How to Control Acne Naturally and inexpensively.

My Acne History:

I started getting acne in the 5th grade and I still suffer from break out's in my late 20's. I believe I have tried everything on the market. Every face wash, every acne product on the shelf of a drug store, every expensive acne product in a department store, every infomercial product, every dermatologist product, every home remedy (like toothpaste), I even quit eating dairy to see if that was the cause of my acne. And nothing seem to work.

As I age I am starting to notice wrinkles, and my acne scars are more noticeable. I have came up with a routine to not only fight the acne, but it also improves the appearance of my scars and dark spots and helps prevent wrinkles. I have been doing it for 2 years now and my face hasn't looked better.

I know the stress and sadness of having acne, I hope my routine can help you with your struggles.

My Morning Routine:

The first step: Cleanse your face!
I wash my face with a foaming cleanser. Turn the hot water on. Get it to as hot is you can stand. Splash the hot water on your face. This opens your pores. Put a small amount of cleanser in your finger tips, and rub your hands together making the cleanser foam up. Gently wash your face. Don't use a washcloth or brush. Just wash your face with your hands. Rinse the soap off with cold water, this will close your pores. Gently pat your face dry with a clean towel and then let it air dry until it's completely dry.

To me the type of cleanser is not important. It doesn't have to be acne or aging related. Actually I don't believe acne cleansers work because you wash it right off. I go back in fourth with cleansers. Here are a few different brands that I like. There in order from most expensive (though none of them are going to be crazy expensive.) to least expensive. You can find them at any Target, Walmart, or any drug store.

• Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser, for 16 FL OZ. it's usually around $15 dollar
• Clean and Clear Essentials foaming facial cleanser. They have two different formulas of this. Original and sensitive skin. I buy the yellow one for sensitive skin. For 8 FL OZ. is around $6 dollars
• Neutrogena Facial Cleansing Bar. This comes in bar or liquid form. I personally like the bar form better. For the Bar it's only $2.50
• Orange Dial Hand Soap. Now this probably sounds crazy to you. I had a dermatologist tell me to only use Orange Dial soap as a cleanser. I tried it, and I really liked it, it makes my face feel really clean. And it's only $1.50 for a bottle

Tea tree oil:

After your face is completely dry, add a few drops of tea tree oil to your finger tips, and gently massage it into your face. Tea tree oil can naturally kill bacteria and help treat acne. Let it completely soak into your skin before moving on.

Benzoyl Peroxide:

Benzoyl Peroxide is what is found in most acne products. I find that it does help me immensely in treating my acne. I buy a tube of just the benzoyl peroxide cream. Most face wash companies make it, Neutrogena, Clearasil, Clean and Clear, etc... I usually buy the store brand kind. It's usually a few dollars cheaper, and it works the same. A tube of benzoyl peroxide usually cost around $3

Apply a pea size amount to your finger tips and apply it to your entire face, not just the infected areas. Let it dry before moving on.

Coconut Oil:

After the Benzoyl Peroxide I apply a small amount of organic coconut oil over my entire face. Coconut oil helps fight acne, heals scars, and prevents aging.

If I am not going anywhere I would stop here. I try to have a few make up free days a week. Just to let my face breath and heal without any make up on it.

If I am going out, I will apply a small amount of sunscreen on, a make up primer and then I apply on all my make up.

My Night time Routine:

First I remove my make up:

If your not wearing make up you can skip this step.

I remove my eye make up with coconut oil or olive oil. It helps naturally remove the make up and hydrate the eyes, helping prevent wrinkles.

I apply a small amount on my eyes and wipe it off with cotton ball or cotton facial pads.

Then I take the rest of my face make up off with a make up remover wipe. I switch make up remover wipes all the time. Sometimes I use Aveeno, sometimes Neutrogena, sometimes Olay, sometimes a store brand. The only thing that I stay consistent with, when it comes to make up wipes is I usually try to buy the ones for sensitive skin.

