Good Riddance To My Acne!

I hope I can say the same to my blemishes!

These are pretty common things that you have already heard about. There's nothing here that you don't already know. But I can tell that it really pays off to avoid bad habits.

Back in 2014, I suffered from acne. What started out as a lone pimple on my cheek turned into a nightmare. Yes, that lone resident enjoyed its stay on my cheek for almost a month. I didn't know why it stayed that long. Usually, pimples heal after three days or so. But that lone prick occupied my cheek for almost four weeks! Grabe!

Just when I thought it would move on, aba! di pa nakontento at talagang nag-invite pa ng iba. Imagine a nice peaceful place without residents. Then suddenly a lone person stumbled upon it and decided to settle in. He enjoyed the place's serenity and the solitude. Then one day, he realized he was lonely and thought of having other pricks to occupy the damn place. 

You know what happens to a place when there's a lot of people. The serenity withers and wanes. And that's what happened to my face.

I woke up every day, looked at my face in the mirror to see if the loner had wilted, only to find another pimple had suddenly popped out on my cheek. Back then, I didn't feel the need to worry. Why should I? Having a pimple or two wasn't unusual. But!!! It was damn frustrating when each pimple didn't heal right away. It was itchy so I couldn't help but scratch or touch my face. Believe me, I tried not to but the urge to scratch it till dawn annoyingly gnawed me! You can imagine what happened from then on.

It wasn't my first time to suffer acne. In my previous post, I wrote about how I suffered acne back in 2009 and it was excruciating! My skin isn't perfect and it will never be but I just want to have a normal skin free of acne. I dread to have another acne experience. I'm not really conscious about my physical appearance but having pimples is very annoying and damn uncomfortable. I hope there won't be a third time. 

My intuition why I suffered acne. Lol! Intuition?! I never approached a dermatologist so let's call it intuition, suspicion or whatever. These were the things I did back then and some that I still do. I won't tell which. 😂😂😂

Unhealthy lifestyle. 

This is one of the common causes why we get those pricks! 

-I sleep really late. I usually sleep at 3 or 4 in the morning. Imagine that! But it is not uncommon here in the Philippines. Most of the people sleep at dawn. We know it's unhealthy but we still do it. Why do some people stay up late? It's because of those evil gadgets. Haha! Unplug those and have a good night's sleep!  

-I don't usually eat breakfast and I eat at midnight. I usually get up one hour before noon so that's why I never have breakfast. What I eat for lunch is considered as breakfast, what I eat for dinner I considered it as my lunch and what I eat at midnight I considered it as my dinner. Haha! Magulo ba?! Another reason why I'm confident to go to bed really late is that I don't have to go to work early. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I often miss it. Then when I get home, I'm usually hungry so I make myself a bowl of something. Eating or snacking late at night is very unhealthy. It doesn't only have negative effect on your weight but it can cause other health problems, too.

-I sometimes, SOMETIMES eat unhealthy food. I remembered eating something with butter for three consecutive days back then. I suspected that it was one of those factors that triggered my acne. 

-I don't exercise. Hahaha! I'm very lazy and my inner self cringes. Two years ago, I didn't feel the need to exercise I haven't gained weight. I mean, who the F would gain weight if you sleep late and never eat breakfast. But lo! I was wrong. Just because I thought I haven't gained weight doesn't mean I shouldn't exercise. I still need to sweat those cholesterol and whatever unhealthy oils that I have out! 

I changed soaps frequently.

I changed from one soap to another that time when I felt like it, when I noticed that the soap didn't live up to what it has promised or what it has claimed and when I discover other brands of soap that a blogger claimed to be effective. Naku! Mabilis pa sa alas kwatro ang pagpapalit-palit ko ng sabon! 😂😂  I should never have changed soaps unless my skin doesn't mind me changing soap too often. Wait, what? 😂😂

I pricked my pimples.

When my cystic pimples took a while to shrink, I pricked them. My logic fooled me. I thought if I pricked my pimples and forced whatever fluid made those pimples swell out, it would heal fast. Never, ever prick pimples! It would cause severe skin irritation.

I used different facial toners at the same time.

Some toners don't agree with your skin. Some would even cause inflammation! So be careful on choosing products for your skin. I know some would go to such great length just to get rid acne in an instant but just calm down. Take it easy and don't overdo it.  One at a time lang! Ganoon! Ang lola niyo kasi, desparadang mawala ang acne-eklavoo, ayun pinagsabay na. Haha

So how did I rid SOME of my pimples? I tried and keep on trying to avoid the things listed above as often as I possibly can. I would have shown a picture back when I still have those annoying pimples but it might gross someone out so I decided against it. Another excuse is, my old pics were stored in my broken phone's memory. Had I known, I would have transferred all the files to my memory card. I still get a pimple or two, but it's nothing I can't handle.

I'm still apprehensive about posting my pictures here but maybe one day, I'll be courageous enough to flood every entry with my face! 😂😂😂 :D :D :D

Amazing Turmeric

I know a lot of people are already familiar with turmeric but I still want to write and share my opinion about it even if no one requires it.

Turmeric is a tropical plant in India and is basically used as a spice. It is also common in other Asian countries.

I have been looking for something which has no parabens, rids large pores, removes blemishes, acne and whatever imperfections that made my skin uglier than it already is. Hahaha! Anyway, I searched and tried almost everything but most of them never worked.

