June 7th, 2012

So, I forgot to take my supplements for two days and a pimple popped up on my cheek and that sucker was HUGE!

I took my vitamins though and the next day it already looked better! I guess they are more important to my clear skin than I thought.

In other news. GUESS WHAT?! That whole honey mask thing is UH MAZE ZING!!!! My scars are so much lighter! I'm boucning in my seat with excitement. Sorry for my use of exclamation marks, I'm just a little happy over here!

June 12th, 2012

I hope everyone is well this afternoon. I just wanted to let you all know that I have been doing the Honey mask since the 7th and it has not caused any breakouts. I am very pleased with the results and hope some of you may give it a go :]

My 'recipe' is as follows: 1tsp Raw Organic Honey + a sprinkle of ground Oatmeal + a few drops of Jojoba Oil.

Sometimes I leave out the Oil if I feel my skin doesnt need it. After I apply this mask I leave it on for about 30 minutes. I had a problem with getting the oatmeal to stick to my skin but I realized I needed to 'pat' it onto the skin and not try to rub it on.

I love how soft it makes my skin! It's incredible!

I would really love to hear from anyone else who has tried this and what recipe they used.

Have an awesome day y'all and stay beautiful!

June 15th, 2012

Okay guys, I have so many questions I would love to discuss with you. If anyone feels like it, of course :]

1. How many of my fellow Acne.orgers use a toner in their daily regimen? I have noticed a lot of people who don't.

(We should really come up with a name for ourselves. Someone should personally take on this task)

2. Why do those of you who go the natural route, choose to do so?

3. How important is sunscreen to you?

4. Do you find keeping a personal log helpful, or does it cause you more harm?

5. How many of you take supplements and believe they have helped clear your skin?

These are just some things on my mind that I would love to hear your personal opinions about.

Stay beautiful!

June 19th, 2012

Okay guys. Writing a log has proved to be quite difficult as while I am writing it will randomly make me start writing in the middle of my sentence. FRUSTRATING!

Now that I put that out there, I have been doing pretty well. I started my placebo and three days later a pimple appeared on my cheek. I am out of TTO so I could not spot treat. I should receive my new bottle in the mail today. I am trying a new brand and I will let you know how I feel about it. Before I was using the Desert Essence brand, which worked very well.

I just let the pimple do its thing and it has since passed. I am surprised it did not last longer but I give credit to Dan's products ;]

I have to share with you all something quite interesting. My boyfriend has Acne on his back, which he does not care to do anything about. I don't care but it leaves all kinds of scars on his back. Well anyways, we went swimming and were out for about 2 hours. I got a little toasted on my shoulders because I forgot to apply sunscreen (Oh the tragedy!) and he got pretty pink all over his back. TWO DAYS LATER.... His back was as clear as can be. Holy weirdness. Has anyone ever had experience with the sun clearing up there acne?

I would never try this because I have had skin cancer before and I don't ever want to have it again, and it runs in my family.

Stay beautiful, and stay hopeful!

P.S. has anyone had any trouble with this stupid reply box not spell checking correctly?!

June 26th 2012

Let me just start off with saying how hectic this week has been. And it's only WEDNESDAY! I live in North Florida and we have experienced some major flooding here. Luckily my home was not impacted, but I was flooded in and not able to go to work yesterday. I know many people personally who have lost there homes in this flood and it completely breaks my heart for them. On one side of the country we are experiencing floods, while the other have is battling wild fires. What I wouldn't give to send our excess rain to my old hometown of Fort Collins Colorado. So incredibly heartbreaking. My Aunt lost her home and farm to the High Park fire.

I had the opportunity to go to Orlando for my birthday last weekend and I was able to swim with the Beluga whales there. Such an incredible experience. They are such beautiful creatures! I ran out of my Zinc and had to repurchase via the internet and got it in the mail the day before I left. By the time I received it, I had already been a week without it and suffered a breakout because of it. Luckily, my Acne.org products calmed my face down and I managed to be rid of it in two days. I have been having to use a honey mask daily to deal with the leftover redness.

