I woke up in the morning like, ‘Hey, What’s wrong?’ It was not normal. My face was itchy, and my skin was with irritations. It developed into acne. So I went to the doctor, who gave me medication to treat it. It was a lot of pills, and I had to take them over three months. I took them for one week, then stopped because I would wake up every morning and see that my skin was getting worse. I went to see another doctor who was also a pharmacist, and she said I should continue with the medication. She put me on a skin routine. I had to do it morning and evening. I was like, ‘Oh my God, what’s this?’ I had no idea about skin. I would just wake up and apply my oil. But I wanted my skin to clear. She gave me a product to apply once a week, but I had no patience and applied it daily. My skin just got worse and worse. I didn’t want to look in the mirror or take pictures of myself and was like; this is not my skin. Everybody at college was like, ‘Oh Julieth, what happened to your face?’ Everyone was questioning me, and it hurt me a lot. Girls would pass me by, and I would feel inferior. I felt so bad, and I didn’t know what to do. I stopped going out as I didn’t want to bump into people. I couldn’t accept myself, which was not helpful. I thought I couldn’t see people with how I looked. When I was with people, I wondered if they would silently question my face even without asking.

Finally, I realized that if I am confident and let people ask me the questions, they will see that there is more to me than my skin problems, and it will no longer hurt me. It took a long time to accept my situation. I realized when you accept yourself; you can overcome anything. I couldn’t sleep without worrying, and I always touched my face. It took almost two years to find the answer. When I went back to the doctor, she said I was overusing the product, which is why my skin was reacting so badly. Then, at the skin clinic, they discovered my problems were caused by too much Sulphur in my system. This was from the medication I had taken previously for malaria. By this time, I had started researching what was going on with my skin. Finally, I found a product with many positive reviews, and after three months of trying it, my skin was back to normal.

Skin needs patience. It’s not something you put on a product now and tomorrow; it will be clear. I learnt the hard way, but I always tell people if the doctor recommends you a product, use it appropriately. Diet is also essential and has a big impact on our skin. I have a lot of followers because of how my skin got better. I tell them to be patient, that everyone’s skin is different, and what helped me may not be the answer for them. I advise them to research the products they use to check the ingredients and their effect on the skin. To look at their diet and, most of all, not let their confidence slip because, with time, it will heal.

The post This is how Julieth conquered skin shaming appeared first on Sheevolves.world.

During the month of March, we delved a little deeper into green, conscious and sustainable living. So I thought I would try to incorporate that theme into one of my favourite topics here on She Evolves – Skincare. As a self-proclaimed skincare junkie, I can admit that I spend so much time and money on everything skincare related. I firmly believe that prevention is better than cure when it comes to good skin. I would much rather spend a considerable amount of money on what goes on my skin than on shoes or even clothes. Since I started working for She Evolves and thanks to our founder Christina, I started thinking and writing more frequently about green, conscious and sustainable living. This encouraged me to do more research about “clean skincare.”

While I must admit that in the beginning, “clean skincare” was always a bit of a mystery to me and sounded like a gimmick. It wasn’t until I was pregnant that I started to buy into the hype. Before I continue, I want to define “clean skincare”. Based on my understanding, “clean skincare” is skincare products made with very little or no chemicals in them. Of course, each clean beauty product is somewhat different, but the basic principles are the same. And that is creating products that are not known to be harmful to humans and the environment. This is why the move to clean beauty has gone up so much over the past few years. Especially as we have been thinking more and more about how much impact our lives have on the environment.

Over the years, as I have tried clean beauty brands myself, one thing has stood true time and time again. And that is that clean beauty brands definitely work. One way to measure this is to see how my skin has faired when using clean products versus non-clean products. While some brands will have us believe that for skincare to work, we need all these crazy chemicals in them. A few months of clean beauty and the results are the same, if not better. This is because most clean beauty brands use the natural derivative of something to get results. For instance, using detoxing natural clay for masks, algae for proper skin hydration, and vitamins to aid the skin’s healing process.

And while I would love to say that all clean beauty brands are the same, the reality is that they are not. So before you start, do some research on what brands actually work because some clean products are sadly are just all talk and no action. Also, give products time to actually work before dismissing them. For me, that means trying out a product for 2-3 months to see if there is any noticeable change.

Have you tried any clean, non-toxic skincare brands? And if so, what were your thoughts?

The post What is clean skincare and does it actually work? appeared first on Sheevolves.world.