Pizza face. The rocky mountains. These are all rude thoughts I’ve had about my own skin. It has been a difficult journey for me to come to terms with my own skin and embrace it for its flaws. I wanted to share my experience with not crying every time I had a new breakout.
For any girl with mild to severe acne or other skin imperfections, she has definitely had a period of time where she wants to scream at her skin. Face it, we think that our 20-step skincare routine and our avoidance of xyz foods will fix our skin, but at the end of the day a lot of our skin’s performance has to do with our genetics and hormones. These aren’t things we can fix overnight. So, why do we freak out over the smallest breakout? Every. Single. Time. Honestly, I don’t think there’s one answer.
For one, I always felt inexplicably inferior compared to my gorgeous friends with their porcelain, clear skin. They didn’t need a lick of makeup to look flawless.
I’m a fan of the natural look and you’ll never find me on a day to day basis with more than some concealer, if anything. Even when I tried to cut back on my minimal makeup use in hopes of my skin clearing up, I couldn’t go longer than a week or two. I would look at myself in the mirror and all I saw staring back at me were my red blotches and lumpy areas. Even when my skin cleared up a bit, I stressed about the dark spots that would NOT leave my face no matter how much dark spot oil I put on them. I hated that my trouble areas were the most highlighted parts of any close-up picture. One time I went into Sephora to buy lip gloss and under those extremely harsh fluorescent lights, I looked into the mirror and teared up. I couldn’t believe it was me in that mirror.
I felt so ugly.
I knew it was irrational and that there are a million more important things to focus on, but in that moment I broke down and I let it out.
I felt that everywhere I looked, every girl had perfect skin. Um…where was I looking?? Every girl feels the struggle from time to time, regardless of whether or not other girls are envious of her skin.
I was looking at Instagram models and cover girls and guess what their one common skin secret is? I’ll give you a hint it isn’t lemon water. It’s Photoshop! It’s so easy to make it look like your skin is clear and glowy under three pounds of makeup and your favorite filter. Trust me, I’ve tried it all. But that’s not realistic and nobody looks like that all of the time or even any of the time.
In high school, my skin truly exploded. There was not a square inch of clear skin on my face and it was so hard for me to keep my composure. My best friend and I were both going through a rough patch with our skin and would rant about it together. I felt so relieved that someone understood where I was coming from and started worrying less about how my skin looked. My friend and I sarcastically started calling new pimples our new “friends.”
So, how did I start to love my natural, makeup-free skin? I started making small steps to embrace my skin and it truly rewarded me. I started only wearing makeup for bigger occasions than my 10 am chem class. I stuck to my skincare routine. I ate all my fruits and veggies AND drank my lemon water.
Above all, I stopped caring. Every new “friend” that popped up on my face would only be there for a short time and I could either worry about each and every single one or start to embrace my skin for what it is. It does so much for me that I shouldn’t constantly bash it for the times it lets me down.
Plus that stress will only cause you wrinkles which we absolutely do NOT need. Stay carefree and confident, lovelies! Xoxo, the skincare scientist <3