Greetings Friends and My Anonymous Fellow Skincare Friends!
As I stated in my recent post, I'm restarting my skincare blog as of January 1st 2018, but I wanted to give everyone a little background on who I am and how this blog came to be.
I started this blog originally in 2012 after several of my friends asked me for skincare advice. I'm not a esthetician. I don't work in the beauty industry. I'm not a doctor. I'm just a person who loves skincare. My personal skin story is that I was a lucky teenager. I had normal teenage acne - a spot here and there consistently on my face, but nothing too bad. However, my brother was not as lucky - he had cystic acne. Our mom didn't have cystic acne when she was a teenager and didn't know how to treat it. Also, we didn't live in an area where we had access to a dermatologist either, so my mom did her best to help him. She, like many people in the late 90's/early 2000's, believed that if you had acneic and/or oily skin - the best treatment was to dry it out with alcohol-based products, like Clearasil and Oxy Pads. If you are not aware, that is the absolute worst thing you can do to any type of skin, but especially if you're prone to acne or have oily skin. These products are incredibly harsh. They destroy the good pH balance on your skin (which when in balance will help stop acne). The chemicals in these products often lead to inflammation, and it does the exact opposite to oil production than what you're trying to accomplish. Because when the products remove the oil and dry out your skin, your body thinks your skin is dry and reacts by producing more oil in an attempt to hydrate your skin. Anyway - I've digressed. Back to my skin story.
When I was 18-years old, I was at home watching TV and an infomercial came on for Murad Skincare. I knew nothing about how to take care of my skin and the marketing was really persuasive to me. I immediately went online and bought my first skincare set. I felt like such an adult. The short answer is that I used Murad consistently for 2 years. At around the 2 year mark, I decided I wanted to try something different. It's not a bad line at all, but I wanted to start experimenting with other brands since I only knew Murad. I mostly used the acne line, but I also used a few of their products in their redness therapy and environmental shield lines. I didn't understand at the time that while I had acne, it wasn't really bad enough to warrant using an acne line. Unfortunately, I would learn that with the next skincare line and I fully understood my skin by my mid-20s which made it clear to me that I should never have used an acne line to begin with.
At this point, I discovered Proactiv. Again, this was another infomercial find. I bought it and thought it was the greatest skincare line that had ever existed - for 3 days. My skin freaked out. I would later understand that is not an uncommon reaction to Proactiv. For some people - and I include myself in this category - cannot take a lot of benzoyl peroxide, which is their staple ingredient. I broke-out. I had inflammation. My skin was super dry. I had a red rash all over my face and neck. My skin itched and burned. I patch tested before I used it and didn't get a reaction, so my best guess is that my skin has a threshold for benzoyl peroxide and day 3 was my threshold. In short, this just wasn't the brand for me.
At 20 years old, I started dabbling with different products. I still used Murad from time-to-time. I was first introduced to Dermalogica around this time. I liked their products, but it was prohibitively expensive for me as a retail worker and full-time college student. But then one day one of my colleagues mentioned how much she loved Clinique. Her mom loved Clinique. Her auntie and her babysitter both loved Clinique, and she told me that I had to try it. I had seen the Clinique kiosk in the mall with it's array of pastel colored products dotting their counters, so I went for a consultation. I was impressed and I began using Clinique, and would continue to use it for the next 5 or 6 years.
My personal views on skincare today are the same as my views on life. You always have to remain curious and push yourself to try new things and dig yourself out of ruts. I think of my Clinique period as a rut, and my skin - while it looked okay - was just surviving and not thriving. I look back on it and I know it was the easy choice. I knew I wasn't getting the results that I wanted, but it kept my skin mostly clear and it was easy. It wasn't until one day that I ended up calculating how much I had spent on their products in the previous year (which included my birthday and Christmas gifts from friends and family), that I realized in combination - I was using $1,000 worth of their products a year. $1-0-0-0! And my skin...was just okay. Nothing sensational - just okay looking skin. And I didn't use their full product base or an unreasonable amount of products - I was using their three-step system, pre-cleanse, eye cream, and one or two treatment products at a time. $1-0-0-0! I didn't want to be that person that blindly bought $1,000 worth of skincare products a year because it was easy and not get the results that I wanted.
So in 2010, I started experimenting with my skincare. I would save money so that I could constantly try new products. That's when I started trying Jurlique, Skinceuticals, Dr. Brandt, Elizabeth Arden, Peter Thomas Roth, Lancome, Shu Uemura, etc. I didn't want to do a system anymore. I didn't want to be pigeon hole to one brand. I wanted to try new things. I was still a three-step skincare girl - I think Clinique kind of beat that into me, but I cleansed, I toned, and I moisturized with all of these new products. And what I found out was that that I loved learning everything I could about these products I was using. I enjoyed testing them and comparing them. Why spend $50 for a product that a $5 product could do just as well? Or when do I spend the money and try the more expensive product? Those were the answers I wanted to find for myself.
