Beauty Tips For Body Care
WARNING: LONG BUT I HAVE TRIED TO MAKE IT WORTH.Hey all!Soooo, years ago, I was a big advocate for the idea that some people cannot use fatty alcohols. This was due to my experiences with CeraVe Cream, CeraVe Lotion, Cetaphil Cream, and Cetaphil Lotion, primarily. More, I was using Ziana (.025% tretinoin + clindamycin), which I have a strong suspicion in retrospect was the cause of a form of folliculitis for me (perhaps chemical folliculitis -- there are several types of folliculitis but in this case, acne that is not "acne," but rather born of continuous irritation of the hair follicles). Of course, like everyone going through acne, I blamed every skin product I was using except the prescription active that was designed to make my acne better. After all, a doctor gave it to me, and a doctor wouldn't give me something that would make me "sicker."Unfortunately, it turns out that by the time I started to figure this out, it was all way too late. To this day, I have light pitted scarring in places from an 8 month moderate-to-severe zit explosion on my face that never ceased. It has taught me a lot and pressed me to learn a lot about how skin actually functions. I was told the entire time I was breaking out that it was just "purging," only to realize what a misnomer "purging" kind of is -- implying the skin is holding onto infections waiting to churn out of it's layers rather than comedones -- open or closed -- that are visible, as well as microcomedones that are the beginning of an acne spot but invisible to the naked eye. At the time, purging to me implied that there were acne spots in the deeper layers of my skin waiting to come out.So in the process of me flailing, I felt like this class of ingredients that are otherwise harmless were my bane: fatty alcohols. These are stearyl alcohol, cetearyl alcohol, and cetyl alcohol. After all, they turned up in everything that was breaking me out, including the cleansers, so surely it had to be them, right?For example, at one point, I was using Cetaphil Gentle Cleanser + CeraVe Cream. What do these products have in common?Cetaphil Gentle CleanserWater, Cetyl Alcohol, Propylene Glycol, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Stearyl Alcohol, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Butylparaben.CeraVe CreamPurified Water, Glycerin, Ceteareth-20 And Cetearyl Alcohol, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Behentrimonium Methosulfate And Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Ceramide 3, Ceramide 6-II, Ceramide 1, Hyaluronic Acid, Cholesterol, Petrolatum, Dimethicone, Potassium Phosphate, Dipotassium Phosphate, Sodium Lauryl Lactylate, Disodium Edta, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Phytosphingosine, Carbomer, Xanthan Gum.So being the ingredient hound I am, I connected the dots to "must be fatty alcohols and coconut derivatives." After all, everything else I used had had these ingredients too.CeraVe LotionPurified Water, Glycerin, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Behentrimonium Methosulfate and Cetearyl Alcohol, Ceteareth-20 and** Cetearyl Alcohol**, Ceramide 3, Ceramide 6-II, Ceramide 1, Hyaluronic Acid, Cholesterol, Dimethicone, Polysorbate 20, Polyglyceryl-3 Diisostearate, Potassium Phosphate, Dipotassium Phosphate, Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate, Cetyl Alcohol, Disodium EDTA, Phytosphingosine, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Carbomer, Xanthan GumCetaphil CreamWater, Glycerin, Petrolatum, Dicaprylyl Ether, Dimethicone, Glyceryl Stearate, Cetyl Alcohol, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, PEG-30 Stearate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Dimethiconol, Benzyl Alcohol, Phenoxyethanol, Glyceryl Acrylate/Acrylic Acid Copolymer, Propylene Glycol, Disodium EDTA, Sodium HydroxideCetaphil LotionWater, Glycerin, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Ceteareth-20, Cetearyl Alcohol, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Dimethicone, Sodium Levulinate, Sodium Anisate,Caprylyl Glycol, Benzyl Alcohol, Panthenol (Vitamin B5), Stearoxytrimethylsilane, Stearyl Alcohol, Citric Acid, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate CrosspolymerHappy, I thought, "This must be it! I solved it!" So I cut out fatty alcohol products (which, as I am sure many of you know, is a massive pain in the ass) and tried to facilitate others in doing the same. In fact, I feel like I was the primary champion of "it might be fatty alcohols!" back when this sub was only 25k people, and being as we were all learning from eachother and trusted eachother, many people trusted me in that assumption. After all, I had the proof (supposedly) to back it up.So I used the lightest products, such as EltaMD PM (which is a wonderful product, don't get me wrong!). Unfortunately, my skin was parched all of the time. It was just sick. It kept breaking out for years after, bottle after bottle of EltaMD PM. Life happened, I was removed from the mod group for inactivity, and I just kept on with it - disappearing from this sub for a long-ass time.And then I started thinking... what did I use before my skin started down this road?Before I knew jack-all about skin, I used Olay pretty religiously. Olay Regenerist, in the pot, with the fragrance. Yep. This stuff:Water, Glycerin, Isohexadecane, Niacinamide, Isopropyl Isostearate, Aluminum Starch Octenylsuccinate, Nylon-12, Dimethicone, Panthenol, Tocopheryl Acetate, Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4, Sodium Peg-7 Olive Oil Carboxylate, Sodium Hyaluronate, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Ceratonia Siliqua (Carob) Fruit Extract,** Stearyl Alcohol, Polyethylene, **Cetyl Alcohol, Behenyl Alcohol, Sodium Acrylates Copolymer, Titanium Dioxide, Benzyl