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Sensitive Skin Acne: Learning From Fails

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Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through & make a purchase.

All opinions are honest + my own. All products are put through a 2 week test period conducted on myself.

Sometimes products don’t work for us + that’s ok. Don’t tough it out + feel like you have to use it up, it’s ok to let go.

While the cost of trying a product + it not helping is annoying, it’s not a total waste. You can learn from those moments, too!⁠

Running Clockwise:⁠

Jack Black True Volume Thickening Shampoo (Left) + Conditioner (Right)

This one makes me so sad because it made my hair feel flipping amazing; soft, light, voluminous. Fab. But – it was causing hair fallout. Tea Tree tends to be too much for my skin the higher the % is, so I often avoid. Took a risk on this + it didn’t pay off. It was fairly high up on the ingredient list. After some digging, there appears to be a tea tree allergy that causes hair loss. *sigh*

Ghost Democracy Boomerang Firming Eye Concentrate
(with 1.9% Niacinamide + 1% Bakuchiol)⁠

This one did no harm, but also had no impact after a month. It neither helped with dark circles from tiredness nor helped with my smile wrinkles by my eyes. Either Bakuchiol isn’t the next retinol or this needs to be a higher % – or it takes over a month to help. Meanwhile, the Naturopathica Argan & Peptide Wrinkle Repair Cream showed visible wrinkle results within a month.⁠

LXMI Nilotica Lip Melt

After reading about beeswax as a culprit for perpetual chapped lips despite chapstick use, I was curious to try a lip balm without it to see if I was affected by beeswax. This has Candelilla wax as a sub. Except my lips rapidly went from normal to about to split + I had to stop the test. Within a few days, my lips went back to normal on their own. Frankly, I’m not sure what caused that. For now, I’m treating candelilla with caution, but I can’t say for sure if that was it.⁠

Peach + Lily Matcha Pudding Antioxidant Cream

I so wanted this one to work that I gave it extra chances. Even did a half face test to be certain it was causing a breakout + not something else. ⁠ But still, no luck. This reminded me niacinamide products can leave my skin with a veery subtle low hum feeling. This is confusing as it’s always said to be unproblematic. I’m since learning niacinamide can be an issue for some of us, causing breakouts. Personally, it appears low %’s pass, but high % are tough. Lesson learned.

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Sensitive Skin Acne Review: Peach Slices Acne Spot Dots

Peach Slices Acne Spot Dots

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through & make a purchase.

All opinions are honest + my own. All products are put through a 2 week test period conducted on myself.

Why It’s Useful

Acne spot treatments are useful when we need a little extra help. Yet the traditional ones are a bit too strong for sensitive skin + often cause overdrying, sometimes to the point of peeling. In my experience, this continues the acne cycle instead of fixing the one spot. Finding gentler ones has been the fix I found; it just takes some searching. Acne patches can be one help.

Quick Take

I’ve used Missha’s Speedy Solution in the past with success, so hoped Peach Slices Acne Spot Dots might be the same.

For my skin, unfortunately, I haven’t been able to use them with good enough results; had to switch to anti-scar treatment at least once; and suggest caution, if you try.

Sensitive Skin Acne Review

On me, the pimple tends to almost liquify instead of becoming a typical whitehead. The skin on top can become fragile + sometimes ripped off when the patch was removed, which sent my routine into anti-scar mode.

The package warnings hide some useful instructions: 1. You need to rinse the patch to help remove it 2. Don’t place it on damaged or broken skin.

Gave it extra chances after learning that, to be sure it wasn’t my user error. But I still am not able to use this well. The glue used, in my opinion, could be dialed down a bit in strength. And, I’m going to guess, that for some reason it’s just a patch that’s not suited for my skin or is too strong.

The ingredients only note it being a hydrocolloid patch, no other ingredients that I can find. So it’s a bit of a mystery to me why this might not have worked for my sensitive skin. Truly hoped Peach Slices Acne Spot Dots would be a good fit. That’s sensitive skin for you, though.

Alternative

For spot treatments that have passed the skin test + I do use without trouble, you can find them here.

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Sensitive Skin Acne Review: Jāsön Sea Fresh Strengthening Paste

File Under: fluoride-free toothpaste for sensitive skin

Why It’s Useful

Spoke about it before, but toothpaste is actually a part of my acne prevention. 5 years ago, I never thought that toothpaste mattered to skin. I’ve since learned otherwise.

If it has sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS/SLES) or ammonium lauryl sulfate (ALS), it will cause varying levels of breakouts near my lips or a vague line from lip edge down. When I swap the toothpaste, the breakout disappears on its own.

More recently I noticed fluoride causes a mild case of acne, too – in toothpaste or mouthwash. I didn’t notice it until I removed SLS/SLES/ALS, which removed almost all area acne. So, I started exploring fluoride-free toothpaste options. (Why deal with occasional, but consistent toothpaste caused spots when you can nix all?)

Quick Take

Jāsön Sea Fresh Strengthening Paste is SLS/ALS + fluoride-free, so I was hoping it would work. Each of those ingredients have been trouble points for my skin – removing the ingredient showed improvement on its own.

Unfortunately, this one caused sores to develop in my mouth within the 1st few days of using. And my mouth felt achy (or sensitized?). With time, both did go away. However, during the time I used this, I had a very low-grade breakout on my chin that stopped when I stopped using this.

Sensitive Skin Acne Review

I don’t like removing fluoride, but I’ve noticed the breakout issue both with toothpastes + a mouthwash that had fluoride. I don’t want to compromise good tooth health for good skin. Still searching for a way to support both.

To me, initial sores + ache mark something worth skipping, though both technically went away while using. That says to me there was something that disagreed with my skin, though my skin appears to have adapted to it after about week. Is it really worth wading through an uncomfortable adjustment? I don’t think you should have to. Then there was the very low-grade breakout during; I’m aiming for no breakout during + a happy mouth.

So what could have caused the discomfort + sores? Probably one of the natural extracts or oils – there are a bunch. Remember: natural does not mean risk-free. (Think of poison ivy, bad mushrooms, food allergies – I mean, eggplant hates me). Which natural ingredient caused the reaction is unclear. There were a bunch of new ones for me. Time will tell which it was.