As some of you may be aware it’s not unusual for me to write about the journeys I am taking when i begin them. Most of the time these journeys are situated around my mental health and the things i may or may not be doing to improve myself. I do sometimes however decide not to include you in other journeys of my life for no particular reason other than i just don’t feel very confident in writing about them. Which brings us to the new journey.
A couple of months ago I wrote a post about my skin. Saying how using a product was helping me with the troubling parts of my skin. Now as i was growing up my skin was hardly an issue. Granted i got a few spots here and there but it was nothing very drastic and they appeared and disappeared quick enough without a fuss needing to be made. Bring me to around 17 and my skin started flaring up a lot, again not really in a way that i felt was troubling, if anything it was very normal for someone my age and although it took awhile to disappear it was no trouble and eventually it was gone.
Fast forwarding a tiny bit more to the end of 2016 and my skin again flared up. Being used to this I thought nothing of it and as usual carried on with my skin routine which looking back now wasnt a very good one. Months passed and nothing changed, if anything it was getting worse. Thats when i discovered pro-Activ+ and i give it the credit its due. It worked amazingly for around a month or two and then nothing. My skin was back to its old self only more sensitive.
I tried different facial washes, different treatment, everything. Nothing helped my skin. Bring us to today and in a polite way lets just say im not confident in myself in the slightest.I don’t want to go out without makeup on however I dont want to go out with makeup on because i fear it will only make matters worse. My skin became sore to touch and my face red raw for reasons im still not sure of. I let it breathe and decided to wash it with warm water for a while to see if it made anything difference. The only difference made was it became extremely dry, along with being sore which was made worse because of the cold weather in the recent months. I felt as though my face was on fire pretty much every time i stepped out my front door.
I’m not one for doctors, never have been and probably never will be. Nor am I one for going there if i feel like the situation isn’t severe enough but my face was causing so much agony that i just had to go. Getting there isn’t an issue, however seeing a doctor im not familiar with is a huge issue with me. I feel as though im going to get a bad reaction from going into the doctors about something so minor when someone else could’ve had my place. She was ok, personally don’t think she was very nice but i couldn’t 100% tell you whether that was because she was genuinely rude or i was just having a bad day and misinterpreted her way of helping as being rude so I’ll stick with she was ok.
I have acne, like everyone else. If anything im lucky because my acne is mild, from a professionals prospective. Obviously in my eyes its very severe, like anyones would in their own eyes but with a little bit of help it should go away within time. This brings me to my journey, I was prescribed with Duac which is a gel based antibiotic that you rub into the effected areas once daily.
Now im all for trying things out and keeping my fingers crossed so I thought i would bring you all in on the journey with me to see if and how it helps.
First impressions.
When trying Duac for the first time I found that it wasnt gel like at all, if anything it was more of a runny cream and a little bit goes a LONG way. I’m one of those people who do the whole a little bit with creams but then feel like it hasn’t properly covered the areas i feel it needs to but with this if anything i always put too much on my hand and i only use a pea sized amount every time.
It did however BURN. I was fully aware this might happen as the woman told me that I might experience some mild irritation on the first couple of applications what with having some open wounds however it was so bad i felt the need to fan my face until it eventually cooled down. Today however, 4th application, its calmed down and there’s no burning sensation whatsoever.
Something that’s alarming me however is one of the main ingredients. When I first saw the box i didn’t think much of what it said as i don’t usually keep the boxes to my creams because i find they always lose shape and become an ugly nuisance but when taking something new i ALWAYS read the instructions. The one thing that stuck out for me is the caution ‘May bleach hair and colours of dyed fabrics, furniture or carpeting’ which in turn made me look at the ingredients. One of the main ones being Benzoyl Peroxide. Now I havent got a clue on the medicine side of things, im beyond clueless but i cant help but find the word peroxide on my skin somewhat alarming? and for me to read that, someone who panics at the slightest thing im starting to wonder if i should truly carry on trying this? If someone has an answer i will be forever grateful!
Any change?
Yes and no. My face is no better, quite obviously, it hasn’t been even a week yet so I don’t expect there to be a positive outlook quite in sight. However if anything my spots are so much more noticeable and red. Some i used to be able to hide because they were there but they were very faint looking and didn’t really have much going for them but now its like they’ve come out of their shell suddenly and every spot on my face is as red as possible and beyond sore. Some even feel like they have some pressure to them causing my head to feel a little sore.
I’m hoping this is just a ‘has to get worse to get better’ situation but again I cant truly say anything until I’ve been using this for at least a month or two. I can only keep my fingers crossed and hope that they at least become less sore and painful.
I’ll keep you updated on the skin side of my life at least once a month, with other blog posts in between, to let you know how im getting on.
Have a good day
Sky x
