It’s really hard to appreciate how much you don’t know.
In life, we have been trained to believe that fruits and vegetables are always the healthy food choice.
When it came to skincare products, I thought that same premise would apply. Healthy, organic ingredients that were good for my body had to be good for my skin. Right?
Thinking that I was doing the best for my skin that I could, my favorite place to buy skincare products was a local, good-smelling, slickly merchandised store that tempted me with delicious sounding beauty products. Every time I went, I would come home with bags of face-masks and skin treatments, convinced that this papaya / honey / apple / [insert your choice of salad ingredient here] would be THE product to solve my skin woes.
Excitedly I’d take my fun, fragrant cosmetics home and dutifully apply the mask / cream / [salad dressing]. I wanted the products to work, but upon removing the mask or washing off the cream, nothing ever changed, and no results were ever achieved.
Rewind: What results was I even looking for? My skin is very sensitive and fair. At any given time I usually had a pimple or two, with break-outs exacerbating around that time of the month. Very easy to flush, I was constantly buying makeup to hide my pink and red undertones.
Ok, now fast-forward back to where we were: The organic products that smelled great did nothing to erase my breakouts, or soothe my pink-skin. Upon using these items, my face would usually feel dry and irritated, and any product I’d put on top would sting. But, my choice products were organic, so they had to be healthy and effective. I resigned myself to the fact that my skin had to be the problem, and my status-quo skin situation was going to remain the same.
Then, I started working at About Face Skin Care, and everything I thought I knew about skincare products went out the window.
All of this preamble to say; ta da! My name is Nile, I’m the front-desk manager who will be taking over “Product of the Month”, and my current obsession is About Face’s Redness Repair.
During my early days at About Face, I had a consultation with Naomi to a.) get a sense of what our patients experience at their first visit, and b.) to make sure that I was using the best products for myself. After examining my skin, Naomi dropped a bombshell on me: I have Rosacea.
What? No doctor has ever previously diagnosed this, even though all of the clues are there.
Redness Repair is a non-organic serum that FINALLY makes my skin sing. It’s calming and cooling, hydrates my dry skin, but is light enough so that I can put any products on top without issue. My skin is much more even-toned now (buh-bye redness) and I haven’t had a pimple in weeks. (Did you know that Rosacea can be an Acne causing culprit?)
Redness Repair is a special little cream that quickly became a holy grail product for me. Redness Repair is compounded in our office and made especially for patients like me. To shed some light on this cream, it contains a magic ingredient called “Niacinamide.” I know, Niacinamide sounds scary, but it’s actually amazing. Another popular name for this secret ingredient is Vitamin B3 which has been proven as a super-effective ingredient for skin restoration, uneven skin tone, fine lines, enlarged pores, and wouldn’t you have it, Rosacea!
Applying this cream to a fresh face both morning and night, I was experiencing it’s positive effects within days. No more splotchy red skin, no more uneven tone, I was even feeling more hydration than ever before! And to add a cherry on top of an already ideal outcome, I was noticing my acne breakouts were happening less and less.
It’s easy to call certain skincare products life changing and it’s even easier to assume that what might work for one person, isn’t necessarily going to work for another. But, to all my Rosacea suffering peers, we’ve found the product worth writing home about.
If you have completely normal, healthy skin — you can probably use any product you want (drugstore, healthstore, department store, no store) and be fine. If your skin has any underlying sensitivities or issues however, you will be amazed at the difference in your skin when you use the right products.
I would do some premininary (but biased) research before making a visit and subsequent purchase. Before I worked in a high-end salon, any product off the drugstore shelf worked for my locks. After an immersion into that world, I was better able to understand why my hair needed (and didn’t need) certain products and ingredients.
I always cared more about my skin than my hair, but again,
Lush products, thought products were good bc ingredients were organic and healthy. Tricked myself into thinking I was getting results because I wanted to trust that natural ingredients would be the best way to move forward. Masks.
Neutrogena face wash oil free grapefruit.
Chronic pimples, hormonal breakouts. Dry. Clean + Clear , internet research. Would splurge on skincare and haircare, based on internet homework.
Conversely, I was working at a high end salon
Still science based
New to the skincare game and the newest addition to the About Face Skincare team, I knew little if anything about my skin.
What to use, what not to use. Is this irritating my skin? Will this prevent anti-aging? Needless to say, I was building my skincare regimen from the ground up.
Thankfully, Naomi was eager to steer me in the right direction and while doing so, I discovered I suffer from Rosacea. Who knew?
Now, all I knew about Rosacea was that it made most people’s skin appear red and irritated and sometimes certain products exasperated the effects.
However, I quickly learned that drinking red wine, taking hot showers, indulging in spicy foods, and even hot yoga could potentially worsen my condition. A little taken a back, but committed to treating my Rosacea, I asked Naomi to recommend me some products that would help me reduce and prevent my skin from flare ups. She introduced me to Redness Repair.