(You can read Part One of the Rethink Your Skin Care Routine series and about our on going Mother's Day giveaway here.)
As a teenager, I was easy prey for any product that marketed beautiful, radiant skin. I'd beg my mom for any new skin care product that promised to make my acne vanish, my skin glow and my confidence soar. Not all of those were cheap either (sorry, Mom). I wound up with a cabinet full of half empty bottles and the same old face staring back at me in the mirror.
When I discovered real food and started ditching my chemical-laden facial products, my major cystic acne problem did disappear. Alleluia.
When I started oil cleansing, I saw a great improvement in my skin. Those occasional breakouts almost completely ceased. My skin stopped oscillating between overly oily and dry and tight and finally just relaxed in a beautiful place in between. I started wearing makeup only occasionally to enhance and not to cover up.
I thought when the acne cleared, my skin would look flawless. But I found myself feeling dissatisfied Now that I no longer had to focus on my blemishes, I got to see the up close and personal damage a few decades can do to one's skin.
Sun damage.
Toxins from all of my skin care experiments.
Acne scarring.
Dry patches.
As thrilled as I was that the acne was gone, I was less than satisfied with the dull, pock-marked face I was left with. I overheard talk about fine lines and wrinkles from ladies just a mere generation ahead of me and thought I should just enjoy this semi-happy middle stage without acne or wrinkles.
But I can feel that fine-lined future creeping up on my face. I'm getting a wicked little pair of lines forming between my brows that DON'T GO AWAY when I stop furrowing my brows in concentration. I suspect their formation began during college statistics class.