An actual miracle product?!

Last year I had to change the type of contraceptive pill I take (yes straight in with personal detail) and it has wreaked havoc with my skin since. Suddenly, the acne that had been under control for nearly ten years was back with revenge. My spots were taking forever to heal and for every one spot that calmed down another five would crop up. They were everywhere, no discriminating and choosing one part of my face, oh no, they cropped up on my chin, nose, forehead, hairline and even my cheeks! My cheeks! 

My saviour!

I've never really believed in any products fixing spots after years of battling as a teen and finding for me that the only thing that helped were antibiotics or the pill. The main thing that seemed different this time was that my normally dry skin was feeling very oily by the end of the day, gross.

As a teen I tried some Clearasil pads, and yes, they absorbed excess oil, but they also absorbed most of the skin from my nose - I looked sunburnt from all the peeling, frightening.

I was in Boots last week and browsing the Good Things skincare range and picked up their Deep Pore Anti Blemish Cleansing Lotion. I've tried a fair few of their products before, I love their face wipes (fruity, refreshing, scrub all make up off yet gentle) and also use their face mask once a week and find it perks up my skin. The only product I didn't get on with was their face moisturiser, I found it a little too fruity and it didn't sit on my skin well. I also tried their Stop That Spot! gel and didn't see any improvement to my skin. Their body butters, however, are rich and fruity, so lovely to put on!

The best thing about this range is as well as being affordable (most products around £5) it has NO parabens or SLS, two things that really make my sensitive skin even worse. 

As there was a 3 for 2 I picked up the Deep Pore Anti Blemish lotion along with their facewipes and cleanser.

After just a week I can not believe the improvement in my skin.

I was wary of falling into the trap of overdoing removing my skin's excess oils and thus making it produce more, but actually it feels like it has it's balance back.

My spots have healed much faster and hardly any new spots have cropped up this week. Previously I was walking through the door, catching my reflection in the hall mirror and recoiling at the many, many gruesome new additions to my face. Now I walk through the door, breeze past the mirror and get on with my evening (much to the other half's delight too - I am also spending less time in the bathroom at night time inspecting my face, huzzah!)

Suddenly I feel more confident (especially as I am rubbish with getting really good spot coverage with concealer and foundation, so only having to wear this minimally again makes me happy) and I just feel more like myself. 

The only thing that took time to adjust to was following the advice to leave it on the skin. Normally I take my make up off, wash my face, then moisturise. It felt very odd leaving this on and not moisturising. At first  my skin felt really tight, but now I see that perhaps moisturising at night was just clogging my pores even more. It's also surprising seeing how much make up is comes off using this, even using this after taking my make up off normally (which also can't have helped my spots!) 

The final bonus is that it smells great too  - fruity but not sickly. You can find out more about it, including the full ingredients here.

Obviously, different products work for different people, but if you have problem skin, for £5 it is well worth a try, as I have never used anything so effective before.