My Skin Story & the how the YouTube/Blogging world helped me + Tips for oily/acne prone skin
Hey there! I wanted to share my skin journey as it includes several of my discoveries about skincare and tips which you could also benefit from. It is a long read so you might want to get a cup of tea first LOL, I just felt the need to add a lot of detail, and especially since i haven't written a blogpost in a looong time! Enjoy!
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When I was around age 13/14 I had really bad acne and blackheads around my forehead area and it just stood out from my face. I had no idea what was causing it or how to get rid of it. Initially, I wasn't so bothered until my siblings specifically pointed it out to me, and I quote: "your forehead does not belong to you".
Around that time, my sister introduced me to the YouTube channel of Dina Tokio which really intrigued me as I didn't even know that anyone could start up a channel. I started watching her videos which lead me to discover several other YouTubers such as Amenakin, Zoella, and many more. Many of them were/are makeup and skincare experts from which I started learning about skincare. I soon figured out that my skin type was very oily due to which I had all these spots and blackheads. So now I had to find a solution to help get rid of all of that.
With the help of some blogposts written by skincare experts, and YouTube videos from people who had experienced similar skin as me, I started to look after my skin more carefully; I started using a face scrub to help with the removal of blackheads, and also to get rid of excess oils produced by my skin. I even ensured to moisturise my face everyday which I didn't usually do before because I didn't think it was necessary to moisturise non-dry skin (I know right - seriously Safiya?). Exfoliating with an apricot face scrub made my skin feel amazing afterwards, and it even brightened up my face. It helped reduce whiteheads and faded hair follicles around my nose area, which made me so flipping happy!
After a couple of months (or maybe a year!), I started seeing a difference in my skin - the abundance of blackheads had halved and my forehead looked slightly more clearer. What a feat. I kept on top of my skincare routine; the amount of blackheads continued to decrease, except for the odd few short-living pimples and really tiny skin spots which weren't very apparent. My forehead and chin still appeared substantially darker than the rest of my face, due to the marks left behind. A year or two after I began looking after my skin, it felt almost like a revelation when I read that caffeine from coffee (which I drank every morning) was the cause for all those tiny skin spots dotted around several areas on my face! So, the only solution was to reduce my intake of coffee or even better, totally cut off all intake of coffee and tea.
That proved to be quite a difficult step. Without drinking coffee in the morning, I felt really tired and lacked energy throughout the school day. I really needed that kickstart provided by coffee. So I resorted to only drinking it once a week. That seemed to work and I felt really proud of myself (and so did mum, lol she always thought coffee was bad for you - silly me, I should've taken her more seriously). After a few months of that, I was able to totally cut off my intake of caffeine - no coffee in the mornings, and I didn't like tea anyway (sounds like a joke to the current me). Soon, pretty soon I must say, I saw a difference. My skin looked much more clearer as the tiny spots were making their way off my skin. At this point (aged 16), my skin had clearly been through a long journey over the recent two years, but this is not all my friend, the story continues.
Now the challenge was, and still is, to maintain a minimum of spots. The obvious way to do that is to find a way to tame the oiliness of my skin. However, the not-so-obvious solution is to use an oil. Yes, you read that right. From what I've learnt from blogs and YouTube videos, the idea is to use an oil in order for it to balance out the natural oils produced by my skin. Using a face oil saves your own skin from having to compensate for dry skin by producing its own oils in excess.
Now this is when I first started my blog - my first blogpost (linked here) describes my discovery of coconut oil (ft. Amena AKA Amenakin) and my experience of using it - highlighting its benefits. Once I began using coconut oil, I found that it isn't intensely moisturising so it's a pleasantly light oil which doesn't feel too heavy on the skin. I learnt from some internet research that it doesn't particularly work too well with dry skin though, as it could be drying - thus it works amazingly for me and it isn't even expensive and so I still use it today.
So that's all for my skin journey my friends! Congratulations if you've made it this far, I know it was a long one but I hope you've enjoyed and learnt a bit about skincare. Keep an eye out for a post on my skincare routine, in which I will include when I use the coconut oil and other products.
Thanks for reading!
Safiya x
