My Alpha-H Skincare Routine *Photo Heavy*

This post is long overdue and when I say long, I actually mean long. Skincare posts crop up all the time on blogs with very little follow up or photos to show how far their skin has come since using the products which isn't very helpful. The last year has been a rollercoaster ride for my skin as it has gone through really bad patches and really good patches but, to be honest, the bad definitely outweighed the good. I know I'm not the only person who suffers from bad skin so I don't need to write a whole paragraph on how it can get you down and beat your self-esteem. It's just one of those things that most women, and men, go through at one stage or the other but where some people grow out of it, my bad skin patch grew with me.

After hearing a lot about Alpha-H skincare, mainly from Caroline of BeautyMouth, I knew that I had to give it a go. I managed to meet with the owner of the brand, Michelle Doherty, who talked me through the products and the brand before recommending which products I should use.

I have now been using Alpha-H skincare products for 7 months and my skin has improved so much. Don't get me wrong, there are still times when my skin will breakout for a week or so and it'll get me down in the dumps but the products work to balance it all out so after a while I am back to my normal self.

Before you scroll down, let me break down how the post is going to go because there are quite a few photos and it will probably get a bit boring. Michelle recommended products for me to use in the morning and in the evening so I essentially have two different skincare routines. The photos of my face that you will see below were taken throughout the last 7 months so you can see how my face reacted to the products in the first couple of months and how it has improved as well. I have no makeup on the photos and this is a big deal with me because I very rarely take a photo sans makeup. I have no tinted moisturiser/foundation/concealer or eye makeup on so brace yourselves for a shock. Not everyone is blessed with fabulous skin and it has taken a while for me to be comfortable in mine, scars and all.

Morning products:

My morning skincare routine consisted of the following products and order:
- Wash face with Clear Skin Daily Face Wash
- Apply eye cream of choice
- Mix Daily Essential Moisturiser SPF50+ and Essential Hydration Cream
Every few days when I felt like I needed a bit of a deeper cleanse in the morning, I would use my Alpha-H Micro Cleanse which is a fantastic exfoliator.

Evening products:

My evening skincare routine consisted of:
- Balancing Cleanser to remove all makeup and traces of eye makeup
- Eye cream of choice
- Balancing Moisturiser and Exfoliator
Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday were my Liquid Gold nights. I swap my Balancing Moisturiser and Exfoliator for Liquid Gold which is absolutely fantastic as it helps to refine the skin, tackle any spots, keep it hydrated and smooth it out. Seriously, they don't call it Liquid Gold for nothing!

This is what my skin looked like before I started using Alpha-H:

Some people might say that it wasn't actually that bad and, to be honest, I have had worse days. When I breakout, it usualy happens on my cheeks and chin but nowhere else. I guess i should be happy that it doesn't happen all over my face but I don't think there is ever going to be a time where I am grateful for spots and breakouts.

After one week:

One side of my face always looks worse than the other side and I have no idea why. I know faces aren't symmetrical and you never know where you're going to breakout but the left side of my face seems to get the worst of it. Stupid face.

After one month:

Using the products that I listed above, my skin still went through good and bad patches during the first four weeks however this may be due to my skin adapting to the products and learning how to work with them. At the four week mark, I hadn't had a new breakout and my old spots were starting to heal.

After two months:

By this point, I felt that my skin had come a long way since the initial breakouts that it used to suffer and now they weren't as frequent or as angry. I'm sure a lot of you can relate to having an angry breakout that looks like it might just take over your whole mug and you'll need to go into hiding. No? Well, maybe it's just me then. 

After two and a half months;

During this period, I'm not sure what happened because I started seeing mini breakouts on my face which lasted around two weeks. I continued using the same products as I had done from the beginning and hadn't made any changes to my lifestyle or diet so I'm not actually sure what happened. The spots always appear in the same place so my cheeks are still quite scarred.

After three and a half months:

The mini breakouts started to fade out, again. You can still see the scars and marks where they were but my skin was less angry after three and a half months which led me to believe that it was now used to all the products and would start repairing myself. In terms of my pores, they had started to shrink in size which is good thing as I tend to have an issue with my enlarged pores. Damn them.

After five months:

In general, my skin was a lot clearer than it had been in over the last few months but one side of my face was still breaking out more often than the other. I tried encorporating different cleansers in to my routine but, to be honest, nothing would work so I figured that it would probably be best if I just carried on using the Alpha-H Balancing Cleanser as it still made my skin feel clean and hydrated. I should add that for the breakouts, I would apply a tiny bit of the Shiseido Pureness Blemish Targeting Gel to help shrink them down and it really does work.

After six months:

There wasn't much change in my skin between the fifth and sixth month of using Alpha-H skincare products. My skin remained relatively clear, minus the odd spot every so often. I upped my water intake too as I figured that all the Diet Coke I was consuming was probably not helping my case and although I didn't see a huge difference in my skin, I did feel a lot better. Who'd have thunk it?
After 7 months (present):

This is what my skin looks like now. There are no major breakouts and miraculously, the scars from breakouts gone by have started to fade out too. Although I still get spots and the occasional breakout at some point during the month, if I leave them alone and don't do anything to iritate them then I'm usually fine to apply my tinted moisturiser or foundation and be on my merry way.

Overall, my Alpha-H skincare regime really did improve my skin for the better and in the long run. There were some days and weeks were I thought that maybe my skin was just done with being a pain in the buttcheeks but I know that the products played a big part in helping balance my skin. I still have breakouts and spots and enlarged pores and the rest of crap stuff we all hate but I'm definitely more prepared to deal with them now. The stand out products from all of those that I tried were the Balancing Cleanser, Liquid Gold and Micro Cleanse. They're different from any other skincare products that I've tried and I'm pretty sure they made the biggest impact to my skin.

If you're interested in trying Alpha-H skincare products then check out QVC and Look Fantastic for the full product range and you might be lucky enough to find skincare sets too so you can try out several products for a fraction of the price.

How many of you have bad skin? Would you dare to go barefaced like me?

Until next time...

Keep swivelling those hips in your

*PR SAMPLES*