I really do believe that taking Zinc has helped improve my skin.

I hope you all are having a wonderful week, wherever you may be.

I'll be praying for those affected by the disasters in Colorado & Florida.

Stay beautiful!

July 3rd 2012

No new issues with my skin to report! -wipes forehead- phew!

I do however, want to talk to you guys about internal detoxing. I have been doing a lot of research into it and hearing about certain products, etc but I figured nothing is better than talking to someone who has actually done it.

I would love to know if anyone has any products or ways of detoxing that you would recommend? I would love to hear them.

A lot of products I have heard good things about actually have ingredients in them that interact with Birth Control (Big no no).

Anybody?

July 19th 2012

I took some new pictures for you all, but when I uploaded them to Photobucket they looked really blurry, so I'll take some with my camera instead of with my iPhone. I haven't had any new breakouts since the episode when I ran out of Zinc.

I've been so happy with my skin, it's unbelievable. I haven't had it this clear since I was like 14.

I really hope that my log and experiences have been able to help some of you, I know how hard it is to find something that works and I know that what works for me may not work for you.

In celebration of SUMMER I wanted to share a little trick with you on how to make your own TINTED MOISTURIZER that's

NOT GREASY. Yes, you read that correctly. NOT GREASY.

I know that for myself, every time I have tried to make one it has ended up making my skin look so shiny. This trick makes your skin look matte for quite some time while having light coverage for the summer and humidity.

Take your favorite foundation or mineral makeup and mix it with

Fruit of the Earth Aloe Vera Gel.

I did about equal parts of each, but I have only tried it with liquid foundation. I am going to try it with my mineral makeup tomorrow and let you know how it works.

If you want the coverage to be more sheer, I would recommend you use more Aloe.

The reason I went ahead and told you that you could use mineral makeup is because all of the recipes I saw called for Mineral Makeup.

PLEASE try this out and let me know how this works for you. I would love to hear what you think!

(Some before and after pictures would be nice, too. JS)

STAY BEAUTIFUL! <3

August 2nd 2012

Hello beautiful people!

I'm so very upset right now. For some reason, right around my nose has been SO RED! It doesn't burn or itch, it's just red. It looks like I have a cold and have been rubbing it raw with tissues. Yucky yuck.

This has been going on for about 4 days so I decided to do one of my honey facials which I haven't done in a while (I have no idea why) so I slathered it all over my face and all over my nose and let it sit for about 30-45 minutes and washed it off. This morning my nose was no longer red at all. THANK GOODNESS.

Has anyone else randomly gotten this problem? I thought it could be from my BP but I haven't had that problem since I first started using it. And then it was dry and flaky, this redness isn't dry at all.

I wonder if it could have been a bacterial infection or something. I had that happen once when I was 12, it was from touching my face to much. My allergies are really bad and I rub my nose a lot because it itches so maybe the redness was from bacteria and the honey rectified that issue.

I still have not gotten my camera, so no new pictures. But if you really want some soon I can take them with my phone. Just let me know

Stay Beautiful!

August 15th 2012

I guess I'm just full of empty promises. My camera is MIA so have to show you all crap photos from my iPhone. Which I just happen to have deleted because I thought I sent them to photobucket. -face palm-

Scratch that, I just remembered I have photo streaming so all those photos are saved. -insert applause here-

Okay I took more pictures than I usually do so everyone can see the different parts of my face.

Sorry for being so pic heavy, just thought you all might like to see the rest of my face. Check out those armadillo eyes! Oh so sexy. Speaking of my eyes, they look almost emerald in these pictures. They're a bit lighter than that in RL.

The pink marks you see on my cheeks are noticeable because I just took a shower. They are virtually invisible until that hot water wakes them right up!

So here's a few things going on with my skin;

1. I have a nasty "chemical burn" (I'm not sure that's what it is, but I've had one before that looked just like this) on my chin so I haven't been using my Acne.org products on it because I'm afraid it will irritate the shiz out of it.

