The Best Product For Acne is....Nothing?

I think I’ve discovered a really exciting secret...!!

I’ve had acne ever since I was 12 years old. Some times are better than other times, but it’s always been there. 17 years of pimples, and I’ve tried everything I can think of, to get rid of them.

This year my skin's been particularly bad, which might be due to my body detoxing, or pregnancy hormones, or simply living through my most stressful year ever. Anyways....whatever the reason.

Last week, I happened to read that our bodies are actually smarter than we think (Gasp! Who would’ve thought?!), and if we don’t use any products at all, our skin will naturally regulate it’s oil production to suit the environment.

Well, what did I have to lose? Since that day, I have washed my face with water, twice a day, and done nothing else whatsoever.

And you know what? The pimples are disappearing!!

Now it could be that my raw food challenge is paying off, or the oil-pulling is working, or the apple cider vinegar, or my stress levels have come down. It could be that any of those things have contributed, BUT....I noticed a difference the very same day I stopped using anything on my skin. The pimples began drying up, and no new ones began forming.

Now that I think about it, the signs were there all along.

My mother has beautiful skin. Always has. Even now, as she approaches 60, it’s still beautiful and barely a wrinkle to be seen.

When I was a pimply teenager, my pimply teenage friends would ask her which products she used, to have such nice skin. Her reply was “Nothing. I just wash my face with water”. And it was true. In my entire life, I have never seen my mother use any product on her face. Nope, not even moisteriser. Ever!!

But of course, I was a teenager, and I thought my “Dolly” and “Girlfriend” magazines knew better than my mother. And THEY advised that every skincare regime should include cleansing, toning, exfoliating, moisterising, blah, blah, blah....

It makes me wonder if this whole idea that we “must” cleanse, tone and moisterise was actually some clever marketing ploy to sell us more products that we didn’t need...???

A couple of years ago, I scrapped the whole cleansing and toning bit, and simply began using coconut oil on my skin to moisterise. My skin got neither better or worse.

I should have made the connection then, but I didn’t. I just kept doing it, because I just assumed I “had to” moisterise or else my skin would end up dry and flaky.

But it hasn't. And maybe I'm imagining it, but I could swear that the skin tone has also improved.

Is it possible, that I have struggled with this issue for 17 years, not to mention spent a small fortune on skin products which achieved zilch, only to discover that they were in fact causing the problem???