I Got My Skin Diagnosed!!!!! Find out my Skin Story, my Skin type and my Trouble Areas!!!!

Hello Beauty Lovers!

I've got news!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, it's not so much of a scoop, actually. I think it's something I've sort of guessed from my experience of watching YouTube Beauty videos and reading beauty blogs on that subject. Kindly note that I've never been to a dermatologist. But hey, it got confirmed once and for all.... I have ....... Skin!!!!

Read on to find out more about the results :P

Background Story

Since puberty, my skin had acne and it felt oily and gross. The humid climate in Mauritius made it feel worse 'cause we sweat all day here. 

Then came the era where I started taking more care of my skin with cleansers and exfoliators, and what not, testing everything I could to have more beautiful skin. My skin felt cleaner but so dry and I got some random hormonal pimples. 

Then came the time where I started learning to know more about my skin and become more mindful about the products I put on my face.

During the recent years, I've been having oilier skin (mainly my T zone area) during summer and freaking dry flaky skin during winter. I always have the right-hand corner of my lips completely dry and chapped. Although I had huge ass pimples, I didn't feelmy cheeks were oozing with oil at all times like my nose and forehead are. So, yeah I kind of knew I had Combination Skin. 

Since last year, I've been suffering from random breakouts which left me with some scars. But I couldn't do much about them. I would have one huge ass pimple occasionally and it would stay there for weeks until it popped or shrink and darken. As soon as one would disappear another one would pop up. At times, I'd have them pimples appearing like a mountain range on my face. lol. I tried different products. Some worked, some not and some were just temporary palliatives.

I also tried to change my diet: eating less carbs, less red meats, drinking less milk that sometimes contained hormones that actually cause those hormonal imbalances and most importantly, I started drinking more and more water, which made a huge difference, actually more of a difference than any products that I had ever put on my face. I always blamed the Sun, or the creams I've used, or spices that I ate diligently or even myself for having such a crappy skin and hormones. But since I've started drinking liters of water everyday, it changed my outlook on all the things I thought were damaging my skin. Sure, being exposed to the Sun ages your skin, Spices can break you out, products if wrongly chosen can have damaging results, but the main culprit was that I was drying out my skin too much from the inside out. I used to drink only 500 mL of water per day, but now, it must be around 2-3 liters per day and the huge pimples are now gone, hopefully. 

Diagnosis Day

Now, a month later, with my almost completely healed skin ( I still have some acne marks left and maybe some small and negligible pimples), I felt confident to wear less makeup and show my face at THEFACESHOP. The local retail store of this Korean Brand has been promoting about offering free skin diagnosis for quite a while. The lovely sales rep who I am quite familiar with from being a regular customer even called me to inform me of that. I badly wanted an appointment but due to lack of time, I didn't go for it and also, my big pus-filled breakouts kind of made me shy away from it. Yeah, because of it, I haven't been to the shop for a long time. But girl had to replenish on toners, cotton pads and my Mild Papaya Peeling. Since I feel better about my skin now, I went there during their 50% sales and obviously, I barely bought items on sale. -_-

As I met the sales rep, she kindly requested me to have my skin tested for free. It was not planned and I had no appointment. My friend and I just randomly chose to show up on that day. And needless to say I was elated when she told me her diagnosis kit was there. I asked her how much time it would take and said barely 10 minutes. She offered me a seat at the counter and took out her small handheld  scanner which looked more like a bar code reader and it was connected to her tablet through an app. Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pictures. There were so many people and everyone was busy. Sales time, duh. Anyways, I will try to give a thorough description with screenshots of my results. Also, I don't know to what extent that diagnosis is genuine. THEFACESHOP is a trusted brand in South Korea and the store is located in a high-end shopping mall here, so I don't think they'd fool me. But just to put it out there, they are a cosmetics shop and no dermatologists. So, disclaimer!!!!! Whether I trust the info or not is my personal choice. I did it for myself , for this blog and for fun. I was also in no way sponsored by THEFACESHOP to do this. That service was free and I just wanna share my experience. Here are the tests carried out:

Now let's head back to the main story line. Before starting the test, I asked the sales rep if I had to remove my makeup for that process or whether the fact that I had skincare on would not affect the results. I was afraid those would make my results look better than expected. haha. She replied that they would not be affected since the scanner looked at what's underneath the skin and not above, which was interesting. She noted that my skin looked good, to which I replied: huh, I just went through a bad period of breakouts and she said: Probably the Hormones. Damn hormones!

Below are the results that came out from scanning and photographing the in-depth areas of my skin. The screenshots were sent to me by email after the sales rep had me enter my name, age group for comparison with the average and my email address.

Moisture

So, firstly, she held the scanner to my left cheek, and on her tablet to check out the moisture level in my skin. The results were: I have fairly dry skin and low elasticity. I expected the dryness but not while summer was hitting on like now. I did not expect my skin to be thaaat dry. She told me this was normal and that I actually have drier skin than most girls who have been tested. So, Conclusion: I have to moisturise my skin even more, and drink more water, I guess.

