A love letter to your skin

1 year ago, Ellie opened up about her conflicting relationship with her "combination" skin in her article " A love letter to my skin ". A subject that touched us all deeply internally and prompted numerous reactions from our community on Instagram. Because, as Ellie so aptly put it skin is the first thing we see of ourselves in the mirror when we wake up, without make-up, without filters, without a safety net. It's the skin that defines us, defines our mood for the day, or even scratches our self-confidence when it's not perfect. As part of our "skin that pulls" event, I wanted to share my skin story with you.

For I myself have long been at war with my skin, a war that began at the age of 1 and a half months when my mom stopped breastfeeding me. Here, not a single pimple, but my face, neck, ears and the folds of my arms and knees were covered in eczema. A condition known as atopic eczema, a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by extreme skin dryness associated with severe lesions red patches, raw, oozing, itchy skin. A lovely poisoned gift, half-hereditary, half-unexplained, that would come to define my childhood (photo albums still remember it), my adolescence (turtlenecks in winter, long sleeves even in summer), and my first steps into womanhood (intimacy, the one place where you can no longer hide under layers of Dermablend).

The advantage of this poisoned gift is that my mom introduced me to the definition of the word "holistic" at a very early age, searching by all means for the miracle recipe that would cure me of this skin disease (which, through my crying, haunted her nights). I tried almost everything : a spa treatment at the age of 1 (with beneficial but ephemeral effects), homeopathy via granules, auriculotherapy (an auricular acupuncture technique), consultations with a well-known magnetizer who placed her energy-charged hands on my belly... and of course, the ritual of applying a cream, my favorite, as rich and oily as possible, which I religiously applied morning and evening to my face and body. Improvements, lulls, but naturalness always came back at a gallop, with violent flare-ups when I was stressed, or during my period. My skin ached, and I wanted to live under a bell jar to cut myself off from outside aggression, spending my life in a bathtub of soothing cream. So I had to do it the hard way: dermatologist, prescription, cortisone, antihistamines and anxiolytics to "relax and stop scratching", and even a session with a shrink to make sure it wasn't "psychosomatic". An explosive cocktail, which didn't cure anything, but enabled me to "live better with it", all the while clinging to the doctors' prognosis: "You'll see, with time it'll subside, maybe when you get pregnant?

Motherhood wasn't on the immediate agenda, so I continued my quest for "wellness". I consulted various therapists in Paris, took up yoga (better than medication for relaxation) and little by little, I swapped my cortisone tubes and parapharmacy balms for skin care products that were more respectful of my skin, with real active ingredients. with real active ingredients to moisturize, nourish and soothe my skin (which is how I discovered Oh My Cream long before I started working there). But above all, I learned to listen to her, and to be patient. I realized that she was better off when I was less stressed, ate well, drank little, slept a lot (not really compatible with my life of partying ahah) and avoided hostile environments (dog hair, herbaceous plants, wide open spaces!). I realized that I'd always have rashesI understood that I'd always have redness, unexplained reactions, skin that pulled and was chronically dry. But that I could make it feel betterby taking care of myself with well-oiled, daily rituals, combining the useful with the pleasurable. Ironically, today I'm often complimented on my skin... proving that nothing is ever written in advance... ! ;)