Roaccutane (isotretinoin) Journey- Month 2

My second appointment with the Dermatologist was on the 21st of March. I had a second set of blood tests a few days prior to make sure everything with my liver etc was still all ok.

The weeks leading up to the appointment from my last check in on the 3rd of March had been pretty uneventful, apart from me mucking up my tablet schedule. The lady at the hospital had booked my ferns visit a week too late so I ran out of tablets.

I was also told a couple of days beforehand that the insurance would not cover the rest of my treatment which was a massive blow. I decided however to carry on with the treatment as I could already see the results starting to show and I couldn't go back now knowing it could get so much better.

The 28th of March

Skin has completely settled down, still dryer that before the start of the treatment but other than that it seems normal. Lips still dry but not cracked at all. Hair looks great!


The 14th of April

The below images are the day of my next Dermatologist appointment after almost 2 months on the Roaccutane.

Start of  Treatment

Roaccutane (isotretinoin)- The first sign of side effects

The 21st of February 2017

By day 7 my skin had become quite dry and had an odd texture, almost as if my pores were being sucked in leaving a strange bumpy feeling around them.

At this point my lips were beginning to get really dry and the left corner of my mouth had started to crack.

I had also noticed that I looked very washed out and pale (paler than usual anyway)

Pictures from Day 7

Split mouth

The 23rd of February 2017

By day 9 despite the copious amounts of Vaseline and lip balm the cracks int he corners of my lips had got worse and now the right side of my mouth had split too making it very painful to open my mouth.

My eyes had really started to sting as if I was very tired all of the time and my skin still had the odd texture.

Overall however I still felt that the side effects were very minor.

The 28th of February 2017

Lips are very uncomfortable and dry however the cracks in the corners has just gone back to the left side now.

Skin has started to look better and I am far far less oily.

The 1st of March 2017

Have increased tablets to 2 per day (40mg)


The 3rd of March 2017

Lips still uncomfortable but cracks on either corner have gone- very happy about this

Friends and family have started to notice a difference and makeup is sitting much better on my skin.

Roaccutane (isotretinoin) Journey

I have struggled with acne for years. I have tried various different diets to help with my skin, skin care regimes, topical creams and medication none of which had any real effect on my acne. When I was 21 I decided to go on the pill and after 2 and a bit years of side effects decided that I did not want to mess around with my hormones any more.

By now I am 24 and experiencing some of the worst acne of my life. Naively I thought by the time I hit 24 acne would be a thing of the past, that is what I had been told repeatedly in my teens so why am I still getting monstrous painful spots.

I finally decided that I had, had enough. Leading up to Christmas I was spending hours trying to hide my acne and dealing with my face looking like a football due to the swelling the spots caused, when my dad told me something that I wish I had known sooner. I was covered on his works private health insurance until I was 25!

The following week I was at the doctors discussing my options for the millionth time, but after realising we had pretty much exhausted our options I was referred to the private clinic.

My first appointment took a while to get sorted due to insurance fun etc, but finally in February I met with the dermatologist. She immediately told me that yes my acne was all hormonal and recommended Isotretinoin/Roaccutane after some blood tests making sure I was in good health to take it. The blood tests came back and showed that my hormones apparently had a mind of their own and didn't quite like to stay where they were meant to which led to my acne and may suggest that I have PCOS (tests for this still to come).

At this point I was actually relived, for years people had told me all I needed to do was wash my face better, eat this or stop eating that, try this expensive cream, how about this weird ointment or you wear too much makeup, the list goes on and on. It was nice to finally know that really not much I could have done would have changed my skin and that I could now be given something to actually help.

Wednesday the 15th of February 2017

The first day of Roaccutane

I was initially prescribed 20mg (1 pill) a day for the first 2 weeks and then 40mg (2 pills) a day for the following 2 weeks before my next consultation with the dermatologist.

Images from the morning I first took the Roaccutane- ironically my skin is actually much better here than it was when I first went to the doctor in November.

An Image from a  few weeks prior in Jan

NYX Haul, Soft Matte Lip Cream, Liquid Suede and Colour Correcting Concealer

I finally went to a Boots that stocked NYX and I must admit I went a little mad and bought a few things I really didn't need!

First off I bought one of the Liquid Suede cream lipsticks in Tea and Cookies, it feels like a slightly more moussey liquid lipstick that stays slightly tacky on the lips. The colour is a very pretty slightly nude toned pink. The lipstick cost £6.50

I also bought three Soft Matte Lip Creams  from left to right below in, Prauge, Monte Carlo and San Paulo, again they have a slightly moussey texture and dry completely matte- however like the liquid suede lipstick stays slightly tacky on the lips and doesn't dry your lips out like liquid lipsticks such as Kat Von D. However the lasting power on these lipsticks is not as long with some transfer to drinks etc. These lip creams cost £5.50

Lastly I got the Colour Correcting Concealer, 6 cream shades, I have never really tried colour correcting before so I am excited to give this a whirl. This item was £10.00

Lancome Juicy Shaker Wonder Melon Swatch

Due to my love of the first Lancome Juicy Shaker in Vanilla Pop, I bought another one of the lovely little bottles today in Wonder Melon. The colour is bright and fun, sheer with a slight pink stain tot he lips and it smells like watermelon! What more could you want!

Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Foundation, Concealer and Lipsticks; Beach Bum, Happy and Bikini

I had heard so much about the Tarte Rainforest of the Sea collection from various American makeup gurus that in the end my resolve to not order these products completely crumbled.

Unfortunately I live in the UK where you cannot get hold of Tarte so I ordered these products from Sephora and they have arrived 4 working days later! I am so beyond impressed with their shipping!

On to the products- The packaging, oh my! So lovely I honestly think this is some of the best packaging of any makeup I have bought! 

The lipsticks are gorgeous they look matte on the lips but they are creamy to apply and feel good to wear, the colour Happy is especially beautiful. The shape of the lipstick bullet is also really nice, a great shape that seems to make putting the lipstick on very easy!

The foundation I want to give more of a try before I fully critique it, its a watery foundation which seems quite light but I really need to test it fully.

The concealer is a good colour for my very light skin, the applicator is quite strange very large and stiff but I think it will work just fine.

first impressions of the products is A+ I look forward to really putting them to the test and will update at a later date!

In order from left to right Beach Bum, Happy and Bikini

Happy, Bikini, Beach Bum

Spectrum Collections Marbellous 12 Piece Set and Bag

As soon as I saw the promo pictures of Spectrum's new brush set I new straight away I had to have them. I had already bought their Glam Clam; of which I have a post about, which I adore. I knew they had great quality products and amazing customer service so I was sold.

I ordered these brushes the day they came out and due to a small glitch on the site I accidentally paid for 2 sets of postage and packaging, which as soon as I tweeted Spectrum about it was refunded to me! So big thumbs up again for their customer service.

The brushes and bag arrived a few days ago and I have been using them ever since. They are incredible soft synthetic brushes with a good variety of different densities and shapes which mean that you could quite happily have this as your only brush set to fulfill all your brush needs. They feel very well made and I have had no hairs come loose from the brushes as of yet.

The makeup bag is also stunning and I like it even more that I expected- the outer material is an easy to clean plasticy material and the inside is a silvery grey satin like material. I would have rather the inside lining been the same as the outside just for ease of cleaning but overall I really love it!

So far these brushes have been a dream to use, I have not cleaned any of them yet so I am still to see if I can get the white tipped brushes even close to white again after cleaning but hopefully this wont be too much of a problem!