I haven’t yet written many posts on skincare yet, but I have a few posts planned on my favourite skincare products/what I’m using at the moment, but before I can start telling you about that, I really need to tell you a little about my skin and its history! After all, we all have different skin types and what's suited to me, may not particularly suit you, so this will be a brief history on my skin type.
Ages 1-14 – Perfect skin, never had any problems!
Ages 15-18 – Good skin, but had the occasional spot. Didn’t use many facial products apart from spot creams, I never took my make-up off but somehow my skin was lovely! I guess my skin was kind of dry as well, it was never oily.
Age 19 – Took a turn for the worse. I just started getting into skincare and I wanted Clinique's Three Step Regime for my 19th Birthday. I went to the counter with my Mum, got matched up and bought the regime for around £70. Two weeks later, my skin was the worst it had ever been in my life. I can’t describe how bad it got, my skin was red, irritated and full of spots. I stopped using the products immediately.
Ages 19-20½ – Worst skin ever. I was covered in red pimples and spots. I had big spots, under the skin that had about another three spots inside. How is that even possible? I had just started my foundation course in art, and the following year started my photography degree and I feel like I became a shell of myself. I wasn’t confident, I felt disgusting and was so upset that my lovely skin was now ruined because of Clinique – the spots never went after I stopped using it, they just got worse. I still loved make-up and skincare so I was always trying to find something to take my spots down, I used Bio-oil for a good six months to no avail, I used an Aloe skincare range, I tried lots of products. Wearing make-up really accentuated my terrible skin, but obviously that meant I just wore more. I also had really terrible dry skin this whole time, meaning my skin was flaky as well as spotty and I always needed moisturizer to help.
Christmas Eve 2008 – I decided I had had enough and at 6pm Christmas eve I trotted down to my GP and demanded help. He was stunned at how terrible my skin was and said that I should never have waited so long. He was pretty shocked at how disgusting my skin was and prescribed me with the antibiotic Doxycycline.
January – March 2009 – I was on Doxycycline for three months and although it helped slightly, my skin was still bad. I lost a few spots but my skin was still red and grose.
March – June 2009 – GP then prescribed me Minocycline, another antibiotic to help clear skin. This pill saved me! Wonder product, cleared my skin up within three months. Finally my skin was back to normal. I had never been so happy.
July 2009 – Went back to GP to get more Minocycline because I was worried that once I stopped taking it, my skin would get terrible again, but for some reason they prescribed me Oxytetracycline. I took this for a week but it made me really ill, sick ill, so I stopped!
August 2009 – Present Day (Oct 2010) (Ages 21-22) – Very happy with my skin. It isn’t perfect by any account, I still get spots, especially when I am stressed, or if I start dating (I always get spots when I meet guys! Haha!) but after all I’ve been through I am just SO grateful that it is relatively back to normal. Nowadays if I get a spot I don’t panic, I just try to cover it well and I try not to touch it at all.
My Skin Type – I’ll be honest and admit that although I work part time as a skin-care consultant and can easily tell what other people’s skin types are, I’m really not sure what my own skin type is! My skin has started producing more oil since stopping the pills which I’m happy about, but my skin also always feel tight after washing. So I guess that gives me combination skin? Except I’m also acne prone and also get irritated skin with certain products, so its sensitive as well. Basically I have every skin type going? Weird. If any one is similar, do let me know!
Pictures -
When I started taking Doxycycline, I started taking a picture of myself everyday on a film camera, as a project to see if my skin got any better. I gave up after two weeks when I wasn’t seeing results but was left with a reminder of how bad my skin once was. Whenever I feel down about my skin I look at these images and instantly feel better. Bear in mind, my skin was worse than this – I had already started taking pills at this point -
Fast forward five months - (May/June 2009)
Fast forward another two months (August 2009)
My 21st Birthday, with my parents and clear skin!!!
(You can see my skin as it is now in my recent foundation post – HERE!!)
There you go, my skin history! Sorry it was slightly wordy, but I felt I needed to let you girls know 1) What my skin is like for future reference, once I start reviewing products and 2) That if you have crappy skin, then don’t worry, you can overcome it and it will always get better!! I’m so much happier in general now that my skin is better. One things for sure, I am NEVER using a Clinique product again as I feel that that is what started the whole ordeal.
My next skincare post will be on what I have been using for the past two years to keep my skin in check, so stay tuned for that!
Has anyone else been through a terrible acne phase? What got rid of it?
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