How I Finally Cleared My Acne After Years of Struggling
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission from purchases made through links at no extra cost to you. I will only recommend products I have personally used and loved. I greatly appreciate your support! You can learn more by reading our Affiliate Disclaimer.
If you are like me, having acne took a huge toll on my self esteem. After going most of my life with clear skin, experiencing cystic acne that suddenly showed up during my first week of college was extremely hard. I felt ugly and ashamed of having acne as a young 19 year old, when most women my age had glowing skin no matter what they ate, how little they slept or how much alcohol they drank.
While having acne for so long was one of the hardest things I’ve ever experienced, one good thing that came out of it was a dedication to learning everything I could to try and clear my skin. This lead to learning how lead a healthy lifestyle holistically.
After finally discovering what actually worked, I want to tell my story to try and help others who might be going through the same thing I did.
In this post I am going to share my story of how I cleared my acne and the one-step skincare solution that helped me achieve it. I’ll be sharing:
My acne journey + all of the things I tried that didn’t work
Five areas of health I addressed to target acne from the inside out
The one-step skincare solution that was the catalyst to finally clearing up my acne (within a few weeks!)
Keep reading to find out how to get the clear skin you’ve been longing for plus pictures of my results!
MY ACNE JOURNEY
Growing up I had dealt with a variety of health issues, but I always had fairly clear, healthy skin. I didn’t even have a proper skincare routine up until I started dealing with my acne! Which is absolutely crazy to me now. Both my mom and my sister were jealous of my naturally clear skin as they had both dealt with fairly severe acne issues in their early to late teen years. But, when I arrived my first week of college as a bright-eyed, bushy tailed freshman, I started waking up to severe acne breakouts.
While I don’t know exactly what caused this to begin happening, I have a few theories (which I explain more in depth here). In the beginning, I was devastated and angry at the world. I didn’t understand why this would be happening, especially during a period of my life that I had been looking forward to for so long. I didn’t feel like going outside my dorm apart from getting food and going to class. In addition, the boy I was dating at the time said he didn’t want to continue. With all of this, it felt like everything was falling apart, and my self esteem plummeted.
It seemed as if every day I would wake up to more breakouts and they started to become more cystic and painful. I was in panic mode. I felt like I had no control whatsoever of what was happening to me.
Until one day, I decided that I had to do something to try and get my acne under control so I could focus on enjoying my time at college and experiencing this new phase in my life.
I started researching anything that had to do with health and wellness that could give me insight as to why I was experiencing this severe of acne; and how to start to heal my acne FAST. I read books, listened to podcasts, read articles, watched YouTube videos and even read research studies.
WHAT I TRIED THAT DIDN’T WORK
While there were habits that I started putting into practice that began building a foundation for healing, there were also a lot of things I tried that didn’t work. Including taking too many supplements, using harsh skincare products and even going on prescription medications after a brief stint where I gave up trying to heal naturally.
FIVE AREAS OF HEALTH I ADDRESSED
I began trying to address broad areas of my health that I learned had an impact on my skin health.
Diet and gut health
My gut had been severely damaged from growing up taking many courses of antibiotics, to eating a Standard American Diet (SAD) and being put on the birth control pill from a very early age. I started cleaning up my diet and being mindful of how certain foods made me feel both physically and mentally.
Sleep
Never understanding the importance of sleep, I had always been a night owl. But growing up I also typically had to get up early for sports practices, gym workouts, show choir rehearsals and more. So sleep got put on the back burner. I started going to bed earlier. I also started going to bed and waking up around the same time each day so I was getting my full eight hours of sleep.
Exercise
Exercise was by far my best established area of health. Being in sports and interested in fitness from an early age helped me to know how to maintain a good workout routine. But what I still had to learn was how to rest, as that is just as important to healing as a vigorous workout is.
Toxicity
By far and away the wealth of information regarding all of the hidden toxicities in our world was the biggest learning curve for me. It opened my eyes to all of the things our bodies are inundated with every day. From synthetic chemicals and fragrances in candles, hair products, makeup and more to forever chemicals in bottled water, I believe this was one of the biggest factors in my healing journey.
