#rn they're mildly itchy

[confinesofmy]

i think if there's one thing i can impress on children and teenagers it's that it's pretty much guaranteed that acne is something that is simply happening to you. you are not causing it, you are not to blame, you are just in a time in your life where it's happening, or certain not-necessarily-controllable factors are occurring that are creating acne. there's a very good chance there's nothing you can do.

unless you are rubbing dirt into your face (and even then, i'm not sure. is dirt even bad for faces?) you are not getting acne because your face is "dirty." i used to break out from the simple act of washing my face, be it with avène, l'oréal, cerave, eucerin, anything. now i'm regularly rubbing the cheapest moisturising oil i could find into my face for 20 minutes at a stretch and then wiping it off with a hot rag (no soap) and my skin loves it. i honestly think i could get away with anything at this point.

what changed? hormones, maybe. i think i have papulopustular rosacea which can be aggravated by bacteria from mites, so it's possible i unknowingly had a huge mite die-off for some reason. maybe i quit eating something and that's why it stopped. maybe an unrelated antibiotic course knocked it out. i don't know. but it definitely didn't go away because i found the right product or perfected my routine or stopped touching my face, none of that shit worked at the time and now that it's over i use whatever products i want and i touch my face all the time. now when i break out it's a surprise.