Clear skin products and tips

I used to have very good skin in highschool, so good that, in fact, other girls would make known that they were jealous of my oh-so-clear skin. But then first year of college happened, and I started getting acne. Terrible time to start getting acne, when you have to make new friends and experience new things and just generally go out more. But now, two years on, I've finally managed to control it down to a blemish every now and then. I've tried a multitude of skin care resolutions, but I've worked out a routine that works for me, and general tips that would help anyone's skin out.

1. Natural products. I'm putting this at number one, because this was the big one that helped me clear up my skin. I've tried a multitude of acne solutions from Clearasil to Proactive, but none of them seemed very much to lessen my acne, at least in the long haul. So skeptically, I started using products that were gentler, had less chemicals and more natural ingredients. And gradually, my skin amazingly starting clearing up. I was shocked. I was so concerned and distraught with all the spots appearing, that I thought the best way was to use the harshest and strongest products at my disposal in order to fight it hard. But these products were much too harsh for my skin, and instead of removing my skin troubles, it probably irritated the hell out of it, so essentially, the more natural products gently helped my skin to fight the troubles rather than creating more. Below are some products that I would recommend, that are not only low in chemicals, but also gentle and effective.

Lush Herbalism Cleanser

Admittedly, this cleanser is weird. You grab a pea sized amount of the dry, crumbly mix and add a couple drops of water and mix it between your palms to make a squishy, squidgy paste. Then apply it and rinse off like you would a regular cleanser.While the smell is not for everyone, it's feels very nice on the skin, and I notice the morning after using this cleanser in the evening, any blemishes my skin has had, has calmed down and overall my skin just looks healthier. I use this for when my skin is acting up a bit more.

Mario Badescu Acne Facial Cleanser

I originally got this as a sample from Kit Cosmetics, but I'm now on a fourth repurchase. This is first product that turned everything around for me. It's a clear gel and feels like nothing special at all. No tingling, no instant glowing, no exfoliating or anything. Just a bland gel. But as I kept using this cleanser as a hey, might as well, my skin started getting clearer and clearer and I narrowed it down to this beauty. Incredibly gentle, you would be skeptical too, especially after using so many strong products, I was sure this wouldn't make a difference. But it did and was/is one of the most gentle and effective cleansers I have ever used. 

Mario Badescu Special Cucumber Lotion

Ah, another sample that turned into a full-size purchase. I fell in love with this product, using it as a toner before moisturizer and after cleanser. You apply it to a cotton pad and swipe it over your face until the yellow from the product on the cotton pad disappears. Again, I was used to strong, stripping astringents, but this was so gentle. I loved the smell of it, and I figured it was cooling to the skin so it may help with inflammation. And it did. Definitely going to keep using this one.

Thursday Plantation Medicated Gel for Acne

This stuff is amazing. I heard that tea tree oil was good for blemishes and whatnot, but, as it is a natural product, I wasn't inclined to try it. As my skin got to a really bad point (cystic acne ALL over my chin and jawline), I got desperate. I heard tea tree oil is a hit or miss, so I didn't expect results, especially considering all that money spent on Proactive with no (to worse) results. But I tried it one night and the very next morning. Bam. Over half of the cystic acne I had on my face was gone. Instant love. Keep in mind, I've found that this works better as a spot treatment, rather than a regular slathering.

Origins A Perfect World Age-Defence Skin Guardian

Now this one is not an acne-specific product, but it is a natural product and it has helped to calm my skin and improve its texture vastly. It has silicones in it, I'm pretty sure, so if your skin isn't keen on silicone, then I would give this one a miss. However, it has worked wonderfully in making my skin smooth and moisturized, even calming down particular redness and dryness. 

Kiehls Midnight Recovery Oil

Oh lordy. I watched an Essie Button video, and she RAVED about this product, and even her boyfriend was raving too. I had to have it. Like Essie (ooh, first name basis here), I was skeptical about it. The only other facial oil I had tried was Bio-oil and while that did work, it only worked, maybe, less than half the time I used it. So I got this oil in the hopes that it would calm the zits down a bit, maybe reduce scars, keep me moisturized without being too greasy... And it did all of them. It even made my skin glow nicely when I woke up in the morning. While it does not effectively combat zits, it does not irritate them, and helps to reduce any scarring that may result. 

Lush Celestial Moisturiser 

Finally, a beloved moisturizer. I have not been using this product very long and in the beginning, I couldn't decide whether I liked or disliked this product. The main reason I got this was because I was in need of a new moisturizer and this product from popped out at me when I visited Lush, as it was toted "for sensitive skin". I have not thought of my skin being sensitive before, but considering that I had been using products for sensitive skin and they had helped, I thought this would make a nice addition to the collection. Oh, and it smells so delicious, like soft vanilla cream. This product has definitely just added a nice rounding to my skincare routine and helped with any dry patches that result from using acne-fighting products. But the point is, it sinks nicely into the skin and doesn't add to the blemishes, while reducing redness.

2. Cleanse thoroughly. Pretty basic knowledge, if you want clear skin, you have to remove the gunk that's preventing your skin from being, well, clear. I used to wonder why I would get random (quite big) zits on my face even when I wash my face morning and night. But the trouble was, despite washing my face, I wasn't washing all the dirt and make up products off my face along with it, causing my pores to become clogged resulting in some nasty spots. I've played with a few cleansing oils, and while they work brilliantly to remove the make up, don't forget to also have something like a foaming cleanser to remove the cleansing oil. Not fully removing cleanser from your skin is another reason some people tend to get breakouts.

3. Drink water. Well, besides the fact that we can't live without water, drinking water is beneficial to your skin. I used to get quite oily skin, and I thought it was just cause I had oily skin. But the reason my teenage face was so greasy, is that I was not drinking enough water. As soon as I upped my water intake, the oiliness decreased, and a lot of acne on my forehead decreased too. 

4. Don't pick. This is THE biggest one for me, I think. Picking your skin. I just could not help myself whatsoever. I figured I was getting the gunk out of my skin quicker. What I was really doing was chucking lovely bacteria all around my face and making dimples are scars everywhere. Sad times. My mum kept telling me if I stopped picking, my face would heal quicker, and good lord, why did I not take the advice sooner? I forced myself to stop picking at my face for one week, as a test. My face healed so quick and got no new blemishes, even better no extra scarring. So yeah. Don't pick your face. Sometimes I can't help myself if it's a bit of dry skin or a "ready" pimple, but I try to reduce the pushing and squeezing and use a pair of tweezers so the slightest amount touches my face. Otherwise, yeah. Don't touch.

Illamasqua Haul

I've been wanting to make a purchase from the Illamasqua online store for a while now, just as soon as I could decide what I wanted, had enough money saved up, and, well, had the motivation to place an order. I think I must have been watching a Fleurdeforce video when she mentioned an Illamasqua product and that spurred me to go onto the website. What luck that they would be currently having a sale, so I readily checked all the categories and chose just enough to push me over to free shipping.

These are not the first Illamasqua products I own. When I was in London at the start of this year with my family, I visited the flagship store a couple of times with my future sister-in-law and picked up a medium pencil (Vow), a cream blush (Betray), a cream eyeshadow (Peak) and a lipstick (Magnetism, which I have unfortunately not been able to find as of late... that lipstick was amazing). This time around, I picked up two more medium pencils, one cream pigment, one pure pigment and an intense lipgloss.

Medium Pencil in Titivate (2A1)

What I like about the medium pencils is that it's not limited to one use, as in, you can use it for your eyes, for your lips, eyebrows, any part of your face really. Titivate is a (like almost all Illamasqua prodcuts) super pigmented pencil in a bright deep pink. I originally picked this up not as a lip pencil, but I wanted to use it for a striking colour point for my eyes, but I honestly see no reason to not also double it up as a lip liner. I think even if I lined and filled in my lips with this pencil, I could just top it off with a gloss and be good to go. 

Medium Pencil in Debonair (2M1)

I had the same idea with Debonair as I did Titivate. A true bright sky blue colour, I wanted to use this like an eyeliner as well to bring light and focus to my eyes. The pencils are so creamy and so smooth when I swatched them, it shouldn't be too bad to use them as a base for eyeshadow either. 

Intense Lipgloss in Belladonna

The only product that I purchased that was not on sale. I was browsing through the lip product section of the site, and saw this dang pigmented lipgloss and fell in love with the colour. Admittedly, it did remind me of my missing Magnetism lipsitck, but I am not really one to repurchase many items, especially if it might (hopefully) turn up again. In the chance that Magnetism does decide to appear, Belladonna is a deep pink, slightly rosey colour, a similar feel to Magnetism, but a bit brighter so I could choose which one depending on the mood or weather. Indeed, this lipgloss is more like a liquid lipstick and the sheen from it on the lips is just lovely.

Pure Pigment in Berber

The first thing I thought when I got this product was how the hell do I open this. I was a bit hesitant to try with a bit of gusto because, well, it's a pigment and I didn't want to spill it everywhere. I tenderly pried the top off and that was useless, because there was a sticker restricting fall out. But either way, it was also nice to find that inside the lid was shaped to also block the entrance to the pigment so it won't spill out when jostled about. I chose this pigment mainly because I needed something to push me over to the free shipping minimum, but without going over too much. I read the reviews and ultimately decided that I needed this pigment; it was the reddish rusty colour that I had always wanted and all other people that had purchased it raved about the pigmentation. So I'm hoping that I would be able to find a way to use a pigment, as I'm not that good at dealing with fallout.

Cream Pigment in Delirium

This is one of the first products I saw on sale that made me decide to officially place an order. I thought that I could use this cream pigment as a contour colour, but, if failing that, it could work as a blush either way. I didn't realise that Delirium would be so plummy, I was more expecting a grey/brown based tone which would be more neutral. But I do love purple make up products, that seem to just work well with my skin.

left to right: Titivate, Debonair, Belladonna, Berber, Delirium

I thought it was also pretty nifty that they included a little Illamasqua magazine (issue 2) inside my order. Not only does it include in depth information about some of their products, it also has how-to/get the look pages and other articles that would interest any beauty enthusiast.

This haul was quite the splurge for me, but I'm happy that the products I chose were all pleasing, and I'm hoping that I can get a lot of use out of all of them. The only thing that I will say though, is that the shipping (in particular the tracking), was a bit of a nuisance, as I waited longer than I thought I was going to, and I couldn't even track my parcel. If it turns out that I am indeed well in love with Illamasqua as I feared, I would definitely place another order, perhaps the eyebrow cake and the highlighters will be on my list.

Rimmel Apocalips

I've almost been dying to get my hands on the Rimmel Apocalips Lip Lacquers ever since I saw them in Essie Button's video all the way back in February. So when they finally made their way to the rest of the world, I made sure to pop into Priceline and pick up a couple. Even better when Priceline had 50% off all Rimmel products, I picked up four different shades.

Nova (102)

While there were other enticing shades, like a bright red like Stellar, or a deep fuschia pink like Apocaliptic, I opted for a basic pink shade. The brightest of the colours I picked up, Nova is rose pink hue with blue undertones. This one left a bit of a stain on my lips, but it looked very natural like I'd been eating berries. Unfortunately, it does clash a bit with my skin tone when it is applied in full, so not likely that I would be wearing this quite often. Perhaps if it was the slightest bit brighter or a shade or two darker, it would look lovely.

Solstice (201)

One of the more neutral shades, it's a brown pink colour, good for everyday wear. Shame with this colour though, is that on my skin tone, it tends to clash a bit and look a bit darker than I want. It would be good to use a lip liner with this one in particular, as it's basically a MLBB shade.

Nude Eclipse (600)

I did not actually pick out this colour for myself. I did indeed want a nude shade (I always do, especially for the more liquid type lip products) and this was the one a friend chose for me. So very excitedly, I tried it on the day after purchasing for the first time to wear to work. And to my horror, it turned out to be a VERY hoochie type lipstick on me. If I had paler skin and perhaps with less of a yellow undertone, this shade might have worked a bit better, but unfortunately that was not the case. In the end, I ended up putting on Plumful, a lustre finish lipstick by MAC over the top and it transformed it into a pleasing light mauve colour, almost a duo lip because the outer part of my lip took better to the lipstick rather than the lip lacquer. 

Celestial (101)

The last of the shades I picked up and originally I didn't really consider Celestial at all because it seemed a bit too plain, maybe even more so than Solstice for some reason, and considering I had already many similar shades in my collection. But I'm glad I did get this shade, as it is the most flattering on me out the four that I picked up. It's a bit of a dusty rose colour, again with a blue undertone and would definitely work well for everyday wear. It gives your face a little pick me up but looks quite natural all the same. Maybe the reason why I have so mamy similar shades tp this one is just because it works.

left to right: Nova, Solstice, Nude Eclipse, Celestial

Overall, the Rimmel Apocalips I think, unfortunately were a bit hyped up in my opinion. There is not a huge colour selection and it is really one of the weirdest textures of lip product I have experienced. They have a strange drying sensation to them after about maybe a half hour post application. And besides that, there is the issue of the lip lacquers having a tendency to bleed and feather a bit outside of your lip. They are quite pigmented though, and smell wonderfully of watermelon; I have not testing the durability of these lip lacquers, but the darker shades leave a nice natural stain, perhaps even better than the lip lacquer itself.