Lifestyle

My Acne Journey: How I Got Rid Of My Severe Acne And Regained My Confidence

2016-11-15 , 5:34 pm

Last Updated on 2017-01-05 , 4:38 pm

Acne is the worst nemesis, especially when I have been plagued with severe acne problems ever since when I was young. I would wake up one day and find countless of underlying zits (they call it cystic acne) under my skin. They would swell and cause uneven and bumps on my face over the next few days as though I have just gotten a mosquito bite – but way more painful than that.

There could be 3 or 4 on my chin at one go, and it really did affect my self-confidence a whole lot – to the point that I had to slap on countless of makeup products and concealers to make them go away. Sometimes, you can still see uneven bumps beneath the makeup. And this, of course, aggravated the whole problem because of all the products I was slapping onto my face. People online always say that they don’t understand why girls who have bad skin still slap on tons of makeup.

But neither do they understand the pain and hurt whenever we look into the mirror and see something we don’t want to see staring back at us.

Concealing helps us run away from part of the pain, and also stop stupid people from asking what the hell happened to our faces every Chinese New Year.

Even till now, I do experience problems of cystic acne under my chin, especially when my period is approaching. It’s always there, showing signs and symptoms that my period is nearing – and they are usually very accurate – even more so than my menstrual calendar.

I also do a lot of skincare routine now – around 7 steps before I sleep every and go by the mantra of moisturize, moisturize and moisturize. And not to forget, facials. gzmzr Okay, everyone has this misconception of facials that once you go, you HAVE to always go back again and again. It’s true to an extent – especially for females when the dirt and impurities of our makeup start building on our faces but ultimately, it’s still up to you to maintain a healthy skincare routine.

Because if you don’t, no amount of facials and people squeezing your pimples can save you. But what facials can do though, is tell you about your CURRENT skin condition so that you know what kind of home remedy or treatments you can do to save your skin.

And no, not all facials are painful – especially not when the pimple-squeezing process is done by professionals who do it within the snap of her fingers.

Facial treatment centres like New York Skin Solution, too, gives you a facial skin before AND after your facial to let you know how the treatment has helped your skin. For NYSS, what makes them really different is also the customized treatments they do for ALL their treatments. There, no two treatments are the same – not even when you sign up for the trail session which is absolutely free. From the treatment, it was found that I have incredibly dry skin – which is why the lines on the first picture are caused by the products that cannot be absorbed into my skin.

The second picture would obviously be my chin – also the most problematic area of my skin where I could experience consistent issues with acne.

After the skin analysis, we then moved on to a customized facial treatment. We first started off with a double cleansing – one with a milk cleanser and another with a normal cleanser.

And here’s where things get a little bit tricky.

From my past facial experiences, the extraction process has always been one of my MOST fearful time of any facial, because it can really, really hurt. I’m sure that many of you who have gone through facials have experienced the feeling of needles poking on your skin and the beauticians trying to squeeze the life out of your pimple even though they won’t bulge. Yup, been there, done that. But what you don’t know, is that they have been doing it the wrong way. Squeezing it out relentlessly will only make the pimples leave ugly scars and sometimes, even inflaming other parts of your face.

Therefore, what the people at NYSS did for me, was instead of squeezing out my pimples, they did softening – to soften the pimples so that the removal process will be way easier.

The entire process only took around 5-10 minutes, and the extraction process was minimal. We then moved on to double masking – to clear up any redness from the previous procedure and also to lighten up the scars on my face.

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Even for the masking process, NYSS concocts their own masks for every client because everyone has different skin needs.

For mine, since my skin was on the drier side, the beautician created a hydrating mask for me. The entire masking process took around 20 minutes. Here’s how my face looked like after the entire treatment!

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Brighter and way more moisturizer than before! And no, there weren’t any redness at all, unlike the previous facial treatments I’ve done.

At the end of the whole treatment, another skin analysis will be given at the consultation room so that we will be able to see the “before” and “after” pictures of our skin after it has received the treatment. For mine, I can say that the difference was really obvious.

You can finally see the collagen lines on my skin! At the end of every treatment, a treatment card will also be written down for every patient on the exact treatment process we received, as well the different products used on our skin so that they will be able to remember it in the future! And all these for FREE because they are all part of the trial! How cool is that! The entire process takes 2.5 hours – much longer than usual facial treatments but because they will need time to customize the products and even analyse your skin before and after the facial treatment!

The next day after the treatment, even though I did apply makeup for work, the makeup was much easier to glide onto my face, and didn’t leave any uneven bumps at all! Here’s a buay paiseh selfie of me taken with natural sunlight to prove it all:

PIMPLES, BE GONEEEEEEEEEE. But of course, this doesn’t happen overnight. Even with facial, you will need to have a daily routine of skin care to stick to.

For me, I ALWAYS use Toner, Moisturizer and Suncreen before applying my makeup primer in the morning. At night, I use Toner, my Apple Cider Vinegar Toner (MY MIRACLE TONER), Serum, Treatment Essence, Eye Cream, and Night Mask.

Sounds like a mouthful, but prevents my pimples from making a scene on my face.

So what’s your skin care story?

This article was first published on Goodyfeed.com and written in collaboration with New York Skin Solutions.

My Acne Journey: How I Got Rid Of My Severe Acne And Regained My Confidence

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