My Acne Journey

I wasn't blessed to have a flawless skin. When I was in highschool, I used to have a very oily skin, upto the present. The difference is that I only have very minimal pimples that time and major break out never occurred. When I finished highschool, I have to move to Manila to continue my studies. The first two months of my stay in the city was a hell of experience. Zits started to appear on my forehead, temples and cheeks. Cystic acnes and pimples with pus were all over my face. My mom was shocked when she saw my face, she was like "Anak what happened to your face!?". Just told my mom that it was normal, I'm on my teenage years yah know. I was at the denial stage for months. I always tell myself that it was just normal and there were just few pimples but in reality, it's close to that "no more space for new pimple" thing. Yes, that's how terrible my skin was in college. I didn't do anything to stop those pimples from invading my face. Until one day, I stared at my 2x2 picture and realized that my face was really covered with lots of pimples. People stare at your face and have that disgusted expression. It was really heartbreaking.  From then on, I consulted a dermatologist. She gave me lots of topical meds but nothing worked. So she suggested that I should go to an OB-Gyne to have checked because my break outs are caused by hormonal imbalance.  She advised me to take a contraceptive pill, Althea was the brand I took for months. It calmed my skin. Regulated my cycle. Lessened my breakouts but pimples still pop out every now and then. those break outs left my face with scars, mostly on my temples. 

To help get rid of those marks and scars desperately, I tried so may products. Chemically based, OTC topical meds and different variant of soaps. When I finished my degree, and started to earn my own money I invested more on my skin. Hoarded bunch of skincare products. And just last year, I started using organic products. It helped my skin in a very good way. But last December 2015, a MAJOR breakout occurred again that even my mildest organic goodies haven't done any good to cure my breakout. I was really frustrated that time and then I saw this online derma in instagram, @skintologie360 ; I sent them the photo of my skin condition that time and Dr. Mendoza prescribed me a set of topical medications and oral if they didn't work. 

The set includes SAS soap, Erythromycin toner, Luminesse toner and Azelaic Acid cream. I bought the set for around 1500 pesos. 

Let's start with the SAS soap.

- smelled sweet but not overpowering

- does not sting my face

- helped in drying and healing my pimples

because it has Sulfur and Salicylic acid

- dries my skin

Erythromycin Toner

- smelled like an ordinary toner

- no sting

- helps in killing bacteria on your face

- does not dry my skin 

Luminesse Toner

- smelled a bit stronger than the erythromycin toner

- this one stings

- helped in drying pimples

- dries my skin

Azelaic Acid

- prevents your skin from being immune

to erythromycin toner

- helps in lightening pimples marks

- does not sting

Here's my before and after photo: day1-day4 only. This is not my current skin. This photo was taken last December. 

I experienced dryness on some part of my face and the areas around my pimples really dried up. It delivered positive results in just four days! I continued using this set for 3 weeks and it healed my break out. But some pimples still appear. But not as severe as my break out. I first emptied the Azelaic acid. And till now I'm still using my Erythromycin toner with my current skin care. Will post a blog on that product soon. It really helped in lightening my pimples marks. And my skin is no waaaaaaay better. 

Overall, this set really helped my skin bigtime. Visit the instagram account of @skintologie360 if you are suffering from same skin issue as mine. Would love to hear your thoughts about it!  

My First Happyskin Product

Who's a fan of lip and cheek products? Please do raise their hand! ME! Aside from skin care, I also love collecting cosmetic products. One of my recent purchase is from a proudly Filipino cosmetic company called Happy Skin  Cosmetics. The brand formulated most of their products to compliment filipina skin tones. You'll get hooked with their pretty packaging and witty names! They have wide range of shades to choose from especially their lippies. But one of their product really caught my attention, their famous lip and cheek mousse.  

The Happy Skin Shut Up & Kiss Me Lip and Cheek Mousse is a very lightweight rpoduct that can be worn both as a lippie and as a blush!  Happy Skin products can be bought from BeautyBar and you may also place your order thru their website store.happyskincosmetics.com. I got mine from Beauty Bar Trinoma for a price of 699, not bad for a 2in1 product! Their lip and cheek mousse comes in three shades; My Guilty Pleasure (red), Swept off My Feet (pink), and Warm and Toasty. I picked the shade Sweot off my Feet because I'm a sucker of pink lipsticks! And I think it will compliment my skintone perfectly. 

