suncream, zits and wrinkles: rolling skincare thread?

darker skin affects vitamin D, too. melanin.

my regimen:

aveeno 15 spf facial moisturizer on my face in the and aveeno 15 spf body lotion in the am (i should probably upgrade the spf when i run out)
clarisonic w/ gentle brush with trader joe's facial cleanser (makeupalley recommends it as a solid knock-off of dr perricone's cleanser) -> retin a micro -> cerave (if my skin has been particularly dry} in the pm. then some aquaphor on my lips for good measure.

That's a good rec, my Badescu cleansers are running out and too rich for my pocketbook at the moment, will add to TJ's shopping list.

I think they have a couple, this is the specific one:

http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article.asp?article_id=257

I am also in high altitude, which makes the sun way harsher. In other areas of the country I don't seem nearly as affected. And if I go on a hike in the mountains, I am toast for the rest of the day.

Oh yeah, I didn't even think about that but that is OTM. When I lived in Boulder I felt like I would just wilt into a limp pile if I stayed in direct sunlight for more than a few minutes. At sea level, it's more like I'm just tired as hell for the rest of the day but I remember a couple of times living in CO that the impact was immediate and intense.

Well, I've been to the doc, she saw my face, and I have a new regimen. Yay?

what is the regimen?

and yay!

Sure, why not yay? What did she recommend?

xp what VG said!

it's so complicated that i don't even understand it yet. i have to go to the pharmacy, but basically i have acne :-/

she also said i should wash my hair more because the greasy bangs were getting on my forehead.

Well at least it's not something exotic that nobody knows how to treat. It would be worse if she were like, "HUH! Weird. I have never seen anything like that before. Maybe try Cetaphil?"

Try just washing your bangs. That's what I do, although it's more to keep my greasy forehead from making my bangs greasy than vice versa. It does necessitate wetting your hair, though.

I even asked her "am I overreacting?" and she was like "nope, you have acne" and I was so thankful for the straight talk. That's all I want from people most of the time.

Does the regimen involve spironolactone? Because I love that stuff so much, magic bullet for realz (ymmv).

i have no idea -- i just know that i sincerely hope whatever it is works. there's a retinoid in there somewhere. i mean, i now have an AM and PM routine with multiple specialized products. it seems really confusing but i'm sure i'll get it down if i just tape the instructions to the bathroom wall and slow down.

ah OK spironolactone is an oral med that acts as an anti-andronergic, slapping down some of those pesky testosteroney hormones that can cause hormonal acne in the wimmins.

Fear not the retinoid, vitamin-A derivatives are your friend!

wait a second, it's testosterone that causes women to get acne?!

Yes! Just like the steroid-abusing athletes! Well I mean there are other causes, but when the acne is tied to your menstrual cycle, that is probably the culprit.

I wonder if that's why I have had so many probs with hormonal bc.

Hormones are mysterious and powerful things.

the downhill slide of my skin's condition definitely coincided with beginning hormonal bc in my early 20s, and never got better even after i went off it.

you don't even want to know how long i was on it or when i started

two small observations a few hours after this appointment, which btw has given me an iota of hope that my skin will not look shitty anymore

1) let it be known that i find this thread by searching "rolling wrinkles"

2) i'm feeling a little grouchy inside about the recentish pervasiveness of "cleansing" oneself/the need to "give one's organs a break from toxins" in order to "clear the mind and body" (or whatever horseshitty language people are using these days) because it implies that there's something i am doing/ingesting to deserve having shitty skin. and you know what? that's just not true. i dislike the idea that i need to starve myself and/or purify my mind in order to "cleanse" the "toxins" from myself.

that's all, the end

ppl need to "cleanse" themselves from this "toxins" bullshit talk imo

OTM x infinity

LL, if you EVER want to talk shit about the cleansing/toxins bozos, Jesse and I are here for you. It's one of my favorite objects of scorn and derision.

i asked my doc point blank if i was doing something wrong (hygiene, food, hugging my dog, cleanliness of towels, etc) and she said no, as far as she can tell, this is just garden variety acne and it's not my fault. i am inclined to believe her before i try not-eating for a week and seeing the effect that has on my mental and physical health. i can't imagine it would be good.

