Beauty Tips For Body Care
Hi everyone,First off, I just want to say that if these kinds of posts aren't popular around here, I do sincerely apologize. I'm a dedicated "lurker", but have never posted, mostly because my questions were answered with the "Resources" sidebar and doing a few searches. That being said, I could not sit on this "thank you!" any longer. I just had to tell you guys, only because it's made such a huge difference in my life.Due to privacy and the fact that the problem area was my face, I am not posting progress pictures. I don't really know how I could show progress without also posting my face on the internet, so please forgive me for not including those. If it's a deal breaker, I can try to figure something out with cropping/blurring, but I just haven't sat down to try that.Okay, my story:I've always had pretty decent skin. I'm fair and a tad freckle-y, but have never had an issue with acne. During my teen years, I don't think I had a single breakout. I'd get one or two zits on my chin during my period and maaaaybe one "under the skin" monster a year, but that was about it. When I got to college, I noticed that I started to have "patches" of bad areas, most specifically around my nose. I battled it for a few months, but since it was a small area, I never really tried to "rid myself" of it. It just kind of went away after several months.Throughout my 20s, it was a roller coaster. This is when I started developing more frequent cystic acne. Whenever I would look online at pictures of other people's acne, I was actually envious. They had more bumps than I did, yes, but it was just tiny little red bumps. Not the huge, painful red eyeball that erupted from my chin for weeks and weeks. After that would clear up, another would erupt somewhere else and so on and so on. It was frustrating, but again, because these were such "isolated" areas, I never looked into it. Admittedly, I don't wear a lot of make-up and am not a typical "beauty routine" person, so I just dealt with it the best I could.As I approached my 30s, things became an absolute nightmare for me. I never felt "bad" about my skin, even when I had my worst "breakouts". I put these things in quotes because, even at their worst, up to this point, I could hardly call what I was experiencing a "breakout". Not until January 2013. It happened slowly, a few small patches popping up at once until, suddenly, I looked at a picture of myself and realized, holy crap, MOST of my face is covered in acne. Not just bumps either. A mix of bumps and painful, swollen cystic acne that seemed to never come to a head. I tried washing my face more, thinking it was as simple as that. I didn't even think that what I was using could be contributing to it. To let you know how far off-base I was, I used the Clean and Clear with MICROBEADS on my skin EVERY NIGHT. My skin had become much dryer as well, but because I saw "acne!!" I assumed moisturizing would make it worse. So I didn't. At all. (I know some of you must be cringing. I'm sorry.)For MONTHS, I scrubbed my stupid face with this scrub and never moisturized my face and watched as my face became a consistently reddened, bumpy, painful, flaky mess. My boyfriend said he "barely noticed it", but I think that's mostly because a) he sees me everyday and maybe it didn't occur to him and b) he's a really great guy and knows better than to say, "why does your face look like it's trying to escape your body?"My "rock bottom" moment was when I was on the bus and a man asked me if I'd gotten hit. At the time, I was nursing a terribly swollen cystic bump on my cheek. Confused, I said, "what? Did I get what?" and he pointed at the swollen area on my cheek. "It looks like you got hit!" I was mortified. I said, "Oh, no, it's just a bad zit" and waited until my stop came.After that, I would have intense anxiety leaving my apartment. Going to work was somewhat okay. I worked at my own desk in a small office. It was running errands, going out to dinner, or just spending any time out around people that became unbearable. I felt like everyone was looking at my face, everyone could see my terrible skin, everyone was thinking I was some unhygienic slob that was terrorizing the city. I know this is all ridiculous, but that is how I felt because I had no control over what was happening, didn't know what to do, didn't have health insurance, and figured it was destined to get worse. I live far from home, so every few months when I would visit, my mom would ask me about my face. I told her I didn't really know what to do. I've never had this problem and until my full-time job kicked in, I couldn't go to a doctor. She recommended some things, but honestly, my mom has never had a zit in her life and so I just wasn't into hearing what she had to say. This woman has used Noxema her whole life, never had a break out, has a single wrinkle at age 60, and was just genetically blessed in ways that didn't get passed down to me, apparently!One night, late, I started searching skincare on Google. It was overwhelming. So many steps, so many products. I was of the age that many acne products weren't geared to me and the ones that were didn't seem to have much to do with acne. I was so overwhelmed that I ended up going to reddit to look at funny pictures of cats. (Yes, I'm serious.) There was a post on the front page at the time about favorite subreddits and as I was reading through it, I noticed someone linked to this place. Underneath were so many comments about how helpful and great this place was. I clicked over, spent the E N T I R E night reading posts, going through archives, taking notes. I was so excited. I read posts where people described MY experience with acne. I saw pictures that resembled my acne. I saw the progress and was encouraged. I figured, I can try this until my insurance kicks in and then, if I'm still struggling, I'll