When Skin Care Goes Horribly Wrong
Dr. Brandt. Dr. Perricone. Kate Somerville. Patricia Wexler.
I know them all.
Kind of.
Will Dr. Perricone be inviting me over for a grilled salmon lunch any time soon? Highly unlikely. And I probably would not be able to get an appointment with Pat Wexler, one of the top dermo's (That's the hip beauty writer abbreviation for dermatologist.) on NY's Upper East Side.
I guess you could categorize me as more of a fan of their namesake skin care lines.
Over the years, I've probably spent thousands on cleansers, soaps, toners, spot treatments, and peels, all in an attempt to get perfect skin. I could've invested in real estate or tech stocks and probably made a bundle. Along the way, I've lost a bundle, but did earn VIB Beauty Insider status at Sephora. (Just found out recently about VIB Rouge status, the next step up, which is a $1,000 spend.)
Before Sephora, for me, there was CVS and Benzoyl peroxide in the form of Oxy Ten. Why use Oxy 5 when there was Ten? With ten being greater than 5, Oxy Ten was obviously more powerful AND more effective I reasoned. In reality, the Oxy was probably just irritating the heck out of my skin and making it worse. It actually turned it a deep shade of red that mimicked rosacea.
There's a warning on any container of skin cream that contains benzoyl peroxide. It's there. I had read it many times. May bleach skin and fabrics. My advice? If you're staying over at someone's house (maybe at your sister's) and you decide to coat your face in Oxy Ten, best to wash your hands thoroughly before you touch anything. Remember this.
Otherwise you run the very real risk of bleaching a huge spot in the rug of your sister's family room because you touched that rug with your BP coated hands. If that happens, it will be many MANY years before she stops talking about it. At all kinds of family gatherings. She'll probably talk about it until she moves out of that house and into another.
No matter how you slice it, you come off looking like the vain jerk who ruined her family room decor because you had a zit or 2 or 3.
So be sure to wash your hands.