The Acne Post - Revisited

It's been a while since my last post, and that's mainly because my skincare routine has been in a transitional period after I made some drastic changes about a month ago. I wanted to wait at least one month to write this post so I could give you some honest and time-tested feedback. 

I decided to get a facial at a place I've been going for years for bikini waxes called Peaches Skin Care here in Santa Barbara. My skin was majorly breaking out after I switched to a heavy daytime moisturizer with a high SPF (FYI, it was Boscia Restorative Day Moisture Cream SPF 15 -- heavy and greasy, ugh) and I was feeling desperate. I knew from doing my usual extensive online research that precedes any kind of beauty-related service that Peaches makes their own products, uses microcurrent and microdermabrasion (say what?) in their facials, and boasts on their website and social media sites that they can clear up any kind of acne, with before and after photos that seem too good to be true. So I had high expectations, and also high doubts that my uber-sensitive skin would do well with the two M's that I thought were reserved for "medical" spas (i.e. places you can get Botox but say you're going to the spa--or so I hear).

After a facial that was a little over an hour with a friendly and concerned esthetician, my face was looking a bit battered (she did very thorough extractions), but I was feeling hopeful. Here are my main takeaways from Peaches:

• Regular facials with extractions, microdermabrasion, and microcurrent are important for skin maintenance. The extractions get all the acne-causing gunk out, microderm brings up layers of new skin, and the microcurrent lifts and tightens (they call it a "face lift without surgery"...which I think is more than a bit of a stretch).  A second facial a few weeks after the first is the most important to make sure the new skin that was brought up by the first facial stays clean (or maybe this is a ploy to get you to buy a facial package at Peaches...which gives you a small discount if you pay for 3 facials at once. Either way, I bought it).
• Only pure antioxidants penetrate the skin and make a difference. I didn't feel pressured into buying their products, but the way the esthetician seemed to honestly believe they were the best out there and that they could change my skin sold me. I bought a cleanser, exfoliating wash, toner, and mask. (Full disclosure: I would've bought their moisturizer except that after testing it on my arm I had an allergic reaction.)
• Yeast infection cream can cure your acne.  The esthetician also insisted I put Monistat 7 (yes) on my face morning and night after toning. She said that acne is often a fungal problem and so the Monistat helps with that.
• Milk of magnesia is a fabulous face mask. They recommend you sleep with it on your face like a mask or at the very least in problem areas, as it calms skin, curbs oil production and helps acne. I've been leaving this on overnight on areas where I feel like I might have a zit coming on, and, sure enough, I wake up zit-free in the morning!
• Wear sunscreen on your face only when necessary. This probably shocked me even more than the vag cream. According to Peaches, sunscreen ingredients are pore-clogging and cause breakouts. She recommended a titanium dioxide sunscreen to use only as needed, but since wide-brimmed hats are for sale in the Peaches lobby, I think it's safe to assume they prefer hats to sunscreen.
• Makeup is the devil. Absolutely NO liquid foundation. Pure mineral makeup with no fillers is OK (i.e. no Bare Minerals) but they really hate foundation, saying it causes acne. 
• Even worse than the devil: Wearing the devil while working out. Sweat will cause your makeup to clog your pores even more. 

All of this might seem pretty extreme and weird to someone who has not tried everything to clear their skin and had no luck. But people like me, think, hmmm, this actually kind of makes sense.

Was it instant omg-this-skincare-is-a-miracle? No. Have I had any breakouts? Yes. Have they been smaller than usual and few and far between? YES. They also go away quicker and without using any targeted acne treatments like the ones I reviewed in my original Acne Post. In fact, most of these minor breakouts happened while I was traveling and not following the routine to a T, and since I got back and had my second facial (3 weeks ago) those breakouts cleared up super quick and I have not had a single breakout since.

The main issue I am dealing with now is minor irritation that may or may not be related to the Peaches products and routine. After my first facial, my skin was definitely more sensitive and reactive, and I was also flushing at the littlest cause. Since my second facial, it's been a lot better. Some days I can feel my skin flushing more easily than others. I also suffer from bad seasonal allergies that always affect my skin, and it's prime season right now. Since my skin is looking so great otherwise, I am really hoping it's not the products. I will probably be in denial at least for another 6 months until I use them up anyway. :)

The Acne Post

I've been battling acne since I was 15. And while it comes and goes in hormonal waves and is not half as bad as it was in high school, it's still the bane of my existence. I have tried literally hundreds of acne products. In high school I mainly used Clean & Clear and then Proactiv, followed by a more aggressive approach recommended by a dermatologist that involved some kind of oral medication I can't remember  combined with 2 creams I can't remember. More than one dermatologist has prescribed Ziana gel for me. I've switched birth control pills more than once. And then I've tried the natural approach with tea tree oil and also dabbing on a spot of toothpaste. And nothing, NOTHING has been effective over the long run. 

It's a minor health problem, but it has majorly effected my self esteem over the years. In high school it was mainly why I didn't talk to boys. Post-high school I can think of several occasions on which I've rearranged my schedule because I was having a bad skin day. I even had a pimple on my wedding day, and acne is something I never thought I would have to be dealing with at this time of my life, at 26. The bottom line is that it sucks. There is no "cure." And for many people, it doesn't stop when you leave your teens. 

