Makeup 2 compliment your acne battle

Awesome, I woke up early today and decided I better get on with doing my follow up post about my current makeup routine. Previously, I mentioned I'm going through my Oratane acne treatment and therefore had to change my skincare routine and the products I used (which I also shared). Now i'ts onto the makeup part becoz frankly I can't leave the house with a lil bit of makeup. Hrrmmm...I've probably been wearing makeup from time to time in high school (just to go against the rules) and practically EVERYDAY out of my 4yrs at uni. So I think I've learnt a thing or two...well at least the basics so let's get started.

Firstly, I'll let you guys know what I used to wear on a daily basis for a comparison coz the amount has shrunk a lot.

Base makeup: the usual base control, liquid foundation, concealer, bronzer for contouring and pressed powder to finish.

Point makeup: eyebrows, lashes, blush, eye shadow, lipstick....(the usual)

The above pics were from my old blog coz I couldn't be bothered taking them again. Now I LOVE makeup but I hate caking it on... and the above base makeup is what I would consider to be a heavy load on the face. My simplied version (when lazy) used to be like this....

But as you all know...too much makeup can aggravate your acne to some degree. Therefore, my old concealer, base control, liquid foundations were all going to be too much on the skin now. That's not to say that you can't ever wear makeup while being on acne meds, provided you pick the right products, remove the makeup properly, protect and moisturise your skin thoroughly blah blah blah.... My dermo said that it's harder for young adults (like me hahhahaah) to be going through acne becoz it's really the time when we need to face the world and make an impression, so he understands that makeup is kinda necessary to a degree. PHEW~~~ hehehheheh

Oratane or any similar acne treatment meds requires your makeup products to have a sunscreen ingredient in it for the protection against the sun, especially when you become more and more sun sensitive during the course of the treatment. Makeup should also be oil free so it does not further clog up the already clogged pores on the face...causing yep... you got it more acne. Powders are great on acne skin particularly mineral powders as they do not sink into the skin but sit on top to give that even look, but any sort of powder would be fine with acne prone skin. Lip products should also contain sunscreen ingredients but for the most part be moisturising. Concealers or cover sticks should somehow have medicated ingredients to fight/prevent acne as most are a thick creamy texture it really does make it hard on the acne areas you try to conceal (I avoid concealing altogether).

Now before I show you what I use and how I do it... I have to admit I don't follow all the instructions to the bone becoz I really just use what I've currently got which seems to work fine without making my skin any worse. So this stuff works on me... but may not work on others so let's start....

So always start with a clean, moisturised and sunscreened face (skincare I use). Don't mind my acne scars and redness since I tend to flush heaps after I wash my face and applying moisturiser haahhahaha

So this is my foundation substitute these days. My Missha M Perfect Cover BBcream with SPF42+++ in shade No.21 (light beige). I only use a minimal amount as you can see coz it spreads real easy...The thing is... I don't intentionally go and cover all my blemishes, I just want my skin tone to look even. Heaps of reviews have been done about this product so I'm not going to go into it but I DO LOVE IT!!!

See, you catch my drift now... It's taken away the redness, evened out the skin tone but is still quite light on the face. I steer clear of my eye areas and focus the product on my cheeks and chin (most red areas). The important thing about putting on bbcream or oil free foundation is that... since you're already so dry... smearing or rubbing the stuff onto the face will only create dry flakes and it ain't pretty... So what I do is a dabbing motion... which takes time to cover your face but the dab and pat action means you're only applying it to the surface of the face and not rubbing into the pores as much. Therefore, no flakey dry skin appearing becoz you're not being rough when applying. There is no way about it just use your hands people ...with gentle dabs and it will spread so don't worry.

Then it's onto the eyes...

I also don't do much to my eyes these days but just wanting to excentuate them a lil since I have monolids and they are quite small hahahaha.... So the usual eyeliner and mascara is a must. The pic where I'm holding on the red mascara with my nose and upper lip is where you can see a difference between my made up eye and the eye with nothing (very subtle) but can you guess which eye has makeup?

