My Skin Story: Acne

Acne: The occurrence of inflamed or infected sebaceous glands in the skin; in particular, a condition characterized by red pimple on the face. (Source from Google)

WARNING! PICTURES AHEAD.

For a person who hasn't suffered or doesn't suffer from acne, will have no idea how much it can affect a person's well-being and their life. Why so serious? Well let me tell you, for the past 7 years or so, my skin has been through so much that there are not enough words that are able to sum up the whole 7 years of what I went through. Bunking school/college, making up crappy excuses for not going out with family/friends, crying almost every single day, piling on the foundation and concealer and hating yourself whenever you looked in the mirror; those are a few of the things that I had to go through during my most difficult years of having acne. Yeah, it may seem stupid and vain to have sacrificed so much because of my skin but trust me, when your face is the first place a person looks at and is out on show 24/7, you'll understand where I am coming from. 

However, what makes my story slightly different from others is that my acne was never constant, it was mostly on my cheeks and it came and went at any time. One moment it'll be just a few spots here or there (plus a lot of scarring) but I could easily cover it up with makeup. The next moment, multiple volcanoes suddenly appeared onto my face and erupted like there was no tomorrow; the pain would be excruciating and you knew not to sleep on that side of the face that night. (Btw, this was during my most worst years: 2008-2012) I remember during every weekend morning when I woke up and laid on my bed, I had this little ounce of hope in me that somehow during the night, my skin had recovered and would be clear from all the scarring and spots but of course, no such luck. It was weird but I remember that as soon as I was conscious, my hand would almost automatically go to touch my skin; as though it would make me feel any better, I would smooth over the bumps with my fingers and just relish into the hope that my skin would clear itself magically. It was rather pathetic I must admit but it helped soothe me in a way, hahaha It's true! xP 

I would have avoided showing you pictures, but    
I think this way it visually tells you my story better       

I've kept the pictures small to avoid disgusting you guys.
As you can see my acne was mostly on my cheeks.    

I started to suffer from acne right after I hit puberty. I was around 13 years old  and was into my first few years of secondary school. My elder brother who is 2 years older than me was already suffering from acne at the time and thus I knew what I was potentially heading towards to. Funny thing; when I had not hit puberty yet and had skin as smooth as a baby's bottom, I had told my brother so confidently and was so sure of myself that I would never get spots when I grew up. Oh how I was so wrong. It was around the age of 13 when I knew I had to do something about my skin, and ta-da I discovered makeup! To be honest, not that I regret it but I now wish I had started wearing makeup a lot later than I initially did. I was so young and inexperienced with makeup, it makes me cringe even to this day to have thought that piling on foundation (Revlon's Colourstay Foundation Makeup) would have made my skin any better! I just made it worst! Gah~ you have no idea how bad it is to apply a super thick or layers of foundation to such affected skin; it blocks the pores and prevents your skin from breathing and healing itself. Plus, it looks TERRIBLE! During my earlier years of secondary school, my foundation was always either too pale or too orange, you knew I was a pro with my makeup skills. -note the sarcasm. 

Through out secondary school, having acne really affected my well-being; I was less social, I avoided big crowds of people, I hardly ever spoke in class, I would always visit the bathroom to check up on my skin, I always avoided peoples eyes when speaking and the list goes on. It was sad, I was always thinking about my skin and it made me super duper depressed. However, it has taught me a lot too, it has made me cherish the people around me who love and accept me for who I am and not for what I look like. It makes me confused yet amused when my close friend called Thamina; having stuck by me for more than 10 years tells me she never remembers me having acne. She may not know it but it makes me happy, it makes me believe that throughout all my years of suffering from acne, she has overlooked that not knowing it was a big insecurity of mine. A friend like her is one in a million. I never did discuss with my friends about my skin during the years of when I had acne really badly. I only started talking about the history of my skin around the time after we had finished secondary school towards College, when my skin was starting to heal and get better. 

Fast forward a couple of years and the trial of 100+ face products on the market, we are here today! Seriously, if I were to talk about every little aspect of my skin story, this post would never end. Hopefully if you have found this post interesting in any way and if you're interested in knowing more about my skin, I will do a series: ie how I treated my acne, products I recommend for acne prone skin and blah blah blah soon.

Thank you for reading this post, it means a lot to me! Until next time my fellow bald squirrels, Good-bye! x