Trying to Manage Acne and Blemishes…

This is an extremely interesting topic to me right now as I am going through it, it is also one I thought a few times about before posting but I think it os important for me to be honest even as things happen to me if I expect people to take me seriously and to maintain my integrity.

 Imagine my frustration with brutal breakouts right now; eating extremely clean and balanced, using amazingly supportive supplements, getting regular exercise and being pretty freaking happy in life!

Plus using amazingly supportive skin care and body care products…or so I thought!

Now I know in the last year I have definitely gone through some changes. Opening up my own business was a huge highlight but also a source of too much work, too many late nights and not enough rest. So one would think…okay well than breakouts sound normal in this scenario – right?

I am not all that satisfied by this response; you see I have recognized a pattern over the last few months.

Back in late October when I was prepping for a seminar on Hormone Balancing, in which I speak about using good skin care products, I decided to sit down and re-visit my own as ingredients tend to change over time and sometimes with no notice from the company, and boy was I surprised…

The toner that I had been using from my dermatologist since I was in my early twenties and still modeling, contained 2% clindamycin – a friggin topical antibiotic! Seriously! Are you kidding me, I have been preaching about avoiding these suckers like the plague and here I have been slappin one on my face every morning! Make me wanna puke…

So I called the dermatologist office to find out why this was in here? They explained that the small amount of antibiotic helps to keep certain bacteria naturally occurring on the skin’s surface at bay in those who can be slightly prone to acne or breakouts. Then the receptionist said to me, “you mean to say you have been using this from us for almost 10 years and you are just now realizing it contains this”? Insert blank pissed off look on my face!

Holy crapass I had done what I was speaking about to so many others; I had become so comfortable in what I was using and had been having relatively clear skin for a while, that it didn’t even occur to me to take a second glance at it.

So now I felt the only thing to do was stop the product and at the same time switch from a less reputable and inexpensive ‘organic’ pressed powder and non-organic concealer to better options (again, like I always say – the evolution of being clean is a process and a journey; bit by bit even for Moi!

So I went to the health food store, bought some new toner, natural topical blemish ‘stuff’, powder and concealor…one week in – skin was looking pretty good, yay I didn’t need that antibiotic toner!

Now came week two and my trip to NYC and 3 not so little friends..one on my cheek (this was new) and 2 on my chin (the usual place I will break out. The two on my chin were not exactly easy to hide, they pretty much sang their own national anthem they were so visible…awesome!

Now some of you may be reading this and thinking, “who cares about this, we all get zits” and this is true, but I want to know why?

Why when I do most things right is my face reacting the way it is? Hormones? Food? Bacteria?

I do not buy the excuses like; it runs in my family or I just have oil skin etc. I believe there are deeper reasons for most things and this is one of them. My skin is merely a symptom trying to tell me or teach me about something else that is going on the inside.

Trust me, I have had the thought to just say screw it and go back on the toner, I mean I am talking to people for a living its not like I can hide out if I am having a bad skin day,  but I can’t use it again…not yet anyway, I need to see if I can manage this based on my own rules, my own lessons that I am teaching others.

So I am embarking on a bit of a skin journey and research piece; I have been reading a lot of hormonal acne, coming off the pill acne, peri-menopausal, excess androgens, food sensitivities links etc and I am going to use myself as the guinea pig to make my way through these hypothesis and see what the results are.

My first step is meeting with our Homeopath Aimee Marples on Friday to take my case and see what we come up with.

If you’d like follow me along this journey of holisticaly balanced skin and maybe we”ll all learn something together!