"Skincare Makes Me Break Out"

Four years ago, I was given what seemed like sound advice by a neighbor of mine regarding facial care. She introduced me to makeup, and at the same time told me I had to cleanse and moisturize my face before I put on makeup. She also said it was imperative that I wash my face every day, no matter what. This seems like good advice, right?

Mommy dearest said there was no need to spend oodles and oodles of money every year on skincare products- skin ignored is often the best skin of all. But then again, this made far too much sense to be true. So I ignored Mom. Not too long after I started cleansing and moisturizing my skin, I started to break out. I had never had acne before. I spend four years going through every teen-marketed skincare regimen on the market: Neutrogena, Proactiv, AcneFree, you name it, i tried it. Problem was, none of it worked for long. I would try a new product when my skin got really bad, it would work for about a month, and then my acne would come back with a vengeance.

I mentioned it to my mom recently, and she commented that the battery acids I was using on my face were having serious detrimental effects. She said I should just try normal soap- or better yet, nothing at all. I decided during one of my worst breakouts of the year to try her advice.

The results were astounding. My skin cleared up within a week, and I stopped even using makeup to cover my spotty skin. Absolute magic. But it wasn't perfect yet. After a few weeks of using the plain old soap, I got lazy. I forgot to wash my face for a few days, and something magical happened. All my acne went away. All of it.

Mom was right. Darn.

Acne is cyclical, because it is tied to oil concentrations and other junk that is tied to hormone levels, and any woman knows that those are cyclical. I occasionally get mild breakouts when I'm stressed or I'm approaching my period, but it is tolerable. The time between when I quit using professional products and when I began to use nothing at all was almost painful, I admit. My skin burned whenever I got out of the shower, begging for moisturizer. My acne was so bad I wore full cover-up makeup for days just to hide the red, and i'm not a huge makeup fan. It's not easy to quit, because your skin is literally addicted to the care you give it.

I'm better off now after quitting skincare. My mother and I will giggle at commercials or boxes claiming to do (for a fee) what I get for free by doing nothing at all. As much as I hate to say it, my mother was right.