itismehmmkay

I'm still at it.  I think around the Dec/Jan holidays I skipped a week or 2, but for the most part I've been pretty good.  Oh and at one point I couldn't get my morning routine down.  But I have to say that I have both the morning and evening pretty solid.  The only thing is sometimes I apply it at night too late.  I'll work on that.  

 

One thing that has been helping me is applying both the gel and the moisturizer w/ a cotton ball.  I know that's not in the regimen, but it helps me not obsessed as much about what is on my hands.  I work with my hair alot in the morning and evening and I don't want any random oils on my skin.  Same with lotions, etc.  Also, this allows me to better monitor whether BP gets around my eyes or mouth.  Usually I apply moisturizer to my eye and mouth area right before the BP and then after it has dried, w/ separate cotton ball for each.  Then too, I apply my tinted foundation with two different cotton balls, one for the eye mouth area, another for the rest of my face that has BP on it.  

 

So today is 2/4.  I've done 12/4 - 1/4 and the 1/4 - 2/4.  So that's 2 months down.  And I can say that my skin is adjusted to the BP and I'm using the full dose.  I can definitely see myself having completely clear skin, marks and all, within a total of 4mths.  So that's 2/4 - 3/4 and then 3/4 - 4/4.  So April 4th!  I guess that's around Easter time?  So as a timemark, my skin should be completely clear by Easter.  

 

One big thing that I'm definitely excited about is not having to put on as much powder to cover up dark marks.  I'll still wear makeup, just more emphasis on the tinted moisturizer (really just my shade of liquid foundation mixed with aloe vera gel).

I know when I tried Proactiv, it seemed as if the glycolic acid was really working on my marks. But I had to stop b/c the acid actually ended up breaking me out. I can't do any kind of acid actually...salicylic, glycolic, lactic, etc. I bet those moisturizers will work over time. The marks eventually do fade themselves, it's just that there are agents that can help speed up the process through exfoliation/removing old layers of skin. In the past BP actually started fading my marks as well; it's like an exfoliator for me anyway.

I do so much at work actually. I basically put on my BP at work, then moisturizer, then makeup. And I wash my hands and do all appropriate wait times in between. Today has been going to smoothly. I took some more pics and took them here at work. Think this is where I'll do my updates. So every Tuesday, I'll take a pic. And I like the lighting on these and feel they give a more accurate picture.

I am experiencing the whole initial BP experience w/ the redness, itchiness, irritation, but it's all good. I really do feel pretty optimistic that it's working. And I'm so happy that I've found a realistic/practical way to do it in the morning. In the past, the morning was always out of the question. Oh, also experiencing the dryness, but I'm doing pretty good w/ moisturizing really good.

Anyway. I'll post my pics in a minute.

Here they are. I had just put on some BP gel.

Optimistic that this'll work again. It's just been two days though. Def wishing it would just go away already though. I'm so tired of my skin not being clear.

So I ended up putting the BP on at work this morning. Last night was no big deal; applied the same way and did the same wait times mostly. This morning I was rushing out and didn't wash my face first thing. So I just pumped some BP in a ziplock bag. Then by the time I got to work, washed my hands and put some on my face. I let that dry maybe 30min., then applied my moisturizer. Then after about 15min applied my mix of liquid foundation and banana boat aloe vera gel...basically my take on a tinted moisturizer. Oh and I put on quite a bit of moisturizer actually I used one pump for under my eyes and around my mouth. Then a pump or two for the rest of my face. Oh and I'm using the Purpose Moisturizer where a pump is probably 1/2 a pump of Dan's.