The Acne Routine I Wish I Knew About When I Was a Teen

Believe me when I say, I had terrible acne when I was a teen, and it didn't get better in my 20's, and it followed me in my early 30's, too. Try looking like an adult at a bar with pimples, zits, and inflamed red bumps. There were definitely times when birth control helped reduce the acne, but sometimes that's not enough due to genetics or availability. After all, women are the only ones that need to see a doctor in order to get birth control. When I was a teen, my mom brought me to a dermatologist. We tried the expensive creams and pills, but the creams barely did anything and my skin would burn the second I was in the sun. The pills did a pretty good job, but it wasn't affordable. Then we switched to all the fancy name brand kits for acne like Murad and Clinique. They were alright, but still expensive, and not worth the barely noticeable results.

As the years went on, and I studied more natural remedies for both me and my pets for various ailments, I realized 2 things when it came to fighting acne. 1. The secret ingredient to fight acne naturally is Tea Tree. It's a natural anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial agent. 2. All of the research I had done came back to the same process that those big name brands used, but with one main difference and without the ridiculous price tag.

Step One is to exfoliate. Those kits wanted me to use a cleanser first, a thick sudsy wash, but they didn't scrub off the oil and dirt layered on my skin or get deep into my pores. There's no need to scrap off a layer of skin with hard facial scrubbing pads either. In my earlier days I found that The Body Shop had a whole line of products that were specifically Tea Tree based, and I swore by them. Click here for the link to their The Body Shop Tea Trea Facial Scrub. They would run out of stock often though, so I had to start trying other products. My go-to is the St Ives Acne Prone Facial Scrubs. They have a huge variety and you can get them anywhere. Although they don't have a tea tree scrub, St Ives has a few different Blemish Control and Black Head scrubs to choose from. I feel like any one of them should do the trick since the exfoliating part is more about breaking up oil and dirt stuck on your skin and in your pores.

Step Two is using a toner. I do feel like using a tea tree-based toner is a big must. After spending the time getting rid of all that oil and dirt, you can finally use something that will immediately seep into your skin and start working. Like I said before, the tea tree is both an anti-inflammatory/bacterial agent, so it's going to fight any leftover bacteria deep in the pores and it will help with the redness I always had. The Body Shop Toner always worked for me and is currently back in stock amongst other products in their Tea Tree line. When it went out of stock, I started using St Ives Toner that has both tea tree and witch hazel. At the time of writing this blog, it looks like St Ives may be switching their toner to an Apricot Toner because they are out of my tea tree toner. My guess is it got too expensive to come by tea tree and witch hazel. I hope they bring it back. All of the ingredients are the same except for missing the tea tree and witch hazel.

Step Three and final step is moisturizing. At first, it seemed a little weird to be putting a moisturizer on top of all that work I just did to get rid of dirt and oil and then the toner to start fighting all the bacteria and inflammation. I think that was part of the problem before. I was leaving my skin bare and my pores wide open to collect more dirt and bacteria. I had to relieve all that harsh work I had just done to my skin. I am currently using Majestic Pure Tea Tree Face Cream and have been longer than I can remember. I was using a St Ives moisturizer that had some SPF in it in the mornings, but they are out, and I've only ever seen it on Amazon in travel size. Feel free to look up other products and brands just like I have had to do throughout the years whenever a company runs out or decides to discontinue a product. Just remember to stick to the routine morning and night.

GOOD LUCK!