The Week My Skin Exploded

At the beginning of May my skin exploded. It was horrible. I have normal to dry skin and only ever break out during hormonal times. When I break out, it is generally one or two pimples and they are rarely the big, sore kind. But this time I had little red bumps all over my jaw line, I had pimples break out on my forehead, my chin and around my nose. For me, someone who has never struggled with acne, it was horrendous. Also, because I have never struggled with acne I was left stunned and unsure what to do to fix my skin. I also had no idea what had caused my breakout. I had been using some new skincare products, but nothing too recently or that I thought would have caused this. So I hit up Wal-Mart and basically bought every mask I could.

I posted this picture on Instagram of my little skincare haul. I love these masks by Freeman. You can buy them in a large tube, but you can also get these little individual pouches. I picked up the Clay Mask with Avacado and Oatmeal that is supposed to purge pores and a personal favourite of mine: the Cucumber Peel-Off Mask. Something about peeling the mask off is so therapeutic and I love seeing all the gunk that is in my pores come out. I also picked up the St. Ives Daily Microdermabrasion exfoliant. Can you tell my skin has never broken out before? I clearly had no clue what to do so I just bought everything in sight! #firstworldproblems, am I right?

I also decided to pare my skincare routine down in case it was a product reaction. I stopped using anything that was newish in my skincare routine. I was skeptical of this though because my skin never breaks out due to adverse product reactions. Right after I purchased this mish-mash of skincare products I got home from work, took my makeup off and immediately applied the Clay Mask. You leave it on for 10 minutes while it hardens. When you wash it off your skin definitely feels clearer. These masks are good for two uses. I used it once and then placed it in a Ziploc bag until the next use so that the clay doesn't harden. I didn't want to overdo it but later in the week I applied this mask once more to purge my pores again. I just cannot cope with my skin looking like this. It haunted my dreams (I'm slightly dramatic).

The first picture above was taken the day of the instagram haul, before I applied the the Clay Mask. The second picture was taken a week and a half to two weeks later, before I applying my makeup in the morning. As you can see the hyperpigmentation around my jaw and nose has almost disappeared and so have the breakouts around my chin and forehead. I also had little bumps around my jaw line. They went away within about a week. Since then I broke out again, but this time it was two forehead pimples that were due to mother nature.

I discovered that the culprit to my skincare woes was definitely my Clarisonic. Not using the tool itself, but the brush head that I had yet to change. I focus my Clarisonic on my problem areas: my jaw line, my nose, my chin and my forehead. Everywhere that I broke out. I had my Clarisonic sensitive skin brush head since late-January. Since I only used my brush once a day so I thought I could stretch it past the four-month use recommendation. I was wrong. I know that it is recommended to wash your Clarisonic with an anti-bacterial soap weekly. I didn't do this. I thought that using my face wash to wash my Clarisonic would be sufficient. It wasn't.

Luckily I had already purchased a new brush head. I switched to my new delicate skin brush head and my skin has been much better. I have been Googling how to cleanse my Clarisonic properly because I fear that anti-bacterial hand soap just isn't going to cut it for me. At this point I am living in a state of perpetual fear that my skin is going to explode if I do not properly cleanse my Clarisonic brush head. I am going to have to be much more diligent about washing my brushes and pray that in three months time my skin doesn't explode again. Going forward I'm going to make sure to wash my brush head once a week, taking the brush head off to wash it and wash beneath it. Fingers crossed this helps.