OK so I thought I had Melasma or Pregnancy Mask but, I don’t.

However, I did learn this lesson. If something is going on with your skin it’s telling you – something is going on with you on the inside. In your liver or hormonally or with your nutrition.

You can waste all the money you want on miracle creams and scrubs and serums – but if something is going on with your health you should approach in from there for the most effective results.

Nancy Daugenti, a sufferer of melasma herself developed Melacor to help herself. Love that.

She was kind enough to send me a bottle of Melacor for review – and then I found out that not only do I not have melasma, I can’t take Vitamin C. So I couldn’t finish the experiment and gave the bottle to a friend.

Happily, Nancy was more than willing to give one of my readers a 3 month supply of Melacor! That’s exciting.

My lucky lucky winner is . . . . Corrin. I’m so glad it’s her. From her comment I can see that she is tired of melasma and I know she’ll be so grateful to try Melacor.

Melacor has Vitamin C, grape seed extract, MSM, Pine Bark Extract, Rhodiola and Ashwaganha Root extract.

Thank you Nancy for providing such a wonderful prize.

Post from: Blisstree

Melacor Winner of Beautiful Skin

Wow, you look so pretty, all my friends told me over the weekend.

It’s the kind of thing you love to hear, except in the back of your mind you’re thinking, Man I must have been looking pretty bad to get this kind of response.

It’s subtle, but my skin is so different since I started giving blood for my hemochromatosis. I’ve given 3.5 unites of blood.

It’s not that it was the wrong color, it was just the wrong pallor.

Do you remember when I was telling you about my kid and his skin and that lady was telling me it had to be the liver? my friend asked me.

Yes, and I keep thinking about that . . . I can’t get over that I missed it. I never made the connection.

I missed it too, she said.

Yes, but it was on MY face and I knew I had a liver condition, I thought. How could I miss it? What else am I missing? Its like the time I was fat and no one told me.

My skin coloring is looking phenomenally better in a very subtle way. I look healthier.

Gone is the dark heavy mineral powder foundation.

This is a Blogtoberfest Post and it’s in honor of my new skin and a healthy liver.

Leave a comment guessing what it could be and in one week I’ll draw a winner for something supercalafradalisticexpialadocious.

I’m giving something away every day (sometimes two things) for two weeks straight, subscribe to Blog Fabulous (RSS button at top, share at bottom) so you don’t miss any Christmas hoarding opportunities (see our cool list of prizes here.

Hop around the whole b5media Lifestyle’s channel to enter for many more prizes.

Post from: Blisstree

New Skin

I have this skin condition called Melasma or Pregnancy Mask. It’s a condition that often develops during pregnancy or while taking birth control and it brings hyper-pigmentation to the skin, generally causing brown splotchiness. Some dermatologists say it’s caused by sun damage.

I wrote this cool little article on melasma last year called Can a Leopard Change Her Spots? That article has transformed into something I never expected – becoming a board where women from all over the world can share what they know about melasma with 500 comments. The ladies report on which products work to fade the melasma or which products or regimes, laser treatments they try which didn’t work. The participants save their fellow melasma sufferers some money and share their frustrated body image issues with each other.

It is to these sisters of mine that I want to talk to today.

“That’s not melasma,” my doctor recently told me. “That’s bronzing of the skin caused by too much iron in your liver, that’s a symptom of hemochromatosis. It should go away when we bleed you.”

“Really?” I asked.

“We’ll I can’t promise. It should. We’ll see.”

{{{{{Perception shift}}}}}

The symptom of my condition was staring me in the face every time I looked in the mirror – I missed it. My doctors missed it. We all knew I had it.

I have hemochromatosis. I’ve known I had hemochromatosis for 10 years. I’ve had hemochromatosis the whole time I’ve been treating my melasma that coincided with my pregnancy, which coincided with my not treating my hemochromatosis. My OB/GYN, the doctor I was seeing during pregnancy and right after, called my skin condition pregnancy mask (which is the layman’s term for melasma). The timing and symptom seemed right. He knew, of course, that I had hemochromatosis, but he did not know that a symptom of hemochromatosis looks very much like melasma. I haven’t seen my hemochromatosis specialist since before that pregnancy.

So here is what I want to say to my sisters out there who are treating their melasma, spending tons of time and money and emotional energy, and not seeing results – get tested for hemochromatosis.

