Amy, I'm glad that you realise that you are beautiful, regardless of acne. "You would be beautiful if you didn't have acne" is the most horrible, incorrect judgement someone could make.

Anyway, you seem to have quite mild acne, just little (yet still extremely annoying) bumps right? With this acne and sensitive skin I think you would benefit from a more natural approach.. Oil cleansing.

It sounds disgusting for a lot of people, especially if (like me) you have overactive sebum glands. But the best way to combat this is to ensure you maintain skin balance (i.e. acid mantle). All the acne hype activists swear that you must use an oil free cleanser. WRONG! Yes there are definitely oils to avoid, but others that are so amazingly beneficial to your skin. Remember, we produce sebum for a reason, it's not a bad thing. The challenge is making sure that you don't get blockages and that your body doesn't 'think' that it needs to produce more (because you've stripped or irritated your skin). Also remember that all cells are made of lipids (fats), and contain water (among many other things). You would be bonkers to think that oils are bad for your skin.

If you don't want to cleanse with oil/oil based cleansers, then at least grab something like a rose hip oilblend. Avoid mineral oils, canola oil, vegetable oil, synthetic lanolin, cocoa butter, parabens, parfums, etc (comedogenic). Good oils include rosehip, tea tree, cold pressed virgin olive, castor (base), peppermint, jojoba (not for everyone - trial and error), chia seed, flax seed, etc. Pay for a good quality organic producer, rather than the cheap budget alternative. But that doesn't mean you need to spend $50-$70+ on something overhyped. You should be able to find products in the $10-$30 range, or even make some yourself at home (e.g. olive oil + peppermint oil).

I do it a little differently. I actually make a scrub with olive oil and powdered boric acid (NOT BORAX!), then I cleanse with an oil based, PH balanced cleanser.. Because I like to do it in the shower rather than wiping it off with a face washer. When you first start doing it you might feel that you skin is still oily... Don't! you have to get use to it. But you will very quickly grow to love it. Then I use either a rose hip oil blend or a glycolic night serum. Glycolic won't strip your skin, it just helps that cellular turnover.

I used to have EXTREMELY oily skin. So naturally I would wash with harsh cleansers that stripped all the oil again, leaving me with this beautiful clean skin. What I didn't realise, even when my skin would get extremely tight after drying, is that I had just completely stripped my skin's acid mantle away and my skin would then compensate by producing even more oil. I saw 6 seperate dermatologists over the years and countless GP's (I'm an RN in the Air Force so I get around a bit), and none of them EVER questioned how I clean my skin, what my routine is, etc. All they did was asked what I had used (medication wise), prescribe something new and the battle continued. Isotretinoin obviously worked, whilst I was on it, with significant side-effects, as it works directly on the sebum glands. But even after 3 full courses, every time I ceased it, my acne would come back, along with the flood of oil... Why? Because I was still stripping my skin!

Since using oils (something that I could never previously fathom), my skin is great! Yes it's still a little oily, but not enough to bother me (like almost not at all). But it's hydrated, supple, and I blocked/congested pores are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Some days I just get up, splash my face with water, pat dry and that's it. I'm good all day. If I did that previously my skin would be disgusting by lunch and I would regret it that night because I would have pimples coming up and congestion everywhere. Just gross! My skin still isn't 'perfect', but if you saw what it was to what it is right now, you would be amazed. Plus I'm still improving each and every day.

Rememberoil, not soap or surfactant, is the best thing to use to break down sebum deposits. And it does so whilst nourishing and moisturising the skin... What more can you want! Jojoba is the most like sebum, however it has a negative stigma attached to it because people who have tried using it haven't given there skin the time to purge. I personally haven't used jojoba, because my current regimen is working fantastically. Plus, it's soo much cheaper than what I use to buy.