How I cured my acne and scars! + TIPS

Doing a blog post like this, ideally I'd like to include photos of my skin during acne and my skin currently. However, when I did have acne I pretty much avoided cameras at all cost. Any photos which were taken of me back then, I had heavy make-up on and it was heavily filtered. I will try my best but they will not be detailed or give as much insight as to how my skin was really like.

I have included photos of my skin as of it is now but I'd like to point out, even without makeup and filter, lighting does so much to your skin and makes it look better than how it actually is. 

My story

Everybody's acne story is pretty similar so if you want to skip this part then you can. 

I started to get my acne around the age of 15 and it went away around the age of 18. Before my acne, I never had bad skin and I never took care of it; I didn't moisturise, exfoliate or use masks. I had random breakouts once in a while but then I'd use a 'clean and clear' face wash in the shower, go to sleep, and when I woke up it would be gone! I didn't use lotion or anything after. 

I have used this face wash for years (and still do to this day), it works whenever I want to gently exfoliate my face and I don't have anything to complain about. It's not amazing but it's done me no wrong.

Whenever I broke out it was always around my T-Zone (forehead, nose, and chin). When I had acne, it started to affect my cheeks and back. To me, once your acne spreads to your cheeks it looks so much worse and becomes a lot more noticeable.

During this time I had extremely short hair and I kept on cutting and cutting it myself and it had bad layers with bits sticking out and it was awful, especially since my hair is naturally curly!  It was so short it was practically shaved at the back to be frank.

Let's cut to the chase and say it was probably the ugliest year of my life [so far]. During that time I was crushing super super hard on this one boy in high school so going through this ugliest phase didn't play the best wingman aha.

I'm going to share some photos of me back then, despite being heavily filtered and me wearing a cake full of makeup, you can still see some traces of my acne underneath it all. 

This is probably the shortest my hair has been. If you're on mobile, you can zoom in and see the acne on my cheek. I actually remember how bad this was back then. I tried to dry it out by putting a blob of face wash on it, leaving it on, and then I even applied foundation on top! It looked so awful, all cracks and dry and blah. Thanks to bad quality of the webcam and makeup, it doesn't look as bad as it was as it doesn't show all the details or the redness. 

The webcam had been changed so everything is blurred out and details aren't as focused. Despite this, you can still see the terrible condition my skin was in. The spots were all over my cheeks, forehead, chin, and below my nose. It was bumpy and scarry and plain bad. In the top photo you can see how dreadful the self-cut hair with it sticking out and all uneven. I think I was wearing a lot of heavy coverage foundation here, too. 

This photo is unedited and please understand how hard it is for me to upload these photos where I look horrid aha! Bad hair, bad fashion, and bad skin. This was taken using a compact digital camera instead of a webcam so it's a lot clearer. Here, you can see my skin is caked in make-up and you can also see my scars and how lumpy it is from the acne. 

I tried everything to get rid of it but I didn't know anything about anything when it came to taking care of my skin. I didn't understand the concept on exfoliating because I never used to do it before, so at one point I was actually exfoliating my skin day and night for ages because once I exfoliated I felt how soft my skin was I thought, "I need to do this all the time!" I used scented body lotion to moisturise my skin, I over washed my face, I probably did a lot more damage to my skin than good. Oh, and I also used to exfoliate my skin when I had a full cake of make-up on my face because I thought it did a good job at taking the make-up off. *shudders*

Between the ages of 15-18, I never could go out of the house without putting some foundation on. Even if it was to go to the corner shop. Now, even if I am going on a night out, I don't wear any face makeup and stick to eyeliner and lip tint but we will discuss what I do with my skin later.

How I cured it 

Around the age of 16/17 I had a friend who was a whitening fanatic and we were both pretty equally obsessed with KPOP at the time. It was a given we would both want to look like our idols (if only) so she pretty much introduced me to all the whitening stuff. 

I started using whitening facial soap. Yes, whitening soap! I think it really helped with my acne and I'll tell you why: 
  • The whitening soap helped in drying out my spots and breakouts
  •  Any scarring I had, it helped to fade it and brighten the rest of my complexion
  •  The discolouration I had on my face started to fade away along with my acne scars!
This option may not be the best for people with sensitive skin but as long as you don't overuse it and ensure you moisturise properly then it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I don't think it matters what brand you use because I went to this local asian store where they had many whitening soaps which weren't all that well known.

There were some specific for acne and others were like papaya whitening soaps and they all worked great on me. I realised whenever I was away from home and didn't have the soap to wash my face with, my skin goes bad and I start to break out again. You can use the basic known things like Likas and it should would great on you.

