I used to have really bad skin in high school, probably around Year Ten. Obviously I became quite self-conscious, getting pimples, acne all over my face, so I kind of became a little bit withdrawn. I always grew my hair nice and long so I could try and cover up the spots. I was very unhappy at that stage.
After I turned 18, I used to go out with friends or my friends always used to go out, I'd say, "Yeah, you know I'll meet you guys." Come Friday, Saturday, I’d end up breaking out and then I'd have to cancel on them, which kind of made me lose a few of my friends, so they stopped calling me, saying, he never shows up, doesn't go anywhere.
That just made things worse 'cause, I went more into a reclusive state where I'd spend a lot of time by myself. I was very unhappy, very self-conscious, got to a stage where, I felt very anxious whenever I was in public.
I went to Uni, started studying psychology, once again felt very uncomfortable while I was there, felt very self-conscious. I had problems concentrating on the classes. It wasn't a good time for me. I was doing well with my grades at Uni, but just the feeling that I had, feeling nervous, feeling anxious the whole time, couldn't really deal with that. So, halfway through, that's part of the reason why I dropped out and didn't complete my psych degree.
I was trying a lot of different things, whenever I was at Uni, wherever else I went, for some reason everyone I saw, well to me it seemed like they had perfect skin. So, it just made me stand out even more. I’m sure there were people out there who had the same problem, but being affected by it so much, I just couldn’t see that. I, I just felt like a total outcast.
Even when I had the bad skin I used to like looking after myself. I used to like to work out, go for runs, jogs. Every time I broke out, would not want to go in the gym. I used to be relatively fit in high school. After high school when I started working, I stopped working out because of the breakouts, so I put on a fair amount of weight, which, you know, had a further, impact on my self-esteem.
Proactiv helped to change my whole life around. I’m actually doing something that I love. I’m working as a personal trainer, so you know, I’m in everyone’s face. I’m out in the public, interacting face-to-face with people and I’m loving it. Six, seven days a week I’m out there training people from early in the morning to late at night. Get up in the morning, wash my face with the cleanser, the toner, put the repairing cream on and I’m set, don’t have to do anything ‘til night time. Whereas before, I’d be ducking into the bathroom reapplying some kind of acne treatment that didn’t work. It is a big transformation. Now I’m feeling so much happier inside.
I love what I do now and it’s all thanks to Proactiv. I just love the product. I’m going out, having fun, enjoying life. Basically now, summer comes, on my breaks I’m down at the beach, go for a swim, whereas before I was too self-conscious to do anything like that. Yeah, I just love it. It basically gave me my freedom.
If someone’s got skin problems, I’d recommend the stuff. It’s a whole skin treatment product. In my job, every time I meet a client, start training him, they ask me, “So, how old are you?” When I tell them I’m 30, they go, “What? You’re 30? You look like you’re 24, 25.” It’s going to give you nice, soft skin. It’s, great stuff. I highly recommend it. It’s nice and quick. You only apply it twice a day. The mask, once again, great stuff. You only use it once a week, twice maximum, and it does amazing things for you.