In today’s competitive world that is globally connected where we are all under the microscope, appearances are often important as unfortunately they can determine peoples quality-of-life, well-being and often success.

However, in the quest to optimise their appearances many people resort to accessible skincare and particularly those with skin problems are at the mercy of big, profit-orientated conglomerates.

We have both experienced our separate issues with skin and both spent a lot of time and money on mainstream products until we started reading the labels on the back and realising that many products are full of toxic ingredients. Hence, we’ve gone on a quest to find good quality, ethically sourced green products.

LISA

My skin issues started around age 12 like most of my adolescent peers. Happily, in Germany the dermatologists were sympathetic to this common adolescent plight and I was treated to a weekly squeezing of the worst of my unsightly eruptions to prevent scaring of the skin.

Of course, as a girl the whole situation escalated when I started to menstruate in my teens with red, angry pustules congregating on my chin with monthly regularity. By age 14, the only thing on my christmas wish list was a mainstream skin care 3 step ‘system’ that promised to banish these outbreaks. Although the cost was prohibitive for a teen and later a student, skincare continued to top my gift wish list and my budget priorities until I finally started to earn money in my 20’s.

Even more so when I suffered a bout of rosacea which turned into eczema. Still, my priorities seemed justified, as my skin only erupted once a month around the chin and I never had to resort to Accutane or anything quite so drastic like some of my peers at the time. That said, I was on the oral contraceptive pill for the best part of two decades.

Free of financial restrictions on my ‘beauty’ spending in my mid 20’s, I settled on a more ‘comprehensive’ mainstream skincare range, which I continued for years and even packed in my rucksack when I went travelling for a few months in my late 20’s.

At the time the porter who carried all of our stuff (2 women with 2 separate ranges in one rucksack) most have wondered why why we did not seem to have too many clothes with us, little did he know that he was carrying double sets of:

• Cleansers
• Toners
• Serums (day time and night time)
• Moisturizers (day time and night time)
• Eye creams

And that was just the facial skin care!!!

On and off, I also tried some of the more prominent skin rejuvenating supplements on the market, but I am still not sure to what effect.

The INVESTMENTS seemed to pay off, as the pimples around my menses were less and I only went to the dermatologist once to have the contents of a cyst squeezed out.

That was until I started getting concerned about wrinkles and trying the retinol-based wrinkle cream from my favourite brand. I came back from a beach holiday looking like a brown and white leopard has spray painted my face with its spots. At the time I was told it was hormonal melasma, but I didn’t really think anything of it and went topical with glycolic acid peels, copious sunscreen and a short love-affair with La Roche Posay.

From my late-thirties onwards people started to make positive remarks about my wrinkle less (relative to my age), flawless complexion, plus the monthly pimples came and went quickly without long-term traces. So, I stopped trying all of the new ‘miracle’ creams and was a confirmed advocate of the mainstream ‘REGIMEN’ I adhered to twice daily for years.

My conviction was only shaken by a flare-up of the cyst that had formed on one side of my chin years earlier. This time the recommendation to ‘treat’ it was far more drastic – I was advised to have a plastic surgeon remove the whole thing to avoid a mark/hole. Thinking this would leave my otherwise unblemished skin intact, I stupidly agreed and have since come to accept the prominent cut/scar that has remained.

By this time, I had started to study nutrition and read labels. Duly horrified at the list of toxins in my expensive skin care I decided to invest and focus more on cleaning up from the inside.

Needless to say my skin care routine was simplified and I began to discover different things from different ranges that did not cost the earth (figuratively and literally) or contain ‘nasties’.

The complements regarding my complexion continued to flow and I took them graciously and put it down to ‘good genes from my Mum’, all the while wondering whether my partner and I are the only ones who notice the purplish/red marks around my chin after I have vigorously squeezed the painful little pustules under the skin, lest one of them develop into a much dreaded cyst again.

I know that I shouldn’t squeeze them and have learned the hard way that they can get infected. I still have horrible flash-backs of going to a party with a big open, pussy, bleeding wound on my face which I believe was the result of an infected, picked pustule that got infected with Molluscum from our swimming pool.

Perhaps nobody noticed my hard pustules, as they are pretty much ‘invisible’ under the skin until I squeeze them frantically. Call me paranoid, BUT recently when I urged the dermatologist to look at one with his professional ‘magnifying glass?’, he declared them as cystic acne, most likely age-related. WHAT???

Although immediate DENIAL was my reaction to that diagnosis, it was fortuitous that shortly thereafter Zoe gifted me with some samples from Luxe Botanics.

