My Daily Skin Care Routine

It took me a while to figure out the best routine for my skin. I did a ton of research and reading to determine what could work for me. There is no magical "one size fits all" for acne treatment. I boil it down to trial and error - kind of sucks but that is the reality. I am pretty religious about my skin care routine. There has to be a very good reason for me to skip a morning or evening washing. I would also like to state that I do switch up my face washes every once in a while. I think my skin likes the diversity and lets be honest, there are so many great brands out there with really awesome washes. I try not to spend more than $15 on a face wash though. A little goes a long way - it is important not to kill your face so try to focus on products with and without acne treatments.

I'll break down my routine into buckets and then add detail at the end of the post so it isn't too cluttered.

Prescriptions

Birth Control (Sprintec)

AcZone 7.5% Gel

Vitamins

L-Lysine 1000 mg

Prescript-Assist Probiotic

Morning

In the shower:

1. Use face scrub (St Ives Apricot Scrub)

2. Follow up with face wash (Mario Badescu Acne Cleansing Gel) - massage with face sponge

At the sink:

1. Apply toner with cotton pad/ball (Humphrey's Cucumber Mellon Witch Hazel Toner)

2. Use pea size amount of AcZone gel (or any acne topical)

3. Once dry, apply moisturizer (Clinique Moisturizing Gel)

During the Day

Any acne topical can and probably will dry out your skin. There are a lot of great facial sprays out there which you can apply over make up during the day. I'm currently using Mario Badescu's Facial Spay with Aloe, Herbs, and Rosewater.

Night

1. Use face scrub (St Ives Apricot Scrub)

2. Apply toner with cotton pad/ball (Humphrey's Cucumber Mellon Witch Hazel Toner)

3. Once dry, apply moisturizer (Clinique Moisturizing Gel)

*I'll create another post for face masks. I seriously love masks and have a bunch I use.

I believe my regimen is pretty easy to understand, but you might have some questions about my prescriptions and vitamins so I'll break that down for you:

Birth Control

Sprintec is a low dose birth control. I suffer from hormonal acne and obviously birth control manages your hormones. I'm honestly not sure if this is part of the solution or problem? I started birth control around the same time I started AcZone so it is hard for me to tell what is making the greater difference.

AcZone 7.5% Gel

This is a topical designed specifically for young adults suffering from acne. I really really really like this stuff. I noticed a difference in my skin almost immediately. It is great at taking care of the small bumps under my skin, especially on my forehead. It doesn't tackle the big nasty cystic outbreaks I experience around the time of my period though. If you haven't tried AcZone but tried "any of the crap in a metal tube" I seriously recommend this to you.

L-Lysine 1000 mg

L-lysine is an essential amino acid, which means that our bodies need it and depend on it, but they cannot produce it naturally. Therefore, we must introduce it to the body through food or supplements. Benefits include the fight against acne. It cures zits, pimples and black heads and leaves the skin clean and mark free. Many users have reported that, after a treatment with lysine in the form of supplements taken every day, they noticed a huge improvement as far as skin health goes.

Probiotics

I stumbled upon a blog called Organic Olivia. She is the one who turned me onto L-Lysine and Probiotics. She explains that a happy gut creates a happy life. I could go on forever but I think Dr. Axe sums it up pretty well with this article

#acneroutine #hormonalacne #cysticacne #skincare #acne #AcZone #Probiotics #FaceWash