Your Face

WARNING: Total Girly Post...and it's a long one, too!


Let's talk about our faces for a minute, shall we? How many of you older gals had you some acne growing up? I was one of the lucky ones and only suffered from the occasional breakout when I enjoyed too much chocolate or was dealing with that time of the month. I had peaches and cream complexion that I miss and wish I could see on my personal being one more time. Now? I found at around age 35, my facial skin started hating me in a bad way.

My Paige hasn't been so lucky. When she hit that puberty era wide open, acne attacked her skin and showed no mercy. I was so terrified and scared because there were times I was sure she was going to have bad scars that would haunt her the rest of her life. I bought every single thing I could think of that might would help her. When I say everything? I mean everything. That cost mucho money. I hit up the department stores that boast those swanky makeup counters and started buying. I hit up those ladies who sell makeup and such from their home and tried whatever they had going on. Many times I stared at her face wondering what could we try that would bring out the beautiful skin I knew was there.

Carla Girl had some skin issues going on and had to go to the dermatologist. He flat out told her to get rid of all that expensive stuff and bring it back to basics. Noxema. No kidding. He told her that's all she needed and his own teenage daughters used it. When she told me this, I paused and thought maybe he was onto something.

For those of you who were teenagers 15 plus years ago, do you remember those big blue tubs of Noxema we had to dig into? That thick heavy cream that could clear your sinuses? That's what I envisioned and looked for. Lo and behold! It comes in a pump bottle now! I bought two bottles. One for me and one for the teenager. When I used it the first time, I was taken back to the 80's where it took ALOT of that stuff to get that blue eyeshadow off my eyes. Well, guess what I found out? I love it. It has done wonders for my skin and I don't know why on earth I gave it up. No more swanky expensive stuff for this girl. No sir. I'm keeping it simple and clean.

(I am not being paid to endorse Noxema. I don't have some giveaway from them for you to grab. I love the product and just want to share with you what is working for us.)

I have a wonderful friend who has been extolling the virtues of vitamins for many years. I admit that it went in one ear and out the other. (You know..the eyeroll and "whatever" attitude that adults can do as well as any teenager?) My Makenna decided to hit a growth spurt and grow 6 inches in less than 6 months. I'm telling you, a garden grows slower than she does. I started thinking that maybe it would be a good idea to get a multi-vitamin for the girls. When you're young, you don't really care about taking care of your insides (i.e. the female reproductive organs and bones!). Well, I care! I don't want to ever give birth again with this tired old body, but I surely want some sweet beautiful grandchildren one day! I bought a bottle of teen multi-vitamins and decided to grab one of the generic kind geared for women for myself.

And so it began.

How many of you get fever blisters? DON'T YOU JUST HATE THEM?!?! Oh. My. Lawd. I loathe the fever blister and if I run any teeny tiny fever or get super stressed, I wake up with this huge hocking sore up on my top lip. I had this suspicion that I got this dormant virus (yes, I know it's a form of herpes) back in high school. See, there was this boy that I just adored with every fiber of my being. If I had a chance to smooch him? You know I took it. I know he got them occasionally and I feel pretty sure I threw caution to the wind and smooched him when he had one. Shoot, I probably would have kissed him if he had a mouth full of mud. It was worth it then, not so worth it now. My Makenna has been cursed because of this, I believe. She has the dormant virus but when it flares? It comes out in her eye. IN the eye. To where it can destroy her cornea if left untreated. Maybe I had a flare up on my lip when she was little and I kissed her near her eye and she got it. I don't know and will probably never know. All I know is that she has this and I live in fear of her having flare ups in her eye. She has had a total of four flare ups since she was first diagnosed at age 5 and each one sends me into a massive tizzy getting her to an eye doctor to get treated. We're talking drops in her eyes up to ten times a day for a long time. Four to six weeks worth. No kidding. When she gets sick? I panic and watch her eyes like a hawk. When she had her two surgeries, I frantically told the doctors we had to be prepared for this to happen since her immune system would be compromised. I saw the picture the doctors took of the inside of her eye from the first flare up. It was scary as all get out. I never want to see that again on my child.