You may have hemochromatosis. You may be treating the wrong condition. Your skin may be a symptom of something that may, in fact, be life threatening.

What is it?

Hemochromatosis is a mutation of the HFE gene. It’s an inherited disease. There’s nothing you can do to prevent it, nothing you do to cause it, and there is no cure. Around 8% of the population has this genetic condition.

By definition hemochromatosis is iron saturating the liver. Iron doesn’t leave the body properly in patients with hemochromatosis.

Iron is necessary for a healthy life, but too much of it sits in the liver and poisons it and other organs.

There is treatment.

The treatment is to remove blood from the body, giving blood.

They used to use leaches, now they use needles.

Untreated, hemochromatosis can be life threatening.

Women rarely find out they have hemochromatosis prior to menopause because they naturally rid themselves of just enough iron to mask the disease through menstruation, pregnancy, birth and lactation. That’s also the reason I hadn’t been to the doctor in a while – my body was using gestation, birth and lactation to rid itself of iron. Now the baby is over 2 and it’s time to start being bled again.

If you do not discover you have hemochromatosis and it goes untreated there is a high risk of liver disease, heart disease, diabetes, and others.

If you find out you have it early enough and it is properly treated, those who have hemochromatosis will live a long and healthy life.

I found out I had it in my 20’s. I am lucky. I found out in such a lucky way, after being misdiagnosed with both depression and mononucleosis. My doctor was trying to get me to up my anti-depressants.

“I am not depressed, I’ve got a great job and I’m happy about my life. I just can’t stop sleeping. I am so tired I could sleep 20 hours a day,” I told him. “Maybe I’m anemic, I read about exhaustion from anemia in a magazine,” I told him.

“If you rub real gold on your arm and it makes a black mark it means you’re anemic,” I explained as I showed him the black marks from my ring.

“That’s an old wive’s tale,” he said.

“Let’s bet on it. Test my iron levels. I bet I’m anemic,” I challenged.

The quirky bet with my doctor saved my life. I was not right. I was not anemic. But, I somehow, someway – by a miracle really – had asked for the right test after reading an article and illustrating an old wives tale. The test I requested showed dangerously elevated Iron & Ferritin levels. My liver biopsy tested positive for hemochromatosis.

This could be your quirky moment and this quirky moment could save your life (and treat your skin condition).

If you have melasma that doesn’t seem to respond to treatment, please, get a test for hemochromatosis. What you have previously seen as an emotionally frustrating skin condition – could shift into the symptom that points to a diagnosis that saves your life.

Wouldn’t that be a miracle – a shift in perception?

The best way to find out if you have hemochromatosis is to test for the HFE gene. You can ask your doctor to order this lab test if you have great insurance.

The American Hemochromatosis Society website recommends finding out you have this at home, without involving your insurance company. This is a serious diagnosis that could adversely affect your future insurability, they warn.

You can do the lab test from your home through a company like HealthCheckUSA. Just take a sample of your own cheek with a swab and send the results in to find out if you have hemochromatosis. It costs around $200.

If you have hemochromatosis you’ll need to find out your Iron and Ferretin levels with another lab test, Iron Profile, for around $50.

If your lab results come back with dangerously elevated Iron and Ferritin levels you’ll need to be monitored by a doctor and undergo more tests to make sure your vital organs are undamaged.

Post from: Blisstree

Miracle Skin – A Perception Shift

I got quite a passionate response to my post Can a Leopard Change Her Spots? Many women get melasma from birth control, stress and sun damage or a combination of all of the above.

I recently tried two products from Lush, their Enzymion, a moisturizer touted for oily skin with a variety of citrus juices and papaya and the Ocean Salt, which is virtually a vodka margarita for your face.

Both products are delicious! They smell and feel awesome and they truly did lighten the dark melasma spots on my forehead and cheeks. Because they are fresh handmade and mostly organic they are not cheap. Though I recently heard one woman justify the expense of cosmetics and moisturizers with, You only get one face.

I also had dramatic success with Phyto + 30 ml by SkinCeuticals. My spots were greatly lightened after about two weeks of use.

It’s important to remember that melasma can and will return with sun exposure. Any time you are in the sun you must have adequate sun screen. Even 15 minutes of driving may redarken melasma spots.

Make sure you’re protected from UVA and UVB rays.