Cleanse your Face:

I use the same cleanser I did in the morning. I splash hot water on my face. I gently wash my face with my hands. The only thing I do different is I rinse my face with hot water, leaving my pores open for the next step. If your not going to exfoliate that day, you can close you pores by rinsing with cold water.

Exfoliate:

I exfoliate my face every other night. After rinsing my face with hot water I immediately start to exfoliate. Apply your exfoliant with your fingertips, and rub your face in small circular motions. I do this for about 2 minutes. Then rinse your face with hot water. Keeping your pores open to let out any dirt or black heads you rubbed out. After rinsing with hot water, switch to cold to close your pores.

Not only does exfoliating help remove black heads and dirt that has seeped deep into our pores. It helps with aging and acne scars. Our bodies have a magical way of rejuvenating. When you exfoliate your skin you are helping your bodies natural process along. By exfoliating you are removing all the dead skin, allowing the new skin to show through. Over time your scars and wrinkles will be come less and less noticeable as the new skin grows.

My favorite exfoliant you can purchase is epice purifying exfoliate. This is probably the most expensive product in my skin care routine. And the hardest to find. The reason I like it is because it gently exfoliates, and after I am done my face is so soft and smooth. For a 3.3 Oz bottle it cost $32 dollars. But a travel size 1 Oz bottle cost only $5 dollars. A travel size container last me about a month. Both can be purchased online, here:

My other favorite exfoliant is home made, it works just as good as the epice. Here is my recipe:

• 3 TBS of Baking Soda
• 2 drops of tea tree oil
• 1 TBS of coconut oil
• 1 tsp of honey
• 1 TBS lemon juice
• 1 tsp of sugar

Mix it all together until it becomes a thick paste. If it's too liquidly add more baking soda. Place in an airtight container and use within a month. All of these ingredients will exfoliate you gently, leave you with a soft skin, and fight acne.

Lemon Juice:

Lemon juice is a natural bleach, and does miracles on dark spots. If you don't have dark spots, or dark acne scars you can skip this step.

I buy organic lemon juice. Or you can squeeze your own juice. I put a few drops on my finger tips and rub it into the area of my dark spots. You don't need to apply this to your entire face, it will end up lighting your entire face and can easily make you very light. After a few weeks your dark spot should lighten immensely. When they are barley visible, you can switch to only doing this step a few times a week to once a week. Until the dark spots are completely gone.

Wait until your face is completely dry before moving to the next step.

Benzoyl peroxide:

Just like you did this morning, apply a small amount on your finger tips and apply to your entire face. Wait until your face is dry before moving on.

Bio-Oil:

Your probably thinking, isn't Bio-Oil used for stretch marks? Yes Bio-Oil is used for stretch marks, but it is also used for Scars, Uneven skin tone, Aging skin, and Dehydrated skin.

I apply a small amount on my fingertips and evenly rub it all over my face. You can pick up Bio-oil at Target, Walmart, and drug stores. It's about $11 dollars for 2FL OZ. bottle. One bottle last me about 6 months. After adding Bio-Oil to my routine, I have noticed a huge difference in my acne scars.

If you don't want to buy Bio-OIl use coconut oil instead.

If you didn't need to take off any make up. After the you rubbed the bio-oil into your skin. Apply coconut or olive oil to the outside of your eye lids. This will help keep your eyes hydrated and prevent wrinkles. DO NOT put Bio-Oil on your eye lids, it will irritate them.

But isn't oil bad for acne? Everything you learned about oil be bad for acne erase it from your mind.

