When I was younger and all my friends were struggling with acne and my skin was pretty clear, I felt lucky that I had missed this stage of puberty, I was using commercial face washes at this time and I really didn't think much of it. However, when I hit 17/18 my skin started to get worse and I couldn't work out why. Having spots and acne really damaged my self-confidence, even though friends and family would tell me it wasn't that bad, I would still feel it on my face and I really sympathise with anyone out there who may be struggling. I started using more natural face products with fewer chemicals and this helped a little but I was still left feeling ashamed of my skin. I tried everything, the oil cleansing method (which is just washing your face with good quality natural oils like jojoba and castor oil), I tried acne creams, I washed my face with expensive honey and was even put on a prescription medication to attempt to clear my skin, but nothing really worked. My boyfriend kept telling me to stop washing my face and pilling all those chemicals and crap on it, but in my mind, at the time this seemed crazy to me, I was washing my face religiously every day to try and clear my skin. I have very dry and very sensitive skin and I was stuck in the cycle of washing my face, thus removing all of the natural oils from my skin's surface and then having trouble finding a moisturiser that didn't cause me to break out. I was at a loss and was really trying to just accept my skin for what it was, and this helped my confidence, I kept telling myself that no one has perfect skin all the time and if people didn't like my skin then they weren't worth my time, and that was okay.
But one day I decided to follow my boyfriend's advice and I stopped washing my face completely, for 2 weeks I did not let a drop of water touch my face. During this time I felt gross, my skin felt dry and grainy and I thought "this is my last option, please please can this work".
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Now I'm 20 and I'm so much happier with my skin, it's clear and soft and I only get the occasional hormonal spot, which heals much faster and doesn't cause me discomfort. I realised that your skin and body are very powerful and naturally have the ability to self-heal, your skin knows itself a lot better than any products do. Now I only wash my face with water, I never use any products to wash my skin (which, bonus, saves a lot of money!) and I only wash it when I shower which is every couple of days. This method, for one, saves me a lot of time and it allows my skin's natural oils to build up which really does help to heal it. One disclaimer I do have is that you have to stick with this method to see results, it's not a quick fix and your skin needs time to adjust to not having chemicals piled on it and stripping away its oils. I have dry skin and it works amazingly for me and would also work great for those with oily skin, as when you wash the sebum (the natural oil your skin produces) of your face that teaches your skin to produce more and more, thus leading to overly oily skin, its a deadly cycle.
So to give you an overview, or if you can't be arsed to read that huge chunk of text 😂 this is my skincare routine -
- I wash my face every 2-3 days with plain water
- To exfoliate (because dead skin cells do build up and it's good to remove them) I use either a muslin cloth or soft flannel to gently remove any dry skin I may have. Do be very gentle because scrubbing your skin can cause microabrasions and this leads to bacteria entering the skin and causing breakouts
- And I moisturise my skin only after I've washed it and I use a few drops of organic cold pressed jojoba oil (which can be a little pricey but honestly a small bottle lasts me ages) and I mix this with a dollop of pure aloe vera gel, and this combination I find to be very good for sensitive skin and those prone to acne as jojoba oil is a natural oil which is the closest to the sebum our skin naturally produces
I really hope this helps some people, I know when I wanted to try this method I couldn't find many resources that explained it to me and I've been so impressed with the results I felt like I had to share it!
This is a photo of my skin today, no makeup and no filter needed
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it's crazy the amount of crap people put on their skin, I'm with you I only use water, the same with my hair, every now and again I might do a nettle rinse or rosemary rinse.