Product Review: Skin Care Drama
No single product works for every person, but if I had to choose between Clinique and Proactive… Clinique wins hands down. There are more than enough facial products for the very young and the very old, but what about those of us who are neither young nor old?
The moment I hit 30, my skin took on a life of its on. I began to have breakouts that I didn’t even have as a teenager. To make matters worse, last summer my skin became unbelievably sensitive to heat. I suddenly found my entire face covered with tiny, itchy little red heat bumps. Horrified, I hit the health, and beauty aisles of every store and pharmacy in Houston. I spent countless dollars on high priced Olay products that did nothing but irritate my skin even more.
Finally, I became one of the many people buying into the growing popularity of mineral makeup. I figured if I couldn’t find medication to help end my acne nightmare, I was simply going to cover my imperfections. Mineral makeup isn’t special- it technically contains the same ingredients that have been in makeup for years but it gives better coverage than the norm because the minerals in the makeup are composed of fine powder flakes. In this form, however, it hasn’t scientifically proven to be any safer than other forms of makeup. I tried it anyway… and instead of looking better, the tiny minerals settled into my pores and made matters worse. Embedded into my skin, not even makeup remover could remove the so called all natural product from my pores. It was going to take nothing short of a jackhammer to clear away the damage that stuff caused.
I was losing hope, my confidence dwindling as I went searching for help from what I like to call Dr. Google. Every article I read said my problem was hormones, hormones and more hormones. So, I loaded up on vitamins without absolutely any result except to have enough bottles in my medicine cabinet open my own drug store. My last resort before heading for expensive treatments at the dermi’s was Proactive. Guess what? It did NOT work.
People kept telling me to hang in there; that it was supposed to break your skin out even more in order to begin working but that sounded simply ridiculous. What product is supposed to make your already bad skin worse before it started to help? Sounded like a really creepy urban legend to me. But one day, my bff who’d also been suffering from the exact same problem, told me to go to Dillard’s and try Clinique. I went to their site, took their skin analogy test and purse in tow, headed to Dillards with my fiancé. Guess what? After only a week of use, my skin was absolutely glowing! It stopped the acne before it even got there.
Of course, different skin reacts to medication differently and it may not be for you because depending on which three-step product you purchase, it has the ability to dry your skin . If you find your skin becoming itchy and irritated, lessen how many times you use it. But I have extremely oily skin so I can use it twice a day without issue.
The Clinique specialist told me they receive many former Proactive users because in the cases where it does actually work, there is an ingredient in it that their skin became accustomed to and once that happened, it stopped working. Plus, Proactive tends to hook you into a monthly billing cycle that will nearly take a lawyer to get out of.
Now, I use Clinique in the morning and Neutrogena© products for Women at night. Together, they compliment each other miraculously! To find out what works for you, I recommend visiting their site to take their skin analogy test. Usually the ones who end up dissatisfied with the product failed to properly research beforehand and bought it without really knowing the best fit for their skin type. Go on! Find out what’s right for you!
