I remember when I first realized I needed to take better care of my face and skin.  When I was eight I just scrubbed my face in the tub and went about my day.  But when I was eleven, and a burgeoning woman, with puberty looming over my head, I realized I needed to step up my game.

Going strictly off my commercial watching and TEEN magazine advertisements, I decided makeup remover pads, astringent and my mom’s face lotion was the perfect skin care combination for me.

Following a good face scrub, I wiped the damp pad across my face and tossed the pad in the trash.  Then I soaked a cotton ball in astringent and spread the alcohol laced, sterile smelling potion all over my face.

And then my face began to burn. Beauty is pain, right?

I smoothed over some lotion and looked in a mirror and my face was RED!  Eek!

I ran downstairs, found my mom, she laughed at my red face and I instantly began to cry. After calming me down, she lathered on some super strong lotion and told me to go rest.

I canceled my very important evening plans of a pizza party and a sleep over, and hit the hay early that night, sulking all the way to slumber.

After a good night sleep, the lotion sank in and my when I awoke, my face was back to normal – more or less. It still took about another day to completely heal, but my skin is resilient and it returned to its normal, pre-pubescent state.

The important lessons learned here were that I have sensitive skin, I shouldn’t use alcohol-based products and that my face takes a long time to de-redden.  Luckily, I’ve come a long way since this red-faced revolution and have a better knowledge of what my face needs and what works well with my system.

My mother, my sister and myself (upper right) before I realized the importance of propper skin care.