There are products that can help, and the point of this post is to tell you about two of them: Boscia Willow Bark Breakout Treatment and Kate Somerville EradiKate Acne Treatment. I've been using the Boscia treatment for about a year now and it's gentle, unscented, and goes on clear (pretty much the opposite of the Kate Somerville product). It's effectiveness varies, but with smaller pimples it has made a noticeable difference overnight. For bigger pimples I reach for the EradiKate. This stuff is potent. It's Pepto Bismol pink, with a sticker on the top telling you "DO NOT SHAKE," and it smells very strongly of sulfur, its primary blemish-fighting ingredient. Be forewarned that this stuff is a man-repellant, so be choosy with which nights you apply it. The pink sediment will separate from the clear oil in the bottle, and you're supposed to stick a cotton swab directly into it all the way to the sediment at the bottom. I usually do this but add in a swirl with the q-tip, to make sure you get the sediment and not just the clear stuff, which does nada. You want to make sure the pimple is completely covered in pink after you apply it. It usually stings a tiny bit when you first put it on, but that quickly fades.

I would estimate that my success rate with EradiKate is 90%. It almost always reduces pimple size. It's more effective on the over-the-skin pimples like whiteheads than the more frustrating under-the-skin pimples. But, I'll take it. 

I Believed in Boscia

I had really high hopes when I first noticed the Boscia display tucked away in the farthest corner of my local Sephora's skincare section. The green leaf logo with simple black text and all-white packaging boded well for low-key, natural products. I was in the store in early July, when it finally starts to feel slightly hotter than the pleasant year-round temperature of 72 degrees in sunny Santa Barbara, and on the hunt for a lightweight summer moisturizer. 

A sales rep directed me to the Boscia Oil Free Moisturizer with SPF 15, and it did seem to fit all my criteria: lightweight, non-greasy, natural, with SPF. I decided to try it out, and, since I have no self-control when it comes to food and beauty products, also picked up Boscia's Willow Bark Breakout Treatment, Recharging Night Moisturizer, Clear Complexion Cleanser, and Luminizing Black Mask.

The Oil Free Moisturizer is pretty basic and true to its label, but at $36 for 1.4 oz, there are cheaper alternatives for the same quality.  I'm still using the Recharging Night Moisturizer almost every night (after my Argan Oil application of course) and the blemish treatment, even though its effectiveness has dwindled. When I first squeezed out some of the clear gel and applied it to a medium-sized pimple, I was shocked at how it had shrunk to small-sized by the morning. Unfortunately, my experience with most acne products has been high effectiveness for a few days to as long as a few weeks, followed by absolutely nothing as my skin develops an immunity. I'm cruelly tricked into thinking I've found the perfect product to cure me of the acne I've been plagued with since I was 15 until BAM! That medium-sized pimple might have just turned plus-size overnight.

Boscia claims to be "natural," and while they are preservative free, most of their products have long ingredient lists, which is something I'm really trying to move away from. I had an allergic reaction to their Clear Complexion Treatment, not an extreme one, but some pretty persistent itchiness about 15 minutes after application, and that one bad egg kind of turned me off the line. 

The truth is, I don't dislike Boscia. It's a huge plus for me that it's carried at Sephora, which has an awesome return policy so I can easily return products I've tried and am allergic to. It's also probably the most natural brand carried by the store, and I like their no-frills packaging. But, like I mentioned, I was really hoping for much more than a "meh" reaction. It had potential. Oh well, on to the next!

The Repurchase

Yesterday, while I was browsing Sephora.com for things to buy with my Sephora gift card I got for Christmas from my mother, a curious thing happened. I chose Josie Maran from the drop-down list of brands, clicked on Argan Oil, and before I knew it there was a 1.7 oz bottle of Josie Maran Argan Oil for $48 in my shopping cart.

To the best of my memory, I have only repurchased one beauty product in my lifetime: Philosophy's Hope in a Jar moisturizer. I even ventured so far as to purchase the version with SPF in it right when it was released, which was a huge disappointment since the oil separated easily and overall it had a greasy consistency that was nothing like the original version. I was probably a little less than halfway through my repurchased jar of the original when I decided to look at the long list of highly chemical ingredients on the back and had a thought that maybe since I had used it for so long (almost two years) I was allergic to it and didn't even know it. At the time I was occasionally getting a small hive or two on my face during the day at random times, but had no allergic reaction when I put on the moisturizer in the morning. I admitted to myself that it was an unlikely hunch, but decided to give away the remainder of the jar to my mother anyway.

My underlying motive that I was trying to keep repressed was the opportunity to purchase a new moisturizer. To me, a facial moisturizer is the ultimate skincare purchase. You wear it every day, it can greatly impact the appearance and health of your skin, and there are SO many choices. I eagerly started exploring the beauty section at Whole Foods and visiting natural product websites, which introduced me to a plethora of beauty products I had never before explored.

Skip forward two years: I'm on line at Sephora, waiting in that maze of miniature-sized beauty candies designed specifically for impulse beauty buyers like myself. I paw a small bottle of Josie Maran Argan Oil, remember reading somewhere about this new "it" beauty product and it's miraculous benefits, and for $14, can't resist adding it to the day's beauty loot. 

I read that it was a multitasker, so I brought it with my on my wedding/honeymoon trip and used it as a body oil and hair frizz tamer. It worked well, and I showed no signs of allergy (which is always a plus), although I found the medicine dropper a little annoying to use. After I got back from my trip, I unpacked it in a drawer forgot about it.

These past few months have been some of the worst ever for my skin -- I'm talking flaky dryness, itchiness, and pimples that can't even be fully concealed with my team of Make Up Forever products. I'm not really sure what's going on -- or if it's connected to my 8-pound weight gain and sprouting gray hairs along my part. Needless to say, I've been searching for a miracle product. I remember the high praise I read about argan oil and slather some on before going to bed one night. The next morning my pimples are smaller and flakiness is reduced. I put it on again the next night and see the same results, but there's one thing that bothers me: the mini-sized bottle is now only 1/4 full.

And so it begins.