10.11.2008

Attack of the face!


Being that I am a girl, I am always on the lookout for the newest and greatest product out there that will make my skin clear, dewy, keep oil at bay, kill blemishes, obliterate my pores AND keep me looking perpetually 15. Basically I am looking for a miracle from God himself sent down in a fabulous glittery package delivered directly to my doorstep. Oh and it has to work immediately. I am desperately trying to acheive flawless skin.

Flawless. That is the one catch word that always gets my attention. Just saying it aloud evokes thoughts of perfect porcelain skin without a visible pore, blemish or oil slick in sight. Put the word flawless in your ad and you are sure to have my attention.

Like every other little kid on the planet, I had perfect skin. No need to wash it everyday as no matter what dirt or grime I got into, my skin still looked as smooth and poreless as a baby's rear. Until of course I turned 12.

It was as though I went to bed one night with baby butt skin and woke up the next morning in the middle of a full blown nuclear attack complete with little red suicide bombers - on my face. It was a pure nightmare. My mother never having had to deal with acne as a teenager was at a loss for what to get me to clear up this little (massive) problem. So instead I went nearly all of my 6th grade year and part of my 7th grade year mopping oil that seemed to be spewing from the Texas oil refineries off of my head. (Just as an aside - why can't they find a way to harness the power of teenage facial oil production for our little oil crisis? Kind of like my idea to give free liposuction to the obese and use the excess fat as an alternate source of fuel...help the obesity problem AND the fuel problem! Just sayin'!)

Finally one day my mom brought home what I had hoped to be the be all, end all. Clearasil. Unfortunately instead of clearing up my skin, it sucked the life out of it, drying it into a crumbly mess that would just slick up with oil the next day, often leaving me with a facial deforming mountain between my eyes (hel-lo one eye!). The little guerilla warriors were winning and the battleground was my face.

Over the next 5 years or so I tried countless things, including coming embarassingly close to trying baby urine on my face. Yep. My mom had a friend who told her that baby urine from a wet diaper cleared acne. I was desperate. I tried egg whites, face masks, pinching, popping, voodoo, prescriptions and prayer. Luckily the older I got the better it became. Instead of all out guerilla warfare, it became more of a cold war. I finally learned the tricks of the trade, such as using oil free moisturizer, Retin-A in the winter (say NO to sun!), Azelex in the summer (also known to get rid of those nasty brown spots I got from sunning myself as a teen in hopes of leveling the playing field) and the occasional round of antibiotics. I still have issues but now have the added joy of beginning to worry about wrinkles.

So now I have to try and kill the little red nazis AND deal with tunnel warfare. But I feel I have found a solution. Being one who loves makeup, I have tried nearly every brand under the sun and hands down I am madly in love with Bare Minerals. It is the only makeup that comes close to making me look like I have smooth, non-landmined skin. I have tried Clinique for blemish prone skin and that is pretty good too, but nothing quite compares to my Bare Minerals. I love that I can buff that stuff on and in 5 minutes flat I have my pimples waving their flag of defeat. No red showing through or anything. I have also taken up using an under-eye cream by Dr. Wexler (Deep Wrinkle Eye Repair) that I like, but seems to be doing more in the moisturizing realm than anything. And did I mention sunscreen. Yep, here I go climbing back onto my soap box. The majority of wrinkles are caused by sun damage. I now wear Neutrogena Anti-Aging facial sunscreen with an SPF of 70. Totally rocks. Just be careful as it will leave a white film if you don't rub it in well enough. I just use that as my moisturizer and put my fab Bare Minerals over top.

I am still on the hunt for the miracle worker when it comes to acne and wrinkles. What products do you use? Thoughts?

2 comments:

  1. I just read this article my friend wrote for bettyconfidential.com-
    http://www.bettyconfidential.com/cbc/healthy_living.html
    Check out "Better Bread for Better Skin" under their healthy living section-- very interesting!!!! Maybe it will help????

    I have another friend too who loves Bare Minerals...I have not tried it yet0 sounds like I should! Good luck!!!

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  2. I also love Bare Minerals!! I used to have extremely dry facial skin (well, dry skin in general actually), but now its leaning more towards combination skin thanks to hormones I guess? Anyways - Bare Minerals is the only makeup I've found that actually stays in place - i.e. doesn't look flaky and dry in my dry areas and doesn't mysteriously disappear and hide in my creases in the oily areas. It really is great :)

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