Hi y’all,

I have been a picky user for awhile now and a skin care guru for YEARS and I wanted to have an honest discussion about when it is time to stop trying new products, and time to start seeing a dermatologist ( dun dun dun! ). 

That was a bit dramatic lol, but I feel like in the skincare community sometimes we ( or just me ) can try all of these products and routines and throw money down the drain when we really need to see a dermatologist because our skin concerns are caused by internal issues or cannot be solved with topical treatments!

I am 22 years old and I have tried a LOT of products, and the only thing that has been working for me is Accutane. I visited my doctor in June, and she immediately wrote a referral for me to see a dermatologist. I know dermatologists can be expensive and I also know it is so hard getting on Accutane ( I can talk about that in another post if y’all want ) but trust me it was so validating to know that no topical product would’ve helped me at all with how bad my skin was!

So if you have been struggling with acne for years, and tried a lot of products, it is time to see a dermatologist. Sometimes you’ll even try a lot of prescription medications too and they won’t work either, but know that sometimes when your acne is severe it is best to work with a professional and not continue to waste your time and money :).

I hope this post inspired some of y’all today! Note this is not a dig towards the picky community or skincare community, I am just calling out people like myself who have tried everything but continue to think that another product or diet will fix an internal issue :).

An honest talk…

Hey y’all!

When I was a teenager my skin was severely oily and super acne-prone. Now I am an adult, and I also have been using retinol for a few months now, and I’ve noticed my skin a lot dryer than before, especially when I wake up in the morning. I still believe I have oily skin, and I still have acne, but I was wondering if skin type could change, such as I could go from oily to dry or even normal skin?

Most of my products are non-stripping and are good if you have oily or dry skin, so I was wondering if it was possible to no longer have oily skin anymore, and if anyone else noticed a change as well moving from adolescence to adulthood.

Hope to hear y’all’s thoughts ! ✨ ☁️ 🧴

Does Skin Type Change?

Hey y’all!

Exciting news! I made it onto picky squad! So exciting!

Picky Squad

Hi y’all 🪽🤍

I am back to talk about Accutane. I started Accutane at 23 and I often hear “why didn’t you start sooner?”. Here is my answer, and keep this in mind whenever you see anyone with bad skin and wonder why they don’t get on Accutane!

1. Sometimes I didn’t have insurance. 🪽
I live in the US, the healthcare here sucks. My derm is only 75$ out of pocket, but Accutane can be anywhere between 100-300$ for a month supply.

2. Just told NO! 💌
I couldn’t get on Accutane when I was younger because my previous doctor said insurance didn’t cover it (even though it did, but I was too naïve and just listened to my doctor at the time without doing the research myself. ATP I was under 18 and knew nothing). I also had to go through other medications before Accutane. It is meant to be a last resort drug since it is super harsh, but by the time I marched into my doctor and derm’s office at 23 I practically demanded to be put on Accutane because I had a list of EVERY medication and over the counter acne treatment I’ve used that didn’t work. After I presented my case everyone was on board. 

3. Affordability 🎲
As previously mentioned, Accutane costs so much money! I have to visit the derm, buy the medication, and also I need to buy my own pregnancy test (it is only 1$ but still).

4. Time consuming!🥥
Because US healthcare sucks, I have to spent a good portion of my day when I have my derm visits just sitting in an office for upwards to an hour for a 10 minute talk with my derm. Keep in mind this is also the US so I have to drive. Thank god for remote work. 

5. iPledge🍓
I don’t know if iPledge is international or just in the US, but iPledge requires women of child bearing age to be on two forms of birth control. I think depending on the situation / state you can use abstinence as a form of birth control, but for my state I had to be on a hormonal birth control and also say I used physical birth controls as well. If I was any younger, I wouldn’t be able to get onto birth control due to my parents.

Anyway I hope this gave some of y’all a bit of insight and I hope you learned something :)!

“Why didn’t you get on Accutane sooner?”

Howdy,

Has anyone else noticed that it is nearly impossible to get their hands on a Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser? I checked a few stores in my college town and there weren’t any cleansers in the stores, so I had to get a bottle off of Amazon yet the only available bottle was the 20OZ one. I was wondering if anyone knew why they were out of stock, and if it was because the cleansers had to be taken off of the shelves because of the formula or something. It could just be because my college town is kind of barren, you can’t even find any acne patches around either.

I’ve also noticed that they put out more products onto the market and it seemed like they rebranded a bit, but upon further inspection of the ingredient list the newer cleansers weren’t the same formula as the og cleanser.

 Just was wondering y’all’s thoughts!

Cleansers Out of Stock?

What sucks about this product is that it is pricey. It is 10$. If you need an undereye moisturizer you could probably just use your regular moisturizer under your eyes however my moisturizer is the AM cerave sunscreen and I didn’t like the piling on my face plus it wasn’t moisturizing my super dry under eyes. Unless you’re in my situation you probs don’t need this and also you probs could find something much cheaper.

I got this product because I thought it was on sale at ulta (it wasn’t) but I needed an eye cream because my undereyes were really dry, to the point where if I put concealar on it would sting. The product is great for dry sensitive skin and it is thick but it still manages to feel light weight. I’d also say if you have oily skin not to be afraid to try the product because I only dab a really small bit underneath my eyes and it doesn’t feel greasy or cause my undereyes to breakout. It has hyaluronic acid in it. I don’t use it consistenly everyday to see if it gets rid of puffiness or dark circles so keep that in mind!

Its a very nourishing and moisturizing face mask that has a lot of good stuff in it.

The mask is very stripping in my opinion.

It is easy to apply, very fun bubbles. You also only have to leave it on for 3-5 mins.

**HOWEVER** it isn’t the best if you have sensitive skin. I made sure to follow the directions and etc and I never got burned or broke out into hives but I did get a little bit more break outs. I know purging is supposed to happen but the product seemed a bit inconvinient for me. I was using this product as a busy college freshman living in a dorm, and because you need your skin to be bone dry and you must have the mask on for no more than 10 mins it was super inconvinient and quickly became something in the past for me. I just wasn’t in love.

Overall this product left my skin feeling very smooth afterwards.

What I’m not in love with is that I don’t get that satisfying gunk-sucking action that they advertize. Most of the time when I remove these patches some of the gunk that was supposed to be removed from my skin is still on the surface of my skin and I don’t see it cleared out unless I wash my face.

Honestly what I love about this product is that it is probably the cheapest hydrocolloid patches that works. These are my go-to pimple patches!

Leah01