Unfortunately, it seems my skin was very angry about the environmentally friendly facial cleanser I decided to try.
I thought that perhaps my skin was
a wreck because of the stress, not drinking enough water, not eating as well as I should, sometimes forgetting to take my herbal cleansing pills, etc., all the things that usually lead to my skin going all out of whack because of how sensitive it is, and that, for whatever reason, my body has an impossible time getting rid of normal toxins
1, which means it uses the last resort method to get rid of them, i.e., excretion through the skin. I started being more militant about all of that, to see if my skin would clear up, but not only did it not clear up, it just kept getting worse. I wondered if I might just be stuck for awhile, figuring my body was internally more screwed up than I thought, and that it just might take some time. Then I remembered I had started that new cleanser, and I wondered how likely it was my skin was unhappy with it. Admittedly, I really didn't want to think so at first, so it took some convincing myself, but I concluded that, given just
how sensitive my skin is, that could be the problem. So, I switched back to the Neutrogena facial cleanser I use, and sure enough, within a matter of a
couple of days my skin was clearing up. I almost can't believe how quickly that happened. It makes me a little sad, since I really want to switch to something I know is not going to be damaging to the environment; although I do admit, I have no idea whether anything in the Neutrogena soap is damaging or not. I don't use anything fancy, just their facial cleansing bar for acne prone skin. The only reason I ever chose it was because I've had success with their products in the past for my skin, and the bar is so damn cheap! And I just use 100% aloe vera on my face for a moisturizer, again because it's super cheap, but also because I read something about it being pretty much the simplest and best thing one could use because it moisturizes without being oily, it helps the skin with healing, it tightens pores, and it can prevent wrinkles. And I thought at the time, Well, that settles it for me! Why would I bother to put anything else on my skin ever again?! I've been happy with it.
I don't want to give up on switching facial soaps just yet. The one I purchased is specifically for dry skin, so it is "soap free". It has the consistency of lotion and it never suds up; it's more like just rubbing wet lotion all over your face and then washing it off. So, perhaps, in the future, I will try their regular facial cleanser that technically does have soap in it and see what happens. For now, I'll give my skin a break and let it heal back to normal for awhile.
1 I say "normal toxins" because I mean the toxins that do build up normally, on a regular basis, just from, say, the things we eat, normal metabolic processes in the body, etc. In other words, all the normal reasons why the body has built in mechanisms for ridding itself of toxins on a regular basis, like kidneys, a liver, and such. I know that my body has serious impairment in ridding itself of toxins, despite that I haven't done anything that should impair the functioning of these organs, because at some point I did some experimenting and found that, on top of keeping a regular cleansing regimen of gentle cleansers and moisturizers for my skin,
the only thing that would keep my skin under control was taking the herbal cleanser on a regular basis. By "herbal cleanser", I mean something like
this, which is designed to help the body rid itself of toxins through various systems of the body. I tried many different skin products, and none of them could keep my skin under control.
And no, I did not see a dermatologist. I cannot justify something like that, since it would be a big cost, and I really did not want to be put on some crazy regimen of stuff for my skin. My brother did see a dermatologist, so I have an idea of what that kind of stuff involves. I very much have the attitude that this sort of thing I should be able to figure out on my own and take care of on my own, without having to introduce medications and a shelf full of skin products I have to put all over my skin. I also don't see it as
that important in my life to have perfect skin; I can live with having problematic skin – which, by the way, is not actually normal acne, I figured out. I don't remember what it is, but I do recall figuring out it is not actually acne, and it is something that is really common in adult women. Because that's the funny part: when I was a teenager, I had almost perfect skin.
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