My Skin Story

Life with my skin has been a journey. We’ve seen good times and bad times.

Okay, we’ve seen a lot of bad times.

What it was like to grow up with bad skin.

I had horrible skin while I was growing up. And I mean horrible. I had blemishes strewn across both my face and back. I mean I was like 15 – it’s a part of life. But I didn’t just have normal teenage skin. I had raging, horrible, persistent acne.

I remember being embarrassed to wear a leotard in dance class because of the low-cut back that put my zits on display. I remember being “pizza face” and learning early how to cake on makeup to hide every red spot. I remember drawers filled with various antibiotics and creams. I remember laser treatments, rounds of Accutane, and years of insecurity.

I thought the zits would go away once I hit adulthood, but when I moved to San Francisco at age 19 I was still rocking a face full of acne. I went to a dermatologist (yet again) and demanded to know why I wasn’t 16 anymore and still dealing with pizza face.

“Welcome to adult acne.”

Great. As if adulting wasn’t full of enough crap as it is.

I decided to do a full skincare routine overhaul. I was never going to be able to manage through my hormones and their impact on my skin. But there were some things I could control.

Bare faced photos are definitely not my favorite. Woof! But here you can totally see my main skin care concerns: redness, some random acne, and dark circles.

Where I went wrong.

By age 24 I’ve fully realized what was causing my skin to freak out for all those years.

I was never fully removing my makeup.

Ding ding ding! Lightbulb on. Sure I used makeup wipes. Sure I washed my face. But I never fully removed my makeup each day. So basically washing my face didn’t do anything because I was essentially just washing my makeup.

Also none of the creams or treatments I used were able to penetrate my skin because I still had a layer of makeup on (even when I thought I removed it). My skin basically hadn’t been able to breathe since like 2009.

My current skincare routine.

Once I decided I was ready to get serious about taking care of my skin, I knew where I needed to start. I needed to find a way to thoroughly cleanse my skin. Having a fool proof way to get my skin clean every night meant all my moisturizers and various creams could actually start to work. Paying $30+ for a jar of an expensive cream is seriously such a waste if it can’t even seep into your pores. Wasting money is gross.

That’s where Clarisonic comes in.

Step 1: I cleanse the day away.

I use my Clarisonic Mia 2 to get allllll the gunk off my face at the end of my day. Also I know this sounds crazy – I usually use it in the shower. I’m one lazy little blonde and my skin has suffered in the past because of my lazy tenancies. The fact that I’m able to use my Mia 2 while I’m in the shower waiting for my conditioner to sink in means I don’t skip taking care of my skin.

I like to switch up the cleansers I use with my Clarisonic. I have a whole host of favorites (including this Origins one I’m sort of loving right now). I simply squirt a little bit of my cleanser onto the brush head, push the button, and away I go.

Step 2: A mask a day keeps the zits away.

Most days I’ll follow up my cleansing with a quick face mask. I grab the Deep Pore Detoxifying Clay Mask because it sucks all the icky stuff from my pores – preventing zits before they start.

Usually I’m too lazy for face masks because it means I’m washing my face yet again (and still never feeling like I got everything out). Once I started using my Clarisonic to remove my mask (in the shower, no less) I had zero reason to skip this step.

And my skin is super thanking me for it.

The dirty truth.

Is Clarisonic worth the hype?

Hell yeah.

I mean, my face is totally digging it. My redness is so much better. I also don’t have as many of those pesky one-off zits hanging around either. Adios muchachos. See ya never.

The “after” shots don’t make me cringe nearly as much as the “before.”

No but really. Clarisonic actually legit cleans your face six times better than using your hands. And even if you can’t get on board with the numbers, the results I’ve seen from just truly thoroughly cleaning my skin have made a huge difference in my life.

I’m actually convinced I’m going to gift a Clarisonic to at least one friend or family member this year for the holidays. I wish someone had given me the gift of zit free skin like, oh I don’t know, ten years ago.

Clean skin means less makeup. Clean skin means confidence. And believe me – it rocks.

Clarisonic is also doing everyone a solid. You can get 15% off by using the code “HERCAMPUS” through November 20th! You’re officially welcome.

This is a sponsored post in partnership with Clarisonic and Her Campus Media. All words and opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting the brands that make Blondes & Bagels possible!