Monthly Archives: November 2012

Get ready for me to sound like an infomercial, y’all!

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Being a bride is stressful, not least of all because you’re expected to be this thin, well-coiffed, perfectly manicured model of a woman at all times; after all, why would anyone want to marry you if you’re not?  Not to mention all the photography.  The year or so that you’re engaged and the wedding day itself, you’re likely to be photographed (and professionally photographed, at that) constantly.

So, uh, you better be lookin’ good.

And, as I realized soon after I got engaged, I wasn’t.  My skin was disastrous looking.  My cheeks, forehead, and chin were covered in small red bumps and acne.  The area between my eyebrows had little creases that weren’t going away when I wasn’t smiling.  And the rest of my face was astoundingly dry.

This, of course, was all made more crushingly frustrating by the fact that I had had PERFECT skin up until now.  As a teenager, I maybe got one zit coinciding with menstrual cycle each month, but that was it.  I washed my face with water, and I didn’t even use moisturizer.  Yet my skin was gorgeous–I didn’t need to wear foundation or concealer at all, basically brushed myself with powder each day and was ready to go.

But, there I found myself, a recently engaged 27-year old with adult-onset acne, combination skin, and fine lines.  Joy.

So, I went and saw a dermatologist.  He spent all of five minutes with me, told me I’d need to be on prescription antibiotics for the rest of my life, needed to buy expensive cleansing pads and moisturizer from him, and should get botox for my fine lines.

That wasn’t really what I was looking for.  So I found a second dermatologist, and he too tried to put me on antibiotics for the rest of my life.  Again, no thanks.

So I did some internet research, and tried cutting out dairy and gluten.  No change.

Up next, bi-weekly facials.  Pricey, but worth it if it actually did something.  But, it didn’t.  This was especially infuriating, as the aestheticians (I tried two different ones) both told me that “other than the acne, I had such nice skin and tiny pores”!  Yeah, well, that’s kind of the point.

Finally, with less than a week to my engagement photo session, I spent an hour at my local Target reading the labels on every single skincare product they had.  I left the store with a nice long receipt and the following products:

  

And within a week, I had a HUGE change in my skin.  I wash with the scrub twice a day, do a mask with the cleanser twice a week, spot treat acne with the rapid clear at night, and then use the moisturizer twice a day.  I also use good ol’ fashioned Neosporin for any bites/sores.

It’s really been an amazing change.  The acne has cleared everywhere but on my cheeks, where it’s still severely lessened.  The fine lines between my eyebrows are GONE as is any dryness.  And the most obnoxious of all, the not-quite-acne raised red bumps are getting smaller and less red daily.

I’ve never, ever, in my life, been this impressed with a skin care product.  Highly recommend.  No antibiotics or botox needed.