Skinmaxxing is key to being attractive. Having clear skin is a good health indicator - health indicator is just a feature or quality that shows how healthy you are.

For instance, having white sclera (sclera are the whites of your eyes). If you see someone with red eyes, you're going to assume they're unhealthy - probably smoking, getting no sleep, etc. White sclera give off the opposite, they signify a healthy lifestyle.

Another example is having white teeth. People with white teeth appear healther, and people with yellow teeth don't.

Who would you be attracted to? The girl with white teeth and fresh breath, or the girl that is the same in every other way but has yellow teeth and stinky fuckass breath?

The former, obviously (assuming you're a normal person). Health indicators are a big part of being physically attractive. There's many more examples (hair, physique, scent etc.) that prove this. Humans, for millenia, have found traits that signify reproductive fitness attractive.

So now we know the WHY of clear skin is important, now to the HOW to get clear skin:

RETINOIDS RETNIOIDS RETINOIDS

What are retinoids? They're a family of Vitamin A derivatives used to treat bad skin via increasing cell turnover.

What's cell turnover? Well, in a nutshell, your skin gets rid of old cells and replaces them with new ones on the regularly. You've probably heard about it before. For your skin, this happens about every 3-4 weeks.

So acne often starts when these dead skin cells aren't shed properly, and they mix with oil, forming plugs inside pores. When turnover increases, these dead cells are more likely to be shed rather than sticking around and fucking up your skin.

On top of that, hyperpigmentation and scarring tend to sit on the upper layers of your skin, so when you increase cell turnover, you'll end up shedding those bad boys too.

You might have heard about a purging phase when it comes to retinoids - this is true. Why so? Well, inside of your pores, acne starts off as this little clog known as a 'microcomedone'. It's a mix of dead skin n oil that hasn't reached the skin yet.

When you increase cell turnover, you basically end up bringing the material inside the pores towards the surface of your skin. You'd experience these breakouts anyway, but the products just made them come out sooner.

But since cell turnover is increased, even these pimples will be shed rather quickly. The purging phase improves after around 4-8 weeks of usage - so you have to stick through it if you want to see the gains.

However, you have to be CAREFUL. There is such a thing as overdoing it, and by doing so you can damage your skin barrier, which would lead to a lot of irritation and redness, increased oil production, more breakouts, and a bunch of other bullshit we don't want to deal with.

What would I personally recommend?

For your run of the mill normie, I'd say tretinoin 0.025% strength would be a good place to start. It's low dose , so it's not as brutal on your virgin skin as much as stronger versions.

There's other retinoids (Retinal, which is OTC; or Accutane, which is a much more 'nuclear' option). Tretinoin is usually something you need prescribed if you're living in the West, so you could get it that way. There's other ways to get prescription-only ones OTC, but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to list them on this forum.

Warning: DYOR on using tretinoin or other retinoids. Especially if you have other skin conditions (prone to eczema, rosacea, etc.)

How do you use retinoids? Worry not my friends, I'll detail that too:

Week 1-2:

Start off using it 2 nights every week (Monday and Thursday) for the first two weeks.

Cleanse with a gentle cleanser (important that it's gentle), moisturize afterward. Wait for 10 minutes, maybe have a quick goon if you're feeling down for it (joke, don't actually do it - I have no clue what happens if you put leftover cum on your face with tret).

After waiting 10 minutes, you want to apply the retinoid. Use a PEA-SIZED AMOUNT FOR YOUR WHOLE FACE. Yes, for your WHOLE FACE. Like I said earlier, these typa retinoids are strong and you want to ease into using them. Then apply moisturizer on top of that after waiting a few minutes.

The moisturizer -> retinoids -> moisturizer method is known as the 'moisturizer sandwich' method. It's good at reducing the irritation caused by using retinoids.

In the mornings, you should use a gentle cleanser, a moisturizer, and an SPF 30+ Sunscreen. The sunscreen is crucial. Retinoids make your skin much more sensitive to sun damage, and not using SPF while using them can undo your progress and make your pigmentation worse.

Week 3-4:

Same routine, IF your skin can handle it, shift to applying every other day. If not, stick to 2x a week.

Week 5-8:

Move to nightly use, only if there's minimal irritation and no stinging/burning.

You have to use this for multiple months to see results. It's slow acting.

But what if my skin becomes irritated?

Then focus on these:
- Using a better moisturizer
- Avoid over cleansing
- Keep using the moisturizer sandwhich method

If you need to, there's nothing wrong with taking 3-4 days off and restarting.

Important note: You should be using retinoids of your choice, a gentle cleanser, a moisturizer, and SPF ONLY at the start. Don't go around using shit like Salicylic acid. Just the retinoid is enough.