Facing up to adult acne

I’m going to preface this by saying that I’m 100% sure that mucking with my biome with a teenager has pretty much messed up my skin for life. If antibiotics disrupt gut bacteria, and gut health is linked to skin health, then mine was decimated, beginning, I believe, with an ear infection when I was ten and compounded by tetracyclines, minocyclines, topical treatments, and Roaccutane. Suffice it to say, kids, don’t play with drugs. I wouldn’t even recommend mucking around with skincare. It disrupts the skin barrier, sensitizing it and making it more prone to infections. Water is likely enough; if your mother was kind enough to breastfeed you, and you played in hay for much of your childhood, your biome should be tip-top and your skin should reflect robust all-around good health.

Alas, my mother did none of those things (daycare at six weeks is not a natural childhood!) and we are where we are, which is to say, a bit of a mess. I no longer even know what’s going on with my skin – a chronic combination of hormonal acne, fungal acne, folliculitis, rosacea (yup, that’s mites), eczema and maybe even an RSA (that antibiotic resistant straph to you and me).

Suffice it to say, I’ve tried most things, to little success. The most consistent my skin has ever been was when I persevered through the purge of African Black soap, a natural, highly alkaline product made from ash, followed by very dilute apple cider vinegar (to rebalance the acid barrier) and followed by aloe vera. I would then use a mineral make up to conceal and add a bit of colour to my skin, and use biore sunscreen in hot weather. it was stripped back and to be honest, pretty effective.

This regime followed an extensive study of this skincare blog, which suggested to me that my long running acne could be driven by Massezia yeast, resulting from overusing antibiotics. It basically goes through a list of common products in FORENSIC detail to discover if the ingredients cause Massezia growth. Spoiler, most do, especially those with natural oils. I wrote a blog about it here.

Time went on, I got tempted by other products, and my skin woes persisted aided and abetted by hormones, stress, alcohol and other co-morbid factors. By and large, my skin is better than it had been, except for the odd attack of scalp spots that I put down to a failed experiment with co-washing my hair when it fell out post-Lana. My dermatologist told me the rash was bacterial. I wasn’t convinced, even after a swab – some Canestan applied on bits other than my, well bits, seemed to do the trick.

But then, this new horror. And it was affecting my nose of all places, which has long had a habit of getting a bit sore and inflamed if I’m coming down with a cold. But now, unpleasantly, the sores have started to affect the skin on the outside, and my usual tricks are just not working.

Cue the sort of skincare meltdown that is driven by my AuDHD brain – too much research, followed by too much trail and error. Thinking it might be bacterial, I had been treating it with tea tree and then heliochrysm oil, that I’d read somewhere had successfully treated antibiotic resistent infections. It helped to a point, but like tea tree could cause the skin to revolt and crust over into weeping dry patches that could only be treated with Boots eczema cream. A surreptitious application of canestan elicited in white bumps breaking out all over my nose that seemed somehow vascular in nature – as if something was living under my skin. I suspected mites, without any proof. These sores scarred, so I panicked and went to town, applying honey and 8 hour cream designed to smother and kill. it calmed down and flared up again, depending on my mood and what I had eaten, sugar and booze, obviously being major culprits.

Since I am no nutritional martyr, I obviously threw money at the problem, tempted by an advert for rosacea with a bundle of products from Kalme. In the meantime, however, I’d downloaded the Yuka app on my phone, and was saddened to discover that some of the products I’d previously been using, as recommended by Simple Skincare Science, scored really really low on app for harmful ingredients.

Today, the Kalme products arrived. But not only do they contain a lot of ingredients that would be on the banned list as far as Massezia yeast goes, they also didn’t score all that well on the Yuka app either 😦

Nonetheless, skincare pioneer that I am (actually I just hate waste), I’m willing to be your guinea pig to try to find out what’s working for me and what’s making things worse.

I’ve been making video blogs about my skin here. Be kind – I am going barefaced on camera when some days I just want to hide under my duvet. Anyhow watch this space to see how I get on.

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