We’ve all been there: that moment late at night when you’re crying into the mirror because you just impulsively picked at and popped any visible pimple or clogged pore in sight, leaving your face a bright red, splotchy mess. Maybe I sound overdramatic and superficial, but when you look past the dramatics, acne at its core honestly sucks.
I have spent years dealing with hormonal acne and the acne scars that came with that as a result. To add on to that, now with the pandemic, “maskne”, or acne as a result of all the moisture and bacteria combusting together under your mask, has become the new culprit of blemishes on the lower half of my face. I’ve tried every skincare product in the book, chemically exfoliated more than you can imagine, cut dairy out of my diet (well, most of it), and even went on birth control, and yet I still experienced breakouts. I know how emotionally exhausting it can be, especially for us as young women in today’s society, where, unfortunately, there is so much emphasis and obsession surrounding our physical appearances.
It hasn’t been until very recently that I’ve learned to be okay with my acne and acne scars and have been trying to embrace them and not cover them up with concealer all the time. Clearly, acne is something I will always have to deal with, and that’s okay. It doesn’t take away from my beauty or my self-confidence unless I allow it to. Acne is normal and doesn’t negate your beauty no matter how much you think it does, and I strongly encourage everyone who deals with acne to let your skin breathe and embrace your blemishes. In doing so, you are unwillingly empowering other women elsewhere to not be ashamed of their skin and breaking the notion perpetuated by social media that our skin needs to be 100% perfect and poreless all the time. Enlarged pores, acne, scars, texture and discoloration happen to all of us and are merely a sign that we are alive and that our bodies are functioning properly.
We, as a society, need to shift the notion that the end goal of skincare is perfect, flawless skin. The goal of skincare should be healthy skin, not perfect skin. Take your skincare routine as a meditative time for self-love and a way to really sit with yourself, relax and be in tune with your body, rather than setting it as a time of mental stress with over-cleansing, scrubbing, popping anything and over-exfoliating with the end goal of perfection. A good skincare routine should be gentle and effective, with emphasis on hydration and restoring the skin’s moisture barrier. Throwing on any harsh product onto your face paired with picking at acne will only make your skin worse. We need to look at our skincare routines as a gentle and steady process to help with the health and glow of our skin in the long run, instead of viewing it as a quick overnight fix. By remaining consistent with your routine, I promise you will notice such a difference in the health of your skin; even if you still occasionally break out, you will have a noticeable glow and hydrated, plump skin, and it will be obvious that you take good care of your skin.
The important takeaway I want to give here is that acne is not equivalent to unhealthy, “dirty” skin, just as clear, blemish-free skin is not necessarily healthy skin. All skin types, however, are beautiful and are worthy of us taking the extra time to take care of it and make sure it’s healthy.
Want to see more HCFSU? Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Youtube and Pinterest!