Hey kids!
So I talked about Michael Todd, but he’s not the only player in my team.
I made a little video about everything that I use, as I can get over chatty in writing. It’s just a little video, so don’t expect I’ll Michelle Phan your asses, I just talk about shit I like. If you ever need extra info, you know I’m here!
xx
Hi everyone, long time, no blab.
I’m here to talk about a skin care range I’ve been trying for the last to months and that basically changed my skin.
What is it?
I’m talking about the Michael Todd Anti Acne Skin Care line.
A quickie about Michael Todd : it’s a company that uses mostly organic ingredients (70 to 95% per product), no added water (aloe is their base thingy, wich I love), no parabens, triclosan, phtalates or sulfates (yay!), no mineral oil, no artificial color or fragrance (yay yay!) and no animal testing (my cat says yay!) as the products are tested on the chairman of the company….
What it does (at least for me)?
As you can see in the pics above, it erased my pimples (without nasty dry patches, inflammation, etc.), and made my marks fade away like no other…
The crazy thing is that it’s super straight forward : the “basic kit“, meaning, all you need to have a sensible and complete routine, consists in a cleanser, 1 mask, 1 scrub, 1 toner, 1 serum. Easy-peasy.
I bought a few things more, as I heard good reviews on a couple of products I really wanted to try, and I can tell you I’m not disappointed.
The thing I adore with this line is that’s it just keeps for face COMFORTABLE. Hydrated, supple, happy, happy skin… There’s no “attacking” of the skin, no offensive approach to acne curing. And it is SO efficient.
I’ve done it! Two full months of washing my face EXCLUSIVELY with oil. Ok, I lie I’ve washed my face thrice with a traditional foaming cleanser, when I was sleeping at my parents’ boyfriend’s house. (And I didn’t like it).
I want to give you my opinion about it. I read so many tales about this method, and all were either 100% positive : “my skin cleared up for good”, “I cleared up my acne in 2 weeks”, or plain horror stories : “my skin completely freaked out”, “I have the most sever cystic acne now”, “my face hasn’t gotten over it, and it’s been a year…”. I’m firmly in the middle.
My thoughts/My skin.
Well well. Does my skin look better? Yes and no.
My skin first looked AMAZING : I fell in love first (waiting for my iHerb package) with rosehip oil, thanks to a bottle that was lying randomly in my bathroom stash. I began with that, and my hyperpigmentation disappeared. Vanished. I kept with this routine, refraining myself from posting about it, because of the horror tales found on the internet. And that was a good instinct. 2 weeks after I started, my temples, and chin got super spotty, and these are place I never get acne, NEVER EVER. I never believed the concept of “purging” and still don’t, I still don’t know what happened there. It wasn’t major, just a clear freak out.
I then thought “time to use castor oil!”. I used it in combination with jojoba oil. I started having pimples on my left cheek; wich was clear before. At the same time, my problematic area, my right cheek, started clearing. Weird. I still got a few pimples on my temples, and forehead, again, areas of my face that never were of concern. They didn’t clear up that quickly, which made me realize that the ocm wouldn’t be a proper “acne miracle cure”, at least not for me.
But at the same time, a lot of friends complimented my “glowing skin”, and “amazing complexion”. Sure I still was, and am, wearing a full face of make up, but even I noticed how nice the application felt, and how soft my skin was.
The weird thing is, my face got spots, and I think that as pimples go, the OCM isn’t for me, but the rest of my skin, the “healthy” parts of my skin, felt healthier, plumper… happier? To top that, my very oily skin, became close to normal! Still on the combination side, but really less shiny, more manageable, etc…!
What to take from the experience?
For me, again, it’s my experience, and I don’t think it can apply to everyone, skin is more complex than that, it really made me understand that gentle was the way to go, but that I had to pair a nice, nourishing and mosturizing method, with something else, glycolic acids, chemical exfoliants etc…. Well, clearly reconsider my whole regimen, and research my skin care better, stop with “easy”, traditional acne-skin targeted products, etc… And that my friends, is already amazing.
