My Journey & Battle With Acne

Hello with a rare weekend article, but it’s directly from my YouTube Posts.

This article was inspired by a dear friend of mine, Jose Miguel, a young gay man who’s around my age, and living in L.A. with his sweet handsome middle-aged lover.

In his latest video, he talks about his struggles with acne, and how it made him insecure. And then he shares this memory he has at high school about this young beautiful girl who had severe acne, and her boyfriend came up to her, picked her up, and spun her around as if it were the perfect romance movie.

Jose Miguel has found that in his life lover, Shuan, who sees him and thinks of him as nothing but perfect, and life is great, even when Miguel has the frequent blemishes now and then.

Please do check out his video here on YouTube - acne (a video by @OddBehaviors, aka Jose Miguel)

I too was very insecure about my acne growing up.

I started possibly at 12 or 13. And I hated it. I always thought I looked like a pizza face. I hated it so bad, that I went as far to slather Clearasil on my forehead. But that was the worst mistake ever, as it gave out an allergic reaction of inflammation that made it all itchy and miserable. Turned out, I had the allergic reaction of benzyl peroxide. Glad Clearasil showed me that fact about my skin. lol

I tried so many products. Neutrogena, Aveeno, Cera Ve, ProActive, etc. They'd work for a bit, but then the acne fought back, and it wouldn't work anymore. I tried varying the days of which products to use, and what times of the day to apply the products. I tried everything.

I eventually found a Neutrogena product that consists of salicylic acid that was grapefruit scented and a pink or pinkish-orange liquid gel. Hyaluronic acid from Cera Ve did help a bit, but it seems my skin, after so many years of struggling and fighting back, agrees to the salicylic acid the best.

And eventually, my hormones stabilized enough to calm it down. Of course, when I have my monthly cycle, I get the frequent blemishes, but nothing to really complain about, except on a day where I really have to go somewhere (I'm a homebody, mostly).

I stopped insecurity due to the fact that I had to live through it. That it was just a phase in my life, and that it would eventually get better. I didn’t want to be a pizza face for too long though. lol

I may have a few acne scars, but nothing I'm ashamed about or insecure about either. I don't know if I appreciate the past or not. lol I remember scalding my face by accident in very hot steamy shower water, putting my whole face in it, and it made the skin turn red and the skin to shed. I wonder if that also helped the fight of acne. lol

Thank you,

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Love and peace to everyone as we’re getting close to America’s 250th birthday on July 4th.