Friday, May 10, 2013

Key to Clearing Acne Naturally

Story and Info

Here is my little story on battling acne, what I use now (All Natural Ingredients!!!) is at the end of this post :)

Now I have had acne all my life. It was worse when I was younger, always a bumpy face through middle and high school! I was self conscious and slathered on the foundation, concealer, and powder, hoping to hide my unflattering spots.

Over time I have improved my acne, which I have tried MANY different things, which some have worked, some haven't. One thing I learned is that research is your best friend. Google! Makeup Alley! Blogs! Reviews! The internet is your best ally in fighting your face because it gives you the power to find what works for you without taking a trip to the doctor every time something doesn't work.

I tried EVERY thing on the market. Skin ID, Proactive, Skin Advantage, Acne.org, numerous prescriptions You name the brand and I have tried it. And those may work for some people but NOT for me, they always seemed to make it worse!

Late into highs school and starting college my family started a soap company,(Tallabred Soaps) which had all natural ingredients only! My mom had decided she was tired of not being able to understand ingredients on a bottle and that in the end most of the chemicals caused more problems in the long run. I was starting to agree.

At this point my acne was... okay. I had never had severe acne but you could always clearly tell I had it. It was like my face was at a confused stalemate. Dry and flaky in some areas, overly oily in others. I had been trying proactive which strips the oil from your skin in the wash causing your face to produce more oil to make up for it, so it was just making my war on my skin more prevalent..

Sick and tired of looking at myself I asked my mom for help. Together we researched some of the best oils for helping acne and she created her "Blemish Bar". (There is no actual claim it actually helps acne but this is my personal review so it sure as heck helped mine!!)

(Soon I will be doing a post with research on all my favorite oils so be sure to check here or Pinterest soon!)

Now armed with this ugly looking bar of soap I started on my quest of a more natural way to clear my skin. Within a month of laying off the chemical peels I had called "soap" before, my face calmed. I still had acne, but for the first time my skin wasn't angry red and sensitive after washing it each night! I was impressed, why hadn't I gone natural before??

The natural soap started helping my acne big time, though it certainly did not take it away completely. Wish just the bar I had on average 10-20 pimples but they healed as fast as they popped up it seemed. But my passion had reignited with this HUGE improvement on my skin! What else could I use to make myself better?

Now here is a short list of different things I've used along with my soap, some worked better than others, but all improved in some form or fashion. I'm sure there is more than on this list but these are the ones that had more of an impact on my skin.

Lemon Juice
Aspirin Masks
Rose Water
Green Tea
Green Coffee
A fantastic array of vitamins.
Jojoba Oil (Using now!)
Green Smoothies (Using now!)
(I will be doing more detailed posts on all of these!)

Fighting acne is about your personal regimen. What may work for someone else may not work 100% for you, so you need to find what works best. Don't be afraid to try new things! Natural doesn't really hurt your skin!

Also I have found recently that my diet was the last key ingredient to clearing m face almost completely. More of that down below!

What I am Doing Currently


Cleansing my Face:
Tallabred Soaps Blemish Bar.
I use this along with a small wool pad, which is gentle enough to exfoliate your face every night without irritating or stripping it completely!

 
Also when I am in the shower I apply all natural Jojoba Oil, massage it in for a minute then wipe any excess off with a hot washcloth. Its a natural oil! I have a very oily face and this has actually helped my oily spots not get so bad over the 24 hour period between washes. Be careful buying this online, you want to make sure its pure, organic/natural oil!
 
 
 


Cleansing my Chest and Back:
The skin on your chest and back is different from your face, which is annoying but easily remedied by changing soaps. Also you should use something much coarser to exfoliate like a loofah. I used a unscented, simple Goat Milk Soap Bar.



My Diet:
Now here comes my most recent change, but I have seen FANTASTIC results. I love eating unhealthy, and I do it often so I decided I needed a good way to get my greens and things in without having to chew through a salad every day. So I went with smoothies!

My Smoothie Recipe:
2 cups Greens: Mix of Kale, Celery, Cucumber, Romaine Lettuce, Spinach, Broccoli.
1 Whole Apple
1 cup Mix of Frozen Fruit: Grapes, Dark Cherries, Strawberries, and Blueberries
1/2 Lemon Squeezed
1 Quail Egg
2 Tsp. Aloe (From the planet or natural gel!)
1 Spoon of LOCAL ORGANIC honey (buying regular honey doesn't really give you much benefit other than taste. Local honey gives you local pollen, boosting allergy defenses!)

My skin has gone from 1 or two pimples every day to pretty much nothing in only two weeks! Started off with a smoothie every day and now to 4 times a week! If this continues to have such fantastic results will update on here! :)

Nice thing about these is that you can change the amount of fruit on different days to change the taste up! Its not the amazing tasty things you get in those fake syrups through smoothie chains but it does have amazing benefits!

PLEASE if anyone has questions feel free to comment here and I promise to reply back!
Another way to contact me:
https://www.facebook.com/ModelElizabethWestbrook

Friday, January 18, 2013

Aspirin: Your Face Miracle

So I have always struggled with my skin. It is temperamental beast, being dry on spots, overly oily on others and has been riddled with little blemishes since I first hit my teens. I am certainly not the girl blessed with the perfect skin. It had taken me quite a long time to learn about my skin, with research and trying new things.

One thing I can say is that if I can go simple and natural I will and it always seems to be the types of treatments that come out on top! One thing I love to use on my face is aspirin. Yes! Simple uncoated aspirin. Its easy and it works.


The Details: (Will add pictures of my process soon!)
This is a face mask that I started off using every night for about two weeks then tapered off to every other day. It is safe for skin, and helps your blemishes heal much quicker and helps the swelling go down!

First off find your aspirin, and make sure it says uncoated. You can tell if the inside of the bottle looks a little dusty. If you get coated you will have to crush them before you can dissolve them!


Then you take a small bowl and put a couple of aspirin in it. If uncoated you don't need to crush them! I use two, it usually will cover your whole face. You can always dissolve more if you need me. This aspirin will not appear as solid, you don't need that much aspirin, just a nice gritty film over the top of your skin!

Next you dissolve them. Straight water works wonderfully! Take like 4 or five drops, and splash it on the tablets. They will soften up in a minute or two and just add more water, squishing with your fingers until you get a nice gritty paste! Try just adding a bit at a time; I fling in water droplets off my fingers until I get the right consistency.

Now your ready, just gently spread it all over your face until all of the paste is gone. Sit for 30 minutes, then scrub off! You won't see results immediately but I noticed in the morning any redness I had was way down!

Tips:
- I use green tea extract in place of water for extra healing powers but you can really add whatever you want to give it extra oomph (Tea tree oil, aloe, ect.)
- You may not want to get it under your nose, it makes me sneeze a ton.
- You will see quickly which parts of your face don't need the mask! For me it was my forehead. Had tiny white bumps that faded within the day. I just stopped putting the mask there and it worked perfectly!

If you would like to see more stories on using this type of mask and different versions I would look at MakeupAlley!
http://www.makeupalley.com/product/showreview.asp/ItemId=14129

Starting Out

So I've wanted to start blogging for a while now I just haven't gotten around to it! So if you ever check back here I will be posting about pretty much anything that could be useful to other people. My skincare, hair, nail tips, horses, hunting, makeup products that do and do not work. I'll try to include pictures (although probably not of the best quality!) And sometimes I will post about experiences at certain stores or events in hopes that I can provide some advice or at the least some interesting reading material. I also will post about my modeling career some! I will try to write every time I have something to say. I talk a lot so hopefully it will be often!

Elizabeth