Taylor, 22, is a marketing assistant from Chichester
Taylor says;
“I got teen acne like most other kids however it cleared up by the time I was about 16 and my skin was flawless.
My acne unfortunately returned when I got into an abusive relationship when I was 18 and the stress caused my acne to come back with a vengeance, but this time it was cystic acne, which is more than just normal teen acne.
My dermatologist told me that the emotional stress I was in due to my relationship was most likely the reason for my adult acne.
At one stage my cystic acne was so bad, I had almost every single inch of my face covered in deep red cysts.
When I was younger my acne worried me but as everyone else had it too, I didn’t feel so self-conscious. But when I developed cystic acne when I was older, after everyone else’s acne had cleared up it made me incredibly insecure, to the point I didn't want to leave my bedroom. I remember constantly staring at myself in the mirror so confused as to why I couldn't look like the other girls my age.
Everyone would recommend different products which worked on their skin but what they were incapable of understanding is acne is an actual condition and it didn't mean I was unclean. My friends often talk about how they go to bed with their makeup and how they don't even have a face care routine yet their skin is flawless. I have such a thorough skin care routine for every morning and evening and have done so for years - yet I suffer with severe acne. It seems incredibly unfair.
At 19, I was referred to a dermatologist through my doctor, so the experts could help me further as my acne was getting worse and worse.
They put me on everything medicated that they had and finally at the end of last year I took a course of accutane. I was on it for four months.
Thia only thing that U'd been precribed that had any effect, but the side effects were so awful that I didn’t want to take another course. And despite all the nasty side effects like very dry eyes and skin, hair loss, nosebleeds, my skin still didn’t clear as much as I expected it to.
I’m normally one of the bubbliest, confident people you could meet, but when my acne was bad my anxiety levels were through the roof and I’d lose all my confidence.
I’ve been lucky in that I have never been bullied about my acne like some people are. I’ve had a few people accidentally say things... somebody thought my acne was freckles in pictures and somebody else thought I'd got pink hair dye on my face – but they were not meaning to be nasty. I know so many other people who got picked on because of their acne.
However, that was until I broke up with my ex towards the end of last year. He knew how insecure I was about my acne so he created an instagram account full of pictures of me with no make up on and started to follow all my followers. It was called 'Real life Taylor' and it was not a nice thing to have happen to me.
This lead me to being diagnosed with BDD at the start of this year. I hated my face so much that I used to stare at it for hours. I thought I was so ugly.
When I finally escaped my toxic relationship my whole face became red and swollen and very painful. I felt as if it was distorting the shape of my face because my skin was so inflamed.
However I didn’t want to go back onto medications again so I tried everything else besides. Light therapy, face washes and every acne brand under the sun were all treatments I tried in the last six months. Before taking medication I I would rotate between over the counter acne treatments but all to very little effect.
I became particularly depressed when my acne came back after taking medication. It was not as bad as before but I could feel it had the potential to get really bad again if I didn’t find something to try and control it and I didn’t want to take any medications again as my skin felt destroyed.
Which is why I’m so grateful that I discovered Clarol Silver Serum through another acne sufferer via instgram. Without this product I think I’d have lost all hope.
At first Silver Serum made my skin 'purge' a bit, so I wasn't 100% sure if it was going to work - but then after about two weeks my skin began to clear. First the redness and swelling reduced and then slowly but surely the deep painful lumps and bumps reduced until I was left with just normal ‘pimples’. Eventually after about a month they went too.
I have combination skin... some areas very oily and others very dry and so it can look patchy in places and swollen in others, but when using Silver Serum my skin tone evened out and the inflammation and redness died down and the dry flaky patches disappeared within weeks.
Two months on and I am now able to go out in public more or less make up free, which if you had told me this a year ago I would never ever have believed it. My skin isn’t perfect or flawless but it’s so drastically improved that I feel grateful most days when I look in the mirror. Even though its not perfect my skin now glows whereas before it looked dull and blotchy.
I feel for the first time in my adult life I’m able to look at my skin and love it, despite the scars and the few spots that are still lurking around I feel like a long hard battle has finally been won and I love myself and my skin for surviving it. I really deserve to be loved and so does my skin. My skin now feels the clearest and healthiest it has felt for about two years.”
