Here's a fun story about my skin journey:
As a teenager I battled acne as many of us do, which I quickly addressed and fixed by getting my hormones under control and for over a decade I had really decent skin. I'd just get the occasional blemish popping up every few months. My skin was living it's best life!
Fast forward to July 2018, I decide that it's a good idea to start drinking daily quarter strength iced lattes (hint: it wasn't a good idea) and a couple of months into this new routine, I found myself with a chin full of cystic pimples. I thought it was just a temporary thing, that it would clear up in a week or two, but it just didn't go away. I started changing my skincare, drinking more water and hoping for things to improve and nothing was changing. I eventually had to give up my quarter strengths due to my high intolerance to caffeine (hello anxiety!) and within a few weeks my skin had cleared minus some light scarring.
I immediately put two and two together and started googling what effect dairy could have on the skin.
Not completely satisfied with what I found, I decided to test this theory a second time (again, not my best idea). So in January of 2019 I started eating Greek yoghurt... every day. It was DELICIOUS and satisfying and I was thoroughly enjoying myself... until the acne came back. This time it came back even worse and left more significant scarring.
So it's now confirmed, in my experience, and for me personally, that consuming dairy every day does bad, bad things to my skin. This may not be the same for you, but in may be worth looking into if your skin sounds similar to mine.
I haven't cut dairy out of my diet completely (because I heart cheese & ice cream) but interestingly, on the days where I have larger amounts of it, my acne scars become more prominent. It's absolutely an inflammatory for my skin.
I still get pimples, probably what's considered a 'normal' amount, but they don't hang out in gangs all over my chin anymore and that's a major improvement.
In the video below I share parts of this story, along with my current skincare routine which aims for MAXIMUM hydration. I'm always open to trying new products to improve my skin even further, so this routine can change slightly as new products are added, but for now, this is what has been working really well for me.
Click to play.
+ This is my honest experience with my skin, however we are all different and what affects my skin, may not affect yours. Please don't take this as professional advice. +