Zit busters: top three ways to get smooth Summer skin
Irish sea moss soaking in water
Teenage acne, mid-life acne, hormonal or stress spots or I-was-too-drunk-to-wash-my-makeup-before-bed-spots. No matter the reason, spots and cysts from clogged pores or deep beneath skin are sore and can reduce confidence levels. Here are some ways we prevent spots or speed up healing time although a quick warning: we aren’t dermatologists. These are treatments that have worked for us, however, if you have very severe acne you should seek a referral from your GP for a referral to a dermatologist.
Gentle peeling:
We LOVE The Ordinary. French beauty powerhouse Deciem’s budget beauty brand with a loyal following.
The Ordinary’s Mandelic Acid + 10% is heaven. The gentle peeling acid helps to reduce pores, clear up skin and it works.
Targeted treatment with La Roche-Posay:
For a solo blemish we recommend iconic French beauty brand, La Roche-Posay’s dual action acne treatment works wonders.
Sea moss gel:
Sea moss gel is a natural and very effective way to calm and blitz spotty skin. Take a spoon of cool gel and use it as a face mask in the evening and/or morning and see how your skin clears up and glows!
What is it? The golden seaweed comes dehydrated and dried in packets. It is described commonly as Irish, however, I think this might be due to the Caribbean Islands’ colonial heritage as sea moss is commonly imported from Jamaica. There are companies that sell jars of gel and it’s a good way to start using it initially, however, I would advise making your own as shop bought sea moss gel is expensive and often moulds quickly whereas if you make your own it will last weeks, even months.
There are loads of YouTube videos demonstrating the steps but here is a quick recipe, you’ll need dry sea moss, a glass mason jar (sterilised by soaking in boiling water), filtered or mineral water, a large plastic mixing bowl and an electric blender:
Take a small bunch of sea moss, it expands a lot so a small bunch really will turn into a large volume of gel.
Rinse the sea moss inside the plastic bowl and cold running water and remove any sand sediment from the seaweed.
Once you’re happy the sea moss is clean - you’ll see that it has already started expanding even by this stage - cover it in cold water and leave to soak for two hours. If you live in London or a similar hard water area please soak in filter water or mineral water.
After two hours, pour the sea moss and all the water inside to bowl into a pot large enough to hold the volume, you might need to add more water into the pot as the sea moss will have soaked up a lot of the water you added previously. Bring the liquid to a boil and then reduce the heat to allow the liquid to simmer for 15 minutes.
Turn the heat off after 15 minutes, once it is cool blend it into a smooth liquid. After the ‘cooking’ stage most of the sea moss will have disintegrated but to ensure a smooth gel and that you can swallow it without shuddering it will need to be blended.
It will be runny like milkshake but pour it into your mason jar. It will turn into a gel by itself. Keep it cool in the back of the fridge as this is the coldest part.
Bonus tip: drink lots of water! Add a slice of cucumber or fruit if you feel it’s too bland on its own.