Help with my bad facial skin please

[HopelesslyHopeful87]

My face is horrendous. I have bad redness around my mouth and nose, eyebags that are almost black, and dry skin across my cheek bones and between my brows at the top of my nose. I also get bad jawline spots - big cystic ones - and smaller spots within my brows.

In all honesty, without makeup I look dreadful. Then makeup just makes things worse.

I need advice on how to combat this dry skin in the first instance. A good face mask? But it needs to be high street prices not premium expensive stuff.

I have sensitive skin so also need to know what I need to do in the long term to keep things at bay. I'm desperate to get soft glowing skin back. I just hate looking in the mirror at the moment. I'm 8 weeks post partum and pretty much feel at my lowest point right now.

I have a haircut booked for later in the month but I'm dreading looking in the mirror in the salon for an hour and a half.

Please help. I'd be so grateful.

Your skin is exactly like mine. Although I also have deep blackheads in my t zone and a bristly moustache

I like the aloe Vera cleansing foam from the body shop. Good for calming sensitive skin. I also like their chamomile cleanser for removing makeup. I use it with a flannel to help exfoliate and follow with the aloe Vera foam as a double cleanse.

I like lrp effaclar duo to help with the spots and blackheads. Also toleraine ultra to help with the redness and sensitivity.

Clarins do a blue orchid oil which works well for me as a treatment. Dior do a better oil but it's too pricey for me.

As for eyes I've not found anything I like

I'm such a low maintenance perineum. I really want to avoid about five different things. In an ideal world I'd wash my face in the morning with something, moisturise it. Wash it at night, moisturise it. Perhaps a mask once a week. Am I living in cloud cuckoo land?

😂😁😂 @ low maintenance perineum. Person, that was meant to be.

Cystic spots, dark under eye circles, redness/rosacea... each of the can be caused by, or related to, autoimmune factors (not in all cases of course but it’s worth thinking about).
Have you any family history of autoimmune conditions? Thyroid? Digestive issues? Have you have a coeliac blood screening test done recently (worth redoing if you had a negative more than a year or two ago, due to the number of false negatives).

If you’ve been checked out medically, it may be worth thinking about doing an exclusion diet for a month or two to see if you have dietary triggers for your skin problems. Maybe something like Whole30, for example. It’s not the answer for everyone but for me, it was pretty miraculous, with cystic acne on the face and jaw, and painful boils (arms pits and elsewhere) which I now think were HS, resolving COMPLETELY, and rosacea reducing very significantly. A close relative has had the same result (dodgy genes obviously ).

*those

I don't have acne. I definitely don't need roaccutane. The jaw line spots I think are hormone related. Never had them before until after the birth of the baby and they come and go and are actually a bit better since my first period came and went.

Wrt to autoimmune thing I don't think there is anything underlying. I think my face is just gross 😅

I've just been to super drug anyone got myself a vit E face mask to hydrate and some new moisturising day and night creams.

If anyone has good brand suggestions I'll happily go get more stuff