Addressing these areas of health was the beginning of my journey to clear skin.
MY ACNE CURE
While I was proud of all I had done to learn and implement healthy habits into my life, after over five years of dealing with acne in various stages of severity, it was still a constant in my life.
Then, after almost accepting the fact that I would never get to go out in public without makeup on, or look good in a single picture again, I discovered a podcast.
The podcast was called “Your Skin Doesn’t Need That” on “What’s the Juice” podcast produced by Organic Olivia. On this episode she featured a guest, Danna Omari, who is an esthetician and skincare studio/shop owner of NOY Skincare. Danna talked about a skincare regime that she swore by, using a very specific method and two very specific products. She claimed this method was universal, meaning it could help almost anyone with any skin condition or concern.
The skincare method is called oil cleansing, and the products are (1) Living Libations Best Skin Ever - Seabuckthorn oil blend and (2) organic cotton rounds. Using these products, you do three rounds of cleansing your face using the oil blend. Next, using your hands, you give yourself a mini facial massage to penetrate the nourishing oils deep into your skin. Finally, you put a little bit more oil on your face as a moisturizer. THAT’S IT!
When I heard this I thought “yeah, that is definitely too good to be true”. And “that might work for people who have one or two little pimples, but not for someone like me.”. But, at the same time, I liked what Danna was saying. I was impressed by her philosophies around natural skincare products and holistic health as a combination to get glowing skin.
After listening to the episode, I followed Danna on Instagram. She had beautiful posts that were also very informative. I browsed around and found many of her posts were focused on doing a skin reset using the oil cleansing method to help clear acne by resetting the skin’s natural barrier and balance. I also saw her reposting testimonials of how the skin reset had worked wonders for many women with struggles of stubborn acne.
Over the next few weeks this reset was on my mind. I kept going back and forth over whether it would be worth investing in the product. Finally, (after hearing about it multiple times), my boyfriend encouraged me to try it. He told me it would be worth the investment if it helped my acne, and if not, I could go on to try something else!
So, I finally pulled the trigger. I ordered my first bottle and did the skin reset using the exact oil cleansing method Danna teaches. During the reset, you aren’t supposed to wear any makeup for seven to ten days which was extremely hard for me. I had a lot of anxiety around people seeing my skin without makeup on. I used that time as an opportunity to challenge myself to practice mindfulness and acceptance around the way my skin looked.
And…IT WORKED! Because of the severity of my acne I did the reset for two weeks where I didn’t use any other makeup or skincare products except for the Seabuckthorn oil. BUT, at the end of those two weeks I started to notice my skin was calmer, less inflamed; I was seeing less redness and my breakouts were smaller and healing quicker than they ever had before. I even noticed some scarring starting to fade! I continued strictly oil cleansing using the Seabuckthorn oil for over a month although I did start wearing makeup again. My results were mind blowing. I couldn’t believe that something I had tried ACTUALLY WORKED! I still had a long way to go but my confidence and self esteem were beginning to come back and I was so grateful to have some relief from treating constant breakouts. To this day, I don’t take my clear skin for granted.
My skin transformation
FINAL THOUGHTS
While I know it is unlikely that ONE THING was the cure to my acne, I do strongly believe that finding Living Libations Seabuckthorn oil blend using Danna’s exact oil cleansing method absolutely changed my life.
I am extremely grateful to have discovered Danna as a trusted resource and to have taken a chance to reset my skin and finally see the results I had been longing for for so many years! Having found such a great quality product that contains clean, natural ingredients and that I can use completely by itself as a cleanser and moisturizer makes it an amazing foundation in my everyday skincare routine.
If you are experiencing acne that doesn’t seem to get better no matter what you try, I would encourage you to try this method and do a seven or ten day reset. It was worth the investment for me!
Remember to follow the oil cleansing method exactly how Danna teaches it here. It is important to use the Best Skin Ever - Seabuckthorn oil and organic disposable cotton rounds. I would encourage you to listen to the podcast where she talks about how she discovered this method and why it is universal for everyone.