I feel like my skin has become dull. My eyes tired. And my general appearance just worn.
In the last 3 years, I feel like I have aged 10.
I know that part of it (or maybe even most of it) is just the stress of the last few years. Then you add in 3 surgeries and all the drugs tied into IVF and treating endometriosis, and it all makes sense. But… something has to be done.
My face needs help.
I look at most of my friends, and as far as I can tell none of them have aged in the same ways I have.
Worse still, I compare pictures from just a few years ago to pictures from now, and I have to stop myself from calling salons and pricing out skin peels.
Need examples?
OK, here is a picture from this last weekend:
And here is a picture from right before I moved away from San Diego:
Now, to be fair, I think I should point out that in that second picture I have no makeup on at all beyond mascara. In the first, I have slathered on a decent amount of concealer to cover up the rampant breakouts I’m still getting from my now out of control hormones, and the dullness of skin that just screams “blah” right now.
Still, even with the use of makeup in the first picture, I feel like I am seeing much more than 3 years added.
So I repeat: My face needs help.
My entire life I have used cheap products. Things I can buy at Walgreens on the fly. I don’t have much of a skin care regime at all. I wash day and night and I use moisturizer, but that’s about the extent of that. And I have never paid much attention to what cleanser or moisturizer I’m using in the process.
It was a few weeks ago that I decided something needed to change though. And that I would happily splurge on something more pricey than what I can get at the corner store, so long as it’s something that could give me a few of those years back. A friend who is an Arbonne consultant offered to set me up with some samples to see if we could find some products I liked, and last night I got the package in the mail. I am beyond excited to start trying the different things in an attempt to quell the breakouts I’ve been plagued with over the last year (which is ironic, since I don’t remember having a single pimple in my teenage years - you've got to love what trying to conceive does to your face) while also putting some life back into my skin.
I want to not look so damn tired all the time. So… old.
And I realize that some of you are probably rolling your eyes right now. Thinking that the picture from this weekend doesn’t look so bad. But you don’t see what I see. The difference I notice when I look in the mirror.
So to help you see that, I’m going to take a leap and show you a photo. A photo of me with absolutely zero makeup. It’s not the first time I’ve ever done that (there was the whole firefighter incident, and then even worse – the just out of surgery pic), but it is the first time it’s been so close and so intentional…
In my mad dash to take a picture of myself (in my workout gear because I have boot camp tonight thankyouverymuch), I’m pretty sure I forgot to smile. Sorry about that - I'm not angry, I promise! But seriously, that is just an awkward thing to be doing!
Hopefully in a few months, this picture can serve as a “before” shot. Something to depict a remarkable transformation where I get the last 3 years of my life back in my face, even if nowhere else.
Heck, at this point I would even settle for just the last year.
My face needs some help.
And hopefully something in that little bag of tricks I got last night will turn out to be just what the doctor ordered!
