Just thought I would share a happy story..
I was watching a movie with my boyfriend last night, and when I walked out of the kitchen and sat down on the couch with him, he sort of ran his fingers down my arms and kissed me and said "Hey, your skin is looking a lot better."

I don't cover my arms up around him anymore because he knows about my kp and all of my awful scars from it, and (though it took him a long time to convince me!) I know that imperfect skin does not make me less beautiful in his eyes. He knows it still bothers me a lot, and I still cover up most of the time when I go out in public, so he usually doesn't mention it because talking about it can make me upset. This comment was completely unexpected, and just so incredible to hear. Because I know that a lot of us here (myself included) can be obsessive about looking for improvements in our skin, which can be slow to happen, it is nice to have an "outside" pair of eyes say that it is noticeably better.

In case anyone is wondering, my regime for trying to make my skin better has been pretty simple. The biggest step: leave it alone! No picking, no scrutinizing, no obsessing over little spots (no picking because "maybe it will look better if I just clean out the follicles".. it does not look better afterwards!). Now that it is autumn and cooler outside I usually just wear long sleeves and ignore my kp. Out of sight, out of mind? When I shower I use the olive body scrub from the Body Shop to exfoliate, and moisturize afterwards with Lubriderm sensitive moisture lotion or the vitamin E lotion from the Body Shop. I take multivitamins (Centrum Forte) as well as Flax Seed Oil capsules. The fact that it is autumn now means that I wear long sleeves and the sun doesn't get at my skin much. This always seems to help because my biggest problem is the scarring (I was a terrible terrible picker when I was younger and did a lot of damage), and the sun turns the dark scarred spots even darker brown and red. This happens even with a short amount of sun exposure, and because the pigmentation is changed, tanning does not help to hide it at all.

So now, staying out of the sun means my skin is paler and the scarring fades quite a lot and blends in. Exfoliating and moisturizing keeps the kp in check, and my stress levels are so much lower which helps a lot too. I've tried so many treatments and so many useless dermatologists, and I'm just sick of putting chemicals/acids that I can hardly pronounce in my body or on my skin.
One day I might have enough money (and confidence that it will work) to try laser treatment or something to get rid of the scarring forever but for now.. I'm just being nice to my skin and thanking my wonderful boyfriend (and all of you!) for constantly reminding me that I am beautiful.

We are all beautiful, and stronger than this frustrating skin condition.

I just wanted to add that I do not mean to cause any offense by saying this! I'm just saying that I have been frustrated. For all those of you who are currently using products like topical retinoids and seeing results - good for you!! Everyone has an individual "solution" to find that will make their skin better. Don't stop trying!

You didn't.


Several here have had the problem of doctors' prescribing $$$ lotions and potions. I guesss the doctors feel they are at least trying to do something for a disease that has no easy answers.