Skincare is something that I've never really taken seriously, throughout my teenage years and up until quite recently you could barely call it a skincare routine it was that basic. My skin isn't exactly bad, but I do find that it gets oily very quickly leaving me with a shiny T-zone and skin that generally feels quite clogged up and greasy. I never really got acne as a teenager so in that respect I was quite lucky, but even though I'm in my twenties I still found myself getting a few angry red spots popping up on my chin and forehead. What I've mainly had trouble with since I was a teenage are blackheads around my T-zone and chin, no matter what products I used they either had little or no effect and the blackheads always returned. In the winter months I also suffer from dry skin, especially around my nose and cheeks which I find particularly embarrassing as make up just exaggerates any dryness that appears. I never leave the house without make up, even on holiday or whilst exercising I will wear make up to conceal my skin's flaws as I just don't feel comfortable going bare faced in public and get extremely self conscious that people will stare at me (even though I know that most likely they wouldn't even notice).
A couple of months ago I was generally going through a bad skin phase thanks to the cold weather and I knew that I had to try and do something about it. I did a bit of research on the best products to try out for oily/combination skin - and encouraged by some French pharmacy skincare offers on Escentual and Boots' trusty 3 for 2 promotion I decided to completely overhaul my entire routine. Since starting to use all of these products collectively I have noticed a vast improvement in my skin, I'll admit I did have a purging period of about a month where my skin did break out more than normal, but I persisted with my routine and my skin now looks smoother, I hardly get any red angry spots and even my blackheads have started to reduce in size and slowly disappear. My skin is still not perfect but hopefully with these products I will be on my way to clearer, blemish free skin. I'm not a skincare expert but I wanted to share with you which products I have been using as collectively they have been working for my oily/dry skin, and maybe if you have similar skin problems to me it might help you decide which products to buy/not buy.
