Dermatitis with your foundation my dear?

Tip for the girls. If planning a day shopping in New York go to Tiffany's first and buy some of their silver cleaning cloths for your Mum, Sister and friends. They will give you a nice Tiffany's bag to put them in and they are only $5 a pop. This bag gives you instant status in NYC. Shop assistants will swoon over you and free samples will materialise from every direction.

Unfortunately on one particular day, I got more than I bargained for.............

Tiffany's bag in hand, Mum and I had hit the streets to shop. We got to the first department store, very up market (like a US version of Harrods, without the central heating set at 40 degrees). The sales assistants glared as we entered and then instantly became smiling camp robots on spotting my big Tiffany's bag. I could see there little minds ticking over, what exactly does she have in there??.

Soon I had a makeup artist telling me about some fantastic foundation that he uses when he does Charlize Theron's makeup and how he just had to put some on me. You know the rest, I was sucked right in, feeling like a star and ended up paying some exorbitant price for what turned out to be nothing more than spac filler that caused such bad skin, that I needed to use it daily just to cover up my bad skin. If that makes any sense!!

Until the age of about 24 I had fairly perfect skin. When I look back, that was about the age when I started wearing more and more makeup and using more skin products rather than my natural kitchen concoctions.

Over time I started to get some skin irritation around the mouth and chin and then after using my expensive 'New York' foundation I became a fully fledged adolescent looking acne faced tweenager (yep like a teenager but in my twenties!) The funny thing is that when my skin became lumpy and red and itchy and just awful looking, I actually did feel as akward as a teenager. I was embarrassed to meet new people and to see old friends.

The Dermatologist and GP prescribed me some creams that did nothing and then some antibiotics that helped until I went off them and then the little red men returned to my face. The dermatologist said that perioral dermatitis (my condition) was common in females between 25 and 45. He also mentioned that it was unlikely to go away. Nobody seemed sure of the cause but they did note that skincare products were a common cause. I found that funny, skin care, that gives you skin problems! He couldn't tell me which products were the likely culprits, but that perhaps the cheapest brands were the worst. I asked if there was specific chemicals in the products that may be causing it, again he wasn't sure but noted that chemicals are everywhere and you can't really avoid them.

I started my research only hours later by typing every ingredient listed on my skincare and makeup products into various chemical databases and medical journals. I was horrified by what I found. Put simply I had been cleansing, toning, moistuising, washing, shampooing and perfuming in a cocktail of chemicals most of which were skin irritants thought to cause dermatitis and eczema and many of which were known to cause cancer. Additionally a large number of the chemicals were thought to disrupt the endocrine (hormonal) system and cause birth defects.

I slowly eliminated the chemicals from my skincare and makeup and eventually cleaning products too. As my chemical exposure dropped so did dermatitis and now, years on I am pretty much dermatitis free.

This experience together with several others led me on the path to creating CleanLife. Our concept is simple. If we can get a large number of people making one small change each week, together we can protect our environment and improve our health. If you like our concept please tell your friends to sign up for our free weekly email tip. The more the merrier!

Signing off

Think Clean

Gina