My Naked Face
Mica’s Acne Journey
Meet Mica - the newest member of The Secret Garden team. Mica uses the experience of her own Acne treatment to help others achieve their skin goals.
My skin…
My skin has always been a massive insecurity of mine and I was very rarely seen without make up (when I first started at the clinic)! As a teenager I suffered really badly with fourth grade cystic acne which affected my view of myself and gave me many insecurities, some that still affect me to this day. When I approached 30, sadly my acne came back in full force due to a very stressful year.
Looking back to when I was 16 - I was put on a very strong derivative of oral Vitamin A (Roaccutane) to help clear up my acne, the side effects of this medication, as well as the acne caused me a lot of stress and upset, it also:
impacted my mental health massively
caused a lot of hair loss
left me with scarring
It took 2 years of this drug, and many tweaks with the dosage, to clear up my skin.
What else did I do?
Well, to try and improve the appearance of the scars I went to a clinic to have a deep TCA peel. I later went on to study skincare at this clinic for two years!
However, none of this knowledge was quite enough. Fast forward 12 years and the acne came back.
But thankfully this time I knew what to do…
What finally beat it for me?
Combination Therapy was absolutely key!
This time I had better knowledge of good skincare and treatments to accompany the same oral Vitamin A medication but my skincare still wasn’t optimised. My dosage was a lot lower this time and I was able to self-administer treatments alongside a great skincare routine to compliment this.
The result of this combination therapy was a 3-month turnaround in clearer skin, as opposed to my previous 2-year treatment. What a difference!
This fantastic combination of microneedling, skin peels and LED light therapy gave me the result you see in the close-up cheek picture after only 3 months.
Fast forward 2 years and Sharron started me on a programme of microneedling with a cheeky Italian TCA peel, skin resurfacing with the laser and Radiofrequency microneedling and all finished off with a touch of superficial filler to deeper scars and I simply cannot believe how wonderfully happy I finally feel confident in my own skin and love helping others to achieve similar results. Education is key
How did Acne make me feel?
I put so much pressure on myself to look good, and being in the skincare/beauty industry this was intensified. We use social media to portray ourselves in the best light possible, but sometimes it’s good to look back, celebrate the small victories, remember we are all human and we all have insecurities. I now wear makeup to make me feel better, but its no longer to disguise blemished skin and for that I am very grateful.
Acne and The Skin
The skin is our biggest organ and, rightly or wrongly beautiful, blemish free skin, particularly on the face, is considered to be a marker of attractiveness.
It’s hardly surprising then - that faces that are marked or spotty contribute so much to destroying people's self-esteem and confidence and make them feel so unhappy. Having healthy skin is really important as the skin has so many roles in maintaining our health and acting as a physical barrier to the outside world.
Acne is one of those conditions that can cause the sufferer a lot of upset, and so the initial action they take maybe to try and cover up the skin with as much makeup as possible to mask the spots or try to pick the spots away. Not surprisingly, these are some of the worst things to do. Picking spots causes scarring, which is harder to manage than the spots themselves, while thick makeup can further block pores and add more unwanted oils.
To find out how Mica and Sharron can help you on your journey to healthy skin:
Book your skin health consultation today