Success Fighting Acne

* This is a acne skin care routine that has worked for my son. Everybody is different and reacts differently to different products. Please carefully read the instructions and warnings that are on the backs of the products before you use them.*

 *Not great quality pics. The acne actually got  much worse than this BEFORE  picture. I felt bad taking this picture. If I would have known that soon he was going to be blemish free I would have have taken better BEFORE  pictures.

I wanted to write this post to report the huge success my 13 year old son *(my son is now 15 years old and still follows this routine)*  has has with an over the counter skin care routine that has made his acne disappear. I'm not trying to sell anything!!! I just wanted to share our experience and hope that it can help someone or give hope.

I have never had acne, but my 13 year old son started breaking out over the summer. I scoured the web looking for acne remedies and after finding that most sites just want to sell you their products or recommend prescription lotions, shots, and pills, I finally came across acne.org . This is such a helpful site!!! The site does sell an acne skin care line, BUT it also lists replacement products that can easily be purchased in most drug stores. There are also independent reader reviews for most of the acne treatments out there. And video instructions showing exactly the skin care routine that the author of the site now uses with success.

My 13 year old  has very greasy skin. Especially the T zone on his face. Also, his hair gets so greasy it looks wet within 12 hours of washing. This regimen works for him. It took a few weeks before we saw a noticeable difference. You have to stick with it and you must follow the routine in the morning and night. Twice a day. If my son gets lazy and skips a step or the whole skin care routine altogether, he breaks out the next day. This has been his skin care routine for the past 5 months. It's not exactly the acne.org routine. He did follow that to a tee for the first month, but I think over time everyone starts doing their own thing. The core of this routine is loosely based on acne.org's.

Because my son is not big on grooming in general, we were able to whittle down his routine to two steps, twice a day, everyday, with success. A couple of times a month (or every weekend if needed) he applies a store bought microdermabrasion. This really seems to help with blackheads in particular. They squeeze out so much easier right after this. Eeewww, I know. Nobody loves to talk about it...but there it is.

Step One: (morning and night)
Wash face. Two pumps of the Clean&Clear foaming facial cleanser on a microfiber washcloth that is wet with hot water. Rub lightly all over entire face. Rinse the washcloth in hot water until the soap is out and then wipe face with the washcloth until all the soap is off face.

Step Two: (morning and night)
Apply a nickel size dollop/blob of  a benzoyl peroxide gel to fingertips and rub completely into skin. Avoid the eye area. This is the KEY acne fighter. Don't be afraid to use more, especially in the areas that a prone to breakouts. When skin is clear use less and less until you find the right amount that maintains clear skin. Over time my son has found that a nickel sized dollop/blob is enough.

That's it!!! Step three can be a lotion because benzoyl peroxide can dry out the skin. My son is using the 10% benzoyl peroxide and doesn't get dry skin or peeling.There is a 2.5% benzoyl peroxide by Neutrogena for more sensitive skin.

These are the products he uses, twice a day:

(1) The clean&clear face soap (2) and the Target brand "maximum strength acne medication benzoyl peroxide gel."

{He has also had great success with Zapzyt and the Walmart brand benzoyl peroxide (both also 10% benzoyl peroxide) creams.}

** 12-17-2013 edit **
I have also found Dr Sheffield's Clear-Zit (10% benzoyl peroxide) at the 99 Cent store and it also works!!

***

This is the microdermabrasion, found at Target, that he applies a few times a month, depending on the amount of blackheads. Sometimes it's once a week.

Again, this is what works for my son. Everyone is different. I just wanted to share a success story in the hopes that it might help someone else. I am more than happy to answer any questions that I can. I am not a doctor, I can just share what I have learned from my son's experience.

Wood Floor Tutorial

This was a project completed in 2007 pre-blog, so the pictures aren't great and they aren't very detailed. Sorry. I think there are enough images to give you the idea, but mostly I want to encourage anyone who is thinking of tackling this, but is hesitant because it seems too difficult. It is not difficult. It is, however, time consuming.
The cost of paying a professional to do this can be steep. I found that it was almost equal to the cost of materials. So if you decide to do this yourself you could cut your costs in half. Go For It!

The wood used here is Home Depot Direct, Brazilian Cherry, engineered wood. I don't think it's made anymore, but most of these engineered hardwood floors are similar and the process of installation is the same. Also, this floor is glued down. Not nailed. Our wood floor was installed onto a concrete foundation.