2. I've been using the well advertised Green Tea Toner that OneFatalGoose (I hope that's his name, because I just said that from memory) recommends. It has been so great! I usually have lots of redness around my nose, which is visible from my picture, but with this toner that redness is gone. Like *poof*. One day is all it took for the redness to disappear. It doesn't make my skin feel tight all over, it only feels tight on the outline of my face. Isn't that strange? I have no idea why.

If anyone has considered trying this, I highly recommend it.

I haven't been wearing makeup at all because I've been wanting to sleep in a little. I know, shame on me for being lazy. I have a really hard time sleeping so by the time it actually happens I will only get a few hours of it. I'm also plagued by nightmares when I do sleep, so what I do get is usually interrupted. But enough woe is me garbage and on with my skin.

My forehead has always been clear with the occasional blackheads, but it's only a few and they come back in the exact same spot every time.

Myinner cheeks (next to nose) is clear, but that is where my largest pores are. They have shrunk down a lot since I changed my skincare regimen but they are still very noticeable to me. The pores on my nose look great IMO.

My chin is caught with the occasional pimple, but I've always have this little white things that COVER it. They aren't visible unless I pull the skin taught, and no matter how much I pinch them, they come back the next day. Well guess what?! Queue the GREEN TEA TONER and *SHABWAM*! They're almost all gone. Holy Snapcicles! Isn't that exciting? I've had these for as long as I can remember, so for them to be leaving my face is a dream come true.

Okay, that's about it for now. Stay Beautiful!

September 25th 2012

It's been a little over a month since I've posted. -le gasp- How horrifying, right?

I've had so many things going on with my skin and so many things have changed. I guess I'll jump right into it.

I have temporarily ceased to use my BP & AHA from the Org. I randomly experienced an allergic reaction that caused my eyes to swell and puss to come out of the skin on my chin. It was awful and painful. I gave myself a week (that's how long it took the reaction to go away) and in this time I did not use facewash nor any topical treatments. I continued to take my supplements though. I had no breakouts as a result. I surely thought I would, but alas, nothing ever showed.*

*The only breakout I experienced was hormonal around that time.

When my skin cleared I tried to use the AHA again and the reaction occurred again. When this episode cleared I tried just BP and that also caused a reaction. Has my skin developed an allergy to it? Who knows, but for now I will not be using it.

I have started washing my face with soap again (Still Cetaphil) since I wear makeup sometimes and want to make sure I get it off of my skin before bed.

I bought a new toner and have been using it only at night for a couple of days in hopes of clearing some blackheads I have on my nose and forehead. Since I stopped using AHA they have come back and I hate it. Does anyone recommend some products for clearing blackheads? I'll take natural remedies as well. Share what has worked for you, thanks!

I have introduced something new into my supplement regimen. I purchased some Probiotics from The Vitamin Shoppe. I have been taking them for a few weeks and I love them! I have a stomach that is very easily upset and since taking them, my stomach has been much better.

I've gotten into the DIY craze my friends, and it's fun! I've learned to do two things that I really like. I made my own pink corrective concealer for under eye circles which I have and they aren't pretty! You take your concealer and gradually mix in a little bit of red lipstick until you get the color you want. You can also make a yellow corrective concealer by mixing orange lipstick in your concealer but I have no done that because I don't need one.

The second thing I have made is my own makeup setting spray. I feel like I need to preface this with something that will help you all out. There is a difference between 'Makeup Setting Spray' and 'Oil Control Spray'. Got that? Good. I'll explain a little later.

The recipe called for glycerin but I didn't like the idea of putting that on my skin as lots of people had said it broke them out. I'm not one for wanting to risk that. I came up with my own version and the recipe is as follows;

1 part Aloe Vera gel or juice (I used Gel because it dries matte on my skin)

3 parts filtered, distilled OR rose water. (DO NOT use tap. You don't want creatures growing in this)

A couple of drops of Vitamin E oil. (Optional)

For the water I used The Body Shop's Cucumber Refreshing Water. Unfortunately they don't sell this online anymore but you might be able to find it in stores.