I AM AWARE that she may be shilling for these product companies, i guess, but she did give me samples and coupons and a little bit of hope and didn't try to starve me, so i will give her benefit of the doubt for now.

it's just hard because people i like and care about (in some cases) are trying this shit and i have to keep my mouth shut but i just...i just think it's cruel to equate starvation diets with purity of any kind.

Well we equate health and beauty (by a narrow definition) and thinness with purity, too, so it all makes sense in a fucked up and gross way. And it's reinforced by the pervasiveness of just-world theory where every time somebody is ill, we rush to figure out what that person may have done to prevent it. I'm sorry that you were feeling like you were doing something wrong and I'm glad your doc didn't reinforce that.

Blame-iness, the idea that a person has this problem because of something they do, is one side of a coin of which the other side is the illusion that we can do something, take control of something, to perfect ourselves. LL, iirc you have NEVER been a fan of the smell of self-flagellation in the morning, which I think is really smart and healthy.

xp lol carl beat me.

The thing is I would actually believe it if a doc told me my skin was all my fault bc of my life choices, I would totally accept that blame for myself, but you have the healthiest diet/life I can possibly imagine.

it's just weird to me how pervasive that idea is -- and how awful and cruel to oneself it is
it sounds like garden variety ED self-talk to me

rrrobyn and you and carl have, in particular, helped me hear the cruelty in those kinds of messages a lot more clearly. In matters of love, body acceptance, beauty, etc.

Aw, shucks. But as I have mentioned, I am standing on the shoulders of giants on that issue, namely the brilliant and beautiful horseshoe.

Self love! Pass it on!

it's just weird to me how pervasive that idea is -- and how awful and cruel to oneself it is

Unformed thoughts in response: bootstrap capitalism, American rugged individualism, Puritanism, regular old capitalism because if you can't control it you can't buy a product to fix it and we can't have that.

p much everything that gets me super angry can be traced back to puritans or greedy capitalists

says i on the rolling skincare thread
?!?!?

also glad to be of service, io :)

Always, always horseshoe.

hahaha I am with you, LL. We have not discussed wrapping paper on the knocked up thread, puritans and capitalism on the skincare thread. Next up - Marxist feminism in the Trader Joe's thread!

LL, if you EVER want to talk shit about the cleansing/toxins bozos, Jesse and I are here for you. It's one of my favorite objects of scorn and derision.

YES. Like one ILXor once said, "I wish I had more time to argue on the internet" b/c there's TOXINS talk is such bullshit. And carl's unformed thoughts OTM.

Ugh, let's include juicing bozos, too.

I too went to the dermatologist yesterday. Mostly to get some little brown spots on my temple looked at. Tthey were "nothing" (hyperkeratosis) but he offered to remove them, which he did w/ a combination of freezing and scraping (so they could be biopsied) and cautery, which caused a visible, stinky smoke.

He also prescribed Retin-A per my request and told me I was unusually sensitive to bug bites and gave me a sample of some cream. Their office has a cosmetology branch and the cosmetologist nurse tried to sell me some $45 retinol lotion instead ("well, your insurance probably won't pay for Retin-A," but they did b/c the doctor wrote that it was indicated for acne) and talked to me about laser resurfacing and I told her get thee behind me.

I'd be all "Lady I'd sooner laser resurface my floors than my face, tyvm"

note to self --
if you are smearing 4 kinds of medicated creams on your face daily, your face is going to peel (exfoliate) and you may want to have a little purse sized moisturizer (that is safe for faces) on hand at ALL TIMES for those moments of severe molting

i can never just leave my face alone and so I basically picked a fucking whole in it that's all scabbed over now and looks just lovely.

i look like a facial leper

eh, one scab does not a leper make

your body cleanses itself of toxins. Unless you have a genetic SNP that makes it so you don't clear toxins well (like MTHFR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTHFR)

HOWEVER, you can have a toxic lifestyle that makes it hard for the body to clear them out. Heavy metals, chemicals in cosmetics, hormone-laden food, etc.

I have been DEEP DIVING into sciencey shit lately about our environment and our genetics snd it's fascinating.

Sooo... in a sentence: toxin cleansing is a real thing, I don't think you can do it by juice fasting specifically or anything like that, but I think women are far more suspectible to toxin build up because of our lifestyles (makeup, hair coloring, etc).

Heavy metal detoxing is like the most intense process ever that can take years and no amount of juicing will ever help.

Amanda: look into a zinc supplement, you may be deficient if you have acne.

I'm the Sanpaku of skincare today!