This product was given to me by KMS Mineral Essentials for trial use. Even though I received this product as a gift, all opinions expressed in this posting are my own, and all results are genuine. I do not receive any additional compensation if you click on any of the links included in this post.

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For the month of January, I took part in the KmS Mineral Essentials “Clear Skin Makeup Challenge.” To learn about what that was, and what that entailed, see my first post about it!

Originally, I wanted to do weekly posts, but I honestly wasn’t seeing that much difference in my skin. I was getting more compliments, and the texture did improve though! (I just look too closely at my face regularly apparently.) Visually, however, I think my main problem is now the size of my pores.

The Good

Yes, the challenge did pretty much clear up my skin! I was super excited because I saw a significant reduction in my acne (more so than I’ve seen in almost 10 years), and in the amount of blackheads I have. I was incredibly excited that my skin was clearing!

My skin was smooth, for the first time since third grade, and soft. It looked like it was glowing and had more even coloring. (In the photos, you will not see the red spot between my eyes decrease because that’s a birth mark. Look elsewhere to see color evening out!)

The makeup wasn’t thick, so it didn’t even really look like I was wearing makeup. Despite a “bare face” look (which is my usual), the makeup did actually completely even out the coloring on my face, including that pesky red spot between my eyes, and helped me “look alive.” It did a great job blending the dark circles under my eyes as well. Here’s a photo I took right after putting on the foundation:

The night powder was fantastic, and really helped my face! I didn’t notice any improvement while wearing the makeup, but I would notice a subtle difference every morning when I would wash the night powder off. I even enjoyed wearing the night powder during the day instead of the foundation.

The Bad

I’m a spoonie. That means I have very little energy each day. My normal face routine is to use face wipes, since I don’t have to bend over and take the time to wash my face with soap and water, at least once a day. I would use soap and water when I showered, because it was much easier to rinse the soap off that way. The routine for the challenge (outlined in the initial post) meant I needed to wash my face with soap and water two times a day. While I honestly believe that the regular face washing is what made the biggest difference in my face, it was my least favorite part. Sometimes, I would be completely exhausted at the end of the day, and could barely stand long enough to wash my face. However, since I had powder makeup on my face, I did have to wash it. For someone without an energy condition, I really don’t see that being a problem at all!

During week 4, I did have some problems with my health. Unfortunately, these problems made it very difficult to wash my face twice a day. Sometimes, I was forced to skip washing my face in the morning and just wearing the night powder for about 24 hours (adding a little more in the greasy spots). While I didn’t break out nearly as badly as I expected to, I did have a little of my acne reappear. When I was able to, I did wash my face twice a day. I wish my health hadn’t gotten in the way, but the challenge did prevent me from getting much worse!

The (Not Ugly) Pictures

You can see my before pictures and week 1 progress photos in the first post I did about this challenge!

My skin looks like it has a very uneven texture still, but I believe that is mostly due having large pores (more than a decade of blackhead problems will do that). Here is my final comparison:

Overall, I’m quite pleased with how the challenge turned out! I finally found a routine that will keep my skin from being covered in acne. And, it did it all without irritating my overly sensitive skin.