Little Miss High Maintenance

So just in case you haven't gotten tired of me obsessing over myself lately, here's a little more information for you about the skin peel. And why I will have to continue working in order to pay for being so freaking high maintenance.

I've had pretty decent skin my whole life. I have very fair skin that burns very easily, and except for that typical bout of teenage acne I have had pretty clear skin as well. That all went into hell in a handbasket about three years ago. Chalk it up to stress, working on a jobsite where I literally would wash a layer of dirt off my face every night when I got home, and hormones - maybe aging too - and my formerly pretty skin wasn't so great anymore. And within the last year, it's gotten progressively worse.

Add to all this the fact that I am vain, vain, vain and you have a recipe for disaster. Either that, or if you provide any kind of services that are reasonably priced I will be panting at your doorstep waving my debit card at you wildly. I am an esthetician's wet dream.

I had actually only had facials twice in my entire life - one time the year after Monkey Man was born, and then when we were in Mexico last year. The one in Mexico was so awesome that my skin glowed for weeks. Meanwhile, my friend April had found a local skin clinic because she had horrible skin and the treatments that they gave her not only cleared up her skin, but she looks freaking amazing. It took her a few months, but she finally talked me into giving it a try and I went for my first appointment the day after I got back from Las Vegas.

I'm kind of a skeptic about this stuff - it's like being a woman and taking your car into Jiffy Lube for an oil change, where the mechanic calls you into the bay area and then proceeds to tell you that the entire dooflaggy needs to be replaced or your car will literally fall apart in the road. So you buy some special dooflaggy crap that you didn't even need in the first place and before you know it, you're out an extra hundred bucks plus your dooflaggy probably still isn't right. Or maybe was fine all along. What won me over with the skin clinic was the fact that they didn't rush into the peel on my first visit - they declared that my skin was already too dry and flaky due to traveling and being a little dehydrated (which was totally correct) so they did an inexpensive hydrating mask and told me to come back in about 5 weeks. Not to mention they gave me enough free samples of the products that they wanted me to use that lasted the entire 5 weeks. They never pushed me to purchase anything, which I thought was pretty impressive.

So, on to the peel. What I got is called the Sensi Peel at my place, and the description is:

"A very gentle formula designed for even the most sensitive of skins. Can even be used on Rosacea skin types when not in an acute flare-up. This peel will brighten the skin while improving both texture and color. Provides anti-inflammatory, anti-acne and anti-bacterial actions making it's ideal for any skin type. This peel combines 6% TCA with 12% Lactic acid as well as a combination of tyrosinase inhibitors to help even pigment. Can also be combined with our Dermaplaning procedure for more exfoliation."

Well, they did the acid peel without doing the Dermaplaning - apparently my skin is so fragile that they were scared of doing anything that harsh to it. Dermaplaning, if you're not familiar with it, is basically taking a small scapel/blade thing and scraping off layers of skin. Kids, don't try this at home. Especially not with a steak knife.

I was sent home with a page of instructions - for the next 3 days, I have to treat it like baby skin - only use mild soap and the special peel balm they provided. Also, sunscreen (a step I skip because it makes me break out like crazy). Not to mention the fact that I have to stay out of the sun, can't get overheated (no workouts for 2 days, boo hoo), no hot showers or hot water to wash my face, and a few other things. And no makeup yesterday. By today, according to the pro April, I was able to put makeup on right before lunchtime.

So, how did it feel? Well, the acid itself kind of burned. On a scale from one to ten, I'd give it about a five. The extractions that she did on my chinline were far worse in my opinion, especially the two that she lanced open. Ouch. And yesterday, my face looked like it had been well-scrubbed and the two lanced spots looked kind of nasty.

Me, tonight, after working all day and really only touching up with some powder. Not bad.

This morning, not so bad. And by the time I put makeup on (very light foundation and powder with some blush) my skin looked incredible. So good that the girls in the office kept coming in and raving about it and asking for the clinic's number and price list. I was feeling pretty good.

My chinny chin chin is peeling!

Now, at the end of the day, I'm seeing some small patches of peeling on my chin and lower jaw. It's really only noticable if you are right in my face. My chin feels a little bit sensitive as in a little burning feeling every now and then, but really only after I've been up moving around a lot. I think part of the peeling is the fact that it's been over 12 hours since I put any of the after-peel balm on, so in a few minutes I'll be escaping to wash my face and slather up.

Look closely and you can see the blackness of my soul. No, that's just more peeling in a very poor quality photo.

Another interesting part of all this nonsense is that I've kind of rethought how I've been treating my skin. I was a huge Philosophy skin care junkie, and now I'm realizing that for my own skin I might need to shell a bit out to get a little more expensive product - the biggest part being that I've seen better results while using less product. I don't need to grease myself up with five products every night - now I'm down to a serum, a moisturizer, and some eye gel. (Mer, I know you are impressed by this!) In the mornings, it's a hydrating serum, some eye gel, and maybe some toner if I'm looking flaky or too greasy.

Yeah, it's me again. Suck it.

And, in the shocker of the century, I have found that not only do I have combination skin, I also have probably the beginning stages of rosacea. My mom and my sister have it, and neither one have it really bad, so I think I can control it by diet and other factors instead of medication. But that is part of why they picked this particular peel for my face.

So, if you're still awake, that is the saga of the skin peel. I think I go back about four more times in four-week intervals until we get things under control...and then it's more like every six to eight weeks. I just hope the shit works.

And GMan, just in case you made it through all this, here's a little bone for you - BOOBS. There, I said it.