Breakouts Met Their Waterloo With My Lethal Tea Tree Oil And Vichy Normaderm Combo!

Some of you may remember my wail of distress at combating a sudden attack of breakouts and pimples quite recently. I thank you all so much for your tips and advice but before I went to see a dermatologist, I made one last ditched attempt to wage my battle.

Thankfully, I won. *whew*

My deadly spot fighting combination was a mixture of tea tree oil and a tea tree oil cleanser, and a couple of products from Vichy Normaderm. I was actually going to give away the Vichy products to someone who might be more breakout prone than I am, but I’m glad I held onto it because I swear it helped my skin.

I also recently returned from a holiday with a pizza face, much to my horror. It must have been the polluted air or the daily sun exposure and sweat or just holiday stress and improper food and insuffucient sleep. But it was horrible to look in the mirror each evening and discover a new pimple sprouting. When I got home, 3 days of my lethal combination did the trick to stabilize things. *whew again*

I must note that barring the first time, my breakouts are relatively minor. One or two cystic acne for which the Nexcare Acne patch does help, but mostly small surface pimples and bumpy skin with clogged pores. So I start out by cleansing with a tea tree oil cleanser. You can use any one. I happen to have one by The Body Shop on hand that I usually use, so that became my day cleanser. In the evenings, I use the Vichy Normaderm Purifying Cleansing gel which I desperately have to replenish!

After cleansing, I use a random moisturising toner (I would use one with salycilic acid but I had none so I made do or I also used apple cider vinegar) and then I apply the Vichy Normaderm moisturizer for day (white tube) and night (green tube). At night, I also slap on tea tree oil on the offending spots.

Every alternate day, I’d slather on a thick layer of the Kiehl’s Rare Earth Pore Cleansing mask, which for me, works better than any others in clearing out gunk and in keeping my skin smooth.

This routine might seem a little drying, but by just sticking to it for a week, I began to notice improvements. In my earlier battle to clear spots, I used the clarisonic just once and found it helped, instead of making the problem worse. It cleared away the dead flaky skin and helped the products absorb better.

I am happy to report that my skin is no longer rough and bumpy and other than a few marks which I’m attending to with other serums, its pretty much back to the way it was. I’m glad to observe that these are all easily available at pharmacies at very wallet friendly prices! 😀

This post is by way of a document to remind me just what can and does work for me. I don’t know if it will work for you, but if you have tried everything, its worth making that one last ditch effort to see if this might be your magical “Breakout Busters” combination too 🙂 I’m now working on getting my old skintone back and fading my pigmentation 😀

Paris B

The Body Shop Tea Tree Facial Wash is available at The Body Shop. I have stopped purchasing so the current price is unknown. The Vichy Normaderm Purifying Cleansing Gel retails at RM29/100ml and the Vichy Normaderm Tri-Activ Anti-Imperfection Hydrating Care (Day) and Normaderm Nuit Anti-Imperfection Rejuvenating (Night) creams retail at RM49/30ml each.