About Annie: My Skin Part I

I'm going to do two posts about my skin, this one is going to be dedicated to my skin history and skincare whereas the next one will be more about makeup suitable for my type of skin. I think above having a nice body, nice hair or generally just nice features, I would rather have really nice skin. I think clear, smooth skin is one of the most attractive things and it also really helps with your confidence. I say this because I used to have acne.

When I was a young teen, I had acne and when you're a bit chubby, you haven't yet discovered hair tools and you have bad skin, school isn't particularly enjoyable. After years of trying varying creams and potions, I turned to Accutane. Taking Accutane was one of the best decisions I have ever made because although it did cause severe moods swings, I had those anyway from being so embarrassed by my skin. My skin cleared up really nicely and I never had really troublesome skin until I got the contraceptive implant in my arm. I had that for about four months and it gave me the worst, cystic breakouts around my jawline. I had a really scabby face during that time, until I decided to have it taken out. My skin went back to normal after about a month which was a huge relief because I didn't realise it was the implant for quite a while. I blamed it on stress and eating badly and various other things, so I'm glad I realized what it actually was. I still do get breakouts and I like to either use The Body Shop Tea Tree Oil ($9.50 $7.13/£7) or Origins Super Spot Remover ($15/£14) and when I'm having troubled skin I will always apply my La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo (Europe version - £11.40) all over my face, it is an absolute miracle worker. It really helps to unclog problematic skin.

My skin is fairly sensitive to certain products but overall I don't have too many skin problems right now. My skin is dry and dehydrated so I like to use a serum under my moisturiser, which really helps with that issue. I also make sure to apply an eye cream morning and night because my under eyes get particularly dry. I'm going to do a serum post soon so I won't go into too much detail. The moisturisers I use are Caudalie Vinosource Moisturising Sorbet ($39/£22) and Embryolisse ($16/£18.50). I really like both of them but I think I prefer the Caudalie one because it has a really interesting whipped formula which is really moisturising but not too heavy.

  Overall, I would say I have pretty manageable skin because dryness can always be sorted with the right skincare and my recent breakouts have been nothing like the ones I used to have. It's never so bad that a bit of makeup won't fix it :)