The human mind (ego) is designed to find imperfections and fix them. If you are renovating or improving a house this kind of tactic makes sense. Look for cracks in the foundation or leaks in the pipes and get after it and fix the house. Cool. When it comes to skin though, this kind of tactic can make things a ton worse. The skin is like a baby. It is finicky and you have to be gentle and discerning to understand how to react appropriately. When a baby is sleeping you don’t pokeit to see if it ok and if it is crying, you don’t forcefully tell it to stop crying. No, you baby the baby and you use your intuition to find a solution. If there is no problem, don't poke the baby.
A couple of weeks ago I met a powerhouse of a woman that shared with me her personal skin story (which I love don’t ever hesitate to share) and it was one that really stuck in my head. I genuinely wanted to help so I slowly started her on the living enzyme scrub, then the toner, then the cream. She is in the skincare sales industry and two years ago in an attempt to lighten her skin she got a chemical peel. She is of Israeli descent and instead of having the chemical peel brighten the skin it had the exact opposite effect and it brought the melanin up and out to the surface giving her very dark splotchy patterns all over her face. This condition is called melaplasma or "the mask of pregnancy" and it is caused by excessive sun exposure, hormonal changes and chemical peels. It is an overstimulation of melanocytes which creates more melanin in the keratinocytes of the skin.
Right after she had the treatment done she had to stop working for 3 months because she could not bear to sell skincare to her clients. For the last two years she hasn’t used any products in fear of making things worse and has been covering up the discoloration with makeup and avoiding mirrors.
This kind of story is not rare in this day and age as there are so many ways to “improve” ourselves and so many times it is like poking a sleeping baby. Our pop culture is also force feeding us the important of self-love but what I see more women doing now than ever before is telling themselves they love something about themselves that they clearly do not love. You can't "self-love" yourself into a better mood by trying to like something you do not like. Vibrationally speaking, it is lying to yourself. How can you like something you clearly don’t like? You can’t.
The key is to see the condition that you don’t like and give yourself the power to see that the condition is not who you are. It is a condition, an imperfection, a situation. Do you have to like it? Do you have to force yourself to like something your mind clearly does not appreciate? No! No you do not! Give yourself the ability to not like something and STILL BE OK. STILL BE A POWERHOUSE! Still be kind and respectful to yourself even though there is an imperfection. You are not the imperfection so should you let the imperfection be a reason to not enjoy yourself? Not thrive in your work? Be passionate in your relationships? Bask in your all of your glory? No!
The end of the story is that in two weeks time the Living Enzyme Scrub, Skin Tight Toner and Raw Coconut Day Repair removed the excess melanin from her skin. She is glowing and smiling ear to ear because she is beginning to fall back in love with her skin in a genuine way without needing any self-love affirmations. It is my true love to watch someone find their true love for themselves again. She did not approach her skin like it was ugly. Instead she babied it and responded in a way that helped her to feel beautiful.
P.S. In my personal opinion, light chemical peels for people with light skin and done by an experienced professional are wonderful especially this time of the year. Another option for lightening dark spots are IPL laser treatments. Check out more info about IPL laser treatments in this blog for Fine Magazine .