New Skin Care Regimen Day 3

I have to say, I am pleasantly surprised about the way the treatment is working.

I have had a small breakout, but I expected it because the lady time-of-the-month is coming.  I've also been working my ass arse off outside in the sweltering heat.  Those two "activities" should have brought on a full acne breakout, from forehead to neck.  Lucky for me only two small blemishes appeared on the left side of my chin with one making itself known on the right. That's it!

This is extremely unusual.  I usually have one on the eyebrow, one on the nose, a few by the ears and then my cheeks and chin seem to compete with each other to see who can bring out the most amount of blemishes in a four day period.

Okay world, what's going to happen now? No major breakout is nothing short of a miracle for me.  My acne is one of the main reasons I NEVER like getting pictures taken. I have scarring--which no one likes to look at--add the current acne issues and it's just downright unpleasant.  I guess I will know more over the next few days.

Another quick note:  I also noticed a slight decrease in pore size. This is also unexpected, but welcomed.  I'll watch that as we go along as well.

To treat my hands, until I can get a decent manicure, I went ahead and made a little extra of the scrub again this evening.  It seems I have one finger that just doesn't want to submit to treatment. It hasn't escaped my attention that it is my middle finger.

If all goes well, I may allow people take pictures of me in the next few weeks.  Then again, maybe not!

New Skin Care Regimen Day Two

I could have sworn that I posted this last night...

Day two of the skin regimen went a little better.  If you missed day one, you can find it here.  I had decided to go ahead with going through the treatment process before my shower, so it was much easier to remove the scrub from my face.  It was a much better feel than the last time when I had wiped it all off with a washcloth.  I think the plus with the washcloth, was that I felt I had a little extra dead skin removed from my face.  Whether or not that's true is unknown.  Although, my cheeks were very slightly raw, so I guess it's a bit of give and take on how one would want the treatment to progress.

I will admit one thing.  I made a bit too much of the scrub--okay, I tripled it!  I decided to go ahead and use it on my hands.  I massaged the scrub onto my hands and took a little extra time on my cuticles.  It felt very nice, and I believe my forever neglected nails sighed in relief.

The pros thus far are that I don't have to worry about a harsh stinging in my eyes, I don't smell like alcohol or  an indiscriminate chemical, and I do feel a definite difference in the softness of my skin.

The cons--I should say--con, is that the coconut oil doesn't quite sink into the skin fast enough.  I try not to touch my face, but I feel a strange wetness on my skin while walking around and can't help myself.  This also means that I cannot go to bed right away. There is a pro in that!  I get to finish up housework before going to bed. Yay!

Yes, that was sarcasm.

After I go through this process as described in the yahoo article, I may add almond dust to the exfoliating scrub once or twice a week to get the tough stuff removed.  

On to the next!

New Skin Care Regimen Day One

It is once again time for a confession.

I...am a Pinterest addict.  Yes, I, along with many other people on the net, am loving Pinterest.  I like that I have a site in which I may go to view all my bookmarks without clogging up my browser thereby filling the memory on my computer.  I like that it's an all-inclusive community, of sorts, that I can go to find something funny, edible, artistic or down right loathsome! I know what you're thinking, "Why don't you just Google?"  I could, but I'm not always looking for something in particular.  Sometimes, I'm just looking for inspiration.

All that, just to get to the point of this blog.  Shall we proceed?

Thanks to some lovely ladies on Pinterest - who seem to have the same affliction as I do, I saw an article regarding a skin care treatment which claimed that, "Four key ingredients get rid of your acne forever."  Too good to be true?  Maybe...

I'm a 30+ year old woman.  I should NOT have acne but yet, I do.  It sucks.  It's not just the occasional time-of-the-month breakouts.  Those I can handle!  There's always a few of those little buggers hanging out somewhere on my face or just under the surface of my skin.  It's annoying!

I've tried Clinique, Olay, Avon, soap and water, Murad, Proactiv, etcetera, etcetera and so on and so forth.  Nothing has ever seemed to work.  Clinique came close, but it seemed as soon as my skin figured out what I was doing, it decided to get it's revenge and changed skin types.  I didn't think it could do that, but it did.  So with my "I'll try anything once" attitude, I decided to try this.

The problem I saw was that there were no portion listings to advise you on how much of each to use for the mask.  I decided to use equal parts of the four ingredients (1 Tablespoon of each per treatment) and it seems to be doing well.

For the exfoliant I used:
1 Tbsp baking soda
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp finely ground oats

Incidentally, I did finally find the coconut oil (the moisturizing part of the treatment) at Sprouts.  I got the refined coconut oil for right around $6.00.  I couldn't imagine I would've needed chunks of coconut bits to moisturize my skin. Check your local organic market or health food store if you can't find it at your regular grocer.

I first did this treatment last night.  When I awoke this morning, I had completely forgotten that I'd done the treatment - that is until I went into my bathroom and saw my oatmeal riddled washcloth.   Thus far, it's the only part of this treatment that's bugging me.

I began examining my face.  It felt softer; dare I say, a bit smoother?  Definitely.  Upon further examination, a few of the "problem children" that I had gone to bed with the night before, were so small, that I had myself wondering if I had imagined their size! They were nearly gone!

I have already begun Day 2 of the treatment.  I do believe I will do my next treatment right before I shower so that I can rinse the exfoliant rather than using a cloth to take it off my face.  I probably shouldn't be using a cloth in the first place, but I figured the added benefit of rubbing a little extra dead cells off with the cloth couldn't really hurt.

Here's hoping that by the end of week one, I will be acne free!