Sunday 22 April 2012

hEllo hEllo hEllo

Okay so I'm just going to give you a little insight of my teenage skin NIGHTMARE. Are we all sitting comfortably? I'm sure this will be a long one. I think I first started getting spots in year 5 and 6 (age 9ish) on the t-zone area, not much, but still enough to stand out. I moved up to secondry school and it just got worse... I would have about 30 spots on my face at a time, and getting up in the morning was hard.. I hated looking in the mirror and thinking 'right, what will my face look like today'! 
I was given a bottle that had a sponge on the end of it, that I had to dab onto my face and it absolutely killed! I was in so much pain. So I moved onto tablets, skin cremes, skin gel, and all sorts! I had tried 16 different acne buster's prescribed from my Doctor in the space of three years, ranging from Isotrex to Epiduo, which I had to trial for 3 or 4 months a time. I was then put on a Tetralysal (a strong type of drug) which I was on for a year - at first it made a big difference, but slowly the annoying red things kept appearing on my face, and of course, I was flattered they wanted to come and sit on my face, but I'd rather they weren't there.
So anyway, I was referred to a dermatologist (an hour away from my home town) where he finally, FINALLY gave me the drug I needed to bust them off my face! The one and the only, Roaccutane (isotretinion). I was firstly given these at the age of 14 and I was on the medication for 9 months. The side effects were crazy, I didn't want to go to school, I hated everyone, my skin was so so dry I had to completely re-do my makeup at lunch times, I had nose bleeds and I was just an angry person in general. But anyway, it made me happy too - my spots were finally gone! They stayed off my face for a good year or so, but then they came back.. dun dun dunnnn
So I underwent another load of the Roaccutane when I was late 16 (and by this time, there was a dermatologist local!) and they worked again, I was happy! And this time, no side effects.
But of course, they soon wore off and the spots started to come back, so now at the age of 17, I am on anti-biotics to try and nudge the Roaccutane back into practise.

So, you could say, skin is a very touchy subject for me! And I try to look after my skin the best I can. I am forever experimenting with different products and my latest and greatest find for us acne survivors is the new NO'7 range.

I needed something that was oil balancing, so I bought myself the:

1) Beautiful Skin Day Cream
2) Beautiful Skin Purifying Exfoliator
3) Beautiful Skin Purifying Mask

These were all from the | Normal / Oily range and I have to say, it is making me a happy Katy bear! The actual products aren't harsh on the skin, they leave it feeling very smooth but not tight. And when I wake up, there is barely any trace of excess oil.

I'm still only getting into it, but so far so good. I'll let you know how it goes.
Has anyone else been through any similar skin nightmares, and what products would you recommend?  Give me some ideas and I'll be happy to test some products out for you.

Get the no'7 range from here.

All the love, 
Katy x

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