No doubt you will all remember my obsession with skincare that has developed, or at least you hopefully all remember it, as it's been such a long time since I last blogged.
Anyway, I have been on my travels, New York, Las Vegas and LA - and come home to a birthday and Jury Service, hence the delay. I also came home to a lovely bout of acne. I have talked previously of the problems that I have had in the past with my skin. Acne was something that troubled me from when I was around 13 until probably around the age of 17, when I went on Roaccutane, a final solution to years of horrible acne. Whilst my acne pretty much disappeared, I would still get the odd spot from time to time, just like most people do. So nothing troubled me when I was on a flight to New York and I felt a small spot coming up. My problem areas tend to be my cheeks, where I have a few scars, and this was where it was. I realised that it would probably look worse after a flight - who doesn't look like shit after a 7 hour flight?
During the next fortnight however, it gradually got worse. Since I no longer travel with an antibiotic cream, I bought a tube of benzoyl peroxide from Walgreens, which helped slightly. When I returned from my holiday, everything got much better and my skin settled down completely. I had figured that a few spots must have been down to 4 long flights, alcohol and the most calorific food I have ever consumed.
Apparently not, as sure enough, my acne had just simply lulled me into a false sense of security - now it's back with a vengeance. I have even felt the need to visit the doctors, when no skincare that I was trying seemed to be working. The doctor was very understanding, and knowing my history, was prepared to re-refer me to a dermatologist, considering my spots to be a recurrence of my cystic acne. A particularly bad area was my chin, and my right cheek, where I had 10 large cysts at one point - unsightly and ridiculously painful. Whilst waiting to be re-referred, I have began to use an antibiotic lotion called Zineryt and have changed my skincare. Whilst the Clarins skincare is fab, I had to make sure that I was eliminating anything that could be adding to the problem. I visited makeup alley a lot, and found La Roche Posay Effaclar to come well recommended. I bought the foaming cleanser, the effaclar Duo and the effaclar astringent toner, as well as my old trusty clean and clear Dual Action moisturiser - an absolute steal at £2.50!
Previously, I have always used a foaming cleanser - but after reading Caroline Hirons' blog, I was under the impression that this was the worst kind of cleanser that an oily or acnefied skin could use. However, since changing back, my cysts have almost completely disappeared! I did some research on the effaclar range and found that the foaming cleanser has a pH of 5.5 - slightly acidic but apparently said to match the natural pH of skin. Anyway, without being too technical, I've found that it's really helped my skin - sometimes you just have to stick to the old faithfuls.
Everybody's skin is different and I'm not saying that effaclar will cure your acne - I'm also quite sure it has had something to do with my Zineryt antibiotic lotion, which previously never helped with my acne during my teenage years. Admittedly, my acne was much worse then. I am saying however, that it has worked for me, and with most products being under £13 a pop, it's worth a go. I know that I would spend as much money as it took as having bad skin is one of the most confidence crashing problems that anybody can suffer with. I had even taken to wearing a hat so that I could position my hair in such a way to hide it. I've been left with quite a few reddish/purple marks which I'm upset about but they cover quite well with makeup.
I am however having a consultation tomorrow at Transform to see if there is anything that can be done with a few of my more pitted acne scars and will definitely blog about it. If anybody has had any acne scar treatment done - let me know what you think. I'm trying to be as well informed as I can be.
Hope you're all well,
Lisa
