My regimen log

Hi. This is my log. So I'm 25 and have been struggling with acne for let's see...since I was 11, that's 14 freaking years. I am not going to list all the treatments I have tried cuz there are just too many. It was mild to moderate til I reached about 17, then I started developing moderate cystic acne...And the only thing that would really get rid of that for the next, oh, 6 years or so was antibiotics, although I tried all kinds of topical stuff. Fortunately the cystic acne started clearing up a few years ago and now all I need to control the breakouts is birth control pills and a good skin regimen. My face looks pretty nice and almost clear now when I'm on the pill, just some mild breakouts from time to time. Dare I go off the pill, though, the breakouts get worse, but not cystic anymore at least. I have scarring though, which may never go away, but it's not all that bad.

Anyway I'm creating this log so I can track my attempts to find a really good natural skin regimen. What I've been using is a salicylic acid regimen, which really does work well for me as far as clearing my skin up- however I don't like how it makes my face feel slimy, and I don't like loading my skin with all the chemicals either. I have been using:

Clean and Clear blackhead clearing scrub (wash with)

sea breeze actives deep clean astringent (use after washing)

neutrogena acne stress control lotion (apply after toner)

I use all these things together, once in the morning, and once at night, every day. Surprisingly somehow they do not dry my face out much at all, and they work great for both preventing and treating. However they do feel kinda gross on my skin after a while. I feel like my face is bathed in chemicals 24/7. I want an alternative.

So...I've been experimenting with aloe vera gel, lavender oil and tea tree oil. Right now it's Fruit of The Earth, but I suppose I'll try the all natural stuff too as soon as I get around to it. Tonight I washed my face with lavender castile liquid soap (Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, I got a sample size for about 2 bucks), then squirted a dab of aloe vera gel into my palm with 2 drops lavender oil and 2 drops tea tree oil, mixed it around...and applied it to my face. It felt neat...tingly...Did make my face a bit tight after it dried. Still feels a bit tight, but nice. My face smells like lavender, mmmm. I love lavender. My skin has a history of responding well to lavender oil. We'll see how it goes I geuss. I also want to try actually washing my face with aloe vera gel instead of soap too, less drying. Sounds odd? Maybe...It was just a hunch I had, that aloe vera might work for removing oil, so to test it out I squirted some jojoba oil on my hands and rubbed it in, then tried washing my hands with the aloe vera gel. It worked! It actually removed all the oil. Tomorrow morning I'm going to try it on my face. Call me crazy.

au naturel milk and saltwater regimen

Found a simple, inexpensive, natural treatment that seems to be crazy effective and does an excellent job cleansing, exfoliating, and disinfecting my oily, sensitive and acne-prone skin...just milk and saltwater!!! Not only do these two things do all that, but they also totally diminish the oil problem so that it's not bothersome anymore. Oh...and no cover-up makeup (by this I mean no foundation/concealer/powder/etc. Eye and lip makeup is okay.) Although I have found that milk does actually do a decent job of removing face makeup if one were unable to live without it. I have a feeling this is going to be very long...oh well f*ck it.

I'm not new to this site but this I've changed my user name. I've gotten a lot of good info from this site over the past couple years so now that I've finally found a really simple natural regimen that seems to work wonders I thought I'd give something back and share it. Hopefully this one will work for one or two other individuals who would like to be free from damaging antibiotics and irritating drugstore topicals.

Here is the regimen.

Supplies:

~buttermilk

~skim milk

~non-iodized sea salt (available at most grocery stores)

~water (preferably filtered, distilled, purified or spring water)

~large empty sterilized bottle (for salt water)

~small purse-sized empty sterilized hair spray bottle (for salt water)

~small purse-sized empty sterilized regular bottle (for milk)

~jumbo bag of large size cotton balls

~measuring spoons

~small ziplock sandwich bags

~small washcloth


What to do with them:

Make up a big batch of saltwater solution following this recipe: 1/4 teaspoon seasalt mixed in one cup of warm water (I heat filtered water for 30 sec. in the microwave because regular warm tap water is full of bacteria). Fill up big bottle full of this, and also small spray bottle. Keep cartons of buttermilk and skim milk in fridge (of course), and also fill a small portable bottle with skim milk and keep in fridge. Also fill up one small ziplock sandwich bag full of cottonballs, and keep the washcloth in another. I keep the spray bottle and the two baggies in my purse. If I were a guy...well I'd just have to keep them somewhere else!

