How I Healed My Cystic Acne In Five Days

Did you know that it is possible to reduce cystic acne in as little as five days?

I talk to many people that are doing isotretinoin courses boosted with strong antibiotics but are still dealing with pimples, and it’s a constant struggle. 

Getting clear skin may be easy and will take you a few months of antibiotic courses, but maintaining it matters more.

You can only do a limited amount of time on antibiotics, whereas you want your skin to stay clear once you’re done with your course, right? 

In this article, I will show you how I healed my cystic acne in less than a week, as well as share some tips on how to maintain clear skin with a few easy-to-follow suggestions.

#1: Focus On A Simple Yet Effective Skincare Routine

Having a simple yet effective skincare routine is one of the most important things to focus on when wanting to maintain healthy and clear skin. 

Using way too many different products at once will expose your skin to a huge number of different ingredients and not all of these play well with each other. 

Meaning, exposing your skin to different ingredients can and most probably will become problematic for your skin and can potentially irritate it and trigger more inflammation. 

Your skincare routine should consist of no more than 4-5 products that work for your skin and don’t overwhelm it.

Cutting down from a 12 to a 4-step skincare routine was the best thing I did to heal my cystic acne, so make sure to download my free guide that reveals the four products you need for clear skin. 

#2: Cleanse Once A Day

Facial cleansers usually contain cleansing agents that can be too harsh for the skin and this is because they are intended to remove all the grime, dirt, pollution, and bacteria that have stuck onto your face throughout the day.

But bombarding your skin with harshness will become a problem eventually, therefore, the best advice for your inflamed skin is to cut down on cleansing and do it once a day. 

It’s important to remove the day off your face before going to bed but you can totally skip the cleanser and wash your face only with water in the mornings, just the way I did and helped soothe my inflammation!

Additionally, I personally found not using a cleanser in the morning beneficial in the way where there wasn’t a harsh cleansing agent to strip the fine protective layer of sebum and sweat on my skin known as the acid mantle. 

Therefore, every morning, my skin was kick-starting the day protected by its own barrier.

A healthy acid mantle = protected & happy skin!

#3: Swap Coffee For Green Tea

This is probably a problem most of us can relate to, and even though we know it’s hurting us, we can hardly imagine starting the day without a caffeine kick.

But as an avid coffee drinker, I now shiver when I remember I used to drink 5-6 strong coffees a day.

This was before I stumbled across a YouTuber who explains that the problem with coffee is that it’s poisoning your body, and your body then secretes adrenaline as a stress reaction.

Our body’s stress reaction goes on to give us a false sense of “energy.”

Adrenaline is also a stress hormone that can influence your skin’s oil production and we already know that excess oil is the main reason for acne. 

The YouTuber was way too passionate about this, and while I think he may be onto something with this explanation, I still don’t believe that coffee is going to kill me.

So, instead of cutting it off completely, I minimized my coffee intake and swapped the rest of what would’ve been my regular coffee dosage with green tea.

This was when I started noticing a positive change on my skin, too, as green tea is notorious for its antioxidant content that revitalizes the body and nourishes the skin.

I could see improvements on my skin in as little as two days so I highly recommend you try this, especially if you have more than 2 coffees a day and struggle with cystic acne. 

#4: Minimize Processed Sugar

Minimizing processed sugar is probably one of the best things I’ve done to heal my cystic acne in a short amount of time. 

It is a known secret that processed sugar can have a detrimental effect on the overall health, and the skin isn’t immune to its effects, either. 

Processed sugar spikes up your insulin levels and one of the issues with this is that it can stimulate the oil-producing glands to excrete more oil than usual. 

Sugar can also change the composition of the skin’s natural oil and it can make it stiff and harder to travel through the pores and on the surface of the skin. 

This can lead to a lack of oil to lubricate the skin while clogging the pores and triggering inflammatory reactions such as acne. 

I wrote an article about the nasty effects of sugar on our skin, so make sure you check that one out!

#5: Introduce Veggies Into Your Diet

This was the most difficult change for me personally as I have a bad habit of neglecting the importance of veggies in my diet. 

However, making this change really helped heal my cystic acne in a short amount of time but it also improved my overall health and even made me feel better due to the healthy dose of antioxidants and fibers veggies contain.

What you may find more useful than eating veg with your meal is making veggie smoothies as they are easier to prepare and easier to tolerate.

Adding a few drops of lemon or lime or some other flavor that you like may help you enjoy your veggie smoothie much better. 

#6: Drink A Good Amount Of Water

While drinking a lot of water won’t directly clear your skin, it is definitely a good thing to do for your health and can take you a step closer to a smooth complexion. 