By 2012, my friends started noticing my skin changing for the better. I used to have okay skin and now I'm glowing. That was when they started asking me questions about their own skincare and what they should be doing. I found that a lot of them were like me two years before - someone who didn't know what to do for their skin or were in a skincare rut. I wanted to help my friends. That's where the name JessiPedia came from. When they'd ask me questions, I would make suggestions, tell them about the products, the ingredients, how it works, application techniques, if it really did work, the company's history, etc. I started noticing that I was answering the same questions over and over with multiple friends and I decided to create this blog for them.
By the end of 2012, I thought I had answered all the questions that my friends had and stepped away from it. I continued to try a lot of different products for the next few years until in 2015 when I settled on another skincare line - Dermalogica. I used their products pretty religiously for 2 years. Actually, I was even contacted by Dermalogica to try two of their new products (as a tester) before the product was launched in order to encourage me to write a review on their website. I was beyond flattered that they would ask me to do that, and it answered a question I had always had - how are reviews posted the day a product is launched? It turns out - by someone like me.
This summer (summer 2017), I decided it was time for me to be curious again. I began phasing out my Dermalogica products and started sampling different product lines. My skin has never been better. A few months ago, I decided to look into the J-Beauty (Japanese Skincare and Cosmetics) and K-Beauty (Korean Skincare and Cosmetics) craze. I had read so many articles about their products and techniques and wanted to give them a try. I also saw the K-Beauty 10-step skincare ritual which sounded intriguing. (It wasn't too far off from what I already did everyday while I was sampling products.) So I began following it and so far I am really enjoying the products. And again - my skin has never looked better.
So - yeah, that's my skin's story. I'd like to close with a few stats. I've always found it helpful when I read someone's blog or watch someone's vlog if I know what their skin's like. Here they are:
- I'm a 33 year-old female
- I'm Caucasian with a medium skin tone that has both yellow and pink undertones
- I have oily skin in the summer and combination (oily t-zone and normal cheeks) skin the rest of the time
- I suffer from hyperpigmentation
- I've just begun noticing fine lines around my eyes (crows feet)
- I have dark circles under my eyes caused by allergies
So that's it! Please stay tuned and feel free to ask me any questions you might have, and have a wonderful New Year!
Viva la 2018!
JessiPedia
As I stated in my recent post, I'm restarting my skincare blog as of January 1st 2018, but I wanted to give everyone a little background on who I am and how this blog came to be.
I started this blog originally in 2012 after several of my friends asked me for skincare advice. I'm not a esthetician. I don't work in the beauty industry. I'm not a doctor. I'm just a person who loves skincare. My personal skin story is that I was a lucky teenager. I had normal teenage acne - a spot here and there consistently on my face, but nothing too bad. However, my brother was not as lucky - he had cystic acne. Our mom didn't have cystic acne when she was a teenager and didn't know how to treat it. Also, we didn't live in an area where we had access to a dermatologist either, so my mom did her best to help him. She, like many people in the late 90's/early 2000's, believed that if you had acneic and/or oily skin - the best treatment was to dry it out with alcohol-based products, like Clearasil and Oxy Pads. If you are not aware, that is the absolute worst thing you can do to any type of skin, but especially if you're prone to acne or have oily skin. These products are incredibly harsh. They destroy the good pH balance on your skin (which when in balance will help stop acne). The chemicals in these products often lead to inflammation, and it does the exact opposite to oil production than what you're trying to accomplish. Because when the products remove the oil and dry out your skin, your body thinks your skin is dry and reacts by producing more oil in an attempt to hydrate your skin. Anyway - I've digressed. Back to my skin story.
When I was 18-years old, I was at home watching TV and an infomercial came on for Murad Skincare. I knew nothing about how to take care of my skin and the marketing was really persuasive to me. I immediately went online and bought my first skincare set. I felt like such an adult. The short answer is that I used Murad consistently for 2 years. At around the 2 year mark, I decided I wanted to try something different. It's not a bad line at all, but I wanted to start experimenting with other brands since I only knew Murad. I mostly used the acne line, but I also used a few of their products in their redness therapy and environmental shield lines. I didn't understand at the time that while I had acne, it wasn't really bad enough to warrant using an acne line. Unfortunately, I would learn that with the next skincare line and I fully understood my skin by my mid-20s which made it clear to me that I should never have used an acne line to begin with.
