stephanie is: 
working…
so today has been a long day. i did a lot of driving because i drove out to maryland to have lunch with danny. i also drove around on errands. it would be nice if one day i’d magically start to like driving. but no…
we had dinner plans with danny’s uncle and brother tonight. it was nice seeing him. he was in town on business. unfortunatly i ate lunch late and couldn’t eat much of my chinese buffet food.
when we got home we were having connectivity problems. turned out to be the server. all is well now, so i am back to work on the members’ gallery.
tomorrow i have to clean and shop for wendy’s arrival on saturday. bleh, i am supposed to get my period on saturday/my birthday. lame lame lame. i can tell it is on it’s way. everyone do a little dance for me so that it comes after wendy leaves so i don’t have to be in pain – especially on my birthday. that would be sucktacular.
so this picture is hard for me to post. i have never had clear skin. this past winter it started getting very very bad. painful ones on my neck that i had to cover with turtlenecks all winter. i decided enough already in may… i was still waiting on my new health insurance so i couldn’t afford a dermatologist. so i broke down and ordered that proactiv stuff you see on infomercials with judith light. heck, i was spending more that that on all the zit creams, washes, and astringents and it was only getting worse. let me say, this stuff rocks. my skin is now very clear. i have maybe 5 or less zits at a time (instead of 50+) and some hyperpygmentation (red spots) that need some more time to fade. you can see my freckles again! not just zits.
well i made myself promise that i’d post before and after shots if it actually worked. i hate that it means i show such i bad picture of me (the before) but i think it builds character to show one’s weeknesses and whatnot.
so here it is. do be kind. i am very happy with the proactiv system and i have been stretching in out so it lasts longer.
click me
Ya know I think that’s awesome of you to do. Not many people are honest or brave enough to do that. Maybe you can help someone else out there that is having problems
I don’t have acne BUT I have excema and I am scarred all over my legs and arms. There’s nothing you can do about scars…that I know of anyway. I hate it…especially in the summer time when I wear shorts and short sleeves. Sucks arse.
So, yay for you for doing that.
wonderful, stephanie!
i am SO glad you found something that helped you!
congrats. and you have very cute freckles!
š
~Kissy
thanks š they used to be darker but i avoid the sun now…
my god, i had no idea that stuff actually worked!!!
Neat!!!
wow!
I had no idea you even had zits! All the pics I have seen of you I always thought you had perfect skin!
I am glad to hear that stuff works!
Re: wow!
good lighting is my friend! though it was really abnormally bad when i started this.
Brave girl…lovely as always. š
Does it help to fade old spots and to prevent new breakouts? How long did it take to kick in? Is it just a cream, or cleanser, or is it a whole regimen? Was it pricey?
i was already clearing up after a few days.
it exfoliates so i guess it would fade them a little faster than they would on their own. they sell a seperate spot fader but i havn’t used it yet.
the kit comes with the fash wash stuff. it kicks ass. it is medicated so it really clears you up why you exfoliate. then there is the toner which i don’t use much case i didn’t budget it well. and there is the lotion which is great cause it goes on clear unlike those white zit creams i was using since age 12.
i got a free trial of thier face mask too. it dries my face too much. but their tip book said you can dab it on as a spot treatment for zits overnight. i started that this week cause i got a pms breakout and each zit was at least 50% better by morning.
it is about $20 a month but i am stretching it as much as i can by using it once a day now. i use clean&clear medicated lotion in the mornings instead.
*hugs*
i am glad proactiv worked for you, but for me it only helped a little. i have/had been struggling with acne for ten years now until i bit the bullet and got on accutane a couple of months ago. my skin was probably in the same state as yours, i think. no photo record that i know of. however, proactiv was probably my fave line. i REALLY did like the cleanser and moisturizer especially.
within a week of starting accutane, my acne was gone. i mean GONE. not just a few zits here and there…GONE. chest zits…back zits…face zits…oily hair…oily skin…gone. i can’t tell you how happy i have been with it. it’s clear to the point that when i got a zit (ONE zit) this week, i was totally pissed.
the only bad side effect is the dryness and itchiness of my skin, but after the past ten years of grease, i FAR prefer the dryness. i’ll probably get to go off of it by the time i go back to school in fall and it should be permanent. my dermatologist is a goddess. when i started, she told me that it was a scary thing, but that it was pretty much the only thing in the arsenal that i hadn’t tried, and that every year that i put up with acne is another year i put up with scars. i think she was right, in my case anyway.
i share your joy!
well hopefully this will continue to work. sometimes products work for me only the first couple months then i get immune. i guess if that happens my next step would be to get a dermatologist. i was starting to scar too. luckily that arn’t deep and should fade in a few months.
