I’m very, very happy to announce that my skin is finally back to normal. Thank God, the peely ordeal only lasted a week. I really was worried it might stretch more and leave goodness-knows-what-sort-of scars and permanent blemishes on the skin.

Thanks very much to those who commented and emailed me about this. I really appreciated your input and help on this. After a process of further elimination, I’m afraid to say, it really was the Clarisonic that wrecked that much havoc on my skin. Even though everyone I know who has a Clarisonic use it daily without any problems, I’m afraid my skin just couldn’t take that much exfoliation. I shall now be limiting my use of the device to a maximum of twice a week.

Speaking of the Clarisonic, a couple of days ago, my skin had finally settled down, the redness and sting were gone but was really peeling badly. I kid you not, I had a mirror in front of me, and my itchy fingers started to play and pick at the dead skin 😛 In the evening, I had a sudden idea to use the Clarisonic to brush away the dead skin. It was a gamble, all right, since it gave skin problems in the first place. So when I was in the shower, instead of the usual 1-minute of brushing on the face, I brushed for about 5 seconds on each cheek. When I washed everything off, the dead skin was gone, revealing smooth skin.

YES! It worked! 😀

During the week of peeliness, I couldn’t use any of my usual skincare products because they stung something fierce on my raw, red cheeks. These were the only items I could use without any problems, and they really did help heaps.

– Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser – used this to cleanse the skin. I tried to minimise the use of makeup the past week, so I didn’t require a stronger cleanser.
– Cetaphil Moisturising Lotion – I’ve never used this on my face, only my body. But I’m glad to say this worked well on my cheeks and chin. It was still a little too rich for my T-zone though, and my nose started to sprout a pimple or two. But compared to the rest of the very dry face, those spots were peanuts.
– Avene Thermal Spring Water spray – Sesame recommended I spray my skin with a facial spray to keep it hydrated and not so tight throughout the day. I started with my Evian facial spray but switched to this instead. Worked like a charm, especially on warm days.
– Trilogy Sensitive Skin Very Gentle Calming Fluid – this was the only serum gentle enough to not burn my skin. Soothed the redness too.
– Lucas Papaw Ointment – I obviously cannot sing enough praises of this red tube of gooey goodness. The first few days of the raw cheeks really burned, and nothing I used helped. Except this.

I couldn’t be happier with the results of these products. Which made me wonder why the heck I spent so much money on expensive products when these cheap ones did the trick and more. Funny, right?

Anyway, if you ever have the misfortune of going through what I had, do try out these very simple but effective products. They will, literally, save your skin.