“Hi there!” -Blakely

Thank you very much!

My mother has a doctorate in horticulture and I have spent my whole life tangentially learning about plants through her natural passion.

Only within the last few years have I really delved into plants individual properties for skin care because of my own needs. As someone that became very adept at pinpointing irritants, I found I had to work with individual ingredients at home as a best practice for avoiding irritating my skin.

I would love to contribute the small repertoire of knowledge I have collected, but I’m sure most of it has been utilized before.

I think the most valuable insight I can give is that my skin reacts to nearly everything so my anecdotal experiences may be useful. 😂

I would love to know why the new products I have tried work so amazingly well when to be honest they just shouldn’t. They should be irritating due to many of their ingredients and the algorithm marks them at low ability to achieve promised outcome; I don’t blame it!

My intuition, or perhaps collective experience, tells me it has something to do with the plants and other naturally collected ingredients like honey. My research from ages ago about the particular natural ingredients tells me that in theory they should be able to achieve some small results on their intended purpose, however, they are doing it at a remarkable success level that I have never seen those ingredients accomplish before.

It just doesn’t add up and I don’t like it 😂 I love the effects I’m seeing, but I don’t like when science doesn’t make sense.

I’m so glad that you have found a routine that is finally working for you! Thank goodness for Maria!

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My Mom is developing Rosacea in her 60s, I’m surprised it took this long given how hard she is on her skin. I only recently learned she had been using my fathers ultra harsh bar soap to scrub her face 🙈.

I had recently had a reaction to too much Vitamin C serum and had to back my skin down with a simple mixture of aloe and extra virgin coconut oil to calm, heal, keep it hydrated, as well as provide very minor antimicrobial properties to avoid bacterial overgrowth on my already irritated face (which is normally controlled by other very mild products but were still too harsh for the irritated skin). It worked beautifully and the reaction dissipated within a day or two.

My mother came to visit from another state and after seeing her face I recognized the signs of highly irritated and inflamed skin. She asked if I had any advice and as I am not a medical professional I only feel safe to recommend very simple solutions.

I gave her a small container of equal parts 100% aloe gel with no added dyes, fragrances, or alcohol (just some unfortunate preservatives) and extra virgin coconut oil to apply to her face after gently washing it.

I also gave her a little sample of Baby Eucerin Eczema Relief Cream Body Wash that I had received from our pediatrician (I have found it works quite well on my face though I have no qualifications to recommend it).

By the next day the redness, bumps, and veins across her cheeks were visibly reduced and she was quite happy that it no longer itched or hurt so much.

When she went home she visited her dermatologist who diagnosed her with Rosacea and said that, while it can’t be cured, go ahead and continue using my home remedy, since it seemed to be working, as well as apply his prescribed topical ivermectin which would further eliminate microbial growth.

I would never instruct anyone to go against the advice of a trained medical professional, I have extremely high respect for the profession. However, in my personal experience with *only my skin* I know that I would likely need to be very careful or avoid the ivermectin as I can safely assume it would be likely to harsh for my skin. In my mothers case I have good faith that she will probably be just fine.

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I am only 26 but I have experienced a good deal of premature aging due to a long period of chronic illness in my teens as well as two, by choice, back-to-back pregnancies over the last 3 years.

My skin has always had bizarre reactions to all kinds of normal things. I still get welts if I casually scratch my arm slightly too much. And basically every bandage known to man will remove my skin unless its a hydrocolloid bandage or burn gel pad.

The products I have been using most recently are from a strange company that I really want to love but I am naturally a skeptic and an avid researcher. Everything I’ve found, through their studies, their company documentation, is above board, but I don’t trust things that seem too good to be true 😂.

I don’t want to disclose the products before I learn more about them or before I can talk to people more knowledgeable than I am because I don’t want to have others seeking a holy grail illusion that may not be in the best interest of their health.

I am adding the products here slowly when I can and it doesn’t surprise me that they show up under the algorithms as likely highly irritating and ineffective. What drives me nuts is watching my face transform, since the products seem clearly highly effective for my skin, and *not* having any irritation whatsoever. To be honest I had nearly given up on using any product that did more than extremely basic skin care so this has been a very fun foray for me!

I have no problem disclosing the information, I’m not trying to be subversive, it is only that since I am new here I want to follow proper channels and not break any rules or guidelines. The company is not a direct sales company, but it can utilize referrals so I want my intent here to be based on my search for greater knowledge about the products rather than a false push for sales.

If we can learn more about the products and why they seem that they should definitely irritate my skin and be useless, but are instead showing excellent results even compared to thousands of mainstream products I have used in the past, I hope at some point others may also be able to benefit from them.

Thank you Blakely for sharing this! Yes, we do not allow self-promotions and ads (and getting a referral commission falls into this category). But we are delighted you are here, and are looking forward to skincare tips and recommendations from you (just please refrain from promo for the brand you are affiliated with).

Yes, I have no intention of doing so, which is why I was so careful to avoid the name. I don’t know how to proceed to learn more about the products and help others. I don’t need referrals, I just knew it was a sticky subject and didn’t want it to be brushed off just because of where the products originated. I’m sorry for the difficulty 😔

Oh no, no need to apologize at all! Honest experiences and knowledge is all we are looking for! The automated algorithm is there just to provide an overall generic formula reviews, pinpoint the most likely irritants based on the public data available. The algo is not perfect by any means. Also, a common irritant might not be at all irritating to an individual, it's just helpful to know the risk is there, especially when trying to solve a skin issue that comes with a compromised skin barrier (e.g. sensitivity, acne, dryness).

Our skin also has an amazing ability to self-regulate: as long as the compounds that are irritating to your particular skin are out, the skin barrier restores, the sensitivity might be gone, and your skin could be simply back to its normal beautiful self 💛

I would like to think that is the case, though it seems my skin constantly finds new things to be annoyed by. This morning I woke up and developed a rash across my hand somehow. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Either way that makes me feel a little better about the new products, like I can continue to enjoy their benefits with less guilt over being worried about their potential effects 🙈. I will likely continue to research them because I don’t like loose ends!

I really hope that maybe others will find benefit from them as well, while assessing their own personal risk factors. I love when people find things that work well for them!