regimen.

You might also like my current makeup routine, and clean makeup I love.

What I Did To Help My Acne

I saw a Dermatologist. I thought I could solve things on my own for the first couple months, and it turned out I couldn’t. When I started getting continuous acne flareups that I’ve never had before, this should’ve been my sign to see a professional. But instead, I thought some Google articles would reign above all else. Wrong.
I went on doxycycline for 3 months. There’s a lot of opinions out there about acne medication, but it was SO embarrassing to have acne that I was willing to try whatever. I truly think that the medication was my saving grace (even if it took awhile to show).
My Dermatologist told me to quit the excessive skincare routine. MY SKIN CAN’T HANDLE IT. As I shared above, I get giddy over products and I love seeing reels and TikTok’s watching people do their 10+ step skincare routine. However, this isn’t always necessary and the more products I used, the more clogged my pores became. Now, I only use 7 products TOTAL that I split between morning and night. More on that below.
Checkout the ingredients in your skincare AND makeup! When my acne was at it’s worst, I had to throw out/give away so much makeup and skincare. It was honestly heartbreaking to see it all go to waste. You can read the full list of ingredients that my Derm told me to stay away from here.
Have days without makeup. When your acne is a it’s worst, it can be so hard to have a bare face! I get it. But even if it was just for a weekend, I would let my skin breathe.
I did 3 sessions of microneedling. Once the active acne was gone, and it was just scarring, I decided to invest in a microneedling package at my Dermatologists office. Now, I truly can’t be 100% sure if these sessions did anything major. But I do feel like they helped a smidge.

Morning Routine (in order)

Step #1 | wash face with cleanser (my Derm recommended this product)

Step #2 | apply eye cream

Step #3 | apply tinted SPF (my Derm recommended this product)

Evening Routine (in order)

Step #1 | remove makeup with water and microfiber makeup remover pads

Step #2 | wash my face twice with cleanser (my Derm recommended this product)

about 3 times a week I use this physical exfoliant after I wash my face

Step #3 | every other day I switch between the Face Reality Mandelic Acid and the Epionce Lytic Sport Tx Retexturizing Lotion (my Derm recommended this product)

Step #4 | apply eye cream

Step #5 | moisturizer (my Derm recommended this product)

I’m still on my skin journey and getting back to a place of pure confidence. I still get random zits and deal with milia that I’m trying to combat, but overall my skin is so much happier a year later. I hope this was helpful for anyone dealing with acne; something I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy!