The top 3 favourite skincare items that saved my skin

If you are like us at MBM, you love skincare. Personally, I (kris) am not into a lot of make up and it's more of a minimal no make up make up routine. BUT SKINCARE, it's been a journey and a half - acne, crying, more acne... more crying and so so so much money spent on trying to find that one miracle product to help me.

1. Retinol 

So first off, when the only thing that has truly helped my cystic acne is Retinol. I personally use Dermatica (not an ad don't worry guys & gals). To give some background, I didn't have acne as a teenager but for SOME REASON life decided I needed horrible adult acne... great. Believe me when I said I tried every viral, secret, or miracle product and for me personally nothing worked. 

Word of warning, I would get retinol from a dermatologist or seek advice first as it can be VERY intense for the skin and you can start to look like desiccated coconut (which I did initially). Additionally, it also makes your skin SUPER sensitive so being in the sun / day to day life is not recommended without a good sunscreen.

2. Aesop Elemental Facial Barrier Cream 

Partly due to the retinol, but mostly due to the amount of acids I used on my skin before scrapping my whole routine and getting down to 2 main items. I am not kidding when I say I used AHA, BHA, acid based face mask and then moisturiser with acid in... all because I thought the more I did the more my skin would be "sanitised" from the bacteria that was causing me acne... 

Sadly no... it made it worse and destroyed my skin barrier. According this article on Paula's Choice " When skin’s barrier becomes damaged or impaired, it loses or becomes unable to hold on to the vital substances that keep skin cells intact: ceramides, cholesterol, and fatty acids like linoleic acid. This leads to water loss and skin becoming more vulnerable to all external aggressors. Not surprisingly, a damaged skin barrier also makes it difficult to repair signs of ageing and post-breakout marks.". 

This is a very thick and is made for skin that is easily irritated, I have never found it clogs my pores or the oils in it to be irritating. I can see how it may be too thick or much for someone but my skin looooves it.

3. LightStim for Acne 

Before I found retinol, when no products were helping there was one thing that did - the lightstim device. What does it do? The LightStim for Acne device uses blue light to destroy acne-causing bacteria, and red light to help soothe and calm the skin. I would do it religiously i.e everynight for the prescribed amount of time and the cystic spots would reduce in size and painfulness the next day. I do think it reduced the amount I would get as well, but it defiantly didn't stop it enough for me to be satisfied which is when I went to retinol. This is an expensive product I still use consistently, and I think it has improved my skin a lot -  but was it a miracle, no. 

Thats it from me - my skin has improved a lot in the past 2 years but it has had its ups and downs - I am sure other factors such as stress and diet had impacts but to be honest I went veggie, dairy free, tried supplements, worked on my gut health, went to a skin consultant and personally for me nothing worked until these above. Everyone is totally different and the point of this article isn't to get you to buy these products above - this isn't sponsored! It is to show what worked for me but also to highlight that it takes timeeeee to figure out what works for you & sometimes it isn't the most expensive or the most extensive routine. 

Don't get me wrong, I still have scars and hyper-pigmentation but the improvement for me is huge. You will get there, it's a journey. I have gained a lot of appreciation for my skin and my body from this experience - acne depression is real and looking back from semi the other side I am grateful and love my body even more.