Skin Confidence

It's weird what life throws at you. I'm not superstitious (except for bloody magpies) but every now and again something will happen and I'll wonder if it's the world playing tricks on me. A really lovely friend of mine has seen the return of her cystic acne and I have been talking to her about it, wanting to get further into my skin science diploma to discover what I can to help her. Then, during the most amazing two weeks working at the Trinny London pop-up store in London where I met woman after woman with low skin confidence all of whom has lovely skin. Yes they had problems but around those problems they all had beautiful skin.

I don't love my skin. I appreciate it for not being acne prone but it is more dry and with that comes it's own problems. It's finer in texture which means there's dullness. I have a lot of thread veins one of which needs it's own post code. The thinner skin means my dark circles are very dark and hard to cover and I have sensitivity which not only causes redness but means I never have great looking glowy skin. However, I often get told I have amazing skin. This is partly from people who have seen it on YouTube or Instagram and yes on camera my skin looks good. And partly because, well, I'm a make-up artist, it should look ok. And in person I wear a nice glowy foundation or tinted moisturiser. I can get away with a lighter coverage and I use a fair whack of concealer.

But what I think is really under-appreciated is how bloody fabulous a more oily skin can look. When faced with doing make-up on an oily skin I feel relieved that the make-up is going to go on beautifully and look great. Yes there maybe concerns with it staying on but the skin texture is often much better suited to make-up. And confidence, my god confidence can change a face completely. I see it with lipstick all the time. Most of what makes a red or bright lip suit someone is them having the balls to wear it. That's the truth.

I absolutely understand the horror of acne, I can empathise though I have never suffered it myself. I had hormonal spots all the way through each pregnancy and it was all I saw when I looked in the mirror. By the third time I knew that it would go pretty much instantly after I'd given birth but it still bothered me. It affected the start to my day and the end and made me feel less confident in-between. Despite knowing there was an end to it.

But it wasn't just acne sufferers I met. Three women saying they had rosacea when in fact only one of them had it and the others had redness around the nose. Some who were going through treatment or life stages that made their skin dry. A lot of the time it's access to too much information that has made people look at their own skin and jump to drastic conclusions. I'm not here to offer some amazing solution. Sadly. I wish I was.

If you are unhappy with your skin then look for the good bits. Accentuate those. If you have acne don't reach for the full coverage that may cause more problems than it fixes. Get a foundation to suit your best skin and a good, natural concealer to cover the blemishes. If you have dry skin then add serums and moisturisers to your routine and try just blending a tinted moisturiser where you need it and not over the dry bits if you can.

Though we live in an age where you can get thousands of products to fix just one problem we also feel the pressure to be perfect. And no ones perfect - models often have terrible skin from all the travelling and bad diets. But with face tune and all these other apps everyone can appear to be perfect online making others feel terribly imperfect in real life.

You are beautiful - embrace your good bits rather than focussing on the bad bits. I am happy to be contacted if you disagree with this and I will point out your amazing bits for you. I know what you see, but I see you are beautiful.

Come and join in the conversation on Facebook at the Corinna Harrod Beauty Group - just send me a request and I'll add you.