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speaking of the staff, i have never been more blown away by a staff in my life. these are a few of the warmest, sincerest people i've ever met. every person i interacted with-- i have not one negative thing to say about anyone...i can't even say someone was even *slightly* distant. everyone was so amazingly personal...it seemed almost surreal. i was in skincare heaven!
anyway, on to my 11/9 treatment. just as i suspected, i had both inflamed and non-inflamed acne, but definitely mostly non. the inflamed i only have 2-3 of, i think. also, i mostly have my acne on the underside and jawline of my face. this might make it seem less severe, till you *feel* my face. i have the characteristic non-inflamed acne in the sense that if you stretch out the skin, the bumps turn white from the pressure. they're also notoriously difficult to get to w/o intervention. my skin has felt pretty clogged up for months now. (this whole problem started early this summer, but got dramatically worse with my stressful school schedule.)
so i had my face cleansed and then analyzed with the serum test and it was determined that since i have a few inflamed pimples still, we were gonna start with the salicylic acid treatment first...then move on to something else. it didn't take long; kim put the treatment on and told me to hold a small fan she had to my face to lessen the tingling. we did that for a few minutes and then she moved on to the extractions.
i knew my pores were really plugged; to be quite honest, i can't remember the last time i used any kind of mask whatsoever, so i knew a lot would come up. kim confirmed that something was coming up every time she pressed, but what didn't occur to me was how painful this can be when it's your entire face being pushed down with a teeny instrument in a teeny spot. i have a high tolerance to pain, so i was sure i wouldn't sweat it, but it was pretty painful, to be quite honest. i mean, i didn't cry or anything, or force her to stop, but pushing especially into my jawline or any other place where there was less fat and more bone underneath was OUCH. it was a very welcome relief when that was over!
once that was all done we were finished, so i asked out of curiosity to see what kim used for the extractions. i shouldn't have been surprised...what they use is simply a professional version of the extractor they sell at any drugstore. of course, the fact that kim and the other estheticians are trained specifically to do all sorts of prepping for my skin beforehand makes their extractions a lot more successful though, no doubt! she did explain that yes, the cleansing and salicylic treatment helped loosen the gunk in my pores.
i went home with a baggy of products (see my regimen below) that day and a face only slightly red. when i looked closely in the mirror i saw miniscule red dots in a few pores, but nothing blazingly obvious. i also went home with a strict instruction plan of care and info on acne, zinc, and acnegenic ingredients. (see their website for more details; a lot of it's there.) i was, for example, grossed out to find that one of the (many) products i brought had "dehydrogenated tallow phthalic acid amide" in it...which is BEEF FAT! EW GROSS! this is SO sad coming from a glycolic cleanser! ugh!
11/10
this is my first full day on the take home treatments. (as i stated above, you can read what that is below.) i am really liking it so far...except for the fact that i have to wait for 15 min before i can wash off the BP. last night i forgot about that and went to bed significantly later than i thought i would...
i tried the dixie cups the staff gave me to ice my face, but the ice wasn't solid yet so i spilled some on the floor while i was using it. plus, it's not really easy to get the ice on my face with the ice on the bottom of the cup since there's a ridge on the bottom. (i'm sure it'd work much better if i'd frozen them tilted somehow so i can ice more from the side of the cup.) anyway, i just decided to use one of those blue gel "ice" inserts for your cooler? there's just so much more surface area so it's a lot easier.
i really like the products; my face somehow seems brighter already. i initially apply them all to the underside of my face where the acne's the worst, then go upward. i think i have really resilient skin, because the salicylic acid and the BP aren't bothering me. i feel slight tingling when i use the SA, but nothing horrible and uncomfortable like when i used my axelex!
i noticed VERY slight flaking today too, but literally what looked like 3 or 4 tiny pieces of skin coming off. i'm assuming this is from the 1st SA treatment i got from kim. anyway, it was nothing scaly/dandruffy (like when you use too much 10% BP), just a few soft pieces of shedding skin. i noticed this tonight again around a few of my pimples (which were now..."softer?" or "flatter?"), and i take that as a very good sign!
...so i'd say my least favorite product is the BP, but that's only because that's the main thing that makes my neck what it currently looks like- an old lady's, lol! that's only because the skin on the neck is different from on the face, so it gets more dehydrated from the BP. it actually doesn't really look like an old lady's normally, but when i jut out my chin the skin under my face shows thin lines, and i don't really have wrinkles at this point (plus i have a super oily face). i didn't freak out because i saw this using my own BP. however, my BPs a cream and the one i got from FRSC is a gel, so i finally experienced what dan kern meant by "the superiority of a gel."
i also want to say my favorite product is the SPF 30. i know most ppl adore the cranberry cream, and yes, it's great i must say (more than the smell i actually like its consistency), but i am impressed with the consistency of the SPF. i am by NO means a sunbather. i am on the fairly careful side with my skin, despite the fact that it's pretty resilient (i think it's 'cause i'm japanese; the japanese are hypersensitive about protecting their skin from the sun). however, i can't stand the consistency of almost all SPFs! most of them smell, look curdly and spew oil on application-- pretty gross. the only one i swore by is my kara vita spf (and they're known for their spf) since it's so lotiony and lasts an entire 8 hours without reapplication...but i'm not talking about my previous sunblock, i'm talking about the FRSC one. even though it can't boast a continuous 8 hour coverage, i love the lack of smell and the consistency. it slipped on beautifully- very smooth. i *did* notice it made my face shiny though (but NOT AT ALL GREASY) but i don't care since i use mineral foundation on top anyway.
k, i think i wrote A LOT. i was playing catch up and know i'm overdue- sorry! i'll write more on my progress in a little bit. till next time!
It was just SO GROSS (the whitehead) because first of all, it wasn't "white"-- it was more like greenish-yellow, NASTY! And it was inflamed. 
