My 45 Year Skin Journey And The “why” Of Science Skincare

By Author: scienceskincare
Total Articles: 9
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So…..on the left is me in 1976. I was ten years old and in Year 4 at Garran Primary School in Canberra with a chin full of pimples. On the right is me today. I’m nearly 55 year old, a Grandmother and look….I have a pimple still (again) just near my right eyebrow and nose! Thank goodness though they are shallow, quick to heal and never scar now.

The Search for the “Holy Grail”

I have been on the search for the Holy Grail of skincare for a VERY long time. 45 years in fact. I can still remember how it began. My first foray into the search for a solution was when I was about 12 and I went to the Elizabeth Arden counter at David Jones. Clutched in my hand was the name of a moisturiser I wanted to buy. The moisturiser was one that my favourite aunts who isn’t really an aunt (you know the one’s, they’re really cool and love you unconditionally and are not blood relations). She worked in a pharmacy and was always using nice stuff on her skin, so I figured this was a good place to start.

The Department Store Advice

Bless her, the assistant at DJs said it was for an older skin and was not what ...
... I was looking for. Go figure, I had no idea that different skins needed different products. She gave me some highly astringent, medicinal smelling brown liquid which cost all of my pocket money and had a name like WD-40 or Solution-41 that I religiously used up with no result. My mother was furious that I had “wasted” my money. So it begins….

The French Connection

My next attempt was influenced by thinking that the French really know beauty (which now I know they do). I was probably 13. I’d already been using Avon’s range of skincare for pimples (and their teenage fragrance “Sweet Honesty”, what a hilarious name), again with no effect and I was 100% committed to the multi-step process and products. I stumbled across the Yves Rocher range somehow. Maybe it was an ad in Dolly Magazine or the Australian Women’s Weekly? Yves Rocher’s skincare product choices were vast, exotic and botanically based. I was in. It came via mail order so was convenient (and exciting) too. Again, didn’t work. My absolute favourite product was one that smelt like cucumbers though and I’m happy to say that cucumbers and their soothing, moisturising and anti-inflammatory properties is in three of our products, the Detoxifying Clay Mask (yes for breakouts), the Herbal Hydralux Mask for dry and barrier-impaired skin and our “First Aid Kit in a Bottle”, Nurture and Repair (which is my husband’s favourite product).   

The Supermarket Products

Clearasil was my next attempt. OMG, this made my skin SO sad. The Benzyl Peroxide stripped my skin until it was red, itchy and weeping (still used in some very popular products you can get three monthly subscriptions for or are pop-ups at the shopping centre – you know, the ones that bleach your pillow overnight). I can remember my skin being so bad using these types of products that I was standing waiting for the school bus and having to use my t-shirt to rub my skin to relieve the itch to prevent it from bleeding. For a considerable amount of years I was so disillusioned I just used sorbolene cream to wash and threw a sunscreen over the top.

The Loss of my Self-Esteem

Probably the most devastating thing about these early years was how bad I felt about myself. Once, in an art class one of the boys did a portrait of me. He drew oil wells on my face. This sense of shame and ugliness only got worse as my acne got worse and the red, brown and white scars started to appear. There are almost no photos of me as a teenager because I refused to have them taken. This was really sad when my daughter was a teenager as she wanted to see what I looked like at the same age!

The Medical Interventions

Around 14 I went to a GP who had an interest in skin. I’ll never forget him, I think his name was Dr Barr and I learned recently that he died while running a triathlon at the Sunshine Coast. He made up a mixture of a solution with capsules of antibiotic mixed into it, did laser acupuncture and refused to give me Roaccutane. My best male friend at school who is now funnily enough now a dermatologist WAS given Roaccutane. It was 1980 and two things were at play here: the doctor thought I was too young to go on the pill to prevent an unwanted pregnancy and couldn’t be convinced that I didn’t need contraception. My friend’s skin turned to perfect while mine became increasingly unsociable. My self-esteem took a nose-dive and I think it’s only my strength of character that has made me push past this in my life.

The punch in the face came though when I hit my mid twenties and my “teenage pimples” stayed and have stayed in one way, shape or form all through the decades. Again, in my late twenties I had a good GP, who whilst he couldn’t “fix my pimples” said to hang tight, women with adult acne age well and have great energy levels as they get older too. True. Thank you Dr John Sanderson.

The Time and Money

Needless to say, I’ve tried EVERYTHING now. I think I’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on good and bad skincare products and have done chemical peels, microdermabrasion, skin needling, intense pulsed light, laser, subcision, threads and filler for scar treatment.

The Answers

What I’ve learnt I want to share with you. That’s why I developed Science Skincare. I wanted something that has highly active ingredients that are scientifically proven to help, something that was quick and easy to use, something that gave value for money and that gave visible results in a short time. I hope you love it as much as I do. Check out this blog for a case study on managing breakouts with our range.

(BTW – The photo of me on the right has no filter, and I’m not wearing any makeup except for my favourite brand of lipstick, Rimmel’s Provocalips (because it stays on). I use the Adios Aging Range. Love Elissa xx)

Adj/Associate Professor Elissa O’keefe
Curate Media Partners / Science Skincare
I am an RN, educator, Adjunct Associate Professor.

I would like to submit my articles and share my knowledge and blogs on skincare and skin health and help decipher the confusing world of skincare, aesthetics. I am an expert on everything aesthetic from adult acne to correct lip filler techniques.
I am the head of a training school, Bravura, a market leader in laser and cosmetic safety education.