Update: Tweaking the clear acne-free blemish-free perfect skin program

My journey from bad skin to near-perfect skin can be read here, and my original skin regimen (which I still stick to but am tweaking), can be read here.

So as I mentioned above, I follow a pretty strict skin regimen with two fermented cod liver pill supplements in the morning.

Since the summer however, I thought about tweaking it a bit for a number of reasons.

The core regimen stays the same but I’ve tweaked it to add / change the following.

1. DRINK A CUP OF MATCHA GREEN TEA IN THE MORNING

Made the milk hot and frothed the #matcha #tea #powder in the milk instead of in water. I think it turned out better!! Looks creamy and frothy. #drink #food #foodie #noms #nomorestarbucks #treat #saturday #breakfast #morning

A photo posted by Sherry @ Save. Spend. Splurge. (@saverspender) on May 9, 2015 at 5:48am PDT

I don’t know how I stumbled upon this, but it was mostly because I wanted to start saving money on Starbucks green tea lattes that I bought my own matcha whisk from Japan (see below), and matcha green tea from David’s Tea.

This is what that #matcha #whisk looks like. It is very soft bamboo and it whipped up everything into a creamy foam like texture #tea #food

A photo posted by Sherry @ Save. Spend. Splurge. (@saverspender) on May 4, 2015 at 4:04am PDT

Once I started drinking green tea pretty regularly, I’ve noticed a significant improvement in my skin.

Before, my skin was pretty good, but in that one week before my hormones go out of whack each month (you all know what I am talking about), my cheeks and my chin would just flare up with one or two cystic acne bumps.

I’d always think: What am I doing wrong? I eat SO WELL the whole month, nothing fried, fatty, or greasy not to mention processed but I always end up with these painful, terrible bumps on my skin, which end up leaving a nice dark scar or a mark that will last me for the next few months, wash, rinse, repeat.

Very frustrating.

Now, I no longer get acne bumps like I used to. My body is still getting used to this but this was a HUGE improvement from before where I would just break out all over the place with no recourse to fixing it but my skin was not 100% PERFECT.

It wasn’t until this month that I had started drinking more green tea (matcha green tea specifically) & by chance, I noticed that my skin had never looked clearer or better… and I was having a seriously good skin day all the time.

My skin is smooth now. I barely got a single bump (a very tiny one on my chin), and I am religiously downing a cup of matcha green tea to wash down the 2 fermented cod liver pills to fix my skin / hormonal acne problems.

 2. LET EACH LAYER OF PRODUCT DRY BEFORE APPLYING THE NEXT

Another improvement I made was instead of just mashing all the liquids onto my face at once, I am now going step by step. It takes longer to let the vitamin C serum at night absorb into my skin before putting on a layer of the benzoyl peroxide, but it is starting to make a big difference.

I am seeing my spots fade quicker. I suspect by putting on all the layers at once, I was mixing all the products together and they weren’t being evenly spread out or absorbed.

3. MOISTURIZE LAST NOT FIRST

I used to moisturize first before putting on the serum and the benzoyl peroxide but I’ve since flipped the order and do my moisturizer at the end. It’s letting everything ELSE soak into my skin first (and dry properly) before I put on a layer of moisturizer.

4. NO MORE VITAMIN C SERUM IN THE MORNINGS

Oh and I stopped vitamin C serums in the morning because I kept coming into work with a streaky orange / red face where the serum would dry. People looked at me funny but probably assumed I am just a makeup newbie.

Now that my skin is pretty much near perfection (knock on wood), I’ve gone completely 100% foundation and powder free. I only do a little concealer under my eyes, eyeliner and I’m out the door.