Archive for Skin

It’s been over a year since my first post on acne and I still get questions sometimes regarding acne. I can’t give advice on acne other than my personal experience because I am not a medical professional. Honestly, I don’t know what more I can say. I never had acne before and, in reality, only had it for a couple months, but to me it felt like such a long time. Fortunately, in my case, my dermatologist and I knew the exact cause for my acne, the issue was targeted, and in less than a month, my acne went away… that’s it. That was the end of my journey. I do still have scars left over that are fading. There’s no miracle that will make scars go away over night. Even with scar ointments and Retin-A, scars need time to heal. It can take months, even years. I also get pimples every now and then usually during menstruation, but I don’t have acne anymore.

I spent the longest time avoiding the dermatologist because I thought insurance would not cover it and out of pocket medical costs are extreme. I wasted so much time and money on OTC products; I was better off going straight to the dermatologist. What I think a lot of people fail to remember is that acne is a skin disease. Just because it happens to be common doesn’t make it any less of a disease. You’d go seek medical help for other diseases so why not acne? Trust me, insurance would not cover acne treatments if it wasn’t a disease! Everyone knows how cheap those bastards get. If you have health coverage, go see a doctor. They will be able to give you personal professional advice and try to figure out what can help cure your acne. Like with other medical treatments, they may not get it right the first time but it at least beats trying on your own. Sometimes it takes additional tests and trials.

So this will be my last post on acne since I don’t have it anymore. If you have any questions that weren’t covered in my acne posts, I really can’t help you any further because I’ve explained all that I can. Beyond that, I can’t give any further advice other than to go see a professional. If you don’t have health coverage, I’m sorry. I’m for health care reform. There are different types of acne and causes for them. In my case, my acne was hormonal so I really couldn’t cure it on my own without medical aid.

Original post
Acne Update #1

Here are some things that I purchased within the past few months. Surprisingly, no MAC. The new items MAC has released in their collections haven’t impressed me much. Many new products are looking like items I already have.

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Bought a couple things from Ulta from the last week! Ulta was having a BOGO free sale on Japonesque brushes! They only do that once in a while. It’s normally buy two get one free, buy one get one half off, or something like that. I AM A HUGE FAN OF JAPONESQUE! I think that Japonesque brushes are BETTER than a lot of MAC brushes. The ones made out of squirrel hair feel divine! I already have the concealer brush, blush brush (it’s my favorite brush for blush!), and crease brush (so much softer than the scratchy MAC 224!!). I really wanted to purchase two shadow brushes but I resisted. They would have ended up about $7.50 a piece which is great, but I thought, gosh I have so many brushes. Do I really need more? It was SO hard for me to pass up a good deal!

They were also having a BOGO free on the Ulta line of 3-1 bath gels. They normally cost $14.99. I needed to buy body wash since I had run out and had to use a nasty bar soap for emergency. I bought the Buttercream Cupcake scent. it smells just like the Philosophy Vanilla Birthday Cake but is much cheaper after sales and coupons.

THEN, right after that sale, Ulta had another sale where the TIGI bedhead 750 ml shampoos and conditioners (they call them “tween” ) were $9.99 each! THESE ARE STILL ON SALE SO GET TO IT YA’LL! They do this promo like… oh two, three, four times a year? I want to say two, but don’t quote me on that. I haven’t been keeping track of the time these days. Normally they cost about $23-$26! I still have bottles stored from when I stocked up on A TON from Ulta two years ago, but I bought more! I bought them on Tuesday and got them for about $8 each! The first Tuesday of every month, college students get a 20% discount on EVERYTHING in the store off the total purchase. I buy only conditioners because I have to use medicated shampoo for my psoriasis. Plus the conditioners are normally $23ish while the shampoos are $18ish so the savings are greater with conditioners. I normally use the Catwalk for colour treated hair (smells like blueberries or something like that) and Moisture Maniac (smells like Mandarin oranges!). This time I tried buying the Brunette one. I don’t see it doing anything for my hair but my goodness, it smells so good! Like a musky caramel scent. I also bought the Oatmeal and Honey. I hated it when I bought it a long time ago, but I like the smell now because of special reasons

PS. I would stay far away from the TIGI Control Freak conditioner (lime green bottle). That one is just plain weird. It suds up like a shampoo and tangled my hair. I actually thought that I accidentally used shampoo instead of conditioner! Also the TIGI Superstar (pink bottle) smells like Pepto Bismol after you store it for a while.

AAAAND here’s a coupon for $3.50 off $10 (it’ll work for 9.99 too) good until July 25 09. It says one time use only but that’s a bunch of BS. And here’s a 20% off coupon too good until July 18 09. Obviously you can only use one coupon per purchase. Here’s a tip for you guys: Every time you plan on going to Ulta, Google “Ulta coupon” or “Ulta printable coupon” and you’ll get hits for Ulta’s current coupons. That’s what I always do!

update: This seems to be the new packaging/label of the Merlot moisturizer. Hopefully that’ll now help with identifying the newer, hopefully consistent, batches.