The reason I chose to use this is because it is rose water with cucumber extract. Cucumber extract is in the Mac Fix+ spray, so I figured I might be on the right track.

I put my mixture in a little spritz bottle and sprayed my face 2-4 times after applying makeup.

Now let me tell you, I normally use Urban Decay's De-slick spray because I have an oily complexion. That spray sets your makeup nicely and also keeps your skin looking fresh longer. MY VERSION is very nice and set my makeup wonderfully. My face has not gotten as oily as it would have without it, but it's not matte either. But heck, to save $30 bucks I'm all over this.

If you have especially oil skin I would omit the Vitamin E oil. But if you have dry skin from acne meds and topicals, I would leave it in.

Now, would you like me to get back to the difference? Alright. You CAN get a spray that is both, but it won't work for everyone. The main idea of a setting spray is to makeup your makeup look perfect. Have you ever over-powdered your face and it looks a little chalky? Set it with the spray and VOILA! Chalk-be-gone.

I recommend you try this for yourself and let me know what you think. You can also use your favorite toner instead of rose water if you'd like.

Well that's the news guys, I hope you can learn a little something from my posts that can benefit you.

Stay Beautiful!

OCTOBER 9th 2012

You guys are just going to get a kick out of how much experimenting I have been doing. I'm usually not one to do that but since my last routine kind of went out the window I decided it was a good time to try out some new things.

First off, I stopped washing my face with soap in the morning. I just rinse with cold water and then use my new Neutrogena toner.

At night I only wash my face with soap if I wear liquid makeup that day which lately I have not been. After I tone my face at night I give it a few minutes to dry then apply a couple of drops of Coconut Oil to my whole face. This junk has made my undereyes look amazing. I usually have gross dry skin there and this has banished those flakes away.

It even makes any marks on my face heal a ton faster. I love this stuff.

Well that's my quickie for the time being.

Stay Beautiful!

October 16th 2012

Well my lovelies, it's that time to let you know how it's going.

Nothing else in my routine has changed, but I feel my skin has been better than ever! It's so refreshing to wake up and not put on makeup because you feel you are more beautiful without something covering up your skin.

I have been exercising every day and I really feel this has helped my skin also. I do circuit training for 30 minutes every morning and every other day I run. I have new found love for running and it's amazing. It puts me in a better mood for the rest of the day.

Has anyone else had experience with exercise helping their skin?

I hope everyone has a lovely week

Stay Beautiful!

January 8th, 2013

Welcome to the new year! I sure have missed you guys. I haven't been around because I quit my job for school, and also got engaged so I have been a busy busy bee.

I hope everyone has a lovely start to this new year and I also hope you all find love, hope and joy in the coming year. I also sincerely hope that any of you who may have been struggling with acne for a long time, will find your solution this year.

I've had a couple of changes in my regimen that I should make you aware of.

I am still completely off of the Acne.org products. It's a shame because they worked so well for me, but the allergic reaction was horrific and using it even caused my lymph nodes to be swollen. I actually saw my massage therapist after a reaction and she drained them for me. It was awful.

I have stopped using my toner I bought from a seller on Etsy and went back to the homemade Green Tea Toner you hear about on here. It worked well for me before and continues to do so now. If you have any questions about my variations on it, let me know.

I have been getting stress breakouts (wedding planning is a pain in the @ss) so I bought the Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Stress Control Power-Clear Scrub and use it in the mornings. I am loving it. It's not drying at all, it's actually kind of moisturizing and it has helped a lot with the stress breakouts I get on my chin. If anyone else has those nasty breakouts just in the chin area, I recommend you give this line a try. It's not pricey either.

Let's take a moment to talk about my back. I have NEVER had any breakouts on my back and lately I have just been covered with blackheads. Yucky yuck. Could this be stress related too? I don't know, but I am unsure of what to use on it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

As always, thank you for taking the time to read this post. I hope I have helped someone in some small way.

Stay Beautiful!