My skin got really bad when I was pregnant with my first child. I was 26 years old and I never really had bad skin until then, and then when I was pregnant it just erupted into cystic acne and I was unrecognisable. I mean, on top of being pregnant and the weight gain, I had a face full of pimples and it was sore, it was red; people did not recognise me.
My breakouts were all over my skin. I had them on my forehead, my cheeks, my chin, my nose, behind my ears, around my neck. They were under the skin, they were red, they were sore, they were very big; there was nowhere I could hide them. Even with makeup, you could still see them.
I was always told when you're pregnant, you glow. I didn't glow. I felt like I was in a deep, dark pit and I couldn't get out. Because I thought, this is not normal. No one I knew that had ever experienced pregnancy looked like this, and I thought there was something wrong with me.
I lost my confidence and I really thought that I wouldn't get it back. Everyone could see that something was different about my personality, and it wasn't like me, not wanting to go out. I loathed putting on makeup because it would just take so long to cover up every little pimple. And even when I was done, it wouldn't look good. I could just still see all the lumps and bumps.
Good old Dad saw the ads on TV and my dad called me up and said, "Hey, I've -- think I've found you a solution."
I'm like, "Okay, Dad, what's it called. Yeah, give me the number." "It's called Proactiv. I've seen all these before and after pictures, it looks fantastic." I'm like, "Okay, Dad, yeah." And I probably put it in the back of my mind for a couple of weeks, and then when I found out that I had this wedding coming up, I was like, I've got to do something. Okay, yep, call up Proactiv, let's see what they can do for me, you know? I went in with an open mind, I must say, and I received my first product, I was so excited.
I thought, this has to work. I was positive in a way and I started using it. Within three days I noticed a difference. The pain wasn't there, the swelling started going down. Within three weeks, my skin looked probably 90 percent better. And everybody was like, "Wow, what's happened to you?" I was like, "Oh, I'm using a new product, it's called Proactiv." And within a month, I must say my skin was almost clear. The swelling was gone, the redness was gone, the lumps were going.
Proactiv has given me back my confidence, it really has. I get comments now on my skin, not how dirty or horrible it looks, but how glowing it looks and how young I look. When I say that I've just turned 30, people are like, no way. I still get carded sometimes when I go into clubs, and that's a good feeling. It's just totally made me come out of my shell again, and I love going out. I love putting on make-up now, whereas before it was just one of those horrible routines that I didn't want to go through. Now I love it.