If you follow me regularly (ish), you’ve heard me talk about 1. my skin woes and 2. how I’m working to improve the condition of my skin both from the inside out and the outside in.
After my work trip to Vancouver in early December, I came home and told my husband that something needed to change, because aside from it being a vanity thing, my face hurt. My blemishes were deep and painful, and honestly, I was just so sick of feeling helpless about it. Something needed to change!
I share a bit more about the what and the why in this post. The abbreviated version of it all is that over the course of a few months I started noticing a trend after indulgent weekends where I consumed a lot of sugar and dairy (more so than usual). My skin would errupt with new (and painful) breakouts every single time.
I thought I would be fine because I’m on birth control and have a pretty solid skincare routine. But no such luck. So immediately upon returning from Vancouver, I decided to cut way back on my sugar and dairy consumption.
Before I share my one month ‘results,’ let me define ‘cut way back.’ I didn’t eliminate the two completely, but rather looked at the opportunity to eat them as “worth it” moments. In the case of dairy (specifically cow’s milk cheese), I purposely only used 75-80% of what I normally would’ve ate. I have yet to eat a meal out that includes dairy. In terms of sugar, I’ve only really had processed sugar foods 2-3 times in the past month. And again, when I did consume them, I ate 75% of what I would have in the past. For example, earlier this week, Vishnu was having a bowl of a new-to-me ice cream I’ve been wanting to try. Instead of eating half the pint, I served myself 3 small spoonfuls. A worth it moment that didn’t go wrong!
Ok so the results…
My skin looks the better than it has in a very very long time (knocking on all the wood!). I do have a couple of blemishes that are making their way out but have not had any new ones since the holidays. My skin is also less red, irritated, and textured overall. I feel like I finally have a glow of some sort. I do, however, still have acne scars that will obviously take time to heal (if ever).
And just to show how this compares to my skin a few months ago or as recently as Thanksgiving, here are a few close-up pics. Note that I am wearing makeup in most of these, so my skin may not look that bad, but trust me…it was!
Speaking of healing scars, I should also mention that I’m using the new Drunk Elephant retinol (started on December 28th). I want to give it some time before sharing my views, but I will say that this stuff is very potent. I started using it every other day, but upon noticing how dry and flaky my skin looked/felt, I went to every three days. That was still too much, so now I use it twice a week (at night). I have high hopes that this stuff will help fade my scars but will give it some time before shouting my excitement from the rooftop! More to come!
I’m going to keep this way of eating up and will report back on the condition of my skin in a couple of months. Wish me luck!