Hello my lovelies! I hope you’ve had a great week and you’re settling into a new routine. Over at my house I think I’ve finally settled into a steady routine and everything is beginning to feel normal now, which feels weird to say. One thing I’ve noticed from staying home a lot is that my skin has started clearing up a little, and i think that could be down to three different things; less pollution in the air and staying indoors, using my adapalene cream and from trying out Carbon Theory’s acne soap bar!
*little disclaimer – this post is by no means sponsored by Carbon Theory and I am not affiliated with them in any way, I just saw the ad for the soap bar with the claims of clearing up acne so thought I’d buy and try it so you don’t have to! Also, this review is simply my opinion on the product and what may or may not work for me could be completely different for someone else.
So, before I get started with this review, I thought I’d give you some background info about me and my skin journey so far; if you’ve been with me for a while then you may have read my last post about my acne journey and how I managed to clear my skin of adult acne.
And, well.. a lot has happened since then.
For example, I have come off of what I was using as birth control and my acne treatment in one go. Why might you ask? Well because I was on something called co-cyprindol which is essentially 2000mg of oestrogen where women are supposed to have 20mg (at least that’s what my doctor told me) and like many medications, there were some pretty annoying side effects. For me, the acne pill I was on not only gave me migraines every now and again, but it also made me feel extremely low. And so, in August last year, I decided to stop taking it and pray that my skin would magically be fine and the acne would stay away.
Unfortunately for me, that did not happen. My mood was so much better, in fact I’m happier than I’ve ever been, but my skin decided to get angry with me straight away and just got worse and worse, until it was the worst it had ever been.
And that has led me just over a month or two ago, when I’d tried all sorts of skincare routines that were supposed to help and I was at the point of giving up or going back to the doctors to find some form of other treatments that wouldn’t effect my mood.. and then a certain pain in the butt called corona hit and I didn’t want to take up the nhs’ time with something like my skin when they’ve got bigger problems to deal with.
It was then that I was sent a link to Carbon Theory’s acne soap bar by my sister. I was a bit dubious at first because I didn’t think a bar of soap would do much for my skin, but for £6, what did I have to lose!
Here’s the day that I came off of my acne medication, the 10th August 2019.
Then months later, we were here with my skin – 18th March 2020. Please excuse the facial expressions, it was very early that morning!
Once my soap bar arrived it’s safe to safe I was willing to try anything if there was a chance it would clear up my skin. Even if it entailed having slugs on my face. I would have done anything! So, here’s day one of trying out the soap bar along with my acne cream:
As you can see, we’re not in very good place skin-wise. You can also see that this was when I was slowly starting to shave my head! I started using the soap bar every morning and evening by lathering it up in my hands and leaving the suds on my face for thirty seconds before washing it off, like it was recommended on the packaging. It made my face feel tight and moisturised and clean which I liked (and still do).
So, onto where we were at at the end of week one:
So, as you can see, me face was pretty angry with me for trying something new, but that is to be expected when trying any new products on your skin. Especially for me, because I suffer with psoriasis and can sometimes get it on my face, so naturally any new products could trigger it if I’m not careful!
Here’s where we were at after two weeks:
As you can see, it looks like the soap bar with my adapalene cream appears to be doing something! It definitely seems to have taken down the redness on my cheeks and reduce the spots on my forehead.
Onto week three:
This week my skin didn’t like me that much and had another flare up again, with my skin being a bit red and a few old spots popping up that I thought were gone!
But nevertheless we persevered, and got to week four:
Week four and my skin started to clear up a bit more again, and the redness was once again starting to go down which was great! Another thing that I think has helped is that my hair is no longer all over my face, something I completely forgot about!
Onto week five:
It was this week that I was starting to finally see a difference on my right cheek which was one of the worst places my acne was. I also noticed that my skintone had started to even out a bit too!
Here’s where my skin was at just a few days ago!
So, here’s where we’re currently at, it’s safe to say my skin is loads better than it was when I started using Carbon Theory’s soap bar and my acne cream; and I think it’s been the combination of the two that has really helped. What’s left of my acne actually appears to be acne scars, with the odd new spot coming up every now and again, and when that happens I use some acne stickers from Starface which are brilliant at stopping you from popping, picking and scarring your face. Plus, they look cute too because you get little stars on your face!
Just for comparison, here’s before using the soap bar and after:
In conclusion, would I recommend Carbon Theory to someone wanting to reduce their acne? For sure. Even if it only helps a little bit, you can’t really go wrong for £6! Plus, it comes in a great resealable pocket which makes it great for travel and it keeps the soap from getting anything on it whilst it’s not being used. If I’m being honest, I really didn’t think that this would work, especially because it’s so cheap, but I’m certainly glad I tried it out because it’s going to be a permanent featured in my skincare routine!
Next up for my skin journey is a whole host of new products that I intent to slowly implement with the soap bar in order to help with my scarring, so be sure to stay tuned ready for that in a few more weeks or months! Have you got any staple skincare products you can’t live without? And have you tried this soap bar out for yourself? Let me know in the comments!!
Have a great weekend my lovelies, and stay safe!!
Lots of love,
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I then wash my hair with warm water, using 
I then use ‘Tesco’s Pro-Vitamin B5 conditioner for damaged hair'(it is nowhere on the website at the moment but you can find it in store!) on the ends of my hair and work my way up avoiding my roots, like the shampoo, the conditioner is also 90p and makes my hair feel so silky and less frizzy.
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Then, if my hair is feeling a bit dry I put some spray in conditioner onto the ends of my hair. I use one I picked up by chance at Aldi (it was on their special buys) which is a dupe of the 
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