I immediately fixed on the Kigelia at the mere mention that it was formulated for problem skin including cystic acne. My hesitation to commit to an exclusive two month trial of Kigelia, forsaking ALL of my other products, was overcome by the fact that the first day I used the serum/moisturizer I received even more complements on my flawless skin, which several people commented was even more luminous than usual.

After two months of using ONLY the two Kigelia products – serum (also as a stand-in for eye cream) and moisturizer, I have to say that not only was my travel bath bag a LOT LIGHTER, but the cysts under my skin completely cleared.

AND my complexion was indeed more luminous than anyone thought possible, plus my over-plucked eyebrows seem to respond better to the Kigelia (amongst other changes) than 12 months of castor oil.

These days, both my clients with and without skin complaints comment that they would just like to have my skin please, with everyone finding it hard to believe that I DO HAVE PROBLEM SKIN and have battled with the following conditions, albeit mostly in the past:

• Pimples, black heads and large pores
• Eczema (mainly on my hands with no flares in the last few years)
• Melasma (a short-lived period of leopard-print patchiness, once in the past)
• Unexplained rashes on my legs
• Mollusc (viral-) and bacterial infections (that looked like herpes) from the swimming pool with a tendency to develop into open, pussy bleeding wounds
• Cheliosis around my mouth
• Copper acne due to a zinc copper imbalance
• Cysts – currently making an ugly come-back

Granted, I have made efforts to look after my skin (including never smoking) and my body over the years, so it it is likely to be a combination of factors that have contributed to the enviable complexion I have in my late 40s, but finding the right skin care to make it truly effortless these days has been quite a journey.

Being a little skeptical that the simple routine outlined below was truly the answer to resolving my on-going micro-cyst (everyone claims that they are so tiny they can’t see them, but I can feel them) problem and seduced by the lure of being gifted a coveted ‘caviar’ based product – I strayed for a few weeks and what happens – flawless turned pizza chin rears its ugly head again!

Lumps appeared on my chin, my cheek and this time my nose. It was so bad that I have to confess that the remanent blemish on my nose is still current, so on the picture to the right I have resorted to a little bit of spot corrector from Bare Minerals on my nose only. Even though I am thoroughly regretting my transgression, thankfully I am starting to see light at the end of the pimple explosion tunnel, as other blemishes have become less evident. What is shocking is that this time it has taken my skin to recover, this is me after more than a month of TLSC. I am now back to the most simple skincare regime I have ever had – three products 2 x daily:

• Wash Dermafix Derma Polish
• Apply Kigelia Serum sparingly incl. eye area
• Apply Kigelia Moisturizer
• DONE (except for a mud mask with Luvos Heilerde at least once a week)

These days, less is more in my view. So, to all those who have been asking about my skin secrets – at present, apart from nutrition and lifestyle, the four items above are the sum total.

Watch this space though, as I am sure I won’t be able to resist trying out new things at some point, although I am now hopefully immune to the advertising and promises of mainstream brands and their patented formulas. I expect that the mere mention of ‘caviar’ will make my skin crawl for the rest of my life.

ZOE

I really struggled as a teenager with acne, resorting to putting vast amounts of chemicals from a well known teenage brand on my face just to try and clear the spots up……I dread to think what that did to such teenage sensitve skin and am fortunate that I escaped relatively blemish free if not toxin free!

The hormones finally settled down in my 30’s and I started to be a daily user of the same 3 step system Lisa had used (some great marketing going on there!) My skin was ok but never “glowing” but I always though this was just the result of long hours in front of a computer and the Thurs / Fri night out binge that was the norm at that point in my life! To be fair those things probably didn’t really help!

Roll forward to my 40’s and my skin is starting to dry out, lose its elasticity and get the odd acne spot again (I blame the perimenopause, like I do for most things right now but that’s defintely another post altogether!) I had tried a few products from well known brands and it was ok, but after falling sick and really looking at my health and all the inputs to it, I wanted to look for something that was free from impurities and as clean as I could make it.

I was introduced to LUXE botanics by a friend and met the founder and CEO Jené Roestorf, a South African biological scientist who developed the line after issues with her own skin, focusing on using potent, high performance transformative botanicals and decided to give it a go for a few weeks. The entire range is made from organic, vegan ingredients so fulfilled my “Clean Beauty” requirements as well.

I started out using the marula serum oil alone and was amazed with the results. I had clear skin that glowed for the first time ever. Given I was still struggling to clear a h Pylori infection at the time people kept telling me how well I looked!

Since then I have been converted – I only use LUXE BOTANICS on my skin. My favourite products are the marula oil, (shown above), Camu brightening moisturiser and the Camu mist, a must for plane journeys and those ‘morning after’ moments when you need something to add a glow to your skin.