You’ve seen the women with the flawless, smooth skin in the covers of magazines and perfectly curated Instagram posts right? You know… the women that can wake up in the morning and just walk right out the door without adding a drop of foundation or concealer?

Yeah, that woman isn’t me.

I’m the woman that got stuck with her dad’s bad skin genetics and a tad of bad luck with skin. My skin behaved until high school. Yeah, I had the occasional teen blemish and freckle caused by overexposure to sun with no SPF slathered on. Living in Miami only made matters worse. Humidity, overproduction of oil, pollution, genetics and bad diet all plotted against me to turn the rite of passage of every teen to a nightmare.

Years pass by. After a round of Accutane treatment, visits to the dermatologist, going the natural path, trial and error with products (I’m looking at you Proactive), I started to get frustrated with my skin. It turns out it was deeper than that. My thyroid wasn’t functioning as normal as it should’ve. I was then diagnosed with PCOS and that’s another giant I’m tackling now. With all of these conditions existing together to make my life miserable, I started making a plan.

• Eat a better diet - low in sugar and carbs, increase fiber and needed nutrients, increase protein, eat gluten and dairy free, create a consistent eating schedule

• Buy supplements to help balance my hormones - Vitamin D, Magnesium, Vitex, Inositol, Multivitamin with folic acid, and fish oil

• Sleep more - make sure I keep a consistent sleeping schedule to get my 8 hours of sleep

• Take my prescription medicine - I was terrible at keeping up with my thyroid meds. They help balance out my thyroid function and gives me more energy

• Stay stress free - stress was causing me to raise my cortisol levels, which creates a hormone imbalance for me

• Exercise - still an area I am working on. I’m not the most active person but eventually I would like to start taking a 30 minute walk or home workouts

• And last but not least, perfect my skincare routine - I started researching more about different products I needed to address redness, PIH, post acne marks, sun spots, dryness, texture, and control oil

I looked into different estheticians I followed on Twitter, who thankfully shared a lot of knowledge about what products are needed for specific skin problems. One of them is called LaBeautyologist. Without her informative tweets, I’d still be using all the wrong products and causing more damage to my skin.

I learned about restoring my moisture barrier, which was basically causing my skin to produce more oil. Can you believe that? My skin was producing more oil because I wasn’t hydrating enough. So little by little I built up my routine: Cleanse, Tone, Exfoliate, Tone, Treat, Tone, Hydrate, and Hydrate More.

Cleanser

CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser - Buy Here

CeraVe Foaming Cleanser - Buy Here

The cleansing part depends on whether I have makeup on or not. If I’m wearing makeup, I’ll remove most of it with a makeup remover wipe. Then, I jump into my cleanser. I’ll cleanser for at least 60 seconds and make sure I do it in a circular form and apply some pressure to make sure I cleanser thoroughly. I alternate between these two cleansers.

Toner

Heritage Rosewater Toner - Buy Here

I was never a big toner girl. I didn’t see it as necessary and I noticed the ones I would buy were too oily for me. But once I started using it, I noticed my skin looked more hydrated and softer. For the first toning application, I use a cotton wipe to apply it. For the following toner applications, I add a bit to my hand and pat it on my face.

Exfoliate

Differin Gel - Buy Here

The Ordinary Lactic Acid - Buy Here

Paula’s Choice Clear Extra Strength - Buy Here

This is my favorite part of my skincare routine. This is the part where I add my products that will help achieving smooth skin and reduce the appearance of dark spots and old acne hyperpigmentation. With the Differin Gel, I allow it to dry for at least 10 minutes before I apply toner again. I only exfoliate 2-3x a week. I could do more since my skin tolerates it but I allow some time for my skin to “repair” after adding a layer of chemical exfoliant. Important: only use one exfoliator at a time and allow a day in between before exfoliating again.

Serum (Treat)

The Ordinary Niacinamide - Buy Here

The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid - Buy Here

I was never big on serums either. Being somebody with oily skin, I stayed away from hydrating products. I only used a moisturizer and that’s it. But adding serums to my routine has helped add more moisture to my skin and I’ve noticed it isn’t as oily as usual. I add both of these every night.

Moisturizer

La Roche-Posay Moisturizer SPF 30 - Buy Here

CeraVe Healing Ointment - Buy Here

This is my last step. After the La Roche-Posay Moisturizer, I add the CeraVe Healing Ointment. A cool little thing I learned is that adding an occlusive hydrator as the last step helps seal in all the skincare product you added to your skin. It can be in the form of a facial oil or a thick nighttime moisturizer.

I do this routine every night and usually takes me around 15-20 minutes to complete. But in the morning, I notice the difference in my skin. It feels softer, hydrated and healthy. The redness and pigmentation will take a while to go away but skincare is all about consistency!