Photos by Khensani Makhubela
When I was younger – or pretty much up until matric prelims – I had notoriously good skin by no efforts of my own. I seldom broke out, and if I did, it was just two or so pimples on or between my eyebrows. So suffice it to say, I was (and still am) pretty ignorant on skincare and beauty regimens. The most effort I put into my skin was removing my make up before bed and using a daily face wash and face cream. I didn’t use face scrubs, masks, cleanses, toners or change my products often – and I was fine in my complacency. Until my skin decided to forsake me.
Everyone will tell you that first year of university is a massive jump and harder than your matric year, and they are not lying. The stress of the workload amongst everything else in my life had me breaking out and dealing with pigmentation more often this year than probably the whole of high school, and because I am – let’s face it – lazy, I usually just waited it out and complained. A lot.
But because I’m trying to live my best life in 2016, I want to do a lot better to the skin that’s always been there for me, and that’s where Garnier came in – at a perfect time too. They asked me to review their 3-in-1 Pure Active product just as I was finishing my exam season, so for the past week and a bit, I’ve been doing some rehab for my skin and trying to (finally) exit my exam munt.
Basically, it’s a face wash, facial scrub and a face mask all in one (and it smells like cucumbers, ha). It aims to help fight blackheads, prevent spots, unclog pores, even out skin tone and mattify as well as soften your skin. I could list its ingredients but essentially, it just gives you one less thing to worry about.
I use it as a daily face wash and scrub and then two (or three) times a week, I do a face mask. It’s convenient because there isn’t a big change to my routine – especially with the face mask, because that’s ultimately the new part. If I don’t have the five minutes to spare in my day (3 minutes for the mask, and then to wash it off), I can just put it on as I enter the bathroom, and by the time I get into the shower (2-3 minutes later), wash it off.
Immediately after the mask, you can feel your skin is softer and see it’s more matted and after about 9 days of using it as a face wash/scrub on the daily, my spots are definitely clearing up.
In the long run, I really want to see if this will even out my skin tone and help with my pigmentation, particularly under my eyes and keep my skin clear for the rest of my vac (at least). This isn’t one of those once-off posts; I’ll be following up on my skin journey until about February, so if you’re curious or you’ve been using this product, let me know your experiences or just ride with me through the journey to more success.
In the pictures for this post, I decided to keep it natural. No make up, no editing out my spots and bags and dark circles – just me and my skin in nature.
