Oh the agony of waking up on the morning of an important day to see a massive acne flare up. We’ve all been there, right? Maybe it’s the day of your new job interview, a first date, or even your wedding day. Having a highly visible skin condition on your face can affect a person in so many ways. It often has an effect on feelings of confidence, attractiveness, and the desire to be seen by others. Having a skin condition on other parts of your body can affect whether or not you ever go to the beach, wear a swimsuit, or take your clothes off in front of a lover. If you are someone with a chronic skin problem, fixing that skin conditions can very literally change your life.
I personally remember a time in my teenaged life when I was sitting up on the counter in the bathroom of my childhood home, looking up close at all of my pores thinking that there was not a full square inch of skin anywhere on my face that didn’t have a pimple on it. How did this affect my life? It made me shrink and hide. I didn’t want to try out for a play because I was sure everyone would just be looking at my zits. I didn’t want to talk to that guy I thought was cute because I was sure that even if he was nice to my face, he and his friends would probably call me pizza face behind my back and make fun of me. Worst of all, I was a squeezer and a picker, which meant that what might have been a simple white head or even a tiny black head ended up being a great bloody wound on my face by the time I was done with it. And who wants to face the world, especially the hyper-judgemental world of American High School, with a bloody wound on their face? I sure didn’t. I did my best to hide them with make-up caked over the top of the wound, which usually just made it all get worse.
I tried all of the over the country acne treatments that I could find. Most of them hurt when I put them on the open sores on my face. Most of the drastically dried out my skin, which was already dried out from living in Arizona where we are lucky if we get a couple of percentages of humidity. I never went as far as getting prescription medicine for it, I was told it was hormonal and that I would grow out of it. The good news for me is that I eventually did. But I can clearly remember the embarrassment and humiliation I felt any time I thought anyone was looking at a pimple on me. Or at camp when someone informed me that I also had pimples on my back! Oh the horror!
I had the chance to talk with Erica Suppa, the founder and CEO of Fresh Faced Skin Care about some of these issues. Erica’s own struggle with severe cystic adult acne has inspired all of her own work. She also uses herself as the first tester for all of her new products before she tries them on anyone else. I was shocked when Erica told me that she herself struggled with such an obvious and visible skin condition. Looking at her face on the zoom screen where we talked, her skin looked luminous, healthy, hydrated and vibrant.
Erica first decided to go into skin care in 2010 after she was laid off as a cancer research scientist in the Research and Development division of a large medical company. Her entire division was dissolved in a downsize. One night Erica was watching late night TV in the midst of submitting resumes for jobs she was grossly overqualified for when she came across QVC, the Home Shopping Network and saw someone selling skin care products. As she watched they started to list the active ingredients and Erica could tell from chemical composition that the product could not, would not do what the presenter claimed it did. It was chemically impossible. And yet there the seller was, selling product hand over fist on TV while she was collecting unemployment and looking for a new job. In irritation she thought to herself that she could make better skin care products than the company in question.
So many people have these moments in life when we have a great idea and know that we could do something better, or create a better solution than what is available at the time, but how many of us actually stop, change course and follow through on that thought? Luckily Erica did. And now she creates skin care products chemically formulated to do exactly what they say they will. For instance Erica explained to me that her purifying bar has the same pH level as human skin so it won’t strip the skin of it’s natural oils and dry it out, but it also has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial ingredients to help deal with breakouts, rashes and pretty much any kind of dermatitis that causes inflammation and infection. What a revelation! Personally I never knew what any of the ingredients actually did in the skin care products I’ve tried in the past and to find out that someone actually does know and can use that scientific, chemical knowledge to create something better, that is definitely worth checking out!
If you are ready to stop hiding and live your best life by finally getting rid of your frustrating skin issues, then you can listen in on my entire conversation with Erica right here.