Ask Jade No 1
"Help! I’m using all of these products on my face and my skin is still not improving- any tips?"
When I first got into skin care, I am not even exaggerating when I tell you my entire cupboard and bathroom shelf were covered top to bottom in several different cleansers, a million different versions of the same serum, with the same ingredients, and a whole lot of labels that promised to make my skin flawless by the morning.
I couldn’t figure it out, how I would sit there each night, hair up, slathering on my entire skin care routine only to wake up with bumpy, textured and often acne covered skin! So, like any girl on a mission to have flawless skin, I started doing some research. After countless hours scrolling through studies and finally having to admit that I was wrong (this was hard), I finally solved my skin care dilemma, and thankfully I have not looked back.
When “Ask Jade” first took off, I found one of the questions I got asked the most was “hey, I’m using all these amazing products, but I’m breaking out”. Followed by “okay, so I’m doing my full skin care routine every night, but I can’t get rid of my textured skin”. I thought about me pulling my hair out trying to figure out why nothing was working for me, sitting cross legged on my bed at 3 AM scrolling the internet, and thought: I am going to save you all the trouble and answer this as best as I now possibly can. So, here goes!
Your pores are im(pore)tant. 😉 We fill them up with all of these wonderful products and hope that they absorb it all without a fuss, but the oils produced by your skin, called sebum, make this hard. Your skin produces oils in an effort to coat, moisturize and protect your skin. Sometimes, your sebum goes into overdrive and you pores become clogged, which is an easy way to get stuck with acne. Our first thought when this acne appears is to get rid of it with more products, more application, and more frequent use of our favourite products.
The problem is that your pores are only so big! Picture trying to shove every last cute sweater you own into your suitcase and trying to do up the zipper. Well, unfortunately your pores are the suitcase. 😅 We further clog our pores by further filling them up with additional product, instead of first dealing with the root cause. Our pores are not clean. Because your products seep through the same pores that are unfortunately filled with oil, cleaning them out and leaving your skin with available surface area is key.
This means cleansing and exfoliating are your new BFF. I have grown to find that productive skin care comes down to this: what we take off our skin is just as important as what we put on top of it! Proper cleansing and exfoliating allow the removal of not only excess oils, but dead skin cells, dirt and bacteria that are easily accumulated while we’re out and about. These two steps also allow your products to further penetrate into your skin, instead of having them trapped inside clogged pores which breeds more bacteria and more acne.
Good skin care products are important, but good skin maintenance is just as needed. This is generally the difference between that last pimple that won’t quit, the little bit of texture you can’t get rid of, or that little stubborn spot on your skin that’s always acting up. Your skin is probably pretty good, but this will make it great. 😘
- Jade xo