My Skin Story

Hello!
Today I sat down to write a blog post, which I had already planned on writing, but I just didn't feel like writing it, which is quite normal for a Friday night. However I really wanted to write a post all about my skin. Which is odd considering all I do is complain about it! I decided I would write a extra little post about my skin, mainly to try help anyone who is suffering with skin issues like I do.


When I was about 10 or 11 I really wasn't one of those girls who would try put on their Mum's makeup. I just wasn't into that sort of stuff. Then as soon as I got to the age where I started to care about what I looked like and started wanting to experiment with makeup my skin was so awful the thought of putting makeup on it made me cringe. I was about 13 at the time and I hated it. My friends had just started wearing makeup and trying out foundations but I just stayed completely clear of it. It wasn't that I didn't want to 'play' with makeup, it was just that putting makeup on involved looking at my skin and I absolutely hated it. So instead of trying to cover it up or start trying skincare products I just left it. This post isn't meant to be some kind of sob story, it really isn't. I had bad skin, so did other people.
The problem with my skin was just the amount of break outs I had. I always had them. My cheeks were the worst. They were so bad and always really red, whereas my forehead was actually pretty good in comparison.
It was probably 18 months until I decided to do something about my skin, at which point I was 14. I kept thinking it was just a 'spotty phrase' and I would grow out of it but for almost 2 years straight I had really bad spots on my cheeks, covering them. It's a beautiful thought, I know!
At first I thought I would try improve my diet, cut out any drinks other than water and try be a lot more healthy. I always assumed it was something I was doing wrong with my diet. I was never the best at sticking to these 'healthy diets'. I've never had a particularly bad diet. I was brought up a vegetarian, so I've never eaten meat, which meant most of my meals at home consisted of beans, vegetables and Quorn. All being quite healthy. I definitely had my fair share of sweets and chocolate, but no more than a usual 14 year old.
When changing my diet made no difference, I finally told my Mum that it was bothering me, straight away she said the best thing would be to go to the doctors and see what they say. We booked an appointment for about a week later and I spent that week ermming and arhhing on whether I should go and if I was making a fuss about nothing. I'm so glad I went!
When I went we discussed what I'd tried and the doctor was really nice about it. They ended up giving me Erythromycin on prescription. Which is a tablet that you take twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. It's a relevantly weak anti-biotic. The reason I had a weak anti-biotic is because they had a lot less side effects and if I was going to be taking for a reasonably long time I didn't want anything too strong. At first I saw a massive difference! I was so happy and actually started wearing makeup! The spots didn't go completely but they were a lot better and the redness went down a lot. I still had a few break outs, especially round that time of the month. I was on the Erythomycin for about a year and by then I had started to absolutely love makeup!
Then recently, in late January I decided to become vegan. For me this wasn't a massive change as I've always been vegetarian. This decision wasn't because of my skin, although I had heard other people on youtube and through blogs that had said being vegan had really helped their skin. Being vegan was always something I wanted to try out so I thought I would give it a go. After 2 or 3 weeks of being vegan I found that my skin had cleared up so much! I was surprised but so so happy! It seems like as soon I was old enough to care what I looked like I had spots so for me to have clear skin, touch wood, was absolutely amazing and I was so happy! It's been almost 3 months since I turned vegan and I'm not missing anything at all! I would happily give up cheese for clear skin any day!
I personally think a big factor of my bad skin was dairy, but in particular milk. So if you have bad skin I would definitely try giving up milk!
I don't think becoming vegan to clear you skin up is absolutely necessary. I think it might be the lack of dairy which has caused my skin to clear up, or it could easily be the lifestyle which comes with being vegan. I eat a lot of grains, fruit and vegetables. Sounds boring and plain but it really isn't. Oh and most donuts are vegan!
If you've made it this far in this post I bow down to you. I've rambled so much! I just really wanted to make a post about it as for me it's a really good achievement.
If anyone would like to hear how I became vegan and the meals and snacks I would recommend I would absolutely love to do a post about it so please let me know!
Thank you so much if you've read this far!
Daisy, Kiss <3