Also, wear a hat! Think back to women working in the fields or gardening – they wore hats and sun bonnets for the express purpose of keeping the sun off their face. Wear sun hats, cowboy hats, baseball caps, berets, train conductor hats, winter hats – anything with a brim.

A good foundation and concealer will cover melasma. I have found mineral foundations to be quite effective. I find the Revelon mineral foundation to be just as good as the expensive brands.  Prescriptives Camouflage and Dermablend will cover virtually anything.

(Hydroquinone or alpha hydroxy, a skin bleach, is said to cause cancer so you want to avoid prolonged use. Colloidal silver will turn your face blue as a smurf, so you want to avoid that home remedy altogether.)

To the women who stare at the mirror and see only spots I would like to point out – others are not obsessing on your flaws the way you are. You are not your skin, you are a whole and unique and lovely person. You are a culmination of brains and spirit and strength and vitality and personality and humor and love and emotion and experience. Look in the mirror and tell yourself that you are lovely and beautiful, even with your spots.

Be kind to you.

Post from: Blisstree

Lushiousness for Leopards

Well, you wear whatever you want. I’m wearing a hat.

I think hats are fabulous as a fashion statement.

I have a practical reason too – keeps the sun off the face. Maybe you all remember my post Can a Leapord Change Her Spots where I told you about my melasma? Well, I got quite a few comments from other women with the same problem.

To break melasma down, it’s a skin condition with dark brown spots caused by hormones produced during pregnancy. Many dermatologists say it’s latent sun damage which is exacerbated by hormone changes during pregnancy. Whatever causes it, everyone agrees that sun exposure makes it way worse.

Not only that, but the creams and gels to fade the dark spots are all very photo-sensitive. Which means, if you are exposed to sun after you use them you’ll burn your face off.

We must wear sunscreen – every single day, no matter what. But, I’ve been at the pool with SPF 50 and still gotten noticably darker spots.

I thought back to my Granny, who always wore a sun bonnet. Why? To keep the sun off her face. A hat creates shade wherever you go. See how much of my face is in the shade up there?

Oh, and yes, I have found something that works pretty well to fade the spots of melasma. It’s SkinCeuticals Phyto Corrective Gel – 30 ml and it’s about $50 a jar. Which, after spending a few hundred on products that absolutely do not work, isn’t sounding like so much anymore.

I figure – shell out the $50 to correct the problem and then wear sunscreen and a hat to prevent it from coming back.

More stories about Melasma and the other products I’ve tried:

Can A Leopard Change Her Spots?

I Found The Spot Remover

Pur Perfection For Pregnancy Mask

Post from: Blisstree

Bringing Back The Hat

Pur Minerals Pur-fect Starter Kit(boxed)is what it’s called. It’s the same concept as the Sheer Minerals, surely you’ve sat through the info-mercial while breast feeding the baby at 3 am. Or was that just me? I seriously considered buying it, except I thought the mask would go away within a few months so why waste the money?

Here’s why. It’s all over my freaking face, that’s why!

I’m cheap to the point of mental illness on lots of things, but I realized I don’t want to be embarrassed about my face. I can’t hide it, it’s what people first look at and see when they talk to me. I’m used to being an attractive person and that is, evidently, something that turns out to be important enough for me to spend a little $$ cha-ching.

Other brands are $65, which I might not have spent, I figured $35 was not that bad for a concealer, bronzer, foundation, powder, blush and brush. I bought the set because they retail the “special brush” for $25. It was a splurge, but since I had left all my make-up at home accidentally I had a good excuse. (Thanks, God).

Here’s the key, after speaking to the cosmetologist, who also had an very good education about melasma or pregnancy mask – you have to go with a very dark color to cover the dark spots. Otherwise, you just look stupid and even more spotty. It looks and feels like a lot of make-up, I won’t lie. But, it does create a smoother, more flawless finish. Which is nice.

The cure – going to the dermatologist for 4% Hydroquinone or a chemical peel like Retin-A – will have to wait until after summer. Those photosensitive chemicals will burn my face off even with a ton of sunscreen. I’m unwilling to give up being fun mommy. You can get 2% Hydroquinone that will lighten the spots a little in creams like (Pack of 2) Palmer’s Skin Success Eventone Fade Cream regular, 2.7 oz for under $10 in the meantime.

p.s. I’m aware that my digital photography sucks, so really you’ll just have to take my word for it – I AM attractive and the makeup does cover. Eventually, I will invest in a decent camera. Until then. . .

