How I Got Clearer Skin

I have suffered with bad skin for most of my life. My GP put me on Dianette contraceptive pill at the age of 14, to help my skin, and a big bottle of the stuff surgeons use to 'scrub up' before an op, to use as face wash. I couldn't cope with the orange liquid, but the pill was easy enough to take, and within a couple of years I had clear skin.

I came off the pill to have my children and it has never gone back to how it was... I ended up with teenage skin. I tried the pill, but it didn't have any effect on my skin. My doctor suggested I switched contraception as I had been using Dianette for so long, and seeing as it wasn't helping my skin there was no advantage to using it. The new contraceptive had acne as a known side effect. Great!

Luckily I had just been contacted by a very lovely lady at Azani Medical Spa asking if I would like to try one of their products. We entered into an email conversation - the more I told her about my skin the more it became evident there was no point in me using this one product without the others as it would probably do nothing for me. She gave me a free email consultation (which is available to everyone via their site) and I sent some photos of my bare skin.

Dr Monica Gavin recommended a series of products to me and told me that I'd need to use them in conjunction with each other. I have to admit it did cross my mind that this was a scam, to get me to spend lots of money at their store! I couldn't find much on Google about their products, but in the end I decided to take the chance, and I think it was one of the best decisions I could have made!

I have used the products for roughly 2 months, which is how long it took me to use up one bottle of each of the products. You'll have to excuse the battered packaging; it's been well used!

The products I was recommended and used, were:

Salicylic Face & Body Wash (180ml / $28.50) - I used a gentle face wipe (i.e. Simple) to remove my make up before using this. It works like any other cleanser - massage it over your face and rinse off with cool water. It contains 2% Salicylic Acid which calms skin irritations, improves the look of fine lines and is effective for clearing acne and dry skin conditions. It felt gentle on the skin and didn't smell of much. I now use the Emma Hardie muslin cloth to remove this to help buff away my flaky skin (more on that later!)

AHA Clarifier (50ml / $30) - This contains 12% Glycolic Acid and botanicals to adbsorb excess oils, clear skin and improve the appearance of pores on oily skin. It recommends applying with a cotton pad but I felt I wasn't getting enough of the product on my skin so I used my fingers. There's a warning on the bottle that your skin might find this hard to tolerate, in which case to rinse it off for the first couple of weeks, but my skin was fine.

Oil Free Moisturizer (50ml / $45) - This is a fab moisturiser that leaves my skin feeling hydrated without it being oily. It feels very light and make up goes on well over it.

Pumpkin Clarifying Mask (50ml / $37.50) - This mask is meant to be used a few times a week (I alternated it with the other mask). It is supposed to help loosen blackheads and whiteheads, leave your skin super-clean and looking smoother and clearer. It smells slightly of cinnamon, and goes see through as it dries. You rinse it off after 5 to 20 minutes, and your skin really does feel smooth afterwards.

Antioxidant Soothing Mask (50ml / $37.50) - This mask reduces redness and inflammation, heals blemishes and absorbs excess oil. It contains clay, Alpha Lipoic Acid, 105 Sulphur, and Grapefruit extract. It has a slightly powdering smell but nothing unbearable. It dries white on the skin and after 20 minutes it feels rather tight, but my skin felt great once I rinsed it off. I always made sure I applied an extra pump of moisturiser after using this!

Dr Gavin had also recommended that I visit my GP to ask for some things only available on prescription - antibiotics and topical retinoids. By the time I got to see my doctor I'd been using these products for about 4 weeks - my skin had improved so much that I was refused the antibiotics. I had to plead to be given Retin-A gel, which I got given in the lowest dosage of 0.025%.

This is a very powerful product which must be used very carefully! You need literally a pea sized amount to cover your face, but be warned, it is very drying! Before I started using it I did a bit of online research and saw a lot of people saying that their skin got a lot worse before it got better, but telling everyone to stick with it because the end results will be worth it.

Luckily I didn't suffer any of those results but my skin has gone very flaky around my nose and chin. In my next order from Azani I will buy their Micro-Buff Creme ($52.50) to help get rid of those patches. In the long run I'd rather have the flakes than the spots, so I'm bearing with it!

Using these products has improved my skin so much, that I recommend anyone with problem skin to get a free consultation from Azani Medical Spa. Although I have a bit of scarring still, I know that will fade in time. It's so lovely to wake up and not have a new spot to have to deal with every day! I do still get the occasional spot, but it's so much smaller and is gone so much quicker. I wish I had known about these products years ago!

I had had a few requests on YouTube for a skincare video, so have also recorded a video about these products. If you'd like to watch it, click play below!


 Azani Medical Spa can be found at http://www.azanimedicalspa.com/home.htm

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this!