Skin gods = Not So Happy

Not so sure if you all remember THIS post, but apparently the Skin gods were not so happy with it. I wrote about how I hated my skin in high school and parts of college because of random breakouts, but how now I love my skin because it stays clear all of the time….yeah, not so much. My forehead has recently (since right before my bridal shower on May 1st) decided to rebel and I’ve been experiencing breakouts – not anything too major, but my usually smooth and soft skin on my forehead has transformed into bumpy, red skin. I’m not sure if it’s the amount of exercise that I am doing each day, my diet, or heck, maybe it’s the shampoo I’ve been using, but I’ve had to make a change.

The amount of exercise I’m doing each day might be the problem – when I was in high school I was ALWAYS exercising (I played basically EVERY sport…tennis, swimming, track, basketball, cross country) and my problem with my skin then was exactly what I am experiencing now. Then I looked at my diet, but it really can’t be that – I eat so many fruits and vegetables during the week and healthy dinners at night and I only drink water, and plenty of it throughout the day! Finally I took a look at the different “beauty” products I have been using. I’ve been using that John Freida Blonde shampoo that has a “lightening complex” and also a lightening conditioning product. When I really thought about it I realized that during college I had a similar breakout and was using the same lightening conditioning product then that I am now. I immediately stopped using that and I also switched to plain old Pantene shampoo.

When I was in high school I tried Pro-Active and it worked well so I decided to pick up the $19.99 skin treatment – I started using it (for about 3 weeks) and it really wasn’t helping (in the past I’ve seen a change in my skin almost immediately upon beginning this treatment).

Of course I started to freak out and I am not one to get super freaked out about much of anything, but my wedding is only a few weeks away and I am NOT ok with having a bumpy forehead especially when I haven’t had this problem for SO LONG!!! I know, it's kind of stupid for me to freak out about something so insignificant, but I don't want to feel like I have bad skin on my wedding day! I can't be the only person who would feel this way...

So now I’ve switched my entire regime (against the recommendation of my makeup artist for my wedding day) with only a few weeks until my wedding. Like I said above, I changed all of my hair treatment products to the simplest possible combination. I quit using Pro-Active because the face wash has these little exfoliating beads which only seemed to make my skin's appearance worse. I pull my hair back EVERY day for work so that it is off of my face and I avoid touching my face at all costs. Finally, I started using a Biore face wash with a salicylic acid treatment which doesn’t irritate my skin (and doesn’t include those annoying exfoliating beads), plain old Cetaphil moisturizer (with SPF 15) and finally, I started using Retin-A only on my forehead.

It’s only been a week and a half on this new regime, but my skin is almost completely clear! Thank you skin gods – now please let it clear up completely before my wedding day, pretty please! :)