The completed floor. Brazilian Cherry.

Our house was mostly saltillo tile with carpet in the bedrooms and den. We installed wood in those three rooms and these pictures will jump between those rooms to show the steps. Confused??? Me too! Okay... don't pay attention to the room-just the floor-because I'm skipping from room to room to show the different steps.

The first step involves cleaning the floor. We removed the old carpet, its padding, and any of the glue that held the padding in place. You want the wood floor adhesive to be in direct contact with the cement foundation. We had white paint spray all over the floors from when the house was built. We went over it with a scraper and a wet rag.

Here you can see some of the floor getting prepped and because we were still sleeping in this room, we worked in sections and moved around the giant bed. We did not remove the baseboards or add cherry wood trim to the edges. I'll show you how we dealt with that further down in this post.

Figure out which direction you want the wood floor to run and then start along a wall. Most room walls are not perfectly straight-we used a perfect 2X4 (seen above) as a straight edge/guide and would check that a row was staying straight as we went (every few rows). Make sure the pieces are fitting tightly together. You may need to use a rubber mallet, or a block of wood, to tap (lightly) pieces tight. It is important to keep a small space between the wood flooring and the edges of the room (baseboards/walls) because the wood floor will expand and contract with the weather. You can see the blue spacers running along the baseboard in the picture above. We used a circular saw to cut the wood flooring when needed.

This is the wood  floor adhesive we used. It was from Home Depot. There are instructions written on the bucket. Depending on the climate in your area, the glue dries fairly fast. We are in a dry climate, Arizona, and found that it was best to only apply about 30 working minutes worth of glue at a time. Apply in in a neat line to match your rows.

Apply adhesive to floor with a notched trowel. ** TIP** We found it was best to always place the wood so that the tongue (tongue&groove) end was facing in, towards the room.

Placing the tongue side INTO the grooved side doesn't smear the glue around as much as if you were to place the groove ONTO the tongue side. But it's not necessary, just a personal preference.

 Reject pieces (there will be some) were marked up with pencil. This piece has many surface cracks.

Because of the slight inconsistency in the colors of the wood planks and the different lengths, we went through the planks first and set  them down (without glue!) on the floor to make sure that the different shades of cherry and the different lengths of the planks would be evenly spread throughout the room. The planks on the right side are the dry run and the planks on the left are glued.

Instead of covering the small gap at the edges with matching cherry wood trim I decided add a piece of trim that would look like a piece of detail from the original baseboards. It was a lot cheaper than the matching pieces of wood trim and I prefer this look.

Corner detail.

At the edge where the wood floor meets the tile (the doorways) I went AGAINST instructions, and recommendations, and put the wood almost right up against the tile. I didn't want to use a piece of pesky trim. So far so good...

Diagonal cut along the tile.


Some before and afters:

Before

After

Before

After

Resolution

My resolution for the new year is to slow down and appreciate the little things.
This is a picture of bugs dancing in the morning sun outside my kitchen window. Most days I would not even see this happening because I don't take enough time to sit and do nothing. Obviously I had my camera and took this picture, so I wasn't really "doing nothing", but hey, baby steps, right?

Happy Friday!

One Picture
Every Friday
One Year

Thanks to Life With My 3 Boybarians for hosting and giving the nudge I need to carry around my camera. Looking forward to a great year together.

A Girl and a Couch

2012

  I recently came across a picture of myself on my couch that reminded me of how personal interior decorating can be and how much of ourselves and our past we put into our style.

1970

Here is that couch today, in my living room. I don't know how old it is exactly because my parents got it from a cousin. It has been reupholstered more times than I can count and it is H.E.A.V.Y!! The three seat cushions have springs in them as well as the base of the couch. One doesn't merely sit on the couch as much as they sink into the couch.
I've been thinking about reupholstering it.
It's always fun to change it up with new throw pillows.
But I know the one thing that won't change...
This couch and I, we're in this together for the long haul.

All that's left...

Wow, where did the time go??? The holidays flew by so quickly, not to mention the fact that it's 79 degrees here today!!!!???? Strange! I've been busy hauling carefully placing all the Christmas decor back up into the attic. Not nearly as fun and festive as setting it all out. This is the last survivor...the poinsettia. Still so pretty and healthy!                                              

Happy 2012!!!