That's why we take L-lysine. I've had many people swear by this and I keep this huge bottle in the cabinet because when I would get a fever blister? I'd start taking them like crazy. Popping them like a pregnant woman pops Tums. It would help, but that sucker would still sit on my lip like leprosy.

L-lysine (great link to read about it-just click here!) is something I decided might would be great to take on a daily basis along with the multi-vitamin. Makenna and I now take one a day to keep the flare ups away. I believe it may be beneficial in other areas, too. Take a look see at the link I provided and see what you think. Makenna hates taking it with a passion as it's big and chalky and nasty. I'm not too happy with it, but when we were on vacation, we were on the way home and I was worn out. I had a blister pop up on my lip but it was barely there. BARELY THERE! It was gone way sooner than usual and I fully believe it was because I take this every day. Paige did her own research on L-lysine (thank goodness she doesn't get fever blisters!) and decided she wanted to take it, too.

B-12 was another vitamin I wanted to check out. (another great link to look at!) Paige and I seemed to struggle for energy and I wanted to see what I could do to amp it up naturally. B-12 seemed to be a good option. This has been another vitamin we've added to our daily intake and walk to being more healthy individuals.

Vitamin E is a vitamin I like, too. (See what you think by clicking here!) This article I'm sharing doesn't fully endorse using Vitamin E for scars, but I, personally, have had good experience with using it for this purpose. I bought a bottle of gel caps and when I have a place that looks like it will be a scar? I open one up and rub it into the place in question and put a band-aid over it. In fact, I have one now on the back of my hand that is MUCH better because of doing this. You can judge for yourself. Needless to say, a gel cap of vitamin E is one we take.

You're probably thinking by now "Dang, Miss Hope, that's ALOT of things to be taking at one time!" And I agree. Paige's medication holder looks like it belongs to an old lady because she takes allergy medication, too. Yet, every single morning, she takes her allergy meds, vitamins, and nerve pill (poor soul has very high anxiety). Let me tell you this.....HER FACE IS CLEAR. Beautifully clear. Amazingly clear. My baby wouldn't even leave the house without foundation because her acne was so bad. Now? It's an OPTION. She doesn't have to wear it! Now, she only battles a small monthly breakout and it is nowhere near as bad as it was before. I marvel at her clear skin and am so glad she didn't have to take acne medication to clear it up. That stuff scared me silly. I was so afraid that if I put her on acne medication that it could harm her in some future way...like having babies. Call me paranoid, but it's my job to take care of my kids and I'm doing the absolute best I can.

Makenna is still a work in progress. I would LOVE for her to willingly take the teen multi-vitamin, L-lysine, and Vitamin E daily. I keep the bottles on the table and make her take them at supper. I hope she'll finally snap out of her sassy stage and realize they will help her more than she realizes. She's starting to get that forehead and nose breakout areas because puberty is visiting her with fanfare and meanness.

I finally broke down and purchased my own medication holder for the days of the week. It has helped me so much to make sure I take these much needed vitamins and medications (singulair and nexium and half of a nerve pill). I really urge and encourage all you women out there to check these vitamins out and if you have teenage girls? PLEASE, consider yet again the benefits of giving those fast developing bodies a little extra help.

I'm not leaving the guys out now. My husband now takes a multi-vitamin for men daily, but I have yet to find one that my son will take without being put in a choke hold. Teenage boys need vitamins just as much as teenage girls. Have you seen one lately? They're thin as broom sticks and eat like crazy people!

Let's just say this a subject near and dear to me and I wanted to share how we cleared up one teenager's face that was full of bad acne. In searching for a solution for her, I discovered that this body of mine has given birth three times and might need a little extra help, too. I admit I feel better and my skin looks better than it has in years. YaY Vitamins!

You go on and have yourselves a wonderful weekend. The air a tiny bit cooler here and I need to start Christmas shopping!