Almost at the end of week 1...

Hey!

A lot has changed over the past day or so for my skin. Yesterday was Day 5, and my skin was really much clearer - quite astonishing results really (see pic below). My symptoms from day 5 include:

- Dry skin on face
- Skin a lot clearer - not as inflamed in acne areas
- Chapped lips - they cracked at the edge when I yawned...ouuuchhhhh!
- Dry eyes / eyes stinging
- Skin very sensitive to any product
- Dry hands

Day 5

As you can see, the skin on my face had started to peel - especially on the chin. Other than that it looks so much clearer, it's amazing!

Day 6, however, was a complete turn-around. Not much of a surprise to me - as I expect anyone with acne would agree, it really does change from day to day. Before I went on Roaccutane, one day I would wake up with clearer skin, the next I have 6 new spots and it's inflamed! So a difference from day to day came as no surprise...
The sensitivity of my skin was just as before from Day 5 - any product I would put on it (be it using a Simple wipe, soothing moisturiser or even sun cream) would make it sting, as though what I was putting on it was toxic (which I'm hoping is most definitely not..)! My symptoms from Day 6 include...

- Dry skin on face - flakey
- Itchy skin on face
- New spots appearing
- Red/inflamed skin - not specifically in acne areas, but as a general pigment (similar to sunburn)
- Chapped lips
- Dry eyes / eyes stinging
- Skin very sensitive to any product
- Dry hands
- Worsened asthma (I usually only have asthma which is manageable and controlled - I used to be able to last all day from my morning and evening inhalers - however today I found that I needed one during the day)
- Tiredness / restless sleep

It seems the sensitivity I have has resulted in redness, and the itchiness is one step away from extremely dry skin - believe me, I've been warned as to how dry it can get!

Day 6

Everyone wants to know how to keep these symptoms at bay, or at least make them more bearable. As I've said before, I'll be trying out different products to see what helps me personally, at each stage of this process!


Products I have tried so far:

For my hands, I've been using Clinique Deep Comfort hand and cuticle cream, which I've always used and loved. However, I don't think my hands have got the worst of it yet, so I may be giving a very different review if the skin gets any drier there! I am also running low on that, and have bought myself Elizabeth Arden 8-hour Hand Cream for when that time comes...watch this space for when I give that one a go!

I've read a couple of forums regarding what moisturisers to buy etc etc, and so many people have been recommending Elizabeth Arden 8 hour Cream, so I thought I would invest. It's certainly an interesting cream. It's much stiffer than I expected - I suspected it would be creamy like a normal moisturiser, but it was thick like hair wax. This made it quite difficult to use - the skin on my face is getting quite flakey, so applying a sticky moisturiser made it a bit tricky, and I found I had to dab my face afterwards with a towel and give my hands a good wash! However, it really is called 8 hour for a reason, and my skin hasn't dried out all day...although it has had a bit of a shine to it which isn't the best!

I was also told that Roaccutane can make you very sensitive to the sun, and as the weather is (finally) hotting up here in UK, I've wanted to make the most of it! I've been using a regular SPF 50 on my arms and neck. My friend recommended Clinique City Block, which is a SPF 40 face protector cream. I quite like it! It is slightly tinted (again, not what I expected), so it almost evens out your skin tone at the same time as protecting it from the sun.

I must say though, I'm finding all this very out of the ordinary. As I've avoided wearing face make-up for years now (except for the odd occasion), it feels very uncomfortable having all this product on my face - I'm used to letting my skin breath! It was a real relief to take it all off at night, but if it's there to help protect / moisturise then I'm prepared to cope with that one!

So there we have it, almost one week down, another 5 months and 4 weeks left... cor, it really feels like Everest is in front of me at the moment..!

I'm off to enjoy my long weekend in the sunshine (with a high SPF on, of course)!

Louise x