Friday's 5 Thoughts... With a Twist

QueenB: I have so many amazing friends who have vast expertise and extraordinary talents. Their experience, advice, and encouragement are so much of what make me who I am and what I want to be. In that spirit, I am so excited to start featuring GUEST BLOGGERS on QueenB Says. Our first edition comes from my gorgeous, classy, brilliant, engaging friend Katie (@katiemaryjones). I was telling her about today's post and wanted her to add her thoughts and experience. Which you WILL find valuable, I know.

  

Katie: I’m 28 and have the skin of an pubescent teen. It makes me feel self conscious and it pisses me off. I’ve got adult onset acne.


I’ve been obsessing over the fact that my skin is no longer clear, simply because I know how good it can look.

Recently I’ve spent gobs of money trying to treat it. I’ve used OTC treatments like Proactiv and prescription treatments like Retin-A. Both of them suck, don’t use them. They ravage your skin and suck every last drop of moisture out of it. In most cases end up producing more sebum to counteract the extreme drying effect these products have on their skin.

Now I’m taking a less harsh approach and am having light treatments administered by a wonderful esthetician, Leah Nickie. (Thanks for another amazing referral Betsy!). Different colors in the spectrum have varying positive effects on skin rejuvenation – such as rebuilding collagen and killing P. acnes. This light is also safe for your skin – there are no harmful UV rays emitted from these machines. I’ve now had three “blue light” treatments and around a week post treatment I see significant clearing in my skin. I’m also using more calming facial products from the GM Collin Paris line. These treatments seem to be working….so far.

It only takes a few days to weeks for my zits to make a reappearance. It’s an uphill battle. Leah Nickie and I are working together to figure out the best plan of attack. She’s helped me to clear up my “patterned acne”. This occurs when people wear sunglasses, talk on phones a lot, etc. Your skin has a reaction to the unsterile surface and acne pops up when these devices come into contact with your skin. Mine specifically was occurring where my sunglass rims touched my cheeks. I’m also working on one other big issue that I have. Picking. I’m OCD and if there is anything abnormal on my face I want it gone. I pop zits and I pick scabs. I’m well aware that this isn’t helping my situation whatsoever, but I’m making strides to break the habit.

And so I wait – I’m hoping for something magical at this point. I feel like I’m at a prime point in my life and I would appreciate clear skin. Genetics, however, tell me that since my mom STILL has acne at 60 I might not ever experience the clear skin that I had during my teens again!


QueenB: I realize this is my second post on acne. But in the past few weeks I have had something creep up I my life that has me thinking about it: my bulldog has adolescent canine acne. This is very normal and will go away with no treatment, so we’ve decided that we aren’t planning to go to great lengths to treat it. Mostly because, well, SHE’S A DOG. But it did get me to thinking about the human variety of acne, specifically the adult onset version.
 

So, here are my 5 thoughts on this heinous and unfair occurrence that we are subjected to. Note: this is TMI and if you get grossed out, stop here and join back in when I’m in a prettier and more confident mood.

1. Apparently this acne thing isn’t going to end soon. People I know in their 40s and 50s still get them. This piece of information was left out of my chick manual.

2. The older you get the bigger the volcano.

3. Why in god’s name do they migrate. I got my first back zit a few months ago. What?!

4. Good solutions, like proactive or PTR, break your hair off. So you look like a toddler with baby bangs.

5. I hate people with perfect skin. Yes, I hate my husband.

Thank you and have a great weekend…

…QueenB Says