When I first started breaking out, I had severe acne. It was extremely infected. I was working as a professional model at the time and acting and just doing a lot of really cool things. And it came to a huge halt. I'd been onstage since I was like three and a half. So it's all I know. So, for me, it's not like I can just have a backup and just do something else.
I went into hiding for six months. I hermitized myself. It was so sore. Every time I opened my mouth, my skin would split open and reinfect and seep and all the yuckiness. I lost a boyfriend. I lost all my jobs.
And the thing is is that it doesn't matter what you do on the outside. It's all about how you feel on the inside. And if you're not confident to hold your head up and go out there and do what you do best, how are you meant to deal with it? And so nobody could understand quite how I was feeling. So, you know, it was really, really hard.
I'm very proper, and I like to look after myself and look good and feel good and smell good and all that sort of stuff. And when you have acne, no matter what you do, you cannot feel good. There's nothing. Like, yeah, I'll put on a bright face and smile -- it doesn't fix what's inside. It doesn't fix the broken heart of -- the depth of emotion that you go through when you can't walk down the street and hold your head up high.
I discovered Proactiv about five and a half years ago. I was sick in bed, hiding away still and the infomercial comes on, and I was sort of half asleep, and I started seeing these photos. And I was like, hang on, that actually looks really real. And I started going you know, this might be the answer. And after everything that I've tried. And the before and after shots were so real. I was like why not?
So I go to call my mother, because she's been through the struggle with me. As I'm calling my mum, she's calling me. And I'm like, oh, okay, so I reach for the phone, like, "Ma, what's up?" And she's like, "There's this ad on TV! It's this new solution called Proactiv. You've got --" And I'm like, "Oh, I'm watching the same ad!"
The first time that I used Proactiv, it's probably the most relaxed my skin has felt in as long as I can remember at that stage. I think it took probably about eight or nine days to work, to completely clear.
In the start, you know, the first couple of days, all it did was just calm down the infection. But, third day, I don't have any infection at all. And I'm thinking I haven't seen that in over six months.
By the fourth or fifth day, I was beside myself. I was like this is finally something that's actually worked. For me, it's probably the very, very coolest sensation ever. By the fifth or sixth day, Proactiv had left my skin with a tiny little blemish.
Every single day that I woke up, I rushed to the mirror, and I was just like, how is it today? And it was wonderful. I get to the seventh, eighth day, and nothing. Then, continued to use it. Proactiv started taking away all of my blemishes on my skin.
It's built my confidence right back up where I used to be. It made me just shoot to the sky again and feel comfortable to be me and walk down the street, hold my head up high. I'm constantly smiling now. Because I can without any pain.
Proactiv has made me feel like a woman, because I feel sexy. I feel like I can smile and, a guy will smile back at me, and they won't go, "What the hell's that?"
Proactiv feels like shine and bling. It's soft and smooth; it makes you shine, inside and out.