Alcohol, Methylparaben, Ethylparaben, Dimethiconol, Polyacrylamide, Fragrance, Peg-100 Stearate, Propylparaben, Cetearyl Glucoside, Cetearyl Alcohol, C13-14 Isoparaffin, Disodium Edta, Citric Acid, Stearic Acid, Palmitic Acid, C12-13 Pareth-3, Laureth-7, Sodium Hydroxide, Mica."Wait a fucking minute," she thought. "That shit has cetyl alcohol and stearyl alcohol and coconut derivatives all the shit I am avoiding. How the fuck did my face not explode then?"So I did something insane: I tried a cream with fatty alcohols and coconut derivatives that was being recommended on this sub at the time (lol). Some of you may recognize this:Cheryl Lee MD Ceramide+Water, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride (Coconut), Petrolatum, Neopentyl Glycol Diheptanoate, Polyglyceryl -10 Pentastearate, Behenyl Alcohol, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Glyceryl Stearate, Glycerin, Isostearyl Isostearate, Cetyl Alcohol, 1,3 Propanediol (from Corn), C10-30 Cholesterol/Lanosterol Esters, Ceramide 3, Phytosphingosine, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Niacinamide, Glycyrrhetinic Acid (Licorice Root), 1,2 -Hexanediol, Caprylyl Glycol, Disodium EDTA, Xanthan Gum, Gluconolactone.And you want to know something?90% of my acne healed in a week. 90% of the acne that had been causing me scars and ruining my fucking life for years healed in a fucking week. I looked back at all the ingredients for all the products that I had avoided and all the ones I had just been able to use fine as a teenager and by fucking god, what did I miss? Ceteareth-fucking-20 (sans the cleansers -- I still don't know why my skin hated Cetaphil Gentle, but it turns out that it has broken out with every creamy, non-sudsy cleanser ever, so I've resigned myself to using gentle SLS cleansers for life).I felt like such a massive asshole.So that brings me to now, when I decided on a train on a vacation in NYC to start a skin blog. I had spent those years researching my ass off about skin not to even see what a massive fuckup I had made. I had been able to help my BF bring his eczema 80% into control with bleach bath washes and solve my mom's chronically dry skin and my friend's weird case of eczema on his ring finger, but not my own skin.I came back to this sub after ~5 fucking years (4 of them AFK) and I still see a lot of people avoiding all fatty alcohols. I'm making this post to tell you that it might not be all fatty alcohols. It may be cet-20, like me, or it may be those fatty alcohols in combination with other ingredients (combinations of some ingredients can change molecular sizes, some manufacturers use different sources or molecular sized products, like larger or smaller hyaluronic acid, for example). There's so much complexity with skincare, skin, and ingredients that it usually isn't one whole class of ingredients. In short: your mileage may vary. This is why spot testing is important, one product isn't for everyone, and while ingredient labels are important for weeding out culprits, you also need to do a bit of research on how ingredients work with others to change how they interact on the skin.Since then, I've spot tested many of the products I flat-out ruled out and 1. it turns out everything with cet-20 does explode my face, 2. it turns out macadamia nut oil also explodes my face (in the cet lotion), and 3. turns out I can use 50% of the things I thought I couldn't (like jojoba oil!).I'm so happy that many of you have found this sub educational, but please consider what you've used in the past (skincare for face, makeup, EVERYTHING) and don't neglect those products when cross-identifying culprits. It changed my life and it might change yours.Some takeaways, with bullet points because I love bullet points:Don't rule out entire classes of ingredients. Skin is super individual and it may be one stupid ingredient.Don't take all of your skincare advice from the Internet, and if you do, try to diversify. Reddit, acne.org, MakeupAlley, medical journals -- get in there and become your own advocate.Sometimes, skin is just an asshole and you won't be able to figure out what it hates. Example: My skin has issues with CeraVe healing ointment and foaming wash, despite them lacking cet-20. ¯_(ツ)_/¯Sometimes, what is considered "good" or "best" for skin isn't good or best for your skin. Example for me: creamy cleansers. They're definitely recommended everywhere for every skin condition, esp rosacea (which I have), but my skin fucking loathes them all. No idea why, and that's okay.Just because an ingredient is "good" for skin doesn't mean it is good for your skin. Example: Me and high % niacinamide = zits. Me and low % niacinamide = k.Just because it's a prescription doesn't mean it can't fuck you up, fam. I thought prescription = good, no problems here, won't cause issues. I have literal scars to prove me wrong. Instead of assuming all is well, TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR IF SHIT IS UP AND IF YOUR DOCTOR IS LIKE HEY SHIT IS FINE BUT YOU STILL THINK SHIT IS FUCKED, GO TO ANOTHER DOCTOR. I wish I had done this. Instead, my doc kept urging me to use it every single night. Went to a new doc and he was like, "Oh no, your skin is very sensitive, that is wayyyy too harsh." Listen to your gut.Almost alll skin rules are more like guidelines (except the baking soda, lemon juice, harsh harsh scrubs stuff - that's all still true since they can all throw your skin very out of whack). Example: I do better with light physical exfoliation once a week than AHA any day.Thanks, and I'm sorry for being such a massive, incorrect asshole. I'm doing my best to correct my errors now (and hopefully go to esthetics school though BF is pushing me to do dermatology).
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by JoanOfSarcasm
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