• Dry skin is a thriving ground for acne causing bacteria. It allows the bacteria to enter all the cracks and dry spots causing more acne.
• When you have clogged pores and you remove the build up through exfoliating, you need to fill the pore before anything else can enter it. By filling it with a good oil, such as tea tree oil, coconut oil, olive oil, it will make it impossible for bad bacteria to enter your pore and cause pimples. When you dehydrate your pores by drying them out, it's leaving it open for anything to enter.
• Oils help with red and inflamed pimples, calming them down and helping them heal faster.
• When your skin is hydrated with good oils. Your skin wont need to over produce oil causing acne.
• Hydrated skin, helps heal and prevent scars and wrinkles.

Other tips for acne:

Drink Plenty of Water: by drinking water you are hydrating your skin. Drinking water also helps flush out the toxins in your body. So your not sweating them out on your face and causing acne.

Eat Healthy: . Do you ever notice after eating something greasy and unhealthy you break out? By eating lots of fruits and vegetables it will help improve your skin.

ACV anyone? Apple Cider Vinegar is natures miracle. People apply it to their face to help with acne and scars. I have tried this, but can't stand the smell of it on my face every day. I drink it internally. I take a TBS of apple cider vinegar, and mix it a tsp of raw honey, and 8 oz of cold water. Apple cider vinegar helps with so many things, such as preventing colds, it gives you energy, detoxes your body, helps you lose weight, prevents acne, etc...I started taking it mainly to increase my immune system. And loved the healthy it made me feel, so I continue taking it. You want to try ACV for you acne. Buy it in the raw organic form with the mother. Bragg's is the brand I buy.

Face Masks: I love face masks. They help hydrate and nurture your skin. I wear face masks about 3 nights a week, after cleansing and exfoliating, but before the lemon juice step. My favorite face masks are homemade. All of my home made face masks help with, acne, aging, and scars. Here are my favorite recipes:

Let all the masks sit on your face for 20 minutes or longer.

• Have an over ripped banana, that you don't know what to do with? Mash 1/2 the banana with 1 TBS of honey and 1 tsp of lemon juice.
• Did you know Strawberries naturally produce Salicylic acid. Which is the number one ingredient in most acne products. Remove the stems and mash 4 strawberries with 1TBS honey and 1 tsp lemon juice.
• While your treating yourself to homemade guacamole, Set 2 TBS of mashed avocado aside. For the mask mix the avocado with 1 tsp of lemons juice, and 5 drops of tea tree oil.
• Blueberries are amazing for anti aging. Mash 8-10 blueberries, with 1 TBS of coconut oil, 1 tsp of honey, 1/2 tsp lemon juice.
• Plain Greek yogurt. Let it sit to room temperature mix in 1 tsp of honey and apply it on your face.
• You can get three different face masks from one egg.

Separate the egg yolk from the white and put each in a different container. Put one of the containers in the fridge to use for another face mask this week.

Egg white face mask....Whisk the egg white, until foamy. The egg white lightens and tightens your skin. Doing the egg white face mask is great for dark spots, aging, and black heads. Apply the egg whites all over your face.

• Egg white mask 1: After applying the egg white, let your face dry. Your face will feel really tight when it is dry. Rinse off the egg whites with cold water.
• Egg White mask 2: After applying the egg white, apply 1 ply Kleenex on top of the wet egg white. If you have two ply Kleenex just pull them apart to separate. If you don't have Kleenex you can use toilet paper. Let dry! Your face again will feel very tight. Peel the paper off like you would a biore strip. Or the cucumber peel mask you can buy at the store. Then rinse the remaining egg off with cold water.

Egg yolk mask: Egg yolks are very hydrating to your skin and gives your skin a healthy glow. Take the egg yolk, whisk it up. Apply it to your face, and let it dry. When it is dry, just rinse it off with cold water.

Give it time:

Acne, scars, and wrinkles don't happen overnight. Give it at least 3 months to see if it is working before you quit! If after 3 months you see absolutely no changes move on to something else.

Don't worry, stress causes acne and wrinkle. You will be able to find the perfect combination that will work perfectly for you. I hope I have helped. If you have any comments, questions, or support please feel free to email me at mysweetlittle6@gmail.com