go to the derm. Win/win, right?To make this long story a little bit shorter, I made my starting place the ScA routine. Then it came down to choosing the best products that would fit each "step". This is where you guys introduced me to the Paula's Choice website... specifically the "Best" products. This was a god send!!!! Not only that, but I could search individual products on this subreddit and see people's real experiences with it. It was like having a friend on my arm at the drugstore helping me choose despite the overwhelming selection. For someone who's never really been "into" skincare, going down that aisle is DAUNTING. I cannot thank you all enough for the information and confidence you gave me to even attempt to take control of my skin. Just having a "routine" seemed to lift my spirits because it was potential! Hope!By now, I was not leaving my apartment except to go to work. My boyfriend noticed and often commented that we never went out anymore. I often requested days that I could work from home and I canceled a trip to see my family because my skin was so bad. I just didn't feel like dealing with the questions. I realized that if I didn't do anything, I was going to be a prisoner. Here I was, a 30 year old woman, terrified to buy skincare products for fear of being judged by the check-out person, for fear that people were staring. I know it sounds silly now, letting bumps on my face have that much power over me, but I'd never experienced it before and I truly underestimated how awful acne can make you feel about yourself.The same day I bought all of these products, I came home and decided to track my progress. I noticed it was January 2014. A whole year since things got crazy and here I was, finally mustering up the courage to do something about it.I followed the ScA routine (on the sidebar) to a T, but on the most basic level. I did not start off with an exfoliant. After reading here, it seemed like all of the insane scrubbing and overwashing I'd done to my face would be agitated by the exfoliant. My skin just needed to calm down and to breathe so I only did cleanser, spot treatment, moisturizer, and sunscreen (for the day). For the cleanser, I used Neutrogena Naturals, for the spot treatment I used Clearasil DailyClear, and for moisturizer, I used Cerave in a tub. In addition, I bought a package of pillow cases and changed them every few days.The first thing I noticed was moisturizer. I had always assumed that if you had acne, that meant your skin was oily, so you didn't need moisturizer. Terrible, I know, but after the first week of the routine, I COULD NOT BELIEVE that my skin did not feel tight, flaky, or tingly. Anywhere!!! It would always be the worst in the morning, but waking up to dewy, soft skin that did not, in fact, feel GREASY was a MIRACLE. I couldn't believe it. Even if the zits stayed, I thought, at least I found out about the magic of MOISTURIZER. Oh my god.As expected, things got a little worse before they got better. For about three months, the spot treatment really did a number on my acne. It's at this point that I wanted to give up because it just looked so red and like there were more bumps than before! As always, I checked here for others' experiences and realized that 1) this was normal and 2) I may be using too much at once. Another 3 months passed and this is when I really started to see a difference. No new bumps and a definite reduction in the existing bumps. Not only that, but the discoloration and inflammation I always had, probably due to not moisturizing and overscrubbing, had all but vanished. Even though I still had a ways to go to be considered "clear", the texture of my skin, even the bumpy skin, felt so much different. It was hard not to try and add more products or wash more often, but this place always harped on consistency. The key is consistency, quality over quantity.Six more months passed, it was now January 2015. I was mostly clear, save for some hyperpigmentation due to my more problematic areas, and my skin was smooth. SMOOTH. No bumps, no flakes, just some redness and scarring. I would get a zit every once and a while, but NO cysts, and their life cycle was much shorter.Now, a good year and a half after I've started my journey, I've kept things more or less the same, though now I've added an exfoliant and minimized how much I use the spot treatment. I'm still madly in love with moisturizer. I really feel like, after the dust has settled, that was the biggest thing I wasn't doing for my skin. Even when it was acne-free, I never moisturized! I've been using vitamin E oil and been diligent about sunscreen to help with the hyperpigmentation and right now, that seems to be all that's left to deal with. It seems almost unbelievable that I'm here now, that I go out in public and never think about my skin. That I talk to people and make eye contact and can focus on what they're saying and not, "I wonder if they're grossed out by this crusty mess on my face." My confidence is higher. My mood has improved. My relationships are better. I know it sounds silly, it's just skin, people have been through much worse. Hell, I have been through much worse, yet I greatly underestimated how bad you can feel when your skin is struggling. I never understood it and now I have a newfound respect for ALL OF YOU. You're all incredible and helpful and positive and encouraging. I know there's been a lot of drama around this place the last few months, but please know, even if people aren't posting day after day, you are HELPING PEOPLE. You all have quietly changed my life and I am so grateful.I'm sorry if this was so long or if, in my ignorance, I overlooked any posting rules, but I just had to show my gratitude. THANK YOU!!!!!!
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by arresttobyflenderson
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