 My skin now

I took these two photos this morning when I woke up. There is no fancy lighting, no make-up, and no filter. Just me sat in my living room in front of a window.

I still get my break outs during my time of the month but it's no where near as severe as it used to be. I still use the whitening soaps as part of my daily cleansing routine (though I don't particularly have much of a routine going on).

There are still traces of scarring but it has definitely faded drastically.Any breakouts I get now, when they go away I do still get a slight scar, but they go away pretty quick.

I no longer wear any face make-up. Not even on night outs, what is the point anyway when the lighting is always so dark and it's so hot with the crowd. You do not need a layer of foundation on top of your skin sinking into your pores with all the sweat and blah. Not nice.

I stopped wearing foundation about a year ago and gradually after, my skin started to improve more and I started to feel more comfortable with going outside without any make-up on. Nowadays, I stick to top liner and some lip tint to give me some colour. On days where I want to glam up, I do my eyebrows and add some mascara.

Over washing your face and adding too much products and chemicals actually did more harm to my skin than it did good. After I stopped purchasing expensive products for my skin and stopped worrying about it so much I also noticed I didn't break out as much.

I don't know if it's true when they say the things you put into your body affects the way your skin looks because I have the crappiest diet ever full of take outs and chocolate and I haven't had anything major happen to my skin. My diet was probably a lot better when I had acne because I tried everything anyone suggested. Seems as soon as I stopped caring everything started working for my skin or something.

With my skin like this, I now even have the confidence to take photos without any make-up on and without filters. It was only a few months ago where I relied heavily on Camera 360 filter to do the job of making my skin look amazing. Most of my photos are taken using Camera 360 and my skin always looks so much clearer, smoother,and brighter.

I now regularly take photos on snapchat where I do not have any face makeup on and without the aid of filters. Maybe it's the grainy look of snapchat and the iPhone camera helps aha!

Eyeliner and lip tint
Zero make-up

I know that, to many, taking photos without your make-up and without filters may be no big deal but I had a few years of being deeply insecure about myself and how I looked. I was never ever confident enough to even look at myself in the mirror without make-up on so this is a huge mile stone for me.


I went through some trials and errors before I got things right. I committed some of these mistakes so others do not have to (clearly on purpose duh lol).

Go natural!
Ditch anything in your cupboard which is made solely of chemicals. If you have sensitive skin then these will probably cause your acne to get worse.

I used a lot of DIYs masks and scrubs and I still do it on a regular basis right now, it honestly helps so much. It is cheap and you actually know what goes in there. If you do your research and watch a couple of Bubzbeauty DIY tutorial then you'd get an idea of the things which are beneficial for your skin. I'll list some of the things I use:
  • Oatmeal
  • Lemon juice
  • Egg whites
  • Green tea
  • Honey
  • Yoghurt
  • Coconut oil
  • Blueberries
  • Aloe Vera
From a list of those I throw a couple of them together to make myself a mask. I'll may do a blog on this later, too.

Back acne?
If you have acne on your back or some spots, I found taking a bath and adding some salt into it helped a lot! If they are cystic acne or one of those with big pus filled heads then the salt will help in drying them out.

Use whitening soaps on your body too because they will help in fading the scars and any stretch marks you may have. It takes time so be patient!

There's the usual of always wearing a clean shirt and, if you have long hair, try not to put any product on it as it will go on your back.

When my acne was nearing the end, I still wore lots of make-up and was still washing my face diligently with these expensive products.

I would wash it once in the morning, once after school to take off all my make-up, and then once again before bed. Ideally, if you do wear make-up, once in the morning and once again after work/school should be enough. If you lounged around the house without doing anything then there's no need for you to wash your face again before bed. 

When having a lazy day in, washing it once it enough! I wash it in the morning with my cleanser and moisturise as usual. At night, if I did not step outside (e.g. no wind or pollution has damaged my skin that day) then I don't wash it again before bed. I take showers and I moisturise again but I don't use any other products. Sometimes I use oatmeal to cleanse my face with at night because it's gentle and I always wake up in the morning with my face feeling soft and hydrated.


I think I've said all I needed to and I hope this helps at least one person. I'd also like to say real quick that everybody's skin is different and this may not work on everybody's skin types or it may take longer to work.

Much love and good luck on all of your skin,

Gup! x

1 comment

  1. Loved this post! It was really helpful as I have acne prone skin and I will definitely give the whitening soap a try~
    I wish my skin could be as good as yours too :(!