Sebum

Second test was about the amount of sebum in my skin. So, on her scanner she stuck on a sort of pink blotting paper onto the scanner and held it, this time on my U zone, then another time on my T zone. The results showed that my U zone had lower than average amount of sebum and my T zone was slightly lower than the average but I had actually way more sebum than my U zone. Like I said before, my T zone always has oil oozing out. So, again, it was a result I was expecting.

Pore

The first test that really shook me was the Pore Test. I always thought I had huge volcanic craters on my skin and they show when my makeup is too cakey or starts melting on my face. But the results said that I had even skin texture and tiny pores. It even gave my pores a 5 star rating, which was totally unexpected!!! The sales rep told me my pores were small and I thought: Are you kidding me? It must be my makeup that fooled that scanner. My pores are more concentrated towards the centre of my face and she held the scanner on the outer areas of my cheeks where there are less pores. I don't know if that played a role in the astonishing 5 star results. Lol

Melanin

Another shocker was that Melanin Test. I always knew that darker skins had more melanin than fair skins. And I have fair asian skin. I always had troubles getting a tan, despite growing up on a tropical island. It bugged me that some Asian Mauritians could easily tan and have that sun-kissed skin and I couldn't to the point of having sunburns. I gave up on trying to tan when I realised that I was just making myself more prone to fast ageing and skin cancer. Therefore, I fully embrace my unusually very fair skin and sport the Chinese/Korean/Japanese makeup and skincare trends. I always wear sunscreen and walk with either a hat/cap/umbrellas. So I was really shocked when I found out I have wayyyyyy too much melanin under my skin, so much so I require Intensive Care for it. The sales rep further explained I could possibly develop brown spots on my face as I age if I did not take care of that. Then it dawned on me why older asians here had brown spots on their faces. DAMNNNNNNN.

Perks of living on a tropical island with the inappropriate skin. I was recommended to use brightening serums firsthand. So, I bought The Therapy one.

Acne

Again another shocker. The results came out as 5 star again for this one. It said my skin was acne-free which I did not agree with because I just had huge skin issues a month ago. And despite the major improvements, I thought the scanner would reveal I have some yet-to-be-discovered pus-filled canals deep into my skin. It's true that my skin is not filled with acne on my forehead and cheeks like back in my teenage years, but I still had it to a more targeted and lesser extent. But with the improvement I've experienced lately, yeah I can accept it, with tons of humility.

Wrinkle

The Wrinkle Test Story is actually a funny one. The scanner was held quite close to my left eye. The sales rep told me not to smile, then she said something about my eye care, asked if I was using one and told me she would test my eye area 'cause obviously, wrinkles appear in that area first. I don't know why I have to smile or laugh at everything. And the results came out with lots of tiny wrinkles on the screen. She said we need to do this again. So, again she scanned that same area of my face and this time I tried my maximum not to budge. But alas, the results freaking came out the same. The Analysis picture was like my skin was already dead, man. But it is only an Analysis pic, right? I was definitely showing early signs of ageing around that area and that shook me way more than the Melanin thing that I could barely understand and see. I knew my eyes were tired and had some fine lines but not to the point of saying I was ageing. It was really a huge blow to my face. I've been using the best eye creams from Innisfree lately. So, I could not understand why. :'( There are things you can't possibly defy, though.

Sensitivity

When I said I blamed my Acne on Sun, Food, products, I seriously thought I had sensitive skin and it is something I've repeatedly mentioned in my past posts. I was always afraid stuffs that I used or tried for my sake or for that blog would get at me one day. Turned out I was not right about it. Sure, I will remain cautious. But my skin is not sensitive. 5-Star again, which I did not expect. All along I was misguided by the fact that certain things affected my skin because it was sensitive and it was not the case -_-'

Conclusion

I have Combination Skin Type.

I have a dry U zone and an oily T zone.

I have top-notched 5-star studded skin in terms of pores, sensitivity and acne. :)

 I have Abnormally high Melanin and have risks of developing dark spots as I age and by the way, I am already showing early signs of ageing. -_-

I was advised to use more brightening and anti-ageing products.

By Brightening, in Korean Terms, it's not bleaching products or things that claim to make darker skins turn fair, but it's about products that actually help the skin looks healthier and brighter and look at Melanin issues duh. And I never used to turn to those kinds of products. 

Bye Acne and Pore Care products!

Welcome More Water, Fruits and Veggies!!!!

Then Come Back for another Check-up Later, after I've dealt with my issues.

With this Skin Diagnosis, I hope I can now choose better skincare products and makeup for my skin and avoid wasting money here and there on products that are useless or not appropriate for my skin type. I hope I can better advise you people in the future. I totally recommend that skin diagnosis. I heard that similar tests are carried out by other skincare shops or pharmacies. Check out their genuineness and you may try them out. It's safe, and, in this case, for free. For me, it just confirmed something I've suspected for quite a while. So, I do trust the end results and learned that I have new-found issues to deal with.

What did you think of my results? Have you had your skin diagnosed too? Please leave your comments and skin experiences in the section down below. I'd loved to hear from you :)

Hope you enjoyed a Happy Halloween, World :)

Stay Beautiful and Sweet

 \(^_^)/

 Aegyo Girl