I did all that, and NOW, I have a crazy good regimen (next beauty post), that actually cleared up my skin (this, paired with a tad healthier lifestyle). I have found some amazing products, which I can’t wait to share with you!
How can you use my experience?
Keep that in mind if you have very oily skin : oil treatments could be very beneficial for you, even as masks every other day! If you suffer from hyperpigmentation due to acne scars, try rosehip oil, I still swear by it!!
Stop harsh cleanser and anything with synthetic fragrance and artificial foamers in. You should treat acne prone skin as you would sensitive skin… Even essential oils should be used with an extremely light hand.
Using a muslin cloth is the nicest and most effective way to cleanse. If you’re scared of oils, or, like me, tried them but are not 100% down, than maybe a balm could be good. That’s what I did, and I love it. I use oil for masks only now, and I’m glad I discovered this!
Do you have tips and tricks for good skin? Do you know things about oil we don’t? Please do share!
xx
Fighting acne, and just wanting to be in better health, is a big change from my traditional dietary habits. I mean, BIG.
I’m not supposed to drink cow milk (acne and digestion say NO), although one of my favorite things is a good hot chocolate. And, this time of year, depriving myself from this heavenly drink is torture. Especially since some of the bloggers & vloggers I like decided to post their own recipes of this ultimate winter drink.
So I said to myself : “Dude, stop crying, pick yourself up, and make an awesome hot chocolate”. I always have a carton of soy milk lying around, that my bf or my mum try to force on me, but each and every time I tried it, it was a fail. It lacks the creaminess of cow milk, and the after taste makes me think of cardboard. And when the craving comes, I pull this nice little recipe I put together last winter and that has been since an easy to make and oh so satisfying household favorite.
My version of hot chocolate (one big cup):
Heat up on the stove a tiny amount of soy milk, just enough to have a cm of it coating the bottom of your pan.
Add a few squares of good dark chocolate, organic if you have some. I usually end up using a 70 or 80% cooking dark chocolate.
Add one tablespoon of pure chocolate powder, Van Houten or similar.
Mix well with a spoon.
Add a teaspoon of coconut oil (the secret to the creaminess of this hot chocolate! Don’t worry it’s good fat!). Stir until melted.
Add organic natural vanilla extract, or vanilla directly from the pod, if you’re fancy, and cinnamon.
Add enough soy milk to fill your cup, and keep on stirring, until your hot chocolate is… well, hot.
Pour into your favorite cheesy touristy cup. Or Christmassy cup if you own one.
Ready!
The cinnamon and coconut oil counter balance what I don’t like about soy milk, its taste and texture. Well, yeah I don’t like soy milk at all.
But this is a beautiful way to drink it. You can switch soy milk, with any milk of your liking, I know I like almond milk a little bit better, so I can’t wait to give it a try.
What’s your recipe? Could you advise one to a chocolate lover/vegetable milk hater?
I never was a skin obsessed gal. That was until a trip to Barcelona when I was 18 (with baby skin) during which I had a crazy strong reaction to the sun. My face went mad. I got super red and pimples the size of a baby fist appeared. I wasn’t that worried, and just let the situation be. My face calmed down when I went back to Paris, but there it was : acne had found a nice home on my cheeks. It was under control, then, every excuse was good enough for a pimple to appear : stress, that time of the month, a new moisturizer, looking at a glass of milk… I started losing control over the situation. When I was 20, after 20 years of a very Parisian no make up regime, I had to start wearing full coverage foundation.
Trips to dermatologists, antibiotics, drying creams, zit creams, masks, exfoliation, I did it all religiously, nothing helped. My skin still had acne and just got crazy oily, AND dehydrated.
A few months ago, I started a new routine, sans dermatologist. And I don’t know what happened, but guys, it’s gone. GONE. I still have scarring, my skin still has the occasional blemish, but it goes away super fast, leaving no trace of being there in the first place.
It’s been one month and a half basically, and my skin has cleared so drastically that I feel it’s only fair I’d share.
the eyes and the hands 