My name is Bella and I have, what dermatologists term, adult acne. I’m also a beauty writer, which is awkward, because the two don’t exactly correlate. It’s not quite the debilitating, requires medication sort, but it’s bad enough, at times, to seriously deplete my confidence causing me to cancel appointments and stock pile concealer.

Meanwhile, in ten years writing for women’s magazines, I’ve become obsessed with skin. On the train every morning I scan the ‘dermal landscape’ checking out pore sizes and other women’s’ black-head-free nostrils. At work, I spend all day sticking my fingers into pots that promise me a blemish-free complexion, but as a cold hard stare in the mirror confirms, slathering on skincare just isn't working. Turns out, I’m not alone. ‘I see lots of patients with acne in their 30s - several every single day in fact. It's like a modern epidemic,’ says Dr Stefanie Williams, dermatologist and author of Future Proof Your Skin! Slow Down Your Biological Clock by Changing The Way You Eat. ‘For adult acne sufferers sugary foods are a double-whammy because sugar not only exacerbates the acne, but also ages skin prematurely.’ Pimples and acne. Joy.

So, after a particularly bad breakout around my jaw and neck (I know, WTF?), I decided to quit sugar for a month. Not for weight loss, not even because I think it’s unhealthy. I gave it up for vanity I guess - to see if it could calm down my skin. My timing sucked. Who quits sugar during fashion month, not to mention the week Cadbury’s crème eggs hit the shops? But I’d hit rock bottom where my skin was concerned, so I'd have tried anything. This is what happened....

Week 1 – when I have the sinking realisation that sugar is everything

I’m a self-confessed foodie of the sunday farmer’s market variety. But man, can I wolf down a brownie when not distracted by an attractive bunch of kale. I love bread too. Which is basically liquid sugar as soon as passes your lips. I soon realise pretty much every food is, or becomes, sugar when ingested. My diet quickly starts to mimic that of Dr Atkins.

Monday 1.27pm: I scrape the eggy innards out of a quiche to accompany some salad (I operate a limited fruit and veg caveat for fear of going ‘full Atkins’) as my bemused co-workers watch. In fact, I’m eating multiple eggs a day because, when you quit sugar, protein is the only thing that sates the craving.

Wednesday, 4.15pm: At a beauty launch I find myself squaring up to a platter of Laduree macarons. Surprised at my own resolve as I refuse them and feel smug at announcing I’m sugar-free.  But cruel irony prevails as I watch a gaggle of clear-skinned beauty editors chowing down like they’re in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. How is that fair?

Friday, 7.42pm: One week in and so far, so spotty. It’s all got too much and I crack with a post-work G&T that I make my partner promise will be ‘our little secret’.

Week 2 –  when I swap chocolate eggs for real ones (again)

After a challenging weekend of yet more eggs, cooked every which way, I decide to throw some cash at the situation.

Monday 6.50pm: Head to Wholefoods to peruse ‘sugar alternatives’. Leave £15 lighter with a tub of agave sugar and raw cacao nibs. Plan to make a ‘sugar free’ cake - though technically, I know this is cheating.

Thursday 3.54pm: Knee-deep in deadlines and when I’d usually be mainlining 70% dark chocolate for solace, I’m chowing down on handfuls of cacao nibs instead (imagine chewing on a mouthful of instant coffee). My skin is stressed too, the dreaded jawline bumps have flared up.

Friday 7.55pm: Working late in a deserted office.  So tired I can hardly string a sentence together and then I spot them. An open bag of jelly babies abandoned on a colleague’s desk. Before I can stop myself I’ve decapitated two. Cataclysmic guilt ensues. Must try harder I vow as I demolish a chocolate digestive later that night. Bugger. It happened again…

Week 3 – when I panic and book an emergency facial (and my egg dependency spirals…)

I’ve settled into a routine of at least one egg, a handful of nibs and half an avocado a day. Am literally drowning my sugar cravings in fats (the vain me would trade a few extra pounds for clear skin any day).

Tuesday 8.15am: Skin looks worse. I have 3 painful spots around my jaw plus a sprinkling of new pimples. In desperation, I book an appointment to see expert facialist, Ada Ooi, for a bespoke equiHybrid facial later this week. Head to work covered in concealer.

Thursday 6.45pm: Typically, on facial day, skin is a bit calmer. But Ada still oohs and ahhs when she removes my make-up to examine my skin. Her prognosis? I have hormonal acne not helped by my sluggish lymph system which is causing toxins to cluster around my jaw and neck – aka the 'junk yard' of the face. ‘From a traditional Chinese medicine perspective, sugar and naturally sweet foods in moderation are good for our bodies. But,’ explains Ooi, ‘processed sugars or excess intake of foods with natural sweetness can cause too much heat and dampness that stops the digestive system transporting nutrition to the skin. It blocks the flow of qi too, which hampers lymphatic drainage. The result is excessive sebum which leads to blocked pores and constant mild inflammation.’ That’s me in a nutshell. I head home sans make-up, thanks god it’s dark. Man, somebody give me an egg.

Week 4 – when, finally, there are some microscopic signs of improvement

The results of my facial have come to fruition - a fresh crop of spots. Maybe it’s a sign that something’s shifting and the bad stuff (sorry, graphic) is rising to the surface. I email Ada for her verdict and she confirms this is what should be happening. ‘As you go through the purging process, toxins will be passed out of your body in different forms, that includes breakouts.’ It’s working!

Monday 9.20pm: Daytimes aren’t actually too bad, it’s the evenings I find hard. After a yoga class I scratch around the kitchen for something sweet and find a bag of dates.  Wolf down about 11 on the trot, which contain probably the equivalent of sugar in a box of Milk Tray.

Thursday 2.17pm: A food blog I follow posts a recipe for triple chocolate cookies and I have a lurid fantasy about baking them when this whole ordeal is over. Oh happy day.

Saturday 10.15am: Analyse my skin in the bathroom mirror. I can feel (if not see) some definite improvements. The tiny bumps along my jawline are now much fewer and farther between and in general, my skin is much calmer. There’s been no miracle transformation and I could never renounce sugar for good, it would break me. But, what this self-imposed fast has taught me is that an excess of sugar – even ‘healthy’ sugars – does my problematic skin no favours whatsoever. And that's official.