I had similar problems…
…well, it’s in the family to have akne till you’re 30 something. I tried every face cleaner, visited a cosmetic-studio and so on, nothing helped realy. Finally only two things helped. One was a tincture what was mixed with a skin-toner, that helped a little. But what realy helped was a light antibiotica called “clinomycin”(Klinomyzin), expensive (one pill around 75?) but it helped. I took it over years. Well now my akne is nearly gone, but I can assume very well how you feel. I’m glad that you found the right stuff to get rid of this thingies.
BTW, it’s the first time that I recognize that you have, no wait better sayed “had”, an akne-problem.
I was just talking about trying that stuff last night…I wasnt sure if it worked, but now I am convinced…
looks great š
Johnathan
I have bad skin too. It’s not as bad as it was in HS, and then I went on Accutane for a few months..that worked and kept my skin clear for a few years. Now it’s back to breaking out a lot and I’m hesitant to go back on that because it has so many side effects (and you will get the side effects). Your skin looks good! maybe I will try some of that proactiv..the prescription stuff I’m on now doesn’t do much..also my skin gets bad around my “monthly friend”..like now..ack.
thanks for sharing your pics! *hugs*
I really did think you had flawless skin…glad you posted those pix, very trusting/honest thing for you to do to share that with us here…
and I don’t think the first pic even looks bad at all-…you’d be surprised what most people look like under their makeup!
Stress and sensitive skin is a bad combo…I had mild skin problems for years but when I got really stressed and sick during senior year my acne got cystic i think… very painful… makeup (foundation/base) also makes me break out…maybe I am allergic to it? so I only wear it once in a while or my skin gets absolutely horrible.
I did get proactiv…not sure if it worked or if my skin just got better from the stress levek going way down… I ended up using DIFFERIN gel/cream and it really did the trick… also I figured out that I can’t wear makeup…
“sucktacular” !! heheh! š
I started using proactiv at least 4 years ago! I am glad that you are having the great results that I am having too!
Boo to adult acne…..Yay to Proactiv!
Good work
As always your photoshop skills shine! š
that is great steph! your beeutiful no matter what!
i tried that stuff a while back and it did the opposite for me! now i get suff from the dermo.
For the longest time I thought you had a “porcelain” complexion. I was surprised when you said you had freckles and now you have surprised me once again. (You really do appear to have porcelain skin in your usual photos.)
I hope that skin stuff continues to work for you and you don’t develope a tolerance to it. Tell your skin to behave!
being so fair skinned, a camera flash tends to white my skin out. works for me since i don’t wear makeup.
Ive thought about using that stuphs before but I never thought it would work…Maybe I should try it…
i never would have guessed you had bad skin – even in the before pictures it isn’t that bad, but i understand how its different when it’s you, and not the person looking at you.
the afters look -great-! you should call them and be on tv!
hey–thanks for posting that stef.
you reach a pretty wide audience. and there are way too many people who with worse-than-normal skin issues that feel totally alone and unable to do anything about it.
if steph of stvlive can have zits, then damnit, so can i. and if she can get rid of’em, damnit, i can too!
thanks…
The really astounding thing about the product is: in addition to clearing up blemishes, it also eliminates nagging pigtails!
Girlie, I have to say that I’m so glad you posted this, for a variety of reasons. First, I have terrible skin too, always have. I’ve thought about Proactive, but since I never knew anyone that used it, I didn’t want to risk it. Your skin has improved in leaps and bounds, and that really gives me hope that maybe I can get my ass-nasty skin cleared up too.
Thank you š
GooDNESS!
Steph! You’ve never ceased to amaze me, and now I feel even more blown away by you! Never in a million years did I think such a brilliant, confident, good looking girl like you would have to understand the pains of acne. I’ve suffered from it myself since I was only 9 years old and it’s *still* a problem that I can’t get rid of… on top of it.. I think I’m now also losing pigment in my skin so I look like a spotted panther without makeup. I guess I’ll never live life without having to hide my skin.
Anyway, your skin definitely improved with that Proactiv stuff… I’ve been wondering if I should get it and maybe now I will since there’s a “real” person that has had good results with it. I commend you for your bravery in being able to show those pictures. All the best wishes to you and everyone else that is now inspired by you!
Wow, I guess I’m super lucky that I have never had to deal with the horror of Acne prone skin. As for the proactiv, If I were you, I would look for something that helped with scarring too