Pizza-face: 15 years of battling my skin
I’ve had bad skin my entire adult life, what started out as teenage
pimples has persisted well into my twenties. And I have tried
EVERYTHING to fix it – you name it, I’ve tried it. From the usual
suspects – Oxy and Clearasil in my teens – through a virtual who’s who
of luxury skincare brands in my twenties. I’ve tried medication,
coming off the pill, changing my pill, changing my diet, supplements,
steaming my face every night, using stripping products to exfoliate my
skin, using thick cream cleansers and intensive moisturisers to try
and calm my skin down, all have failed to make an impact and I’ve
spent a small fortune in the process.There have been times when it has really got me down – around a year
and a half ago I started to break out heavily on my cheeks – an area
that I hadn’t previously had to worry about – and I was just at a
total loss. I didn’t want to go out of the house on my days off
because I wanted to give my skin a break from wearing makeup and there
was no way I was going to go out looking like I did, no matter what
assurances I got from my friends that it wasn’t so bad. I remember
going to see a beautician to get a facial (said beautician told me
that my shampoo was to blame for my bad skin…!!!) and the woman who
had the appointment before me looked at my makeup-free face and was
visibly shocked. Which was lovely…So why is my bare face gracing your screen? Because, believe it or
not, this photo shows my skin at the best it’s been in as long as I
can remember. And this improvement was all down to a model I worked
with (the absolutely gorgeous Bridget Malcolm) who is a die-hard Dr
Hauscka fan. She raved about the brand, how gentle it was and how it
encouraged your skin to breathe and balance that I thought I may as
well give it a go – what did I have to lose? Oh my god the results
were almost instant! It completely changed the texture of my skin, all
my redness calmed down and my spots started to disappear!! After
cleansing, my skin didn’t feel tight like it normally would and I
almost felt like I didn’t need any moisturiser at all. Indeed, Dr
Hauschka advises not to use a night cream in order to let your skin
breathe properly while you sleep. I was, as you can imagine, over the
moon.But that’s not the end of the story. Although my angry red spots were
dissipating, I still had quite a lot of congestion – blocked pores and
blackheads – which were not being helped by the fact that the Dr
Hauschka cleansing milk is pretty ineffective at removing makeup. I
decided to supplement my Hauschka regime with an effective makeup
remover. I chose the brand that my mum uses, Darphin, and bought their
Aromatic Cleansing Balm, which dissolves makeup incredibly well and
left my skin totally clean. Unfortunately it also left my skin tight,
meaning the acid mantle of my skin had been disturbed, and then my
spots started to return. Sigh.So what’s next? Well, my current plan is to scout out an effective
makeup remover that maintains the ph balance of my skin; continue to
use Dr Hauschka cleanser, toner and moisturiser; and keep my hopes up.
There has to be a solution out there that works for me, it’s just a
matter of time until I find it. I should also mention that when I
bought my Darphin cleanser I also received a sample of their Aromatic
Purifying Balm which is one of the most effective and fantastic
products I’ve ever used – it totally purges your skin of impurities
and helps to heal marks at the same time, I cannot recommend it highly
enough.On the up-side, if my skin wasn’t so poor then I might never have
ended up doing this job that I love so much. Having bad skin forces
you to become an expert in concealing and disguising blemishes,
consequently I started experimenting with other kinds of makeup, and
the rest is history. I really don’t know what my life would be like
without makeup. It sounds so ridiculous and vain writing it down like
that, but it’s true for me.Thanks for reading, and sorry if my makeup-free mug has put you off
your dinner!
