"Nice to meet you....you're the one that knows about skincare right?"

So....after the relentless pestering of all my poor colleagues who have listened to me drone on about skin care for the lengths of time that they have known me...I have decided to go ahead and do a few skin care posts. P.s. the title of the blog is the genuine opening line of a colleague I had just met, apparently my reputation proceeded me.

I am a dentist, as hopefully you all know, this mostly means I'm a massive science geek and spend 8 hours a day looking at peoples faces under a bright (and hideously unflattering) dental light.

Trust me, if you think you are having a good skin/make up day, have a look in a mirror in a dental surgery and you will see you were deluded by your softly lit vanity mirror at home. 

I have therefore spent a lot of time mentally diagnosing skin conditions, and whilst my degree only ethically warrants me giving patients advice about medical skin concerns, e.g. referrals for potential skin cancers, treatment for angular chelitis (cracked mouth corners), I have come to learn and see the vast issues people have with their skin. 

At the same time, I am an absolute skin care obsessive. Ask my parents and more recently my boyfriend, and they will advise you that my bathroom storage takes up more space than my wardobes (well not quite, I do also have a bit of a primark addiction but that's a separate matter).

I am a bona fide skin care product junkie. A day rarely goes by when I am not trying a new product or routine, and unlike all the make up plastered, ad smattered, youtube "gurus", I do not get sent anything for free nor am I paid for it.

It all comes from having acne for the last 15 years.

It started when I was 11 and there was no stop to it. I tried EVERY product on the market, I tried every course of antibiotics, contraceptive pill and every potion from the doctors. Nothing worked and the side effects - the burnt and dry skin, the lack of money - were just not worth the effort.
 It was around 2 years ago I simplified my routine and stopped looking for products for "acne" and my skin started to settle. However there were many times - and not just limited to the time of the month - when my face would erupt in boils.

Now by acne, I mean AARRGGGHHHCNE. I do not mean the odd little white headed spot on the chin that appears for a few days each month and disappears not leaving a mark.
I mean volcanic, deep rooted, cystic acne lumps which would come up and be agonizingly painful.
My fellow acne suffers will understand the slightly pyschotic routine on first waking up in the morning, of moving and stretching their face in various directions to feel where a new monstrosity has appeared so we are somewhat mentally prepared for what might meet us in the mirror.
These lumps stay for around a week, go down, leave a hard raised area, which is often purple, they remain dormant and then re erupt at a moments notice. If said lumps aren't present, hundreds of bumps would be sat under the skin waiting to grow into their adult larger sized selves.

It was in September last year that I had had enough. I had my skin under control for the most part, but my skin care dos and dont's list was a mile long.

I couldn't fall asleep with my face in contact with skin, even if I rested my head on my hand or my partners shoulder, the next day there would be a crop of spots in the area. If I ate dairy in any form, the same would occur bang on 48 hours after consumption. I had to wash my face immediately after exercise for fear the sweat bacteria would cause the same issue. It was all too much.

So..... I took the plunge and paid a small fortune to see a dermatologist. I wish with all my heart I had done it sooner, because this small fortune was probably only the cost of the 10 "miracle"products I would buy a month to "fix" my acne.

In October I started on Roaccutane, I finished it the second week of March and will do a separate post on my Roaccutane journey.

I am now in a position where my acne is in control, but like any good skin obsessed woman, it is now time to move onto all the other issues. Sun damage, aging, wrinkles, thread veins, scarring.

All this being said, I feel I am in a pretty good position of knowing and understanding ingredients and the science behind them, as well as having tried pretty much every product in existence from Boots to La Mer.

I have also now experienced every skin type. I have been oily in my teens, combination in my late teens and early 20s, and through the sheer joy (not) that is Roacctane I have had skin so dry it cracks like a dried up river bed on every facial expression.

And for all these issues...there is a product that will genuinely help.

For that reason, I decided to start this blog to bust some skin care myths, from a science basis, and try and help people solve their problems in a real way, because I have no beauty company funding, no sponsorship, this is not my job so I can give honest answers. I am also not an "it" girl or Daddy-funded socialite so I can recommend products from a fiver to a hundred quid.

So...let us begin. Enjoy the ride and please ask any questions.