As a brown-skinned species, finding the right skin care product for my skin type was a challenge that only got more arduous judging from the fact that I have a very oily and acne prone skin type.
Initially, regular bar soaps and fresh water were my only skin care products and honestly, it worked for me till it didn't anymore. My skin, my face especially, took a turn for the worst four years ago after a makeup artist used bad makeup products on my face. For years, I battled with dark spots, ance, skin flaking and breakage. During this period, people recommended things like turmeric infused in honey and honey mixed with oatmeal but these things didn't work or I wasn't just patient enough to be consistent with them.
My face is one of my precious jewels and the idea of rubbing so many things on it didn't just sit right with me. Eventually, I just jumped from bar soap to bar soap every three months, hoping every time I tried out a new bar soap, it was the one. Some of these products worked for the first week and after that I was back to square one. The dark spots ensued and at some point I was just doing damage control, while silently praying things didn't get out of hand.
During my search for a remedy, I went on social media and always got annoyed after watching the influencers using a series of pricey skin products; some of which seemed really unnecessary to me. The bad thing about most of these skin care products is that they would work as long as you keep using them but once you stop, your skin may return to base or something worse than base. One of the skin care influencers was honest enough to come on camera and state that she regrets using so many products and if given an opportunity, she was going to cut down on them. She made skin care sound like a cult you had to be loyal to for life and I wasn't ready to join no cult.
Early this year, a friend noticed the early morning flaking of face and recommended a dermatologist. At first, visiting a dermatologist seemed and sounded too extreme. Nothing was profoundly wrong with my skin or so I thought. Eventually, during my internship session at the hospital, I was fit into a dermatologist’ schedule. The dermatologist confirmed what I was already certain of “nothing is profoundly wrong with your skin”. He stated that I was using harsh soaps for my face and needed to take it down a notch. He recommended a soap brand that I immediately got and has worked for me ever since. Only people who have battled with consistent dark spots, flaking and acne would understand the joy I felt when I eventually found something that worked. The most amusing part was the fact that it was just one product that was recommended! How minimalistic could it get.
So, to my skin care routine proper.
For my regular baths, I use the Dove moisturising body wash and the Dove bar soap intermittently. These bathing soaps seem to understand me and my skin extremely well because not only have they eradicated all of the tone and texture issues, they leave my skin bright and moisturised.
I also use a karis three in one face wash three times in a month to help exfoliate dead skin, giving way to the bright and supple skin underneath. I do not use this face scrub as often as I should because once again, I'm very sceptical about the products I use on my face. Also, I endeavour to stay indoors the whole day after applying a facial scrub to prevent direct UV rays from damaging my skin any further.
The next and last item on my skin care list is a body lotion from Nivea. On good days, I only apply them to my hands and feet; the two parts of my body that do not produce an alarming amount of oil.
To reiterate, I have really oily skin and most of the time, I do not bother applying body lotion. Ten minutes after a proper bath, my body produces enough oil to fry an egg. There was a time I found this very disturbing but now, I can't be more grateful.
To answer the question for the week, I do not juggle ten different skin care products a day and if I ever did, I probably would have been really unhappy with that outcome. I must also add that the journey to finding what skin care products work for you may not be an easy one but once you find something that works, stick with it. This is a friendly note from one who has searched and thankfully found.
All images used belong to me and were taken with my mobile device except stated otherwise. This post is in response to the #kiss prompt for this week which you can find here.
Liebe🤍
