My Acne Journey 

I have been dealing with acne for about 4 years now, so I finally decide to share my story. It has been a huge up and down journey. This was so new to me I had never dealt with acne in my life, so this was tough. I've watched several youtube videos and tried to replicate what others were doing. Nothing was working, I went to my doctor in which she explained that it could be adult hormonal acne and birth control would help. I really did not want to do birth control, so I decided to research other options for hormonal acne. I could go into details of everything I've tried, but I won't. I will tell you what I think worked, the reason I say this is because I did not go to a doctor or anything. I had some other challenges going on in my body so I decided to eliminate ALL meats with exception of fish, then I slowly took dairy out of my diet and one of my Biggest challenges was I eliminated eating candy. YES, although I don't really eat sweets, not sure why but if I sneak to eat a bite I can't stop and then I find a volcano on my face of cystic painful bumps. I guess you can say I am a pescatarian.

My theory is that too many hormones from dairy and too much sugar are what triggered my acne, again I am not certain but I definitely say my skin transitioned. I haven't eaten anything but fish and veggies in over 2 years. The picture above is 12 months from the beginning to end I wish I took a picture every month but it was a bit depressing especially in the beginning and some months there was progression and then the next a huge outbreak.

Some might ask why share your story now, well I am sharing because everyone's journey is different. I would look at everyone's' acne journey and see progress and none on my end. This would make me so depressed, when I decided to just suck it up, I have acne..... embraced it; bought some good makeup, took meat (except fish), sugar and dairy out my diet and stop stressing about it I began to see results. I wish I could say I did more but HONESTLY, that is it. I don't have a strict skin regimen at all, I just wash my face, do a mask when I think about it, go get facials when I can for deeper exploitation (really just to pamper myself but I am sure it helps). I have bought several expensive products to help with acne, and I ended up going back to using trader joe's spa face wash with tea tree oil and sometimes I do a face mask with Aztec secret Indian healing clay and I may use rosehip oil under my eyes, aloe vera to the painful cystic pimples and a sunscreen but that's it. 

My skin is still far from perfect,  I'm still uncomfortable going out without make-up however with the support of so many and seeing everyone's acne journey and just the level of confidence that these amazing women and men have, who am I to allow pimples discoloration and blemishes stand in my way. I completely stopped recording myself on youtube due to outbreaks, but I will be back my confidence is slowly rising. Stay tuned!