You Care! I Care! Let's Talk About Skin Care! -Part 1

I am old.

Well ok. That is being a bit dramatic.

Let me start over.

I am old. 😂

This picture is the last time my skin looked good.

(can you find me?) :)

Ok. Ok. I am being dramatic.

I have actually never really struggled with my skin except for a freak breakout on my forehead in the 7th grade most likely from using too much Aussie hair spray to make my bangs sky high. My forehead looked like a map of constellations for about half the year. Thank goodness for all those bangs.

Life went on and so did I with my very intense skin care regime of ..... Dove soap.

Yep.

Dove. Soap.

I didn't have any issues in my 20's or even 30's. My skin was bright. My pores were small to insignificant and I never had tired looking eyes.

Then I got married.

LOL! Just kidding!

Nothing changed with my skin then either.

All was still good!

The picture above was in -6 degree weather when Colin and I were in Flint, Mi passing out water to Flint residents days after news broke of lead in the water. See.... no dry areas and no pores.

Beautiful skin.

Then, in my late 30's, I started noticing dry spots around my mouth and nose area.

When I was out and about, if I'd see dry areas on my face, I would just do the lick and stick.

Ya know.

The lick and stick.

Yep. I would lick my finger, wipe my spit on those dry areas and VOILA! No more dry patches! Easy peezy! (insert eye roll here)

Oh boy.

Then, when I hit 40, I decided that I needed to stop the lick and stick and get control of this dryness.

So, I went to Sephora and talked with one of their amazing hourly employees (no offense intended) who directed me to Korres products. So I bought Korres Yoghurt face moisturizer and VOILA! It worked!

No more dry areas!

Of course, I had to use it daily bc I would always wake up with dryness every morning but at least I wasn't using my own spit anymore.

So I continued to use Korres.

Little did I know I was only masking the problems instead of the actual issue.

It is like taking cough medicine to lessen cold symptoms rather than taking vitamins and supplements BEFORE you actually get sick.

I wasn't helping my skin issues. I was masking my issues.

And I continued to for several more years.

I went from dry skin around my mouth so this weird dry patch on my right eye lid and then when I turned 42, my skin went from dry patches to a combination of oily skin.

Oily skin!

I will never forget when the oily skin issue started.

My husband and I were driving home from a Jim Gaffigan show (he's an amazing comedian) and I was driving and I remember asking Colin to pass me a tissue or napkin or ANYTHING that I could use to wipe my face off.

I could feel the oil seeping from my skin and I didn't understand it but I knew my face needed cleaned STAT.

While all of this was happening, I started seeing my pores enlarge and now I joke that I have pores large enough to serve dip out of.

I realized that I needed to stop trying to mask my symptoms and take care of the reason it is happening in the first place.

There are a few different sides to skin care.

#1 What you are actually putting on your face and your skin care regime itself

and

#2 Gut health and what you are putting in your body.

I am diving into both this year so I can have better skin and be a healthier me.

It won't happen over night.

I can't stop aging. None of us can.

But I can be a healthier version of me and I can make changes that will help.

I already have more than 60 hours of research in and I am not gonna stop.

You are busy so hopefully reading my blog will help you, too.

Stay tuned for my skin care picks and to hear what I am learning.

Thanks for coming along on this ride with me!

xoxo,
Brenda