Hi guys, I've had acne for the past 7 years (since I was 13). At this point in my life, its at the most mild its ever been, however I've been wanting to cut out commercial face products for quite sometime as well as improve my diet and incorporate more water into my life. 

Just some notes about my acne: It's not cystic (I'm saying this bc most logs for water only are for cystic acne), I'm prone to blackheads, large pores, and pores which clog easily, as well as stubborn forehead bumps (sometimes forming full-on whiteheads) that only get more irritated when I try to get rid of them

I've been curious about trying the water-only method for quite sometime and I have found myself washing my face less and less (mostly because I keep forgetting my face wash and my skincare stuff when I go places so I've decided to make the full commitment (purging pimples and all). 

So far, throughout the whole acne curing debacle, the only thing that has effectively treated my acne has been benzoyl peroxide, however I've noticed general improvements and less irritation with incorporating more natural products/oils. My inspiration was partially thanks to finding posts on acne.org and from seeing other people in my life (the guys who've never heard of Neutrogena or the girls who have been minimizing their own skin care routine) who don't use a ton of products/don't wash at all and still achieve clear skin. 

My acne is caused by a cycle - in the sense that the products that I had used to try to clear it are also the exact same products responsible for irritating it and bringing it to this sensitive and damaged state (for example - because of how dry and sensitive, my skin has a hard time 'cleansing itself' so it overproduces oil which only clogs my pores rather than letting dead skin shed more efficiently). Using products with a lot chemicals in them does remove the oil from your skin and 'dries out' your acne, but it also leaves your skin dry and irritated, and certain acne fighting ingrediants can lose effectiveness over time once your skin gets dependent on them. Then you end up putting more products with more chemicals (moisturizers, serums) to try to repair the damage some how. 

When I first got acne I freaked out bc at the time I was the only one in my class who had acne and it made me very self-concious. The good skin gene doesn't run in my family but rather than treating it like hormonal acne I dried out my skin, stripped it of its natural oils and made it very prone to more break outs (skipping just one day would mean a pile of acne in the morning) - not to mention the sheer amount of money this cost my parents and I.

So  I am going to try the water only method  sorry about the long post just wanted to explain where I'm at skin-wise. 

Here is my plan at the moment: 
- Wash with cold water (massage if you feel a little extra gross)
- Try to cut down to only washing at night (might be hard because old habits aren't easy to get rid of) 
- Possibly oil cleanse or use a cold cream in the shower (for post work-out or summer sweatiness - like i said in the title this is mostly water only) 
- exfoliate with a wash cloth once a week to get rid of dead skin cells 
- drink lots of water and tea to flush out my system and stay hydrated 
- use tea tree oil or calamine to soothe any very bad breakouts (both cheap and at least one is totally natural)
- use apple cider vinegar as a toner (might be instead of tea tree but very rarely so my skin doesn't tdn doesn't dry out) 

that's it so  we'll see how this goes, see how my skin is, and hopefully by minimizing my skin care routine the natural processes of my body will thank me