If you’d like to read the first article in this series, you can click this link.

I was someone who never had any skin problems during adolescence or later, but around the age of 34, my skin started to deteriorate. Every pimple left huge scars. In about six months, my skin was covered in blemishes. I couldn’t go out without concealer or foundation, and there were patchy red patches. Finally, I realized this was a problem and went to the doctor, who diagnosed me with “acne rosacea.” I’m very lucky that I found a very good doctor the first time, and he made me throw away all my chemicals and makeup. Since then, I haven’t used any cosmetic makeup remover, soap, or other creams on my face. I wash my face with water and moisturize with a cream that my doctor had made at the pharmacy.

After a long course of treatment, my skin has improved significantly. Our skin is actually our largest and most extensive organ. It covers our entire body, acting like a barrier between our organs and the outside world. Everything that touches our skin also goes inside, and everything we eat and consume internally also affects our skin. Rosacea is an autoimmune disorder. I actually cut out gluten around the same time. A sugar-free and gluten-free diet, high in probiotics and vegetables, and a plant-based diet greatly improved my skin.

I must also mention this: As with most autoimmune disorders, the intense stress and sadness I experienced beforehand triggered this condition in me. My doctor told me this initially, and the relationship between stress and immune system disorders was always discussed in all the training I received at the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy. I observed this firsthand in myself.

My skin is in excellent condition now. I try to take very good care of it internally, but I’ve also made great progress externally over the past year. This is thanks to the introduction of aromatherapy into my life.

Last winter, I had two chalazion surgeries; that is, for a stye cyst located in a blood vessel in my eyelid. I don’t wear makeup, but I never went out without mascara… Makeup and mascara residue can cause these blockages. Since I had the surgeries two months apart, I stopped using my eye makeup remover and switched to a natural one, and I can’t tell you how much easier it is. I make it myself at home; I’m adding the recipe below.

As a result, no cosmetics touch my face anymore. Yesterday I went to a home skincare workshop hosted by a very dear friend, and we made some amazing things… You feel so happy using your own homemade, 100% natural products… Real rose water is very beneficial for rosacea. I made a toner, makeup remover, and moisturizer with real rose water. I’ll share the formulas for these with you next week. Although it might seem like a distant world at first glance, once you get the ingredients, you can make dozens of products using a mix-and-use approach.

Because my skin is prone to acne, we always have tea tree oil at home. It’s perfect for drying out pimples. When a pimple starts to pop, you can put a few drops of tea tree oil on a cotton swab and press it onto the pimple; it’s usually dry by the next day. If it’s a very stubborn pimple, it only takes two days…

There are cosmetic products with tea tree oil for acne-prone skin. I sometimes get questions about them. These products contain only about 5-10% tea tree oil. The rest are chemical ingredients. Why buy chemically mixed products when you can buy and use tea tree oil itself, right?

Skincare is just like nutrition. Eating and using things that are completely part of nature, things that have been picked from the branch, have roots and seeds, is the best thing for us, who are another part of nature. Everything that is processed, put in factories, and produced in laboratories should be far from us.

The health problems I’ve experienced have always pushed me towards nature. Now I say “I’m so glad it happened” for each of them. Events that we perceive as bad at the time are actually preparing us for a new journey. We stray so far from our nature, from our essence, that our bodies sometimes rebel…

The day we listen to our bodies’ rebellion and give them what they need, we will have solved many problems, both in terms of nutrition and care.

My Eye Makeup Remover

1 teacup of drinking water

2 teaspoons of paraben-free, silicone-free, SLS-free baby shampoo

2 tablespoons of cold-pressed sesame oil

For fragrance: 2 drops of lavender oil (optional, but sleeping with the scent of lavender at night makes me feel great)

I mix everything together and remove my mascara at night by washing with a cotton pad or my hand. My doctor specifically recommended baby shampoo to remove mascara residue. You can also make cleansers that only contain oil. For example, sweet almond oil alone removes makeup very well and nourishes the eye area, but because I’m afraid of chalazion, I add shampoo and wash my lashes with plenty of foam…

I will continue with this topic later.

For now, I wish everyone a happy, healthy, and sugar-free week.

With love,

Sema