Here are the ingredients of this lip and cheek mousse:

Hurray! It does not contain any Parabens! I'm only familiar with Mica that gives color to the product, Shea butter for moisture and Titanium dioxide that serves as a sun protection then I am no more familiar with the rest of the  ingredients. LOL

The product is in a clear plastic glass tube with a pretty purple and lavender girly design. So basically this is how the wand looks like, the applicator is simply flat and pointed in which it can reach the corners of the mouth. The tip is also flexible that it makes the application a lot easier. 

Hand swatch on the right and on the left is the blended one. It is very pigmented and the color pay off is really good. When put into cheeks, it will give you that natural flush. This is perfect for my oily skin because it lasted for hours.  

Tadaaaaa! Lip swatch! This is only one glide of the product that's why it looks lighter on my lips. I like it that way tho. The pigmentation is buildable so you may add more product acheive your desured color. The color is very flattering and does not make my teeth look yellowish at all. I love that it does not have that much of a blue undertone. It has a creamy to semi matte finish and I must say, this lip product did not dry my lips at all! I have extremely dry lips that's why I am very picky into buying lip products and I am so glad this one did not cause me any lip dryness. When used on the cheeks, a dot or two of the product is enough to give me that healthy natural flush. Thumbs up for the staying power of this on my super oily skin! I wipe off the surface of the applicator using wet wipes everytime I use it on my cheeks  for hygienic purposes. Overall, I so love this product. It really made my lips happy! :)

Will I repurchase it? Absolutely! Will also try the other shades. 

Have you tried Happy Skin's lip and cheek mousse? What are your thoughts about it? 

Review: Lush Cosmetics Mask of Magnaminty

Hello guys! How was your new year? 😄 I hope you all had a great one. I spent mine on our apartment with the other tenant and our landlady's family. Wasn't able to spend it in the province because of my duty schedules. Oh well wishing you all a beautiful and productive year! 😊 

Moving on to my very first product review for this year, I know some of you had sleepless nights due to holiday seasons. Nah.. All that parties and gatherings that made your skin looked dull. Now I'm gonna share you my recent purchase from Lush and actually my first product from them! The Mask of Magnaminty from Lush cosmetics. 

I have been hearing a lot of great reviews aboit this mask over the net and so I finally purchased it when I discovered their branch in Trinoma. I bought this 125g tub for only 325php kinda expensive but Im telling it would last you for months. Just always check their expiry date because most of their products have only short shelf life due to the use of natural products. Below are the ingredients of this mask: 

The first three ingredients are very good for my oily and acne prone skin. It has the perfect amount of peppermint that will wake up your sluggish skin. But I was a but skeptical about the kast content of the product, Methyparaben. "Parabens are used to prevent the growth of microbes in cosmetics products and can be absorbed through skin, blood and the digestive system. Parabens have been found in biopsies from breast tumors at concentrations similar to those found in consumer products. Parabens may be found in a wide variety of products including shampoos, lotions, deodorants, scrubs and eye makeup, and are found in nearly all urine samples from U.S. adults regardless of ethnic, socioeconomic or geographic backgrounds. Adolescents and adult females had higher levels of methylparaben and propylparaben in their urine than did males of similar ages." - safecosmetics.org

I just wish that they would come up with an alternative to parabens because obviously it is not good for the body.

Excuse le face! You just have to scoop an enough amount of the product and spread all over your face. It actually reminded me of the Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque coz they have almost the same smell and feels. Mask of magnaminty has China clay and fresh peppermint reach deep down to pull the debris from your pores, giving you that delightful tingly-clean sensation. The peppermint helped to calm my senses. They also added aduki beans (those clumps formed on my face) to help in exfoliation, vanilla and honey to soothe skin and also made the mask smell more relaxing. This can be used as a back pack especially for those people experiencing bacne. I let this mask stay on my face for about 10mins and rinsed it with warm water. While rinsing, I gently rubbed those clumps against my skin for that exfoliating feels. The clumps doesn't feel abrassive at all. True to it's words, my face became brighter and fresh! Plus it did not give me any face demons the next morning. Hurray! Im going to include this on my skincare routine and use it 2x a week and hoping that it would make my skin a lot better.

Have you tried Mask of Maganaminty? What are your thoughts about it?