Creme de Vin is made of natural red grape seeds polyphenols. It offers sensational antioxidant properties thereby helping to inhibit the aging process.
* Natures most powerful antioxidant
* Anti-Aging
* SPF 15

* Fragrance Free
* Non-Oily

Size: 4 oz.
Price: ~ $15
Where to buy: Walgreens or Merlotskincare.com

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Documented on 9-10-08
My skin has been absolutely horrendous for the last months. More notably so within the last month. I looked at myself last night and honestly burst into tears. I broke down and started scrubbing my face with a cotton ball soaked with a 2.0% salicylic acid toner. It was painful, blemishes were erupting from the harsh scrubbing, blood was everywhere. I couldn’t handle it any longer. My skin has been flawless for most of my life with the typical teenage zit here and there. I had a tube of Clearasil that has lasted me for over 6 years and it’s only 25% used (It finally expires this month by the way)! I am not used to seeing my skin covered with numerous large, inflamed, and painful bumps.

I started taking Yasmin for a while but couldn’t keep up with the $120 for a 3 month supply (with insurance). After going off Yasmin for a generic BC, which only cost a mere $10 for a 3 month supply, my skin has gone absolutely mad! But I considered it bad back then. After I stopped taking the generic BC, my skin has become even worse and has gradually become worse and worse as time passes. I expected my skin to eventually calm down, but this is just too much and too long. If I have to jump back on the BC train, specifically the costly “brand name” BC train, then I guess that’s what I’m going to do.

I’ve tried zinc supplements, Flax seed oil supplements, and seriously ODed on Salicylic Acid and Benzoyle Peroxide topical treatments, all in vain. And no, don’t try to blame it all on my makeup. I’ve gone weeks without makeup only to see no subtle improvement. I’ve been trying to do everything I can to fix the problem before going to a dermatologist because I don’t know if my insurance will cover it. With how shitty my skin looks, insurance or not, it has to be done. I don’t want to see myself having indented acne scars that can only be “fixed” with silicone injections, which aren’t even permanent… I could just have a refill on Yasmin and save myself the copay, but I want to get the professional medical analysis and confirmation that my acne has in fact, formed due to a disruption in hormonal balance. I’m leaning towards this cause, but for now, it’s only a theory.

Documented on 9-12-08
Okay, so just got back from seeing the dermatologist. I love her! I basically described what I’ve written and she said I was completely right. She prescribed me a BC again. What I love about this doctor is that she’s totally sympathetic with patients financially. I told her I used Yasmin but could not afford it and asked if she could prescribe me cheaper generics instead. She took the effort to find out which products would be cheaper for my insurance and in the end, she just prescribed me Yasmin and did an override. Meaning, I’d be getting a name brand prescription with a generic price! I had no idea doctors had the power of “override”. That means I payed $120 once for a 3 month supply of Yasmin when I could have payed only $10 if the doctor I had was nice enough! When I told her how much I paid before, she asked me, “Your doctor didn’t override that for you?”. She told me, “I wouldn’t want you to pay that much for medicine, because then seems like, What’s the point of insurance?”. *clap clap* Finally I have a doctor who isn’t money hungry with the pharmaceutical companies. She’s a keeper! She even made the extra effort to inform me verbally and on my visit summary that if the corrected price does not show up in the pharmacy, to have them call her.

So, I ended up getting a 3 month supply of Yasmin, and two topical treatments which include: Two tubes of 1% clindamycin phosphate gel (antibiotic), and one tube Retin-A. ALL for only $30! I should have done this earlier. I told her I don’t like topical treatments, but she told me that it would take about 3 months for the Yasmin to kick in, so I agreed to use the topical treatments to help the acne until then.

Oh yeah, and I’ve finally been diagnosed with (scalp) Psoriasis. She just told me to try Neutrogena T-Gel and get a humidifier, and if it doesn’t help, to come back. I might have arthritis (something that compliments a few people who have Psoriasis) too We’re going to pay more attention during the winter months. I’m all sorts of unhealthy aren’t I? 2008 has definitely been the year of diagnoses for me. I’ve accumulated like… what four, five so far? Two emergency room visits, countless hospital visits. Life is AWESOME…

I laugh when I read comments and messages asking for me to do skin care/routine videos. I have so much shit going on with my skin, are you sure?! HAHA.

Here are photos of my skin without foundation. There you go. Flawless? HELL NO! See, I am not being modest or fishing for compliments when I say that I do not have healthy skin. I’m just being completely honest.

Hopefully it improves when 3 months passes. Will keep you updated.

Left side:

Middle:

Right:

EDIT: Sorry, I have not yet adapted to this whole internet thing. You encounter people that you normally wouldn’t in your daily life. When you’re mostly surrounded by educated people, you forget that there exists those who can not handle even mildly mature topics.