I tried gentle facial cleanser after washing my face, putting some anti-acne cream, facial scrub 2-3 times a week, anti-acne soaps, lemon peel and facial masks. Mind you, I didn't use all of them at once. I made some observations din naman. When I didn't see any changes after two-three weeks, I moved on to another product. Nothing worked. Poor me. I've done almost everything. I've drunk lots of water. I've gotten rid of oily foods. Oh well, not totally. But why do other people out there who usually have unhealthy meals yet still get to enjoy flawless skin???

When I was in high school, I enjoyed having a clear skin. I didn't use anything but Johnson's baby powder. Pimples only started to make their presence known when I tried out facial wash and other brands of soaps when I was in college. So before I ventured in the city in 2009, I already had these small pimples on my cheeks. I just finished studying then and my skin was already exposed to a harsh environment. But they were barely noticeable.

When I arrived here, it has gotten worse. I guess they were too pleased to be exposed to the pollution in the city that they'd partied all night long and produced disgusting offspring! It was humiliating at first, especially when people stared at my face mesmerized by the amount of pimples they couldn't even count on my cheeks, but kebs! Anong paki niyo sa pimples ko? Duh! I'd gotten used to it that I almost forgot how it feels to have a clear and clean skin.

Then my co-worker took pity of my face and advised me to buy this facial cleanser(it's no longer on the shelves/phased-out), 1 capsule of Dalacin C (150mg), 2 gel capsules of Vitamin A (2500 iu) and 2 gel capsules of Vitamin E (400 iu) . Back then, it was easy to buy Dalacin C over the counter without prescription but these days, one should have a prescription. If you don't have it, no Dalacin C for you. I mixed the mentioned ingredients by pricking the gel with a needle and added the Dalacin C powder. Wow, did I mention Dalacin C too much? Pasensiya! The concoction worked well. My pimples had slowly vanished and it even made my skin glow a bit. My pimples were completely gone by the 3rd quarter of 2010. But they struck back.

I started to suffer having pimples again in 2014. It came like an avalanche and it freaked me out every time I check myself in the mirror. I didn't know what I ate that made them come to a promising stage of acnedom and had mushroomed all over my face. The concoction that I used before didn't make those incredibly annoying pimples budge! Ah nodules, they never ceased to amaze me.

I've searched and searched for acne remedies on the internet and tried each one that actually worked for some and hoped that it might miraculously work for me. Regrettably, they didn't. However, it never deterred me to keep on looking. I was not aiming for a perfectly smooth skin. I just wanted to get rid of those annoying pricks.

I have seen a video on Youtube, I would have linked it here but I forgot the title. It was a looong video I thought I wasted more than 30 minutes of my life watching it but I guess not. It discussed about how to get rid of acne. It was frustrating because the maker of the video would take the viewers to wanderland first before finally getting to the point but I patiently waited until he finally mentioned what I have waited for. He stated, "The best treatment for acne is not using any anti-acne products at all."  'Talaga?! Sige, i-try daw nato beh". So I stopped using anti-acne products, particularly facial cream, which clogged pores. Then I concentrated on using this product which has been a common household soap in the Philippines. It even has this slogan "A Soap For The Entire Family". It has been on the stock shelves of every store for generations because people still patronize it. I doubted that it would get rid of my pimples but it actually did the job. I'd been using this since elementary until high school days. When I studied in the university, I turned my back on it when I got tempted to use some beauty soaps. Not a good idea...tsk tsk!

So here it is.....

Image courtesy of : www.safeguard.ph

Dis:
Note that this is not a sponsored blog and I am merely sharing what products I've been using and even if it is, I won't write any misleading information about them... :D I'm not going to assure anyone who might stumble upon this journal, if there's any or maybe extraterrestrials who happen to have their own advanced technology, that it will diminish your acne. I cannot guarantee that it will totally work for you as much as it did on my skin. Some products perform fine on my skin but might not on yours, and so on and so forth. Try at your own risk.

My pimples are almost gone but I still have some dark spots. So naghanap uli ako sa Youtube ng maaari kong i-try para mawala ang mga dark spots sa aking mukha!

I stumbled upon Promise Phan's Youtube video about turmeric (curcuma, dulaw, dilaw na luya). It has a lot of health benefits. Everyone has made a review about it already you won't be having a hard time getting more info. If you want to find testimonials, might as well do more research. So anyway, watching the video tickled my fancy and made me want to run to the nearest supermarket and buy this incredible golden powdered spice that not only make food healthier to consume but also does wonders on skin.

I bugged my YY to buy turmeric so we can try it and we really did. We found this at SM Supermarket.

Cost: Php 19.00.

I can say it really walks the talk. My skin looks better than before. Dark spots are almost gone. So try it yourself. It might do wonders on your skin as well. You can watch Promise Phan's video to see the ingredients.

So here's what I mixed my turmeric with. If you have already watched the video, you might notice that the ingredients differ. Yes, I added few and altered the amount of ingredients to be used.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbs of turmeric powder
• 2 tbs of yogurt
• 2 tbs of brown sugar, (I didn't have honey so...)
• 1 tbs of flour (optional)
• I added 1 tsp of Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar. (optional)
• I also added a tbs of egg white (optional)

My skin still has few blemishes but I hope it's on its way to recovery from what it suffered. Acne really is everyone's nightmare! It makes some people cringe.

Although I don't mind having pimples and it's quite alright not to have a flawless skin, it's still more desirable to have a presentable face.