I've decided this year I am going to start a new series, my top 15 of 2015! I will be showcasing the 15 products that stand out to me during the year. The first entry is the
Ponds Spot Clear Even Tone Cleanser, and it carries a special story;)
So in December 2013, 1 month before my 25th birthday I had my first acne breakout. The reason I remember it so clearly is because it was the first time in my life that I had ever had such a bad breakout. I was extremely lucky as a teenager to not have suffered from acne, but boy did mother nature pay me back in my 20's.
I originally thought it was just stress, then after 3 months it just kept getting worse, I tried every product under the sun. I changed my diet, tried herbal remedies, even changing my oral contraceptive, nothing helped. I spent my entire 25th year on this earth piling on makeup and worry about what my skin looked like. I teach kids on a daily basis, can you imagine trying to tell kids what's happening on my face? So I would just say I had a rash...that wouldn't go away.
Now this sounds like a flippen sad story, but believe me, I found a silver lining. A day before my 26th birthday (4th Jan 2015) I went to
Clicks and found this little product. Now like any beauty blogger, you know that there are very few products out there that actually do as they state. So I bought a small 15ml tube (yes you can buy a travel sized tube) and took it home. Hey it was R 9.99, I had nothing to loose...turns out I had everything to gain :)
Pond's has this to say about this little wonder product:
"
Our facial foam, with Salicylic Acid, clears spots by removing bacteria. Whilst our specially formulated Herbal Clay aids in controlling oil, reducing redness and blemishes to restore your skin’s tranquility.Our specially formulated Scrub Beads help to gently exfoliate, smoothen and reduce the appearance of dark spots whilst tightening your pores for a porcelain finish.
Finally, the unique Brightening Essence in POND’S complete solution spot clear even tone facial foam reduces dullness and give your skin a visibly brighter appearance."
A large majority of acne products contain Salicylic Acid (acne fighting ingredient), for me personally, it's never really done much for my skin. I was intrigued by this Herbal Clay, I have heard great things about the benefits of clay, so that's part of the reason I purchased the product. I could spend all day telling you about the ingredients of a product and what it did for me, but I believe seeing is believing...so I'm putting my big girl panties on and I'm going to show you my bare face just a few short weeks ago...
Scary isn't it? As you can see my skin was a mess, it was angry and it was over life in general.
This is my skin now....
I still have a bit of an active breakout popping up and as you can see quite a bit or scaring, but I can honestly say I'm so happy. I had lost my confidence and thought that I would just have to learn to live with my unhappy skin. I need to make this abundantly clear to you, this isn't a paid for post, this is my complete and honest opinion. Needless to say I went out and purchased the 100ml bottle, the even better part of this product is that it comes in 3 sizes 15ml, 50ml, 100ml...all retailing under R 40.
There's no miracle way to use the cleanser, I recommend that you use both morning and night. What I do is once I get home from work, I take my make up off with a makeup wipe (I don't recommend using this cleanser to remove your make up, because of the exfoliating beads it's not practical to use over your eyes), and then I wash my face as normal. I work the cleanser into my skin in circular motions, you will start to feel the exfoliating beads disintegrate and the cleanser gets thicker, it's amazing! Rinse as normal, and voila!
This wash worked wonders for me, heck my best friend also tried it and she loved it, but it may not work for everyone. By no means am I saying that this is a miracle cure for your acne, I'm just sharing my personal story about what this did for me.
If you try this tube of tremendousness, I'd love to hear what you have to say about it, and Ponds would too. They have this awesome competition going where you can submit your "No Filter Selfie" with the hashtag
#pondsnofilter on Instagram and you could see your face on a billboard, how rad would that be!
I hope if anything, that you can feel as confident and happy with your skin as I do :)
Until next time....
