Dirty Thirty...Adult Acne Time

I turned thirty in May. In all the irony the the U.S. healthcare system and insurance has to offer, my Retin-A was cancelled due to my age. Apparently I'm too old for acne (my insurance would allow it if I were in the teen to young twenties bracket) and too young for wrinkles (it acts as a collagen booster for older women). There's a window here, ladies! We're not supposed to have acne or wrinkles, according to my insurance tables.

I wish someone from United Healthcare would call my pores.

I have blackheads on my nose, I have cystic acne around my chin, I have discoloration/rosacea on my cheekbones, I have scars from teenaged acne, and I have whiteheads and zits on my cheeks from where my phone transfers bacteria to my pores. Heavens, I don't know how I leave the house without a bag over my head or shellacking myself with buckets of stage makeup! It's like I have the plague!

Just kidding. It's not that serious. This is a first world problem. One that could probably be solved by Pro-active, but I am adamantly against anything that Jessica Simpson endorses. I digress.

I attempted microdermabrasian, but the esthetician insisted that a fruit acid (PCA) chemical peel would do wonders for my skin and I'd see amazing results. I saw no change except for my credit card statement.

A dear friend I've known for years (love you Amber!) suggested via social media that I look into the "Oil Cleansing Method" and to give it a shot. I love DIY and I love natural remedies, so this seemed worth the look-see.

I could probably credit all the different sites I read, but I know the main one was from Wellness Mama.com and plenty of connected sites. In a nutshell, I decided to order a couple of oils (jojoba and evening primrose on amazon) and while I waited on those, I would try something that I had in my kitchen already. (I also decided to avoid Castor Oil for ethical and skin-sensitivity issues. It is toxic to the workers who process it, so that's a good reason for me to avoid it-- um, it's also the same plant that makes ricin.)

Immediately on hand?
Sunflower, olive, coconut, and flax seed oils. (I mean, I have canola oil, but that's from a plant called rapeseed, and seriously, my face is jacked up enough.) You can mix in different essential oils and vitamin E to help balance, so I decided to use common sense and give it a go. Every site I read said that give it time (approximately a week) for your skin to get used to this concept and see any results. I'm on day 3, and so far so good.

My execution?

1. At night, mix a handful of flaxseed oil (it also has some flaxseeds ground in it, so it works as a scrub) with a couple of drops of tea tree oil. Tea tree oil is anti-bacterial and is in many natural acne remedies. I personally think it stinks.
2. Rub this stuff into my skin and leave it on for a few minutes. It's brown and a little abrasive, but in a smoothing way, due to the flaxseed. The tea tree oil is more astringent than emollient, but dry skin isn't too much of a problem for me in the summer.
3. Wring out a very hot washcloth so it is damp and set it on my face, allowing it to cool and steam open my pores. Repeat...then wipe off anything left.

Immediate Results? My skin felt soft, and the acne didn't seem any worse. The next morning, I noticed my nose felt damp, so I looked in the mirror and I saw the oil oozing from my blackheads on my nose. Gross, right? I know! But it also meant that the oil was leaving my body and my pores were tinier and tighter. Cool!

In the morning, I tried a slightly gentler approach--
1. A handful of coconut oil (it was liquid because it's over 80 degrees upstairs in my bathroom) with a few drops of tangerine essential oil. Both are organic, for what it's worth.
2. I repeated the steps from night time-- I massaged the oil mix in (the tangerine smell was happy and uplifting!) and allowed it to penetrate my skin for a few minutes. I repeated the steam washcloth and went about my day. (Side note on the citrus acid oil-- it had a seriously nostalgic feeling because my Grandma Marilyn always had a natural citrus air freshener in her powder room. The smell was overwhelmingly lovely to me. It also smells like the award-winning Burt's Bees orange cleanser, but I never liked that much when I used it...and it's been deceptively changed and discontinued on its website, but is available from other retailers. The new kind has other ingredients in it.)

I think when I have less time on my hands, I'll probably skip the steam washcloth and apply the oil before I hop in the shower-- but for now, that part feels pretty therapeutic!

Here's a picture of my cute snuggly dog. You can see my ugly acne cheek here.

In actuality, while I was listing off the dermatological "problem areas" of my face...I thought about the fact that I also have smile lines (both by my eyes and lips) from 30 years of laughing and smiling about life. I also have acne-camouflaging freckles,  which my brother and I share, but my sister and I do not. It's kind of cool to think about the genetics of physical traits-- I have my grandmother's big brown eyes while my mom got her father's baby blues.  My skin is pretty fair, but with the olive complexion of some Mediterranean relatives, I don't get sun burns easily and I do enjoy sitting in the sun! Plus, I mean, look at that snuggle-pup. She don't care about no adult acne.