Kertosis Pilaris

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Today I wanted to talk about a slightly non-nail related topic - keratosis pilaris, aka chicken skin. It is insanely common (I've read some claims that it can effect up to 80% of the adolescent population) so chances are you either have it, or if you're doing nails on other people you are going to come across it it.

KP looks like tiny red bumps on the skin and feels like sandpaper. It's caused by a buildup of keratin that forms a plug that blocks the opening of a hair follicle. It's meant to clear up after age 30, but I'm over that hill and am still covered.

This condition is not always something that bothers people, but my skin literally looks like one of those worse case scenarios off WebMD! It's all over my arms, legs, butt and even a little on the back of my hands. It's a charming look as a nail tech! The worst part for me is it has taken me most of my life to find our what the heck it is! I used to get teased at school where kids would dare each other to touch my skin, and I thought I was some kind of leper! It's only now I can tell you it is TOTALLY harmless. It amazed me that even at nail school we had lists of skin conditions that effect arms and hands so we could check for contra-indicators, but it wasn't there! The only thing to look for is if they are naughty like me and pick at it, leaving open wounds.

So I have been doing a lot of experimenting with different products to see if i could find something that would help - and I hope help you or at least make you a bit more informed. It basically comes down to exfoliation (but not too much - it's a fine line) and moisture. Chemical exfoliates seem to be the way to go, so you need to look for products with a decent amount of ingredients like glycolic acid, AHA, BHA

Some of the things I have tried include plain old exfoliating with a loofah and moisturiser which smoothed the feel but didn't do much for the appearance, a few different exfoliating products like a rock salt scrub and a moisturiser that had a small amount of glycolic acid. It wasn't until I did some reading that I saw a lot of positive things about Paula's Choice and I bought a whole bunch of samples to try (and then their lovely PR sent me one full sized to try as well).

The 2 main products I have ended up using are Weightless Body Treatment with 2% BHA and the Skin Revealing Body Lotion with 10% AHA. They both worked well for me, but I prefer the lotion just because I like the moisturised feeling it leaves and I think it works a little bit better on my skin. I was applying these after my shower each night - which makes sense just because you need to be careful going in the sun with these as you will burn easy,

So here are some before and after pictures. These were taken 2 weeks apart You can see it has;t magically make it go away, but there is a huge difference! My skin also feels totally smooth which is a miracle for me! Note that the dead skin and redness in the before pictures is not from picking, my skin was just that inflamed from the condition.

Taken on my macro lens - you can see the bumps have reduced greatly