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Starting to talk about my acne on an open forum like Instagram is something I never thought I’d do. For me, my acne was the most private of issues and something that I often felt alone in. I was frustrated after trying almost every medication on the market, even Accutane twice, and honestly felt like I had somehow failed at something and that was why my acne was happening.

It wasn’t until I started going through this journey with you, sharing what works and doesn’t for me, and being real that I realized just how many of you are going through the same thing and just how common hormonal acne is! I recently decided to explore treating my acne through holistic methods with Dr. McCarter at Peninsula Integrative Medicine and decided to share every step of my journey with you after receiving a flood of questions about my experience!

My first appointment went like this: we sat down, chatted about my medical history, what foods I ate, my gut health, the placement of my acne on my face, and even things you might not relate to acne and gut health like whether I was a natural or c-section birth. What we’re doing is seeing my acne as a reflection of an internal imbalance and are working together to tackle them. ❤️ I was super comfortable in the meeting and what we discussed surprised me a bit: my doctor believes that my acne is almost fully caused by candida or gut health problems (likely related to the fact that I once took oral antibiotics for acne) as well as hormonal imbalances and not food intolerances like, for example, tomatoes or sunflowers.

What we’re doing now is doing a full hormone test and gut health analysis over the next 5 weeks to see where the issues are. My doctor, in the meantime, gave me her blend of bitter herbs (burdock, Oregon grape, stinging nettle, yellow dock, and horsetail) to promote skin detox, pantothetic acid capsules to aid skin repair, and inositol powder which is a nutrient to help decrease hormonal acne. She also recommended Manuka honey + matcha masked (like the one I made here with 1 tablespoon of manuka honey and 1/4 teaspoon matcha) and yogurt masks to help boost good bacteria on my skin and detox. I hope you enjoyed reading this! All my love!