DIY Facial

Let's talk skin. 

When I was younger, I had pretty great skin - even, little to no breakouts, almost completely devoid of whiteheads and blackheads and clogged pores. Cut to now, though, and suddenly I'm facing deep, painful cystic acne and scars - as an adult.

I also have small pores, so when they do get clogged it's like they all join together to support one another. It's awful.

So I'm trying to deal with finding the proper face wash and moisturizer as well as the proper makeup, because as an added bonus I've recently developed a 2pm shine situation. It's frustrating and I've spent so much time Googling the entire shebang, trying to find treatments and pre-treatments and ways to hide the breakouts and it's just exhausting. After toothpasting and apple cider vinegaring, I've yet to find a life changing cure all, so if you have any tried and true regimens, please share. 

Anyway, one day I was completely innocently Facebooking and came across one of those listicles from Elite Daily: 11 Gross Signs You've Reached Peak Comfort.

Snipping Tool FTW.

Forget the popping a dude's zits, I was so into the thought of popping my own. What is this ordeal? What is this process? Is this A Thing? And thus, my afternoon of DIY Facialing began. 

I consulted the Google machine again, put together a process and, of course, chronicled it all just for you folks. You're just that special to me, you lucky ducks.

First, pictures of my face/skin completely fresh and untouched: 

Rule of Thumb: eliminate the awkwardness of selfieing your blemished skin by making silly faces.

I then mixed up a scrub of sorts with baking soda (not powder) and water. I wish I could be scientific about it, but I started with a tablespoon of soda and two tablespoons of water but it was super watery so I just kept sprinkling baking soda in until it was more of a milky paste consistency - like, the bowl felt heavy because the mixture was thick.

#PasteyFace

In addition to the myriad of skin ailments I've already described, I also have sensitive skin - very prone to rashes and redness and reactions in general. I could feel this paste working, like a tingle as it was hardening, but I wanted to be cautious because I had plans later in the evening. I might try to leave it on longer next time. 

After I rinsed off the scrub, I went to the spa for a steaming - and by 'the spa', I mean 'my kitchen.' I kept it super simple: boiled water, threw a towel over my head and hung out for a bit. I've read that you can add oils to the water to help the cleansing but I was okay with plain water and maybe a hint of a scent resembling last night's dinner.

Extreme Selfieing.

This part felt really good - like I felt my pores opening and cleansing, I was sweaty but it was a clean sweat. This is the part I was looking forward to, though: the extraction, like the article above mentioned. I was ready to squeeze and poke and get no resistance - just wide open pores ready to rock it gunk-free. 

Spoiler Alert: nope. Not the case. Even though I could see in the mirror that my pores were more open than usual, it was the same story - maybe a combination of the small size and the deep clogging, I'm not sure. Regardless, I ended up with a pretty persistent red mark on my forehead, so wahoo for that. 

I applied a heating mask from Biore next - the Charcoal Face Mask. 

I'm a pretty big fan of Biore products in general, but this one is extra great. I'm into feeling products working and this one is great. It heats and draws things out without getting thick and gunky and it rinses pretty easily, leaving my face feeling smooth. 

Finally, after the mess I put my face through over the course of an hour, I put on a moisturizing clay mask. 

I left this on until it hardened - maybe fifteenish minutes - and got in the shower to rinse it off, since I had to get ready for my night out anyway. Breathe, skin, it's all over now. You're free. 

I really wish I could say that my skin was changed after this process - that there was a noticeable difference, that I was less red, more even, less oily, whatever. . .but I can't. I didn't notice a damn thing. 

It was only once, though, and some of the articles I read said that doing this weekly caused a difference after 'x' amount of times - so I'm willing to try again, especially the baking soda scrub. It's just another level of frustration, though, partially because I'm into instant gratification and partially because, hello, I wanted to rock some baller skin for my night out with my girls.

Alas, this has to end with a to be continued. . .

Fellow adult acne-ridden ladies, tell me your processes! Let's commiserate, tell me the stories of the crazy things you've put your skin through, tell me of your secrets and your methods! And also, check out this hilarious article because it's important to know that we are not alone.