I think I finally found a way to reduce my very stubborn hormonal acne. I am 30 and have been struggling with hormonal acne for as long as I can remember. I usually get them around my mouth and chin, and I get very oily skin in that area. I usually start breaking out at around 2 weeks before my period. Sometimes they get as high as my cheeks and some really hurt (Even recently I started getting cystic acne along my jawline). Unfortunately I have a very bad habit of picking at them especially when I am stressed or distracted.

I think I tried just about everything to get rid of them by using various methods, to name a few: antibiotics (which I decided to stop at some point for health reasons), Proactive (which really irritated my skin), natural do it yourself products, no products at all, cutting out dairy, carbs, taking the contraceptive pill and many many more. The only thing I didn't try was Acutane and honestly I started to really consider it towards the end. I dont think my acne was severe enough for that.

Anyway, I did quite a bit of research throughout the years and I recently discovered a combination of products that really seems to be working for me, it cleared up my skin almost instantly, in just a few days I saw major improvement and I got so excited that I finally found a cure after almost 10 years, I just had to share it online and help others get out of this miserable cycle that is hormonal acne. I found the solution by doing a lot of research and through trial and error. Dont forget that hormonal acne is the result of a hormonal imbalance in the body, which may be caused by various factors. It is often very hard to identify the exact cause of hormonal imbalance in a woman, but theres a few natural products that can help regulate your hormones and trigger certain problem areas of the body without having to take medications or any sort of antibiotics. I just wanted to share those 7 steps to take with all of you in hopes that it works for you too.

Heal your Inside:
1) About a month ago, I decided to stop taking the contraceptive pill. The reason being is that I thought the pill would help rebalance my hormones and fix my hormonal acne but within about a year I saw little to no improvement, being on the pill just made me extremely moody and bloated all the time and I still had pretty bad hormonal acne. Also, it just didn't feel right to be on the pill anymore, hence why I decided to get off it at least for a little bit until I put in a copper IUD.

2) About two weeks into stopping the pill, I started breaking out as usual. So naturally I went online desperately trying to find a solution for my hormonal acne, and I saw an interesting post on a forum (maybe this one) where someone was suggesting taking Milk thistle supplement to help with hormonal acne. Now I had never heard of Milk thistle so I did a bit of research, turns out it is a natural herb that has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that is commonly used to detoxify the body, especially theliver.

A lot of people were agreeing, saying they had also experienced success with this product. It made perfect sense as the liver directly impacts our hormones, especially when damaged due to alcohol consumption or other irritants, it may cause some hormonal imbalance in some women and thats why they often suggest doing a liver detox to help clear the skin. A few years back I tried detoxing my liver with dandelion root tea but it tasted so bad I stopped after a few days. So I got a bottle of milk thistle in a pill form to try it out, I just take one everyday and I dont know if its the main thing that helped the cause but it is absolutely working wonders right now. So I highly recommend trying it!

3) Probiotics, I am not 100% sure about that one, but I am taking some anyway because apparently it really helps regulating your gut flora. Apparently the gut is also directly linked to our hormones so its good to regulate the good bacteria in the body and our natural flora to promote radiant skin and kill the bad bacteria causing the acne! I am using this one called Vega, it is vegan and contains no gluten, dairy and is completely natural. However it is non-refrigerated, not sure if it would be as effective.

I really try hard to do so, sometimes its hard to completely avoid them but I know for a fact that when I consume a lot of dairy (especially certain cheeses) I break out almost instantly. As for sugar well I notice that when I cut out sugar my skin looks less tired. But that is just a suggestion, just keep that in mind and consume these products with moderation. 4) Cut out dairy and refined sugar.

5) Rasbperry leaf is known to help regulating hormones. I got it in a liquid form and put 10 drops of it in my water everyday. Honestly it doesnt taste like much and my naturopath suggested it to me to help me regulate my hormones. Honestly I have seen improvement doing so as well.

6) As a face wash and localised cream, I use Paulas choice CLEAR pore normalising cleanser for blemish prone skin and Clear daily skin clearing treatment (regular strength) with 2.5 benzoyl peroxide. Now I had never heard of Paulas choice products, as I live in Canada and can only find those products online. I read a lot of positive comments about it online. I was a little bit sceptical because my skin is very sensitive and dries out when using acne-clearing products. So I just got the little starter travelling kit that came with 3 travel-size products for about 13$ US just to try. It also comes with an exfoliant which I dont really use because I use a toner instead which I will speak about in the next step. I used the two other products for about 3 days and they gave me astonishing results. They do not irritate the skin whatsoever and I felt a difference right away. The blemish cream can easily be applied under my make up and has a very matte yet soft texture that doesnt make your skin feel dried out or flaky causing no irritation. I tried so many products after many many years of acne and let me tell you, these ones stood out big time! Plus I think it played a huge role in getting rid of my acne.

7) As for the toner I use, a few months ago my cousin whos a doctor suggested this toner by Clinique called Clinique clarifying lotion. She uses it in her skin routine and it helped her clear out her acne, its the Step 2 in the Clinique Acne solution line. Now I am not a huge fan of Clinique products, but I decided to try this one. It is very affordable and gives you that nice tingly feeling after you apply it on the skin. I use it twice a day, morning and night on a little cotton pad, the toner contains a white powder exfoliant that helps get rid of dead skin and dirt. Its crazy the amount of dirt I find on the pad once I wipe my skin with it. Very satisfying feeling.

I suggest a combination of some or all of these steps above to clear out your skin, I genuinely think we have to work from the inside out rather than the outside in to fix the problem. Hence taking all the supplements to help regulate the hormones (probiotics, milk thistle and raspberry leaf), and then use the right face wash, toner and moisturisers with no irritants to help eliminate dead skin, cleanse oily skins that clog our pores and also to erase scars. Do not pick at your pimples whatever you do (this is the hardest thing for me). Be gentle with your skin, I still wear make up all the time and I think I always will but at least now I am not as self-conscious. I hope some or all of these work for you too! J Let me know what you think of my routine!