Hello everybody,
I’ve been using my new vegan, german products for a week now, but more importantly I’ve been dairy free for a week now.
The reason I’m doing this new skincare routine for 40 days is that I wanted to reduce the amount of products I’m using and see how my skin could change during and right before my period.
If I’m correct, shark week should start tomorrow (maybe even today) and I can report that there’s not a single whitehead in sight.
Why am I telling you this? Because usually, up to a week before my period I’d have whiteheads all over the place.
Example: Day 1 (which was also the 1st day of my period) and Day 27
Day 1 (1st day of period) would be a normal sight around a week before my period and during my period. Pretty yucky, right?!
Day 27 (1 day before my period) is straight after washing my face (hence why it looks so dry). Although those 2 cysts / encapsulated spots are still hanging out, you can see that there is not a single whitehead and also that the marks from the old spots are slowly, but surely fading away / healing.
I’ve been using Ichthammol/Ichthyol (drawing salve) on those two spots for the last 2 days and hope that they will be drawn out soon. The ointment definitely reduced the size overnight, but if they are encapsulated/too deep, as I suspect(they are a bit hard), they might have to be removed by a dermatologist. Please note: The ointment stains the skin a bit, hence the brown shadow around the spots.
It’s hard to say how well the skincare worked (because I’ve been experimenting with so many things at the same time), but I believe my skin got smoother because of the Clarisonic Mia 2.
Also, I think that I don’t have any new whiteheads or new cysts coming through because of my dairy free diet. The photo above doesn’t portray how healthy my skin looks in real life (photos taken with mobile phones rarely have a balanced contrast and saturation)
We should never forget that skin reacts to what you put inside your body ( I know a lot of derms will say, that diet doesn’t affect acne, but that’s because the pharmacy industry wants you to buy their ointments and pills) and it’s also affected by the environment (someone who lives in the city, will most likely have to take better care of their skin than someone who lives in the countryside). You can spend money on the best skincare products on the market, it won’t make a difference, if you still eat fast food all the time or you eat dairy, when you obviously can’t digest it right (which most people can’t without problem). Yes, you can help your skin heal with creams, pills and ointments. But don’t forget, once you see a spot on your skin, it’s been caused by something that happened inside your body, days, weeks or months ago. You are not getting down to the source with those products, you’re only fighting what’s visible. There’s probably more to come unless you change your unhealthy habits.
So, do establish a good skincare routine with products that suit your skin type, but also work on what your inside needs. If you have dry skin, drink more water. If you’re acne / hormonal spot prone like me, eat less greasy foods and try a dairy free diet to see if that makes a difference. Some will also say that a gluten free diet can help, but you have to try that out for yourself and see if it helps.
It can be a very big change in the way you live and eat, but it can have a very positive effect on your health and skin. Not only has my skin changed, I’ve also lost weight and my IBS has calmed. It’s also nice to be less bloaty, esp. when you have a mummy tummy.
The first few days of my dairy free diet were really hard as I was craving pizza and milk chocolate a lot, but now, only a week in, I don’t miss pizza at all. And I’m eating a piece of dark chocolate, when I do crave chocolate (most types of dark chocolate are without milk, but do check the label).
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great week!
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