Part 1 - My Acne Skin Journey

 just a tiny fraction of my old skincare stash

Part 1- The makings of an addict 

Going back to Summer 2016. I bought everything! I mean anything that promised beautiful skin, everything that anyone was using and anything that looked good on my IG page.

My drawers were filled to the brim with stuff, my counters were cluttered with bottles and containers. Some good things, but mostly lots of unnecessary stuff. I had products galore! Every week a package arrived at the door. I was so swept up in the hype of products, that didn't read ingredients, I didn't care, and didn't google anything to see if the ingredients made any sense for my skins needs. If it wasn't suited for my skin I bought it. I used it, indulged and my skin paid the price.

Me at the Cult Beauty Sale.......

I thought what was popular was good for me. And offered my skin what it needed. I thought going natural would be my savior. After all natural is better right? So it seemed...Not till my face was damn near falling off, sore, and completely damaged did I realise this was just the placebo effect and the effects of good marketing.

I justified things because I didn't want to admit what I had spent thousands of pounds on just wasn't helping. 

My mind said they worked, but my skin didn't show any signs of improvement. The truth is my beautiful balms, many face oils, oils serums, oil cleaners, masks, acids and luxury brands were just making me feel good inside. The real truth is they made no difference in my skins condition except to worsen it.

By the time the 2016 holidays came I was so far deep into the hole, I barely had the extra funds to buy what I actually needed to repair my fragile-broken skin. My skin was a DISASTER my self-esteem was low, my confidence was shot. The appeal of Instagram beauty brands, over priced products and advice from most beauty-bloggers had lost its shine and worse their methods and suggestions completely failed. I needed some real help...

Some of my before photos

To see some of my old skincare routines go to just_claire_leeds Instagram

coming up.... Part 2