Spot The Difference

At the end of long day when you run your hands over your face with exhaustion the last thing you want to come across is a spot. It's that feeling of, that's all I need,' especially when your cleanse, tone and moisturise routine has become as much apart of your life as breathing. Then you ask the inevitable question, why me? Sorry if the Linda Martin song is now playing in your head.

Sometimes there's no good reason for it, other times you know you deserve it. I better own up to my imperfections, on my right and left temples I developed matching spots, as if that wasn't bad enough down the side of my nose, towards my cheek 2 little pimples showed up, and I'm not done there. On the right hand corner of my nose a pore inflamed right up.

Instead of playing join the dots I decided I needed to take action. Fortunately this all came to a head, a white head to be more exact, heading in to the weekend. Since I was returning to the mother ship I knew there'd be plenty of supplies there for a D.I.Y. facial.

There was two things I knew I needed, a good scrub and a mask. A face mask that is, although sometimes I wonder if popping on a Halloween mask, until the offending red bumps have gone, is a better idea. Fortunately I found myself in a house with a teenage girl, they always have spot fighting lotions and potions, and a mom who'd just been given a present of some spa products.

While raiding the bathroom shelf I found Clean and Clear Deep Cleansing Lotion. For a couple of nights I used this instead of rose water as my toner. I also unearthed a Clean and Clear daily scrub - I took this into the shower with me two mornings. Between the two they improved the look of my spots slightly.

My work didn't end there. I dug out a Lancome Renergie Morpholift Mask, I knew it wasn't exactly what I needed but I said I'd give it a shot. I had to leave it on for ten minutes and then removed it with some damp cotton wool. The final thing I tried was Spa Siam Pompengranate and Jasmine facial massage cream (It's from a day spa in Cork City, who have their own range of products.) I had to massage this in for a few minutes and then left it on for 5-10 minutes. Pomengrante is supposed to restore the pH balance of the skin and Jasmine is a natural antiseptic and has antibacterial properties, which you'd think would be good for clearing spots.

After all that I was hoping to have skin that was a little less Amy Winehouse and a little more Katy Perry but no such look. Yes my skin was a little softer but of the 4 things I tried nothing seemed to to offer any miracles.

Prevention is definitely better then cure so I won't be slacking off when it comes to exfoliating after this breakout - cleaning out those pores is the only way to go.

Let the excavation begin!