My subtle eye transformation

That's right... nothing special at all... nothing bling bling or captivating about these eyes hahahaha... but I'm probably all about that now... being simple that is (hard to do when I've got a stack of makeup just sitting there and telling me to use them~~~~) LOL. No heavy eyeliner and no heavy clumpy mascara just your simple everyday eye do (well for me anyway).

As for the cheeks... well recently while entering Blovet beauty's follower giveaway I had mentioned that my current makeup product is the Posie Tint from Benefit. Once my redness calms down and the bbcream is applied I actually look quite pale and many would mistaken me for being sick haahahah...So a flush of colour is a must. Pinkey, rosey cheeks are just so adorable don't you think? Anyway, this stuff lasts all day and not much is needed for that natural look. (Actually you can probably see the difference in my eyes better in the above middle pic hahahaha... I wanted to do a comparison of the 2eyes at each step but screw it... I went ahead and did the other eye to finish the look afterwards ahahaha).

Lippie time... must apply a lip balm beforehand but not too much that it looks and feels oily (just enough). Then go ahead and apply your complimenting lipstick or lipgloss since there are no restrictions on this part for acne prone skin heheheehe...

Since any powder is allowed with acne prone skin I decided to stick to my pressed powder which I've always used. I find mineral powder or loose powder too messy... I do have them and may go back using them later when I feel like it hahaahaha... This is just to set the bbcream and tone down that pink blush...sometimes I have a tendency to go too crazy with my blush ahahahahah (but it's fixable).

So with my previous makeup products I used (pics at start of post)...I find that I was also super oily after 2-3hrs of wearing it...And have to blot away the oil when I can. But now that I've simplified things and taking the Oratane meds  I notice that I don't produce as much oil as I did before. I still carry oil blotting sheets but I don't use them as often. Since I'm only like 2months into my meds, my oil production on the face has been diminishing each week which is good (but means I'm super dry too~~~).

 

Stuff I used to complete my everyday look:

Face: Missha M Perfect Cover BBcream (No.21 light beige)

         Bobbi Brown Sheer Finish Pressedd Powder (No.1 pale yellow)

Cheeks: Benefit's Posie Tint

Eyes: Revlon Colorstay eyeliner crayon (Black/noir)

         Kiss Me Heroine make liquid eyeliner (black)

         Majolica Majorca curl, curl, curl toward the sky mascara base

         Helena Rubinstein Lash Queen Feline Blacks (waterproof)

         IMJU Opera Mylash mascara (black)- for bottom lashes only

         Shiseido eyelash curler

Lips: Lucas Papaw lip balm

        MAC Dsquared lipstick in Nude rose (lustre)

Compared to what I used before ... I couldn't fit what I would wear daily in one shot...So I guess I have cut back and for the better too hehehheh... wanna see the finished look?

 

So there it is... what I use makeup wise to compliment my acne treatment atm...Hope this has been informative and highlights the importance of keeping it simple for the sake of having better skin. I mean I'll only have to lay off any sort of creative makeup for 3-6months (seeing how I go on the meds) and is a small price to pay in the long run. Don't try to hide every blemish and pimple spot it will only get worse with concealer type stuff... I would steer well clear of that. I remove my makeup the instant I walk through my door, coz right now every min counts when you have stuff on your face. Enjoying the naked face feel now when I didn't before haahahaha...But no choice when I have to go out so a somewhat even skin tone just enhances it a lil. Oh and I don't cover my eye bags or dark circles anymore as you can see... since I'm no longer using concealer...I just let it be hahahahaha....

That's my daily do guys... hope you enjoyed it... any questions feel free to ask and yea catch you later. OH and can you guess what nail polish colour I'm wearing...??? I'll share it next time.

Luv from Me