Post from: Blisstree

Pur Perfection for Pregnancy Mask

But, I think I’ve found a partial solution:

Palmer’s Skin Success Eventone Regular Formula Fade Cream 2.7 oz jar with Vitamins C & E, Alpha Hydroxy & Sunscreen. There is 2% Hydroquinone, which is supposedly the bleaching cure for the dark spots from pregnancy mask.

This stuff is supposed to gradually fade age spots, liver spots, freckles and melasma. It says you must use sunscreen to prevent the spots from darkening again. You use it twice a day, just a thin layer and if it doesn’t work in 3 months then discontinue and see a dermatologist for the prescription 4% or some type of laser surgery. No, just kidding, it doesn’t say that on the back, that’s just what I plan to do.

It’s between $7.29 off Amazon at the above link. I got it for $5.99 at the local pharmacy. After about 3 days my spots do seem to be getting a little lighter. I’ll let you know the ultimate results.

Post from: Blisstree

I Found The Spot-Remover!

When I was pregnant with Ainsley my lovely, clean, smooth skin turned into a gigantic, painful zit. On my face, neck, chest, stomach, back, butt, thighs I had terrible, painful, ugly cystic acne. I was going to some stupid midwife who said the less medication I used the better. It was so bad I got a facial and I could tell the lady was simply disgusted by my skin. It was humiliating. I figured it would go away after the pregnancy. Wrong.

Finally, I asked my regular internist for something and he gave me Benzaclin. It’s a topical gel or cream with benzoyl peroxide and clindamycin, a topical antibiotic. It worked and if you follow the link the company will give you a $15 rebate on your prescription.

My current OB/GYN, not a crazy no-medicine-allowed midwife, said Benzaclin was perfectly safe to use during pregnancy and breast feeding so I was spared the trauma of turning into a gigantic freaking zit this time around.

I’ve run out of my prescription though and am using a salicylic acid toner, salicylic acid apricot scrub face wash, Noxema Deep Cleansing Cream and a Burt’s Bees Parsley Blemish Stick. Add to that I’m spending WAY too much money on moisturizer cause I bought the new Olay Definity, which is like $30, to repair 10 layers of damage including the brown spots and acne scars. If it helps it hasn’t worked as quickly as I would like. But, we shall see.  You can get a $3 coupon on the Olay website.

I’m making an appointment with a dermatologist for heaven’s sake. I have insurance. I’ve spent entirely too much time and money trying creams and potions that may or may not even work.

Post from: Blisstree

Zittier Than An Adolescent

I usually don’t consider myself at all vain. I think I’m attractive and I have a positive self esteem about my looks. I’m one of the few women I know who would not choose plastic surgery because I don’t particularly hate anything about myself. My boobs have held up nicely, I don’t have terrible stretch marks, I’m just fine with how I look and I think that’s a super healthy attitude. But, this melasma is REALLY getting to me.

 For those of you who don’t know pregnancy mask or melasma is extra pigmentation on the face that occurs in about 20 percent of women during pregnancy. Although it is much worse when exposed to the sun. One dermatologist wrote an article about sun damage being the actual cause and pregnancy making it worse. Either way I’ve got it.

I confess to frequent sun worship as a teen and young adult, but I never had this. After my daughter the pregnancy mask went away, just as the doctors said it would, after a few months. But, now my son is 14-months-old and I’m still a freaking leopard face.

There is no cure. That’s what kills me. I can try oodles and oodles of creams and potions that all cost a ton of money and probably won’t work. I can try laser treatment that will likely not be consistent across the face and may, in fact, cause scarring. So, some spots and some scarring – how is that better?

Foundation, cover-ups and concealers, I’ve tried bunches of them but they only make it worse. They don’t cover the dark spots, but make the light spots look like I’m gobbing on the wrong color of foundation.

Even with all these facts I’m begging anyone out there to tell me about some miracle cure. I’ve read about this chemical Hydroquinone, but it’s photosensitive, which means you can not be in the sun at all or you’ll turn into a beet. Then, I’ll be a spotted beet. It’s summer and I’m fun mommy so I can’t avoid the sun altogether.

Post from: Blisstree

Can A Leopard Change Her Spots