morning- I saturate a cotton ball with buttermilk and, without squeezing it out, very gently and lightly wipe it in circles all over my face, no need to rub, until face is covered with it, being careful not to get any in hair...Then let it dry. When dry, I saturate another cottonball in the saltwater and run gently over face until almost all traces of the buttermilk are gone, then I use the spray bottle to spray away any remaining residue. I let the saltwater air dry. After this is all done, my face is completely oil free and remains basically that same way for a whopping four hours!!! This is incredible for me because it usually takes only about an hour after washing before my face begins oiling up again in a big way.

mid-day (or whenever I happen to find my face has gotten oily again)- I am generally at work or somewhere else with a fridge, so I just bring the little bottle of milk to work with me. At some point I take a bathroom break and using my purse supply of cottonballs and the washcloth, I do the virtually the same thing, except for sake of convenience I don't let any of it air dry...I just wipe the milk quickly over my face, quickly wash it off with the saltwater (I do remove the cap on the spray bottle, saturate a cottonball and use that with no need to spray afterward- the skim milk is a lot easier to remove than dried buttermilk and washes off effortlessly.) My skin is then clean, soft, glowing and virtually oil-free for another miraculous four hours.

~before going to bed- I do the same ritual I did in the morning with the buttermilk, letting it all air dry

Kay so I am 24 and have been battling pretty bad moderate cystic acne, really oily skin, AND a nasty obsessive picking addiction since I was about 14 or so...Have tried a LOT of crap including prescription antibiotics, natural antibiotics (like grapefruit seed extract), and a slew of OTC face washes, creams, toners, lotions etc. The only thing that really worked was prescription antibiotics, until, thankfully, I discovered about a year ago that my skin responds extremely well to certain amounts of salicylic acid. My skin has been a lot clearer for a year due to salicylic acid use and an anxiety med which makes it much easier to stop picking. HOWEVER, I have always wished to be free from internal and external chemical treatments, and cover-up cosmetics, so I have begun this amazingly effective (so far) milk and salt water regimen.

How I stumbled upon it and how it works (my theory anyway): Well ever since I discovered that salicylic acid could work so well for me, I began researching naturally occurring acids which could possibly have the same effect. I have also been looking for some kind of natural disinfectant which would work well without irritating my skin. I read that lactic acid has just the same kind of effect, exfoliating the skin and dissolving grunge deep inside the pores. I then did some research over the internet and found many, many homemade recipes for milk cleansers...Apparently people have been using milk to treat oily skin for ages, esp. buttermilk which contains a great deal of lactic acid. That was a long time ago, and I was not brave enough to try it then. A few months ago I had earlets put in my ears, 8 gauges, 2 big holes bored through my upper ear lobes...It was the first time I'd had anything major like that done besides just regular ear piercings, and I was kinda bewildered when they told me I should just spray them with saltwater. I thought it would be nowhere near effective enough to keep infection at bay, but lo and behold, with continuous spraying of saltwater 3 times a day, my ears healed up quickly and beautifully with no trace of infection. This in turn led me to do some real research on salt water and its effects on skin. Turns out that a saline solution with the correct ratio of salt to water (approximately that of human blood) is one of the mildest, non-irritating and best antiseptic/antibacterial substances you can possibly use externally. In fact saline solution is used by doctors and surgeons all the time to disinfect and irrigate wounds, and they even sell big aerosol cans of the stuff at Walgreens (called saline wound wash). So a light bulb went off in my head when I experienced how well salt water works and I got up the guts to try out milk and salt water together on my face about a week ago...Cannot believe how well my skin is responding to this. It's like being able to use salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide together all day long with none of the harmful side effects or the irritation! And there is no over-dryness or flakiness so far, just perfectly balanced skin. I had about seven small, scattered pimples on my cheeks, forehead and chin before I started this new regimen mostly due I think to some social smoking...They are all uniformly drying up and disappearing rapidly, happy to say, and no new ones so far, only a tiny red spot on my upper forehead which seems to be going away. I'll update this log regularly. That's all for now.