I’m 28 & very close to my 29 marker, which happens to also be the week-end of my ten year HS reunion. Having this come around brings to mind my school days at Republic, which also makes me think about, of all things, my skin. When I was in high school I had really good skin. Sure, I would have the occasional breakout, but most of the time I didn’t have to really do anything to make my skin better in any way. Which at the time was a very good thing because I was a band geek, and if make-up would melt off in the middle of August, it was NOT worth it to me.
Let’s flash forward a few years. I’m working a full-time job, just doing the basic daily care of and Oil of Olay cleanser and some SPF every now and then. My skin was still pretty clear, the occasional breakout but nothing severe enough to warrant special cleansers or anything like that.
When I was pregnant with my daughter, my skin was FABULOUS!!! I had maybe one breakout in almost 10 months. I was in skincare heaven, or lack of skincare heaven, however that works out in your own mind.
Then, I had the baby.
My skin COMPLETELY changed after she was born. I went from good skin with few breakouts to “oh, my gosh you would think I had JUST hit puberty!”
It was, in my mind ridiculous. I tried everything, except proactive, because to be honest, even the Rx stuff wasn’t working for me and proactive was not covered by my insurance. Everything I tried made my skin worse, it dried it out, or seemed to make the breakouts more intense, even if there were fewer of them. So I stopped everything. I went with a basic anti-acne face wash from Wal-Mart and I took care of my baby.
Then about a year ago I was in preparation mode to get married. I wanted my skin to be perfect for my wedding day. I tried a system that I got from Wal-Mart, it was a four-step system and it seemed like it might be what I was looking for, it turned out to be a really bad idea.
To it’s credit, this system worked for about 6 days, then on day 7, I did my normal routine, I got out of bed, got Julie some breakfast and went in to wash my face. I started the first step and something just didn’t feel right, I thought maybe it was just me being weird so I went on to steps two through four. Then I opened my eyes and saw it. I had this horrible, scaly rash from my collar bone to the top of my cheekbones. I tried washing everything off with just some basic Oil of Olay, but it didn’t help. The only thing I could do was to stop the acne system. (By the sheer grace of God, my skin had only minor breakouts the day of the wedding and those were easily enough covered with concealer.)
Now, I know I’m jumping around here, but we have to back up for a few moments. In February, my Mom started selling AVON. I started helping her with her business, all the while learning about the different things they had for acne, since I was STILL having a problem. I joined AVON just last month, and about the time I was joining, AVON unveiled their new acne treatment system, ClearSkin Professional. Now, I had tried their ClearSkin line and it helped keep blemishes down, but it didn’t keep them away, which was what I need. Then, after taking my Beauty of Knowledge courses and achieving Certification as a Beauty Advisor, I learned something about the ClearSkin Professional system. Are you ready for this? It is made for ADULT ACNE. Yes, that’s right, Adult acne. Now that doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t be an effective tool if you have a teenager that has severe acne, it likely would be very helpful.
ClearSkin’s regular line is meant to prevent acne from forming in the first place, it’s a great tool for your pre-teen or teenage child with the occasional breakout to mild acne. If your child has severe acne (or you), I encourage you to try the ClearSkin Professional line. One system lasts 22 days if you use it according to the directions on the box. (The reason for this is that there are 45 toner pads in the system, my hope is that AVON will eventually allow customers to purchase more toner pads to supplement the system) Avon’s campaigns run every two weeks, so that means that you will likely have to order a system every campaign for at least two months, in order to be able to then order one system per month if you use it twice daily. The system is currently on sale for $29.99 and will go up to it’s regular price of $34.00 within the next campaign or so. ( My recommendation is to purchase two systems at the sale price, now. It saves you some money, there is no shipping if you get direct delivery and if it doesn’t work for you, just hand it back to me, AVON will refund your money, no problem!)
I am SO impressed with this, it honestly would not matter if I sold this product or not, I would still recommend it to ANYONE with adult or severe teenage acne! I have had such a problem with acne as an adult, add to that dry, patchy skin and I haven’t even begun on the wrinkles yet… yeah, I’m getting there… this system after three days, made my skin so very soft! The dry patches on my cheeks were virtually gone by day 7 they were non-existent! I’m amazed by that alone, not to mention that the few breakouts that I am still getting right now are greatly reduced in size and duration! ( Did you know it takes almost a whole month to “grow” a pimple? I totally did not know that!) I’m going to use this system as it directs for the first 22 days, then with my second system I’m going to use it only at night.
Why? You ask… well, here comes the wrinkles part. I spent 8 years smoking, not using SPF protection on my face the way I should have, and just basically disregarding the health of my skin. Add some stress, sprinkle on some extra squinting due to the glasses I should be wearing… Hello Wrinkles!
I would actually like to say “good-bye wrinkles” or at the very least “see you later, hopefully MUCH later!” That is where step two of my plan comes in, I’m going to take my ANEW Alternative system and use it in the morning so that I can have an anti-aging moisturizer during the day and an extra night cream for eyes, which is where I have the wrinkles. Ask me, I’ll probably show them to you… no, they aren’t horribly bad, but they are bad enough for me. I will say that I AM currently using the newest night cream from ANEW for my moisturizer and I like it a lot. My skin feels nice in the morning, soft but not greasy. I’m also using the newest eye cream as well, it has a separate night and day cream, it feels silky going on and doesn’t sting the area around my eyes like some of the other products I have tried.
So the long-range plan here is to only use the acne system at night, coupled with my ANEW REJUVENATE moisturizers for face and eyes, along with the ANEW alternative extra eye night cream . Then during the day use ANEW Daily Resurfacing Cleanser, Alternative day lotion and the REJUVENATE day cream for eyes.
I’m sure this seems like a great big commercial that you just had to read, but it’s the truth. I love these products. My skin feels great, not tight and dry or scaly. I’m sold.
I haven’t even started with Color. I’m sure you’ll hear about it eventually, although there are a few of you that I have given the Insta-Shadows to, ( In a Wink Intant Eyeshadow Sheets) if you would like to try one, let me know… I’ll gladly give you a sample and show you how to use it too! I haven’t put on “regular” eyeshadow in about three weeks!
That should be all for now, between Julie’s appointments, neighbors, wally world runs and life in general… it has taken me about 6 hours to write this post… hopefully they won’t all take that long!
