All the SH** I Used to Put on My Skin

It is funny to me when I look back on my life. A lot of the things I have done when I was younger make me laugh and cringe.

The other day I was looking up skin care products that I might want to try in the near future. This led me to start thinking about all the things I used to use on my skin to try and improve it. Some of the things were downright ridiculous!

Just for fun, I will be sharing all the crap I used.

My skin issues back then

When I was young, I had a very rough time with acne. It started off as being on my forehead but by 7^th grade it was everywhere.

I also had very oily skin. Like unbelievable amounts of oil.

I felt so ugly and disgusting. It did not look like any of my peers had the same problems I did with my skin and that made me feel embarrassed.

My mom took me to the dermatologist several times and was prescribed various things. They may have helped a little but I still had a lot of acne.

Every zit that showed up angered me and I had to get rid of it!

I basically tried everything in the kitchen, bathroom and store

Those zits needed to be gone and I was not patient. This resulted in me looking online and in women’s magazines for things that may make them go away fast.

Here is a list of the things I tried on my skin from 5th to 11^th grade:

1. Hydrogen peroxide- Yeah, no. This is not good as an acne toner. I learned that the very hard way.
2. Rubbing alcohol- This is also not good as an acne toner.
3. Windex- I tried dabbing this on my zits in 6^th grade. Yeah, not a good idea.
4. Toothpaste- I would leave this on the zits overnight. It never worked. I just ended up with minty smelling skin.
5. Honey- I wasted a TON of honey on my skin during these years. I put globs of it on there in hopes that the zits would die and I would get the antioxidants that it supposedly contains. All it did was make my skin soft and have us run out of it all the time.
6. Millions of cleansers- There was a time that I thought that the more I washed my skin, the better. This meant that I would run out of cleansers and had to use my allowance for more. I bought so many different kinds and I can not even remember them all now.
7. Millions of creams/gels- Just like with the cleansers, I tried out a ton of acne creams/gels that I would find at the drug store. None of them worked.
8. Apricot scrub- This seemed like it was the holy grail for people back in the day. So of course, I had to use it too. I tried to use it everyday for a while until I realized that it was not doing squat for me other than causing some scratches.
9. Pins- I used to stab at the bigger zits. This was really painful for me, but I wanted them gone so bad that I just cried through it anyways.
10. Clay masks- Had to dry up that oil once in a while! These actually worked for that reason, but I did not like doing them that much due to the mess.
11. Baking soda- I tried making a scrub out of this which just made my skin burn. I also made it into a paste and put it onto the zits overnight. It did nothing good for me.
12. Green tea- I would brew tea, let it cool and use it as a toner in hopes that it would help the acne go away. It did not help at all. I have always loved the smell of it though.
13. White vinegar- I tried using this as an acne toner to no avail. It just made me smell.
14. Ground coffee- I made this into a thick paste thinking that it would kill the acne. This just made it burn and I also ended up with more zits popping up afterwards. It was like the coffee energized my pores too much or something.
15. Peanut butter- Yeah, um……. this was very early on in my skin care desperation years. I do not know why the hell I spread it on my face and where I read that it was a good idea.

The prescriptions

During these years of my life I was also taking prescription acne treatments. Here is a list of them:

1. Doxycycline- I started taking this antibiotic in 6th grade when my acne started getting severe. I took this everyday until I was in 8^th grade.
2. Clindamycin gel- I was prescribed this in 5^th grade and applied it twice a day, every day. It helped a lot with the zits I would get around my mouth and chin. This was a short-term treatment (I do not remember why) though.
3. Retin-A- I used this from 7^th-8^th grade. All it did was make the oiliness of my skin even worse which was not good at all.
4. Differin gel- I used this from 9^th-11^th grade. It only helped a little bit.

I did some absurd things, didn’t I?

So, I was definitely cringing as I typed this. I can not believe that I tried some of those things, thinking that it would help my situation.

I have become methodical about what I put on my skin so I can reduce the chances of totally wasting my money and possibly making things worse.

Thanks for reading!

#skincare  #youngerself  #growingup  #immaturity  #childhood  #acne