You know the one thing that I really took time to master with respect to clear skin?
My skincare routine.
It took about a decade of research and experiments, and terrible mistakes for me to perfect my morning and evening routine.
My skin clearing journey actually started without any routine at all…
Until I turned 13 and got hit with a LEGIT case of acne.
I scrambled through all the usual drug store brands like Neutrogena, OXY…Even ventured forth with Proactiv for faaaar too long, destroying my acid mantle in the process.
Then of course I found acne.org which seemed like the answer. And for a while it worked until the founder decided to change the moisturiser formula from one that worked, to one that just sat on the skin doing a whole lotta nothing.
You might not know this about skincare, but a good skincare routine is like a team. If one member is injured then the rest of the team has to pick up the slack…Except in skincare, each member is equally important. So if one member sucks, then the team loses every game.
Without a good moisturizer, my skin was losing the clear skin game.
I was on a hunt for a moisturiser for around 6 months after this.
SIX months of reading the ingredients of — this is no exaggeration — every moisturiser in Sephora, and online. I was astounded at what terribly ineffective products were on the market.
Six months of buying, trying, and promptly returning over 20 different moisturisers…Until I found my holy grail moisturiser.
And even after all that, I experimented with natural skincare — because it was all the RAGE! I just had to know if it actually worked…
And man did it ever enrage my skin…I had the worst skin OF MY LIFE on so called “natural skincare”. But it forced me to really do my research.
Can I have Clear Skin Without A Good Skincare Routine?
No.
That’s like asking, “Can I have good teeth without brushing them?” — you can’t, they’ll decay and fall out because they deal with EXTERNAL factors such as food.
Your skin is similar, in that it deals with EXTERNAL factors all day long in the form of dust, dirt, bacteria, pollution, and the SUN.
I learned that acne-prone skin is action-prone skin. It needs to be cared for and protected, and doing nothing or just washing with water simply will not cut it.
Skincare mattered and it mattered BIG time.
This process taught me a lot about what is available for acne-prone skin…
- Products that are labeled “for acne” are usually too drying for acne.
- Products that are labeled “all natural” are usually too pore-clogging for acne and cause more damage than healing.
- Products endorsed by beauty bloggers are often overpriced and don’t really do anything beneficial for acne…which annoys me to the ends of the earth!!!
Information about products for acne-prone skin is confusing AF. Everybody says something different. Nobody agrees. And people who have googled acne for minutes actually give out acne advice.
Some people tell you to do as the cavemen did…That is stop washing your face entirely! *face palm*
Luckily, I started recognising which information made sense, and which ideas were complete and utter skin-destroying nonsense.
I learned about how skin works, it’s biology and how to properly care for it, while also protecting it from any future damage. I learned how to read ingredients and labels and to not allow marketing or branding fool me.
Lo and behold, I finally created the perfect routine for my skin. After a decade of learning, today I feel confident in my skincare knowledge and I continue to be open to new ideas, ingredients, scientific research to continue learning!
It’s such an exciting field!
And I realised that many of you are using crazy products that do nothing for your skin like I had been…while blaming the acne on your poor diet or lifestyle or mindset. You become obsessed with fine-tuning your food or hormones while neglecting the SIMPLEST, easiest to implement variable: skincare.
I was once using Argan oil to moisturise and breaking out TERRIBLY. I was eating the cleanest diet you can ever imagine, taking over 15 supplements, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep…
I thought there was something wrong with my health, and decided to get checked out by my doctor. We ran too many tests and were thorough AF, and everything came back beyond normal — I had picture perfect results.
The Argan oil was the LAST suspect in this dilemma. It just didn’t occur to me that it could be this “non-comedogenic” oil that was the issue. So I went back to my awesome skincare routine and my skin cleared right up.
Clear skin can be as simple as using the right products.
Sometimes somebody else looking in on your problem can give you a fresh perspective on your situation…And that can be me.
Because of an overwhelming outpouring of questions via email and social media about skincare, I decided it was time to really help you.
But I couldn’t just craft a universal skincare routine for EVERYBODY because that just wouldn’t work. I also didn’t have the time to write a hundred follow-up questions back and forth between us in order to figure out your skin type and skin history in order to make good product recommendations.
I can help you avoid the countless mistakes I made that are keeping you stuck with less than awesome skin…
I created a service called Routine Review!
Where we meet up for a 30-Minute Skype chat and discuss your skin, your #skingoals, the products you’ve used and are using and let you know which products you should toss for good.
Later I send you a personalized list of products that I think can help you reach your #skingoals with detailed instructions and explanation of why, how, and when to use them + LINKS to each product.
I create a totally custom AM and PM routine for your skin geared towards healing your acne and turning up your glow!
AND I send you a recording of our call for future reference (because I give a lot of info and insight and I don’t want you to sit there with a note pad taking notes).
Love,
Olena
