My skin has slowly recovered from my last foray into cleansing products but it took almost a month of just plain water washing to get it there. The stress from my move did not help, and let's just say it's time to tackle my acne once more.

Now after the issues I had with heavy duty cleansers like Neutrogena and OXY, I figured it was time to try something a little more natural and if I was going to go that route why not turn to a great local company? Of course, my choice was going to be Lush. Since I moved to Burnaby a couple months back, I've been spending more and more time at Metropolis at Metrotown. This means I end up passing by the beautiful smelling Lush store on the regular and it's really hard not to follow those lovely scents into the shop. Well, about a month I go I ventured into the Lush store and decided to ask for some help finding a skincare routine to deal with my acne.

One of the lovely ladies in the soap section happily sat down with me and demonstrated several products for me. We went over my needs and she showed me a variety of things that could help. I also ended up a learning a thing or two about what my previous routines have been lacking. Turns out, moisturizer is a thing. Also, it should be used daily. I felt a little hesitant (oh, god the oil slicks!), but I was assured that moisturizer is necessary for every skin type.

Anyways, at the end I walked away with a bar of Coalface, a pot of Kalamazoo, a pot of Enzymion, a pot of Dark Angels, a tub of Cup O' Coffee, a tall bottle of Tea Tree Water and a little bottle of Grease Lighting. This was an expensive trip, but I felt determined at this point. I had a whole routine and it was supposedly much better for my skin than the harsher drugstore products.

Now this routine was a bit complex for me, the person who balks at washing her face twice a day. So a typical day in the life of this routine was a bit long. In the morning, I'd wash my face with Kalamazoo and put on the moisturizer Enzymion afterwards. If I showered, I would put Cup O' Coffee on for 15 minutes prior to getting into the shower. If it was the end of the week, I would skip Cup O' Coffee and instead use Dark Angel in the shower and let it sit while I washed my hair.  If at any point during the day I felt oily, I was to spritz some Tea Tree Water on and let that sit on my face while dabbing anything that dripped off my chin with a tissue.  At night, I was supposed to wash my face using the Coalface bar. Afterwards, I would then apply Grease Lightning to any spots on my face.

Did that seem like a lot to you? It certainly felt like a lot to me. I gave up on Cup O' Coffee within about a week. Showering was already a chore for me as the warm water and standing were painful due to my fibromyalgia, so working up to having a shower finally and then having to wait another 15 minutes was just not worth it. The Tea Tree Water also fell to the wayside. It felt a little gimmicky and I didn't really enjoy sitting around with a wet face.

Overall though, I really liked the face washing routine. Kalamazoo in the morning, followed by Enzymion and Coalface at night followed by Grease Lighting seemed to be working. My acne was lessening and I noticed my pores felt a little tighter, maybe even smaller.  The Enzymion and Kalamazoo smell amazing and I loved smelling citrus-y in the morning. My partner loved the scent too. Using the Coalface bar was a strange experience, I didn't like the scent (I mean, who likes black licorice anyway?) and it was strange to actually rub my face with a bar of soap. The Grease Lighting though was the fun part because after about five minutes it felt like my face skin had been clamped with clothes pins on either side. It was quite the silly feeling, but I think the night routine as a whole was having the biggest impact on my acne.

I'll give this Lush routine a 7/10 for now. I'm going to continue using it over the summer and I'll post an update as part four of this series.

Dana~