Acne. If you’re like me, you hate seeing or hearing that word, but it’s something most of us teens have to deal with.

Skincare is a billion dollar business, and there are so many different products to choose from. It can be overwhelming how many choices there are.

Until my junior year, my skincare routine was just washing my face with plain water every day, so there wasn’t much complication to it at all.

Around late Spring 2018, I began developing a solid skincare routine because I was sick of my breakouts and prom was approaching. I went to Target and bought a few different products from Clean and Clear because they weren’t the most expensive and have good reviews.

With my routine, I did it all. Every night I would wash, exfoliate, tone, and moisturize my face and in the mornings I would wash, tone and moisturize. This worked well for a while but eventually, my body was getting used to these products and my acne was coming back.

Through the months I had this routine, I did some experimenting with different products but had no luck. I did a lot of thinking and talking to others and the conclusion I came to was that I was doing too much to my face and maybe scaling back would help.

My revised routine was to wash and moisturize every morning and night with exfoliation twice a week. This helped for a while, but once again started losing effect. I was very frustrated because I was trying my best to prevent acne but it wouldn’t go away.

After even more research, I decided I’d try one final product. I switched over to use Cetaphil cleanser and moisturizer for my routine, and that’s all I used. I also started doing something so simple that I had overlooked it: drinking water. Every day, I made it a goal to drink at least four bottles of water. By doing this, I found the right key to the door that unlocks clear skin.

After a couple weeks of increasing my water intake, my skin is still much clearer. This whole experience has taught me that most problems are solved by just doing the simplest things.

If you are struggling with acne, I suggest you drink plenty of water and use Cetaphil’s products (cleanser and moisturizer). It’s extremely cheap and the results are great.