A few months back, I posted about a skincare routine that works for me after doing a lot of research and knowing what would be suitable for my skin. My skin at that time was really glowy and the random zits and pimples have lessened dramatically. I didn't do a big change in that routine and in fact I was consistent with it but then maybe 3 months after that acne started to appear again. It's not like an extreme level, but it's enough for me to question what I was doing wrong.

Dermatology schedule

I've been trying to be patient and was just waiting to see if those stuff would go away in a couple of weeks. But even with careful skincare routine (making sure I don't use acids at the same time), they just kept appearing that it makes me feel stressed cos that means I was never doing anything right in my life. :p

So I made an appointment for a dermatologist at a clinic that's actually pretty popular in my country when it comes to skin problems and overall skin and body procedures. Anyway, this is the clinic that's most convenient for me since it's just in a mall and in this summer heat, I wouldn't want to go around the city more often so this is a really convenient clinic choice for me.

I was ready for my appointment and actually pretty excited to know the cause and solutions but then an hour before my schedule, the receptionist called me to say the doctor had some other 'plans' and couldn't accommodate me at that time. WTFFFFF?

How rude was it to cancel just 1 hour before the schedule and considering they're marketed for businessmen and women which means they are pretty much aware that their clients are busy people (and some even really popular celebrities) they just decided to inform me 1 hour before the appointment? I was already there at the mall even, and they could have notified me hours ahead. I really had high expectations for this clinic since they're one of the most expensive ones and considered top notch but now I knew that they can just do this, I'm not sure whether to proceed or not.

I had rescheduled the consultation for tomorrow and I'm not sure now if I should also just cancel it an hour before my appointment and let them taste their own medicine or just let this slide this one time so I could finally lessen my stress with what's going on with my face? lol.

Trying out retinol

I was supposed to wait for the consultation to be done so I could be advised on what to do and maybe even prescribed some products but since it was cancelled the very last minute, I got pissed and even more stressed out that I just bought a CeraVe Resurfacing Retinol serum. I did some research and apparently retinoids are good for dealing with acne and since retinol is available over the counter, I decided to just try it out. I read a lot of nice reviews on this product and it's also beginner-friendly since it only contains a few % of retinol which can prevent my skin from reacting to it badly.

I was hesitant to try this out at first since some people who have used retinols tend to have a purging reaction (that look like acne) and sometimes peeling as well and I am gonna travel soon and I don't want to deal with that but since this has a low % of retinol, maybe mine wouldn't be that bad. Hopefully my skin reacts to it nicely lol.

Some possible causes

_{Yeah those are extension lashes. :P}

Like I said, this is probably not as extreme as what you might think when you hear the words "problem with acne" because the spots are so tiny but when you spent money on products you expect them to minimize the problems and not add to it. Some are beginning to heal already but everyday it seems like there's always new ones coming to the surface. D: I do really have hydrated skin though but there's really just this on top of the nice benefits with my current routine. :p

Also I'm doing makeup nowadays cos it's fun AF and I don't want any acne underneath the makeup and potentially irritating my skin more or something like that.

Hormones

Ok so the time when I started a serious skincare routine was also the same time I started an injectable birth control. When I had the birth control for the first 3 months, it really went well and I was not experiencing much side effects. Around the same time as well, my skin was really glowing and clear and good. It led me to believe that I might really be having a good skincare routine and stuff like that but right now that I am off of the birth control, my hormones are now really back to my "normal imbalanced" one.

You know birth control pills are one of the treatments in acne right? So now I'm off of it, my body is now again imbalanced and the thing that actually helped me clear my skin was actually the birth control and that means I might need to change a lot of things in my skincare routine. What worked before doesn't seem to work now and I have noticed it started doing that right after I got off of birth control. Pretty supsicioussss righttt.

Vitamin C

I recently just realized that my The Ordinary Vitamin C only has a shelf life of 6 months (from opening) and I was still using it past it. lol. It gives me a good glow but it might also be the cause of my problems which probably means I should just stop it using and get a new one. All of my products can be used within a year of opening but I didn't know Vitamin C has shorter life. :D I'll stop it and see what happens.

Conflict of product uses

I just bought a nice sunscreen that's like a gel to replace my old one because my old one gives me an ugly blue and white cast. Upon reading the ingredients in the back, I just now realized that it contains a small % of niacinamide and I've been using it with Vitamin C at the same time. :/ Some articles say you can use niacinamide and Vit C at the same time but for more sensitive skin, it's not advisable. I wish these products tell you explicitly what kind of ingredients they have in there. -_-

Me sometimes being lazy

There are a few times that I wore makeup and didn't wash my face before sleeping and I get those breakouts a few days later. Obviously my fault haha but it only happened a few times. I don't know if the other effects include the acne showing up in a delayed process but at this point I'm really just considering everything I did.

Hopefully this retinol will work and I would figure out what's happening. Maybe I'll just still go to the appointment for tomorrow or go somewhere else. I know it's not worth stressing for some but skin sometimes tell us something about our health.