Achieving clear skin is more than just the products you use. What’s going on internally matters. What you consume mentally, and your thoughts about yourself.

A few years ago Dr. Sam Bunting had an instagram post sharing a study that demonstrated 63% of individuals diagnosed with acne were more likely to experience depression than those who had clear skin in the first year. Dr. Dray also uploaded a video in May about the mental impact acne has on an individual.

I very much relate to this because I felt so negatively affected by my skin. When cystic acne was in full force all over my face and neck, I was at an all time low. I just graduated university, had $14k of student loan and credit card debt, and was “underemployed”. A bad relationship ended, I struggled to find a full time job, ate inflammatory foods. I thought of ridiculous hypotheticals of not achieving the things I wanted in life, how people perceived me. Overall, I was just confused with my life and having acne made it all feel significantly worse.

At my skin’s worst and at my most stressed, I finally said to myself “I don’t give a fuck anymore”. It was like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I felt so much happier with myself despite my acne. This is the mindset shift I hope this video can help you with. With social media and advertisements bombarding us on the daily… What we see is not what we get in real life. We need to have strong convictions and a realistic approach to the clarity we want to see in our skin. I truly believe the first step is mental clarity.

I have suffered with some type of acne since my preteens. It’s only been in recent times I managed to really understand my skin and gain control over my acne. One of the first steps to skin clarity was fixing my mental state.

Reflecting on my past self, I’m glad I managed to reach this inner peace and acceptance with my skin. I believe we all deserve to have this feeling and not let the state of our skin impact us so much.

I have been wanting to make a video related to mindset when it comes to skincare for a while now. A language learning video by Lindie Botes – “Mindsets you need to have to learn any language!” inspired me. It helped me not only with my personal goal of learning a language, but how to organize my thoughts for this post/video.

I tried my best to list these mindsets/attitudes in a sensible order. In a way that you could easily and constantly practice in your clear skin journey. I applied these tips to myself and they work for me. I say work because mindset is always changing.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional anything. I just want to share my clear skin journey with you all.

With that said, here are the 5 mindsets that are tried and true. Hopefully they will help you achieve some mental and skin clarity.

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1. Release

Let it go. Let go of all the negative thoughts, worries, concerns of what you have of your skin. Of what you think people think of your skin. Overcome the obsession and worry you have for your skin concern by not putting it on a pedestal. You’re hurting yourself with your own thoughts more than what others actually say to you

I compared myself to my friends who never once said anything bad about my acne. They also never made me feel like shit about it. Even my colleagues never made me feel bad about it. But no matter the good intentions or words, I could not get out of my own head. It’s like my brain switched and the weight lifted the moment I said “I don’t give a fuck anymore”. I felt like I started living my life way better from there.

2. Fearlessness

Do not be afraid to walk out in public. Do not be afraid of looks, whispers, comments. Stop letting the fear of being seen with your acne prevent you from living your life. Live your life how you think you would if you had clear skin – without caring what other people think. I know how heavily concerned you are about your appearance, but you need to stop putting it at the forefront of your mind.

I used to not want to do anything because I hated how I looked. If I had to do something, I needed to wear a full face of makeup. Even if it was just going grocery shopping. I also thought I wouldn’t become employed, be in a relationship… That my friends would not want to hang out with me because of how bad my skin was. Instead, I got a customer facing job at my skin’s worst. I met my now husband. My friends always pushed me to go out with them; They knew I was so afraid of people seeing my skin in public. I actually started to feel more fearless when I followed the first step first.

As Cher Horowitz once said, “carpe diem, okay?”

3. Focus

Streamline your skincare routine. I wrote a blog post back in 2015 on how to create a skincare routine. I listed questions to ask yourself when creating it. One big question is what is your greatest skin concern – in this case, it is acne. Do not be distracted by the other concerns that acne causes such as pigmentation, texture, large pores. Once you get a handle on your acne, you will prevent most of the other skin problems associated with it. Give 0 shits about fancy packaging, the latest key ingredients and what influencers say you need to try because they’re obsessed. Stick to your skincare plan and do not be swayed by what others say about other shiny things online.

4. Patience

In the age of instant gratification, social media is skewing our perceptions of what is realistic and attainable in the pursuit of clear skin. I’m here to tell you that there is no miracle within a day, week, or a month. I used to feel desperate to clear my face as soon as possible, but that just:
1. gave me unrealistic expectations
2. Made me overuse products and torture my skin
3. made me more depressed about my skin that it wasn’t getting better
4. made me spend more money on products I did not need
Bring yourself back to reality, take it day by day, enjoy your life while tackling your acne. Before you know it, you will have clear skin.

5. Belief

The belief that you WILL have clear skin, that this won’t last forever. Achieving clear, healthy skin is a definite outcome. This moment in time with acne will not last forever, you will get your healthy skin back. The journey just may be different from others. It may be longer or shorter, but you will get there in your own time.

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I know how painful it is both physically and mentally to have acne. To feel less than, to not feel beautiful. But you need to be kinder to yourself – you are not your acne, you are not your skin condition. Once you change your mindset towards yourself, the good will just flow. For me personally, I feel free. I like myself more, and my baseline for stress about skin breakouts is significantly lower.

I will end this post with a few quotes:

“My philosophy is that worrying means you suffer twice.”

—Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

“Beauty is not in the face; Beauty is a light in the heart.”

—Khalil Gibran

“A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”

—Roald Dahl

As always, I hope you find posts like these helpful and informative!

xo, M