At this point, I discovered Proactiv. Again, this was another infomercial find. I bought it and thought it was the greatest skincare line that had ever existed - for 3 days. My skin freaked out. I would later understand that is not an uncommon reaction to Proactiv. For some people - and I include myself in this category - cannot take a lot of benzoyl peroxide, which is their staple ingredient. I broke-out. I had inflammation. My skin was super dry. I had a red rash all over my face and neck. My skin itched and burned. I patch tested before I used it and didn't get a reaction, so my best guess is that my skin has a threshold for benzoyl peroxide and day 3 was my threshold. In short, this just wasn't the brand for me.
At 20 years old, I started dabbling with different products. I still used Murad from time-to-time. I was first introduced to Dermalogica around this time. I liked their products, but it was prohibitively expensive for me as a retail worker and full-time college student. But then one day one of my colleagues mentioned how much she loved Clinique. Her mom loved Clinique. Her auntie and her babysitter both loved Clinique, and she told me that I had to try it. I had seen the Clinique kiosk in the mall with it's array of pastel colored products dotting their counters, so I went for a consultation. I was impressed and I began using Clinique, and would continue to use it for the next 5 or 6 years.
My personal views on skincare today are the same as my views on life. You always have to remain curious and push yourself to try new things and dig yourself out of ruts. I think of my Clinique period as a rut, and my skin - while it looked okay - was just surviving and not thriving. I look back on it and I know it was the easy choice. I knew I wasn't getting the results that I wanted, but it kept my skin mostly clear and it was easy. It wasn't until one day that I ended up calculating how much I had spent on their products in the previous year (which included my birthday and Christmas gifts from friends and family), that I realized in combination - I was using $1,000 worth of their products a year. $1-0-0-0! And my skin...was just okay. Nothing sensational - just okay looking skin. And I didn't use their full product base or an unreasonable amount of products - I was using their three-step system, pre-cleanse, eye cream, and one or two treatment products at a time. $1-0-0-0! I didn't want to be that person that blindly bought $1,000 worth of skincare products a year because it was easy and not get the results that I wanted.
So in 2010, I started experimenting with my skincare. I would save money so that I could constantly try new products. That's when I started trying Jurlique, Skinceuticals, Dr. Brandt, Elizabeth Arden, Peter Thomas Roth, Lancome, Shu Uemura, etc. I didn't want to do a system anymore. I didn't want to be pigeon hole to one brand. I wanted to try new things. I was still a three-step skincare girl - I think Clinique kind of beat that into me, but I cleansed, I toned, and I moisturized with all of these new products. And what I found out was that that I loved learning everything I could about these products I was using. I enjoyed testing them and comparing them. Why spend $50 for a product that a $5 product could do just as well? Or when do I spend the money and try the more expensive product? Those were the answers I wanted to find for myself.
By 2012, my friends started noticing my skin changing for the better. I used to have okay skin and now I'm glowing. That was when they started asking me questions about their own skincare and what they should be doing. I found that a lot of them were like me two years before - someone who didn't know what to do for their skin or were in a skincare rut. I wanted to help my friends. That's where the name JessiPedia came from. When they'd ask me questions, I would make suggestions, tell them about the products, the ingredients, how it works, application techniques, if it really did work, the company's history, etc. I started noticing that I was answering the same questions over and over with multiple friends and I decided to create this blog for them.
By the end of 2012, I thought I had answered all the questions that my friends had and stepped away from it. I continued to try a lot of different products for the next few years until in 2015 when I settled on another skincare line - Dermalogica. I used their products pretty religiously for 2 years. Actually, I was even contacted by Dermalogica to try two of their new products (as a tester) before the product was launched in order to encourage me to write a review on their website. I was beyond flattered that they would ask me to do that, and it answered a question I had always had - how are reviews posted the day a product is launched? It turns out - by someone like me.
This summer (summer 2017), I decided it was time for me to be curious again. I began phasing out my Dermalogica products and started sampling different product lines. My skin has never been better. A few months ago, I decided to look into the J-Beauty (Japanese Skincare and Cosmetics) and K-Beauty (Korean Skincare and Cosmetics) craze. I had read so many articles about their products and techniques and wanted to give them a try. I also saw the K-Beauty 10-step skincare ritual which sounded intriguing. (It wasn't too far off from what I already did everyday while I was sampling products.) So I began following it and so far I am really enjoying the products. And again - my skin has never looked better.
So - yeah, that's my skin's story. I'd like to close with a few stats. I've always found it helpful when I read someone's blog or watch someone's vlog if I know what their skin's like. Here they are:
- I'm a 33 year-old female
- I'm Caucasian with a medium skin tone that has both yellow and pink undertones
- I have oily skin in the summer and combination (oily t-zone and normal cheeks) skin the rest of the time
- I suffer from hyperpigmentation
- I've just begun noticing fine lines around my eyes (crows feet)
- I have dark circles under my eyes caused by allergies
So that's it! Please stay tuned and feel free to ask me any questions you might have, and have a wonderful New Year!
Viva la 2018!
JessiPedia
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