Last week I posted a filter free skin celebration - two years on from that time when my face fell apart (along with my marriage and life in general… that’s a story for a different day).
And I’m pretty happy about it. Mostly because this RASH (aka. Perioral Dermatitis) took over my confidence and social life for a good few months when it happened. And trying to fix your marriage when half your face resembles pizza, is fun. So let me tell you about the rollercoaster that was this ride…
It came hot, angry and fast. One day I had some redness around my nose and a month later it had engulfed half my face. I knew what it was because we had a brief encounter in my teens.
But let me take you through the journey that has been the last two years.
AND LET’S START WITH WHAT NOT TO DO :
The first mistake I made - steroid cream. It made it go away, and then come back 10 times worse (apparently this is common… would’ve been good to know but ok).
So it went from annoying redness and bumps around my nose to this.
I’d like to apologise in advance for this image. I like pretty things #libra and my website to be aesthetically pleasing and so placing this image here is so cringe worthy I’m almost not going to do it. But you need to know how bad it was. It was, oh, so, bad.
And that photo is when I started taking “progress shots” as it calmed down. This is it calm.
I was travelling like a maniac at this point, at least one trip each month. I went to Melbourne and NZ twice with this face. I went to Tony Robbins UPW as a guest for Success Resources, meaning I was meant to post and share insights the whole time on my social media. I filtered the crap out of them. Make up worked overtime but would flake off during the day. I spoke at events with this going on and my confidence was crashing.
And I mean that. My confidence was CRASHING.
I didn’t want to talk to people. So when I was at an event or a gig, I would hide, try to be in the darkest corner of the room, make sure I wasn’t standing anywhere near over head lighting, run to the bathroom every 10 minutes to assess and reapply concealer.
Funnily enough, I was travelling a few people including with my NOW partner who was back then my mentor and friend. He must have thought I was losing my mind. I didn’t want to do anything fun on these trips. At meals I faced away from people, covered the bottom half of my face when speaking to people. I couldn’t face anyone properly.
So during this time of travel, working on my marriage and life in general, I made my second mistake.
ANTIBIOTICS.
Which worked a treat. Until they didn’t. And came with all the fun side effects of antibiotics… you know… so fun. And still rashy after all that. Cool.
So I was back at the beginning after that ordeal. I knew that I needed to stop looking for QUICK FIXES and get ok with the fact that I needed to heal my skin from the inside out and cut back drastically on anything that could have contributed to the fire on my face.
I became ok with the fact that it would be a healing journey. Not an overnight success.
Now if you’re still reading, you really want to know what works. And guess what… Not one thing worked for me.
Not one.
Nope.
Not a SINGLE one.
BUT.
Many things, working in harmony together, all contributed to the rebuilding of my healthy skin which is actually now better than it’s ever been. How bout that?
What I did...
I lowered my intake of red foods - capsicum, chilli, tomato, goji berries etc. My General Practitioner actually recommended this. I didn’t cut them out, just lowered how often and how much. No one is really a big fan of Mexican or Italian food anyway, right?
I used MooGoo Skin Care Nappy Balm to provide relief. The high Zinc content did help and it was all I had in the house. Dr Google gave me this handy tip!
I took and also smothered our Health Hub GLOW DUO on my face. This combo is our Vegan Omegas and Whole Food Based Berry Supplement. Omegas help to moisturize the skin from within, and are especially helpful for skin conditions. And because our body doesn’t create all the omegas we need naturally, we need to get them via consumption. That plus the antioxidants and free radical fighting effects from berries is a magical combo. You can buy what I used HERE (PLUS there is a deal on for the month of August!
I stopped using all the free products I get sent because of my IG and only used MooGoo Skin Care. I was trailing and testing so many different things and MooGoo is literally created for skin conditions like this. So it became my one and only, my true love.
Other than MooGoo, I would spray my face with this Avene Thermal Spring Water. I had read good reviews online and seriously, I’m now addicted because it feels nice and doesn’t it make so much sense to pay $20 for a spray bottle of water for your face? No? Well I don’t have dermatitis anymore so we can try it your way or mine.
I got in the sun and or ocean as much as humanly possible. Luckily it was coming into summer as I was healing so sun and surf was a given.
What I found...
I found that after 6 months, I had healed significantly. But I would still have irritations in the corners of my nose and sometimes inside my nose (ew and ouch). So I knew there was something missing. Luckily, that’s when I met Josh.
Josh created and founded Hydrogen Health and does a much better job on his WEBSITE of explaining the magic of his shower filters and water bottles.
When he first explained it I was skeptical, I had almost resigned myself to the fact that after almost 18 months of working hard on my skin, could this thing really be the one thing that helps?
But it really was the final thing that I needed for my skin. I installed the shower filter which removes chlorine, heavy metals and pathogens and adds in Vitamin C to boost collagen and help with UV damage. It also resotry a healthy pH level and increases the waters nutrients. And it did all that without slowing down the flow!
Then I got onto the water bottle which structures, mineralises and filters the water I drink. Check out the website to read more about this but it made perfect sense to me and I haven’t looked back.
If you decide to try Hydrogen Health products, Josh has lovingly given me a discount code for you to use - GRATITUDE.
The long and short of it...
Any type of healing takes time. Short term fixes rarely see long term results.
I know our body is massively driven to self heal under the right conditions. Our job when we get a warning sign is to simply continue to create the ideal environment for healing to occur.
Whole foods heal.
Good quality water heals.
Meditation heals.
Sunshine heals.
Happiness heals.
And very importantly - love heals. Especially self love.
If you’ve got a tip for healing, I would love to hear it in the comments below. And if you’ve found any benefit or value in this information, please share it on your social media platforms to continue to share that value to others who may need it!
Thank you for being here.
Please know that some (but definitely not all) links through this posts are linked to affiliate programs which could see my financial benefit from your purchase. As always, I will never recommend a product, program or service unless I back it 100% and I thank you for supporting the work I do!