Contrary to the popular belief, you don’t need to drink 2 liters of water a day to be healthy as 1 liter is still good enough, especially if you are someone who’s neglecting this habit. 

I used to drink one cup of water every few days and coincidentally this was the time when my skin was the worst. 

There isn’t a clinical study that supports the belief that water will help clear your acne, but speaking from experience, there might be a connection between drinking water and clear skin. 

Doesn’t hurt to try!

#7: Stop Drinking Alcohol

Although alcoholic beverages like red wine are known to have some benefits when it comes to improving blood circulation, consuming alcohol in excess is never a healthy choice.

Alcohol is a toxin with little nutrient value and can contribute to worsening the liver function, reducing immunity, hormone disruption, cell damage, and insulin issues.

All this is impacting the quality, appearance, and aging of your skin. 

Additionally, alcohol is a diuretic which means that it can make you lose plenty of skin cell-loving water from the body quite rapidly, leaving your skin dehydrated, dull, and sallow-looking. 

Consuming alcohol in excess can also lead to permanent skin conditions like rosacea which, yeah, can be controlled, but it is a notoriously difficult condition to deal with and it requires special care and attention at every given moment. 

Furthermore, the sugar levels in alcohol are insane and as I already mentioned above – excessive amounts of sugar isn’t something acne-prone skin accepts well. 

While I was never a heavy drinker, I used to enjoy alcohol when I was in my teenage years and early twenties.

Again, coincidentally, my early twenties was the time when I started dealing with severe acne, so I am sure the alcohol wasn’t helping.

#8: Start Taking Supplements

Omega-3 and Zinc supplements are the two things that helped clear my acne not even one week after starting them so I cannot recommend these two enough.  

Omega-3s are essential fatty acids that perform many crucial functions in the body. Essential meaning we have to obtain them from food because the body cannot make them on its own.

The three main types of omega-3 fatty acids are α-Linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).

These components can, however, be found in our skin oil and are important anti-inflammatory agents that can help soothe the angriest breakouts in virtually no time. 

Zinc, on the other hand, is a mineral that has profound anti-inflammatory and wound-healing capacity, so having it in your arsenal when battling acne will definitely help you achieve great results. 

I wrote an article on the key benefits of zinc for your skin, so make sure you check that one out, too!

#9: Keep Good Sleep Habits

Having quality sleep is one beneficial habit most of us underestimate due to various reasons. 

I often stay late and wake up early to finish everything on my agenda for the day, but the painful truth is that we people cannot function properly when we are not well-rested. 

When I didn’t have a good night’s sleep, I notice a severe lack of concentration and a hangover-like feeling along with frustration and being irritated easily. 

Whenever this happens, I also notice the toll it takes on my skin and it makes it look sallow and dry in the morning. I’ve also noticed that if I don’t get enough sleep, my pores are huge when I wake up and look at myself in the mirror. 

Improving my sleeping habits is also something that helped heal my cystic acne indirectly because whenever I have a good night’s rest I don’t wake up with my cortisol levels shooting through the roof and making me pissed off at everyone and everything. 

As I’ve mentioned in one of my earlier posts, stress can have a significant role in how your skin looks, and mine happened to improve in a matter of days when I started going to bed and waking up at the same time every day. 

Coincidentally, whenever I fall off this schedule, I immediately notice my skin starting to worsen. 

#10: Get A Healthy Dose Of Sunshine

The sun can be therapeutic for the skin and it can help with vitamin D synthesis, however, everything in excess can become a problem so it is important that you’re using adequate protection when exposed to the UV rays.

Otherwise, getting your daily dose of sun is a healthy habit for both the mind and the body!

---

My Results After 5 Days…

Yes, these two photos are taken only five days apart from each other! 

The first photo was taken in the evening after my cleanse, exfoliating treatment, and La Roche Posay Cicaplast Baume B5 as a moisturizer, and the second photo was taken (five days later) as soon as I woke up in the morning with nothing but a moisturizer from the previous night and Purito Unscented SPF 50 on top.

My skin always tends to look nicer and glowier in the mornings which is why I rarely use a cleanser. On most days, I just slather SPF on and I move on about my day. 

---

You can notice from my tips mentioned above that I like to focus on improving a problem that’s not only skin-deep and is a bit more complex.

Having a good skincare routine is essential, but there is no such thing as one holy grail product that will do all the hard work for you.

Your skin will only start transforming once you complete your skincare routine with a balanced diet, good water intake, healthy physical and mental habits, and a lot of self-love.

Doing all this will help your skin look and feel better in less than a week. This is how I healed my cystic acne in five days, and I hope you will enjoy the same results I did after reading my article!