Hada Labo skin care routine...(based on personal experience)

Acne prone skin? I've been in a situation where every direct salesman or woman will make me their target for their beauty products, it doesn't matter if its a set of face wash with moisturizer or if its a consumption product, I'll always be their first target. I can't even walk freely in supermarkets, because they will be chasing behind me with their brochure and products even-though I said No. And because my acne breakouts left me with a face of terrible scaring ( view my previous post for more details *with pictures*). I was really upset until one point where I wish i could just peel of my skin and replace with a new one.
  *at this point, I would like to advise those who are desperately wanted to have a better skin to not to try any random products, and even if you tried, if you feel uncomfortable like itchiness or redness or more breakouts, please stop using it and consult a doctor immediately. Because a product which suits you will not cause you any harm but improve your skin.
I went for a professional face spa (purely herbal) and wasted approx 1000 MYR in a year and yield no result.And the worst part is, my parents struggled to pay that fees just to make me feel better. Sigh.  I guess the owner of the spa is having a big meal somewhere right now. 

In the very beginning. my face was like this.

To begin with, most people are having this misconception about acne prone skin. Drying up your skin or using any product which will wash off your sebum oil on the surface will not help you in reducing your acne in any way. Believe me when I say drying up your skin will cause your face to be more oily than before. Reason?

Sebum is a naturally occurring substance that is produced by the sebaceous glands, which are found in the skin and mucus membranes. The primary function of sebum is to moisturize, lubricate and protect skin and hair. And when you dry up your skin by washing your face too often, or use any products which dries up your skin, your body system will send a signal to the Sebum and trigger it to produce more Sebum to protect your skin.

One of the way to keep your Sebum production under control, is to moisture your skin. Hyaluronic Acid is a well known moisturizing agent which effectively lock down your skin moisture subject to the humidity - relative to the seasons and the climate. It has a unique ability to hold in moisture (1000 ml of water per gram of Hyaluronic Acid ) . Incredible? Indeed.

Personally, I use a product from Japan (Hada Labo) which contains a dense amount of Hyaluronic acid. 

It has few types. What I used in the beginning is the white series. As you can see in my previous post, I had a serious acne breakout with a very terrible scaring. After I found out how actually a sebum works and the way to control it, I gave it a try. I dare not to use the blue series as the blue ones has whitening effects. I did a small survey and found out that people with acne prone skin are not recommended to use any thing which has whitening effects (Although I was dying to become fairer from the result of sunburn), but since i was mainly on reducing my acne breakouts, I did not dare to take the risk of using the blue series and proceed to take the white series.

I used this cleanser in the beginning

It has the self-foaming pump bottle and the normal package, if you are a busy woman or a lazy woman (like me), I will recommend the self-foaming pump because it takes less effort to make the cleanser into foam form, and you can always buy the right one and squeeze it inside the self-foaming bottle and recycle it. But if you prefer the right one, then please do take the effort of making the cleanser into a foam before applying.

lather it till it becomes like this

Direction : wet your face, squeeze approx 2cm (or a 10 cent amount because its very concentrated) onto your palm, lather with warm water and massage gently onto face. After rinsing thoroughly, dab your face with a clean towel.

After some time, I realize there are some other similar cleanser from Hada Labo which is much more affordable for me. Basically, they have 3 types.

1. Deep clean & Blemish control
2. Deep clean & Pore refining
3. Hydra & whitening

I'm not so sure about the difference, but I realize that this is not as concentrated as the previous one, and its more watery. But by lathering the same amount of cleanser, gives the same result. I used the Deep clean & Blemish control, and it did dry out my skin, but i guess its because it cleanses your skin thoroughly including your apparent sebum. And I keep using it until now. Please make sure you do the necessary and sufficient moisturizing procedure after washing your face, it is very very important.

Just apply the toner first, following by a moisturizing lotion. (* all in small amount, do not be greedy by applying your moisturizer in a large amount, you are just wasting your product. Because our skin is only able to absorb a certain amount of lotion. ). In the beginning, after applying the lotion, I realize my face is so oily, literally oily. If this happens to you, please do not be terrified, this is just a stage where your face is trying to adopt with the new situation that's happening on your skin. Your skin needs time to get used to the current product. Do not lose faith as you can see a tremendous difference in just one month time.

I apply it twice a day, morning and night, especially at night. It's like a MUST for me. My apologies for not providing any personal "before after" photos, this is because I've been using this product for almost a year, and I did not capture the "before" photos, so there is no point showing the "after" photos. Note that I did not use the mask showed above, I did my own mask (I will do a preview on that soon) and somehow, both the mask and this product helped me a lot in reducing my breakouts.

If you apply make up very often, and if you really are a makeup person, you definitely will know that its hazardous for you to bring those makeups to bed. If you watch actress interview on how they keep their face in good condition, you will realize the first thing they mention will be about removing makeups thoroughly before going to bed. I use this product, also from Hada Labo which is olive oil based makeup remover and this is for heavy makeup. Although I don't apply heavy makeups, but my concept was, if it can remove heavy makeups thoroughly, then it definitely can remove light makeups even thoroughly, I don't know if this concept is true, but I believe it.

Directions : DO NOT WET YOUR FACE before applying this, both your face and your hand should be dry, squeeze a reasonable amount, and start massaging around your face. Rinse your face with water, the water will emulsify the oil and it will start to become milky. Then, wash with cleanser. 

For those who had read my previous blog on Hiruscar Post Acne gel and wonder how to apply it together with Hada Labo products, there are basically two simple ways.

1. Apply Hiruscar after toner and before moisturizer, this is because Hiruscar works better with toner and it absorbs so quickly, so it will not be a trouble to apply moisturizer after that. In opposite, if Hiruscar is applied after moisturizer, the stickiness in moisturizer will not help in absorbing Hiruscar into the skin. Using this procedure, apply it twice a day. Morning and night. Especially night, don't bring the dirt to bed. If you want to be pretty, don't be lazy.

2. If you have been using some other moisturizing products, and it gives good result to your skin, and you now want to switch to Hada Labo for any reason. You can apply only Hiruscar with toner in the morning and apply Hiruscar with toner and moisturizer during the night. Which means, you skip the moisturizing step in the morning. If you are just starting to use moisturizing lotion in your daily skin care routine, then I suggest you to stick back to No. 1.

Disclaimer : I'm not earning anything by promoting this product, and all the things that I've wrote are solely based on my personal experience. Although some of the facts about the sebum are extracted from other sources.

Good luck everyone~! *wink

Recently taken   ^^