As a teenager I was lucky enough to maybe have gotten a total of 10 zits. That isn’t a joke. Even during Softball season with the mix of hot temps, major humidity, and dust/dirt galore, my face never suffered because of it. Well once I got to college and began adjusting to dorm life of irregular sleep patterns, nowhere near enough water, drinking alcohol, and hard water {the WORST! Praise Jesus for Water Softeners!}, my ‘luck’ had ran out. For the first few months of my Freshman year I had breakouts around my chin and jawline on the regular. I was so embarrassed and extremely annoyed. After cleaning up my habits a little bit my face cleared up and the rest of my college days were spent with a clear face.

Fast forward to 2015. At 26 years old, I felt like I should’ve been way past the age of acne, but for over 9 months last year I had MAJOR sturggles with my face. I was so confused. Between trying different skin care regimes, changing my diet, eliminating certain foods, 3 juice cleanses, 2 separate month-long no alcohol runs, and changing my pillow case daily, nothing gave. There were many nights that I would cry out of sheer frustration {no judging!}. I got to the point that I thought I looked unprofessional at work because of my face–although in reality my chipped nail polish is probably worse! HA! I wore my hair down 99.9% of the time and even switched up which side I parted my hair on since a majority of the breakouts were happening on the left side of my face.

My struggles weren’t with what I commonly thought of as ‘typical acne’ but instead were deep and painful spots. From far away you may have only really noticed a little discoloring in certain areas but up close it looked like small mosquito bites. Likely cystic acne, it hurt to touch and was next to impossible to cover up. Finally, after spending hundreds of dollars of various washes, spot treatments, etc. things started to improve. Slowly it seemed at first until one day everything was just gone. Obviously it didn’t just disappear, however I clearly {pun intended} had found my personal miracle combination to rid me of the bumps and spots! YAY! So for the last 90-ish days I have been incredibly consistent with my PM skincare routine. It’s a little lengthy and I even went crazy-girl and bought everything in travel sizes too, but it has worked which makes it totally worth it. Ok, enough with the long-winded post and onto THE ROUTINE. It goes like this…

First I remove all my makeup and the grime from the day with these face wipes. They’re great at gently removing stubborn eye makeup and honestly do get just about everything off–plus they smell good! I then use this cleanser that’s also really gentle with my Clarisonic. It did take me about a week to get use to the Clarisonic but my face feels 100x cleaner after using it. I think using the face wipes first and then the cleanser really allows the cleanser to do its job more effectively, too. My third step is a little bit of this toner on a cotton ball and and a run it over my face and neck. Lastly, I apply this face cream liberally on my entire face and neck as well. {If I’m feeling extra dry, I’ll also add a little of this Argan Oil right before I get into bed, too} I have no idea if I complete my steps in ‘proper’ order but that’s just fine by me. Oh, and besides my obsessive PM routine, I also drink about 100oz. of water each day and I truly believe that has helped make a difference too.

I’ll be sharing my AM routine later this month, so stay tuned for that! In the meantime, I’ve been searching for a good eye cream and night serum so if anyone has any suggestions or brands that they love, EMAIL ME or share in the comments below!!! 🙂

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 Clarisonic / Face Wipes / Cleanser / Toner / Face Cream