Arrrgh please help my skin :(

[Laquila]

I had moderate acne in my teens and have had sensitive, combination skin that's very prone to bark outs ever since. It was, however, beautiful and glowy and clear whilst I was pregnant and for about six months afterwards. Recently, though, it's descended into chaos - very sensitive and breaking out all over the place, and just not getting any sodding better!

I normally use either a Wild Olive soap (basically just olive oil and clay), No7 Melting Gel cleanser or sometimes Green People Gentle Cleanse. Then Neal's Yard Rose Facial Oil, which I've used for years, overnight, and either Green People Day Solution, Clinque City Block or Organic Surge Blissful Daily Moisturiser. I don't wear an awful lot of make-up but always take it off before bed, although I don't always wash my face in the morning (is that disgusting?!)

I don't eat badly but should probably eat a lot less sugar, and up my water intake....boring...

What else am I doing wrong?? What were the lovely pregnancy hormones that were making my skin so lovely and is there any way I can get them back, other than getting knocked up again?! I'm still breast feeding but have got my periods back, so my hormones have probably gone a bit crazy again recently. Is there any kind of supplement I can take that will mimic whatever the good stuff of pregnancy was?!...

Alternatively, can anyone prescribe me a lovely new skincare routine to try?

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I would recommend firstly looking at your diet I know you mentioned you eat well but do you perhaps eat a lot of dairy products? Dairy had been shown to be linked to acne so cutting it out for say two weeks might help to clear your skin.
Quite often acne is caused by internal inflammation in the body (Google Dr Perricone inflammation theory).

Try to eat really cleanly, up water intake and use a really gentle cleanser (I use Simple).
I have been plagued by acne in the past and was at the end of my teather until I cut both dairy and gluten from my diet I found this made such a huge difference and my skin has never looked better!

Gah Repunsal, thanks for your reply but I was afraid someone would say that! My problem is that I just don't think it'd feasible for me to cut out dairy or gluten...I love them both so much and would be miserable without them.

Also though, how come my skin was so much better during pregnancy, even though I ate the same diet? Do you know what be pregnancy hormone is that seems to make such a difference to skin, and is it in any of the contraceptive pills?

Realistically though I know there isn't a simple guaranteed solution, otherwise we'd all be doing it. sigh I suppose I'd better go and drink a litre of water...;)