How Mario Badescu Saved My Skin

Large pores, redness, sun spots, blackheads, whiteheads, papules and pustules – these are the skin problems that I have encountered in my whole life. Yet I am still thankful that they didn’t happen all at the same time but I had my share of those days when a huge pimple decided to show up in the middle of your nose or maybe forehead and after a day, it decided to form a group and “camp” for a while. 😏

See types of Acne here.

So today, I will share the biggest skin issue that I had to date and how this brand helped me manage that scary, sort of, phase in my adult life.

photo courtesy of influenster.com

I would like to assume that we all want to have that flawless skin, right? (is there anyone who doesn’t??) I tried a lot of tips and products but most of them were only effective for a short time. It’s like 1-2 weeks of great skin and on the third comes the nasty, kontrabida skin issues. 😫 So I learned to accept that and just made sure to manage them (meaning keep them as problem-free as possible) so as not to make things worse.

EXPLORING SKIN CARE PRODUCTS

I consider this as one of the dreadful stages because you are not guaranteed that you will not have a breakout or irritation. Always remember that people have different skin and you can always have a different result. This goes for both skin care and makeup. How many times have I tried something that a lot of people loved but I didn’t and vice versa?

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Always remember that people have different skin and you can always have a different result.

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But the sad reality about it is that you buy and try these products and you, as a consumer , would always hope that it’s the one! The holy grail of all skin care! We hope that they will work and fulfil its ad promises and after a month, you will have the most flawless skin. Kinda sounds like when we are looking for the right person, isn’t it? 😀 But yeah, I know you get what I’m trying to say here.

photo courtesy of blog.greatmate.com

I know exactly how it feels because, again, I had my share of this (worse) experience. It was  around mid of 2015 when I decided to try a set of new products from The Body Shop. That time, I was already using their Drops of Youth – Youth Bouncy Sleeping Mask and I really liked it. I also wanted to have a full skin care routine and since it was working pretty well, I decided to slowly try the whole range. I mean, this might be it, right? So I purchased their Nutriganics Refreshing Toner.

The following day after I used it, I felt a few bumps on my face which will potentially be pimples. I know that it’s not going to be the best week and I wanted to stop using it right away but in my mind the conversation was like:

what if the product is just getting rid of the dirt of my skin?

What if these were just because my skin is just purging?  (I read this somewhere)

So to make it short, I continued using the products for 5 days and my face shifted from bad to worse.

I had breakouts in the past but this – my face literally hurts. I can’t touch them because I was afraid that I might further spread the bacteria to my face.

DEALING WITH BAD BREAKOUTS

Dealing with skin problems can affect you in many ways –

PHYSICALLY

• my face hurt a lot

EMOTIONALLY

• I felt really sad and bothered whenever I look at mirrors because all I can see is a helpless woman in her 30s who don’t know what to do with the situation at hand.
• I was more stressed and easily irritable

SOCIALLY

• I don’t want to go out because of these darn zits!

But despite all these, I had to do something.

Tea Tree

This was the time when I used Body Shop’s Tea Tree Oil range and true enough, they dried out my pimples but the left dark spots, too. I also felt that it can be a little too drying when used for a long time. To top it off, I was starting to have the small bumps in the jawline area.

You know the feeling when you finally felt relieved then another bad thing comes? It was like that.

Bumps that won’t come out

Fun Fact: I am a pimple picker. So I can’t help myself from popping these nasty things and of course, I tried doing that to the bumps and I always end with either a red skin or a bleeding pimple that will, later on, become a dark spot.

After clearing the pimples, my skin healed for a while but from time to time I would still get big, angry pimples on my face, especially on my chin and the tiny bumps in my jawline, remained, too. Our friends and families recommended a number of solutions and although I tried them, none of it really solved the problems and so my search for the solution continued.

MARIO BADESCU

One day, I was in Sephora and noticed this brand in their skin care section. I never heard of it and their packaging is very simple – nothing fancy, nothing extravagant. Everything is just in white containers with the green fonts printed on the labels. I got curious and took note of the brand. When I got home, I researched and read reviews and it seems that everyone has only great things to say about this brand.

After two weeks, I bought my first set of MB products. I used them and noticed the good changes on my skin. Since then, I only use their products for my skin care routine.

CURRENT SKIN CARE ROUTINE

Here is the complete breakdown of my skin care routine to date

DAYTIME:

Enzyme Cleansing Gel was the first facial wash that I tried from MB (as you can see the almost empty bottle in the photo) but now I am exploring other facial washes and since the start of May,

Step 1: WASH/CLEANSE

• I wash my face with the Botanical Facial Gel

Step 2: TONER

• then I apply the Glycolic Acid Toner with a cotton pad.

Step 3: MOISTURISE  

• I  spray the Facial Spray with Aloe Herbs and Rosewater on my face as I do not use any day moisturiser at the moment. I am not a fan of rose-scented products but I’m getting the hang of it.
• I like spraying this several times throughout the day and it soothes my skin especially on hot afternoons.

Step 4: (This is optional) I use the Special Healing Powder if I am going out for a quick errand. It reduces the redness and oiliness of my skin.

NIGHTTIME:

Step 1: WASH/CLEANSE 

• On rotation, I wash my face with the Acne Facial Cleanser (M-W-F) and Glycolic Foaming Cleanser  (T-Th-S).

Step 2: TONER

• Glycolic Acid Toner with a cotton pad.

Step 3: MOISTURISE  

• I am currently using Clinique’s Dramatically Different Moisturising Gel and so far, we are getting along well.

Step 4: Acne Treatment

• I religiously apply the Anti-Acne Serum on my jawline while
• I use the Buffering Lotion + Drying Cream if I have potential breakouts.
• If there are pimples that already grown, then I will apply the Drying Lotion.
• Once the pimples pop, I will then switch to applying Drying Cream.

ADDITIONAL SKIN REGIMEN

Throughout the week, I make sure that I do extra steps to keep my skin trouble-free. I exfoliate my face at least 2 times a week and do facial masks as well.

• To unclog pores especially when I do full makeup look in a week,  I use the Botanical Exfoliating Scrub.Alternately, I also use the Silver Powder (for blackheads) twice a week.

At present, my skin is not flawless but it is so much better compared to how it was before. As I mentioned in my previous post, all of these does not guarantee that you will no longer have breakouts, pimples or acne, but they surely help in managing them, or in my case, I saw a huge improvement.

It takes patience, effort and quite an amount to finally achieve an improved skin but I am happy that I am getting there. I will continue to use these products and I hope that in the near future, my skin (especially my problematic jawline) will be pimple-free.

We have come to the end of this post and if you want to know where to purchase the Mario Badescu products in Singapore, just click here. I hope that this post helped you in any way possible. Until my next post!

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Beautiful skin requires commitment, not a miracle.

– Erno Laszio

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XOXO!