My Acne Journey
My skin today
I think I was around 13 when I started with the dreaded acne. I absolutely hated it and felt extremely self conscious about my skin - something that has never quite left me even though my skin is now acne free. So it was from a very early age that I had to really look after my skin more than your average Joe and it was most certainly the thing that got me into makeup as a tool for covering it up.
Back in the 90’s being a Makeup Artist wasn’t really something I knew was even possible to pursue as a career choice, especially in the North East. But it was my battle with acne that pushed me towards makeup and beauty products (turning me into a bit of a makeup geek actually) that would years later become a career that I love.
I grew up in a house of all girls (apart from my dad). Neither of my sisters or my Mam were particularly interested in makeup and so my passion and love for it was completely organically grown.
Back to the acne, when it first became an issue my Mam took me to the GP who over the next 18 months prescribed all the usual antibiotics, topical treatments and even the contraceptive pill Dianette, which is also used as a treatment for acne. None of these treatments worked for me. In fact it got progressively worse and I was eventually referred to a Dermatologist at the hospital. I then went through a stint of Sunlight treatment which involved a weekly visit to the dermatology department to have what was essentially a sun bed on my face. Although I had a cracking tan from the neck up, I still had acne!
It was at this point I was prescribed a hardcore medicine called Roaccutane, which is a drug used to treat severe acne. I had to sign forms agreeing not to get pregnant whilst on the drug (not that this would be an issue I was 15!) as the medicine can have serious side effects including harming unborn babies, severe depression and liver/kidney damage to mention but a few. So as you can probably gather, your skin has to be majorly bad for you even to consider this route.
There is a lot of controversy over this medicine as there is substantial evidence of it causing depression and anxiety. There is a counter argument to say people who are taking the medicine have such chronically bad skin, it is in fact this that causes them to feel depressed/anxious at the time of taking the medicine. For me, I definitely felt very low and anxious about my skin which I did prior to the treatment, so I think I would fall in the latter category.
I had to have regular liver function tests to make sure it wasn’t having any detrimental effects. Almost immediately my skin started to dry out like a dehydrated prune! It was so dry and itchy and my lips felt like they were going to drop off. It was pretty unbearable to be honest and no matter what I used to try and relieve the dryness and itchiness, it didn’t ease. Not only that but my well honed skills of covering the acne with foundation and concealer were useless as any makeup would cling to the dry skin making it look a million times worse. As you can imagine I looked lush! But the treatment did work and got rid of the acne.
A year later much to my despair, the bloody thing came back. That’s when I did round two of Roaccutane on an even stronger dose. Once again it worked, but from the age of 18 well into my twenties I continued to breakout, however not to the same degree.
My skin was scarred which caused me equal amounts of distress as the acne itself. The dermatologist told me my skin would heal in time but I knew some of the pitting would not heal on its own. All of this was before the days of the internet where you could just research such things at the click of a button. There were pretty much no resources dealing with the condition other than through the GP and the Dermatologist. All my skin care at that time consisted of products prescribed through the hospital.
I then started to hear of laser treatment being used to treat acne and scarring. At this time there was no such thing in Newcastle, but I discovered there was a clinic in Manchester that offered the service. I remember asking my family for money for Christmas and my birthday and used it to pay for my laser treatments which I would have every six weeks. I honestly think this coupled with the Roaccutane was the thing that worked for me. Slowly but surely the acne stopped and my scarring started to heal, it was such a relief.
Once I was no longer visiting the Dermatologist, I started using Dermalogica which was up and coming in the UK at the time. It was the first brand I had seen that was a hybrid of high end skincare but with real science and dermatology behind it. When I was working in London I would go to their clinic and get a skin analysis and they would advise me what products to use. Although I mix my products around now, I love Dermalogica and still use some of their products to this day (more on that in a future post).
My skin is by no means perfect now and I do still have some scarring, but gone are the days of heavy matte foundations and spending ridiculous amounts of time on makeup trying to cover things up. I now wear very sheer foundations and feel comfortable in them. As I said earlier, I really look after my skin having been through all of this and don’t take healthy skin for granted. I will do a future blog on my skincare routine. Now that my skin is healthy, I do chop and change brands as I like to try different things out, but I use the same type and order of products no matter which brand I use which I will write about later.
Sorry this has been such a long post but it was such a long battle - 15 years!!! I hope this is helpful to someone suffering and my advice would be, if you have acne get on it straight away before it leaves any scarring. Should either of my boys show signs of it, I’ll be on it tout suite because of the effect it has on your confidence and mental well being. Would I recommend Roaccutane - hhhmmm it would be my last port of call if absolutely no other treatment worked. I do believe laser treatment is a lot more advanced these days and that was definitely the thing that sealed the deal for me.
Hope this is helpful xx
Big Love
Emma xx