'I Cleared Up My Acne With Lymphatic Facial Massage, Acid Exfoliants, And Tinctures'
My name is Khadidja Touré (@imkhadidja) and I'm a biomedical engineer and founder of the skincare company Kubra Kay. I've had acne problems since middle school and cleared up my skin with a combination of self-education about ingredients and holistic lifestyle changes.
When everyone else was phasing out of their teenage acne breakouts, I was experiencing the worst acne of all time. I think that my acne was always really bad because I played basketball through college and would sweat (sometimes, I was at the gym for six hours a day!). I felt so self-conscious that when I talked to people, I thought they were staring at my pimples. I would apply makeup, but that just kept irritating my skin. It became a vicious cycle that affected my self esteem.
My acne was at its worst after I graduated and started working. I had to travel for my job, so I was on a plane two to three times a week. In 2019, I stayed in a hotel 300 nights of the year. Different climates, eating out every single day, and being on a plane irritated my skin. At some point I said, okay, enough is enough. Let me really start investing and taking care of my skin. It took almost two years into my skincare journey for my skin to completely improve. I've seen so many dermatologists, but they recommended getting on birth control. For me, I wasn't comfortable going that route. Here's what I did instead.
I prioritized learning everything there is to know about skincare ingredients.
As a consumer, there's just so many products out there and it's so overwhelming. The key to finding the right products for you is just understanding the ingredients. Initially, I bought every product under the sun that was targeted for acne. I was trying all the scrubs, the face washes, the moisturizers, and it just wasn't working. It was such a frustrating process because my skin got worse from irritation. I decided to take a new approach and started looking up what ingredients were actually beneficial for clearing up acne.
I love salicylic acid, which helps dissolve dirt. When I'm having a breakout, I typically like to look for that within a cleanser or toner. Caudalie has this incredible Vinopure Purifying Toner with salicylic acid that is an absolutely staple in my routine. In my moisturizer, I like glycolic acid, which is a gentle exfoliant, and healing ingredients like Vitamin A, Vitamin E, and cocoa butters. I know researching what the actual ingredients are doing seems so time consuming, but at the end of the day, you'd be saving yourself so much money.
A post shared by K H A D I D J A T O U R É (@imkhadidja) on Jun 30, 2020 at 12:10pm PDT
I started eating less meat and dairy and incorporated supplements.
I think that my diet was such a major contributor to acne because, while traveling, my only option was to eat out. I was eating every and anything. I decided to stop eating as much meat and stayed away from dairy. But, I saw the biggest difference in my skin when I started taking tinctures for my gut health. Organic Olivia has some incredible tinctures–you can add them into your water or your tea, and they're usually pretty tasteless. I like taking a liver tincture called Liver Juice, especially.
I incorporated facial massage into my routine.
I tried laser treatments. I did microdermabrasion. At the end of the day, I think that those are all temporary measures. I really liked incorporating lymphatic massage into my routine because I noticed an improvement in my skin tone and texture. I do it on my face and my neck daily.
I switch up my serums to cater to the different ways my skin is breaking out.
I love The Ordinary–they have a large range of serums that are pretty inexpensive. If I have like smaller pimples, I usually use Niacinamide. If I have more cystic acne, I use the mandelic acid and lactic acid serum. It's really good for helping cellular turnover. I'll pair that with my Kubra Kay Cocoa Butter Cream and A&E Night Cream.
Attitude is important, too. I always tell people dealing with acne to first be gentle with yourself.
On Instagram, it's so easy to see everyone edited. I think that we're stuck in comparison to the people that have all these edited photos. I wish I was a lot easier on myself because it's okay to have a pimple! Even today, as a skincare brand founder, I feel like there's some pressure to have perfect skin, but I still get pimples and it's fine.
Be gentle with your skin, too. Especially with acne, it's natural to want to wash your face a million times a day, but your skin already goes through so much. You don't have to do too much to get your skin on the right track.
You Might Also Like
