This year has been The Year of Fixing My Face. When I turned 30, my face freaked out. I had been using Arbonne and loving it, but when I turned 30 everything stopped working suddenly and my face thought I was 13. (Ironically, when I was 13 I actually had great skin.) I decided that I am too old for severe acne, that is what dermatologists and health insurance are for, so I went to one.

I’ve been on the Retin-A, Duac, and an oral antibiotic for a few months and they’ve been working great so far.

Aside for half my face peeling off if I use anything too harsh to wash it.
Yes, that. That can be embarrassing. It has happened twice.

Meanwhile, I have run out of Arbonne and was trying to slowly replace it with other things. This became more complicated with the added risk of half my face peeling off again if I choose something too harsh for the cocktail of things I’m smearing on my face right now.

To add to the confusion, one of my friends is now selling Mary Kay, I am a Sephora Beauty Insider , another friend recommended Bath & Body Works skin care products, and of course there is always the Beauty Hacks section of BlogHer and I am addicted to Glamour and Real Simple magazines. I feel like I need to balance what people say works for them, and what is eco-conscious…
Then there is, again, the possibility of half my face peeling off…AAAAGH!!!

Finally, just as I did when the acne first popped up (no pun intended), I gave up and decided I need to pay someone to just tell me what to do. So I called the dermatologist again and found out that they have skin care consultants at their office I can go see who will help pick out products for me that will work with my meds. I was so excited!!!

I went today and it didn’t take long. She told me that Neutragena and Cetaphil are actually really pretty great for my super-medicated skin and in conjunction with those for moisturizers she gave me a cleanser from SkinCeuticals and a chemical-free 45 SPF day cream from Elta MD.

I know what you are thinking…are these green products?! Do they have parabens? Do they test on animals, are they vegan? As far as I can tell, no parabens. I need to do more research on that. I cannot tell if they test on animals or if they are vegan, even after visiting the web sites. But you know what is interesting is that they are both manufactured here in Dallas. Carrollton and Garland. Does that give me credit on the “buy local” side for local vs. organic? I don’t know. But I do know that something like a 100 gallon jug of Cetaphil was $11 at CVS. Compared to the tiny bottle of Arbonne moisturizer I’d been paying $79 for…sounds pretty great!

Requiem for Arbonne…I will miss the yummy smell, but I also learned from my skin care consultant that if I can smell something I am putting on my face, it is probably not going to react well with my Retin-A. So, here goes. I’ll let you know!