When someone asks me about makeup in person, I always tell them: don't get me started, because I'd be hard to stop once I get rolling! I can spend an hour (or more) just talking about cosmetics, and a good fraction of that time may or not be spent giving the other person a mini-make over. Haha. I always jump on the chance to educate and inspire the best I can; it seriously makes me happy!

But makeup is just really the tip of the iceberg. If you don't have good skin to begin with, your makeup won't look flawless no matter how expensive it is. So always prioritize treating your skin first and then maintaining it to the best of your ability. You'd be happier and more confident knowing that makeup is just an option for you and not a requirement.

Anyway, today I want to talk about the VMV Hypoallergenics ID Monolaurin Gel (P710 /120 ml). It's basically a clear face and body gel that can be used to treat pimples and sweat acne, as well as a primer to keep oil at bay. It only has six ingredients, which I will break down for you so you can see how this intriguing gel works.

The main ingredient is alcohol. I know there are a ton of people out there saying that alcohol is bad for your skin, but there is bad and good alcohol! Good alcohol is not a common allergen/irritant or VMV won't put it in their products. If there's one thing you need to know about this brand, they are incredibly anal about ingredients! They base their choices on studies published in peer reviewed journals and even publish research on their own.

Remember my war with acne around three, four months ago? It's almost over now. I'm enjoying relatively good skin lately since the pimples have stopped. Well, I still get one or three on occasion but they're not cystic. It means they don't leave a deep mark and it's easier to get rid of them.

Anyway, I have recently re-discovered these acne drying products I bought from the House of Obagi three months ago. I got two new (thankfully small) pimples last week so I needed a quick fix, and thought of giving these Acne Clearing Solutions another chance.

Why another chance? Well, the last time I used them, they dried up my skin quite horribly. My face felt rough, dull, and flaky. After that I swore off using them because it took my skin weeks to recover! But I think I was just applying them incorrectly. I used to pat two squirts of the liquid all over the affected area and, predictably, that area became extremely dry (Duh! Why didn't I think of that earlier). Now I use a cotton bud to apply the product only on the pimple itself.

Works like magic, I tell you. My pimples dry up overnight. That's awesome considering that these Acne Clearing Solutions cost only P500 for one bottle.

Are you sick and tired of your blackheads, white heads, and pimples? Tell me all about it. I know how it feels to try lots of treatments and products, get so hopeful, and still end up where you started. It may be that your acne is a genetic pre-disposition, which means that there's not much that you can do to cure it except lessen the appearance and discomfort.

My ongoing battle with acne

But maybe, just maybe, you are doing a few things that you don't know causes or worsens acne. Acne is generally caused by over-production of oil, bacteria, and uncleared dead skin cells which clog pores. Using the wrong product will trigger acne, but sometimes it's what you do rather than what you use that causes the problem.

Here are five common habits that cause acne. Any of these sound familiar?

1. Over-drying your skin. It sounds like common sense to strip your face of oil to prevent more oil, so a lot of people use drying products such as harsh facial washes, alchohol-based toners, and abrasive exfoliators to get rid of the sebum. But it doesn't work that way.