The skincare I'm using to keep maskne under control

Recently I shared an episode of BeautyMe dedicated to maskne and how, through some amazing professional advice, had managed to get it under some kind of control. I thought it made sense to go into it in a little more detail for anyone who hasn’t discovered the podcast yet! Below is a list of the skincare I used to turn my maskne around.

BC: Before Covid
It's hard to believe that prior to 2020, maskne really wasn't a thing. I mean, wearing masks wasn’t really a thing, except perhaps for frequent fliers and the pollution-aware. While many of us managed to adopt wearing masks on the daily as part of the new ‘normal’ it took us a while to start seeing the effects of what wearing a mask for several hours could do.

If you know me at all, you’ll know that hormonal acne is part of my life. Like it or not, each month my hormones show me they’re working (perhaps not in the way I’d like) by showing up along my jawline and slightly further up my cheeks in the form of bumps, spots, pimples - whatever you want to call them. Over the years I’ve got used to dealing with them, and slowly but surely I've got to know just how my skin works, and more importantly, how I can support it. More recently I learned that I actually have sensitive skin; which was crazy to me because I was definitely a fan of ‘doing the most’ when it came to my skincare. But I really learned the importance of being more gentle with my skin when I finally got some advice on dealing with maskne.

At the height of my discomfort my maskne showed up as tiny white bumps that didn’t seem like they could be ‘extracted’, plus some deep bumps along the jaw, along with a generous sprinkling of really red and angry spots that came all the way up my cheeks. It was a lot, and I really felt like I could not handle any kind of public-facing stuff, so I cancelled any YouTube recordings and tried to limit FaceTime sessions.

My friend Emma is a registered nurse and aesthetician and we love to chat skincare and life in the DMs, so one day she suggested that we do a little Zoom chat/consultation. It felt really unnerving for me because a) I am very self-conscious about my skin and b) I like to control my image - as in, if I don’t want to be seen, I will not be seen! I’m not strong enough yet to just bare my naked skin to the world unless I’m feeling ‘okay’ with it.

But Emma is a super chilled, super knowledgeable person and I think our chat was around 90 minutes. By the end of it I had a pretty long list of products to try and had learned several lessons;

#1: Emma advised that I should stop using an oil to ‘seal in’ hydrating products. I feel this was THE number one game-changer and I fully understand exactly why. When we apply an oil on top we are creating an illusion of hydrated skin! But while my skin looked hydrated, in actual fact it was pretty dry underneath. By disguising the problem I couldn’t really deal with the problem - doesn’t that make so much sense to you? The only oil I use now is the Living Libations Seabuckthorn Best Skin Ever and I use it as the first stage in a double cleanse.

#2: Instead of oils I switched to water-based hydrating products. This allowed me to really keep an eye on how my skin was performing; if I ever needed more hydration I could simply spray it on.

#3: Committing to a routine is not a one-week thing. Instead Emma told me to chill and just follow her guidelines for 12 weeks. This seemed impossible to me, but I’d truly had enough of feeling sad about my skin. In the podcast I mention how my husband had noticed that he hadn’t seen my eyes as much while I was dealing with maskne; because I was spending so much time avoiding eye contact with him. That’s how much maskne can get to you. So I stuck it out. I think it’s been about 15 weeks since I switched to this new water-based regime and I have noticed:

Smoother skin
More glowing skin
Around 90% of the maskne is gone

Check out the list below for a full product round-up, and listen here if you want to know more about how and when I used them. If you listen to the episode you will also hear Emma’s do’s and don’ts for living with maskne.

Also, I recently became a creator on newness.tv and I’ll be doing a maskne skincare special in June! My first livestream is happening Friday May 28th and I’ll be talking about mental health and makeup; would love for you to come say hi!

Products mentioned:

CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser for Normal to Dry Skin: https://www.boots.com/cerave-hydrating-cleanser-236ml-10246701-

Neostrata Restore PHA Facial Cleanser: https://www.neostrata.com/products/pha-facial-cleanser/F30135XA.html

Glossier Milky Jelly Cleanser: https://www.glossier.com/products/milky-jelly-cleanser

Living Libations Best Skin Ever Seabuckthorn: https://algorithum.co.uk/collections/frontpage/products/seabuckthorn-best-skin-ever

Paula’s Choice Skin Balancing Pore-Reducing Toner with Niacinamide: https://www.paulaschoice.co.uk/skin-balancing-pore-reducing-toner-m1350.html?dwvar_m1350_size=fullsize&cgid=#q=toner&lang=en_GB&start=0&top=282

La Roche Posay Toleriane Ultra 8 Daily Soothing Concentrate: https://www.boots.com/la-roche-posay-toleriane-ultra-8-face-moisturiser-mist-sensitive-skin-100ml--10263619

The Ordinary Marine Hyaluronics: https://theordinary.deciem.com/gb/rdn-marine-hyaluronics-30ml.html

Dermatica:

Paula’s Choice 10% Azelaic Acid Booster: https://www.paulaschoice.co.uk/aa-booster-m7750.html?dwvar_m7750_size=fullsize

Bioderma Sensibio Light Soothing Cream: https://www.bioderma.co.uk/our-products/sensibio/light

Bioderma Hydrabio Gel Créme: https://www.bioderma.co.uk/our-products/hydrabio/gel-creme