Newsletter #7: Feeling Like Myself Again

It's a new month and things are brighter. Let's have a natter...

Photo by Faris Mohammed on Unsplash

I wanted to start with a thank you to everyone who read, commented, liked, shared, messaged, or otherwise supported me last month. I now want to try to move past it as best I can, but I do appreciate you for showing me kindness and for being patient with me while I work out how to continue to show up online in a way that’s still safe and fun for me. I have built such a fantastic and kind community here and it really does make this all easier to deal with.

So let’s get cracking with another newsletter. This edition contains: my current favourite song; an article about chasing an unachievable facial ideal; some interesting rosacea research; my current skincare routine; a TV recommendation, as well as a book recommendation; and some incredible instagram accounts to follow for some real skin joy in your feed.

Feeling Like Myself Again by Lowland Hum is the song on constant rotation this week. “Time always passes. It's always moving, waxing in the shadows. Such strange, wild beauty. Months inside a fog under a crumbling overpass, and then one morning you wake up and you start feeling like yourself again.” My psyche is many things, but subtle is not one of them!

‘I’ll never achieve ‘facial harmony’ and I’m okay with that’ - I really enjoyed this article by Jacqueline Kilikita for Refinery29 UK. The internet has made us hyper aware of not only our own faces, but also those of others to whom we compare ourselves (even when we know that a lot of content online is at best styled, posed, and lit very flatteringly, and at worst edited and filtered within an inch of its life). Personally I love unique faces, probably because they’re becoming more rare. Scroll though TikTok and you start to notice the same noses, the same brows, the same lips, the same chins… it’s a bit sad. Where are the unusual features, the eyecatching ones, the inherited features shared across families? When that video of mine went viral, a popular insult in my comment section was pointing out the gap in my teeth as though 1) I hadn’t noticed it myself and 2) that I take their insult as gospel. But I love my tooth gap. Granted, it took me years to get there (mainly due to horrible children who - similar to incels - think anything different = bad) but I love that it’s unique in a world of ubiquitous, oversized uncanny valley veneers. I’m not sure the internet will ever loosen its grip on ‘perfection’ (whatever the current version of that is) but I hope that as individuals we can start to see the uniqueness of our own faces and that of others as a positive thing rather than something to be eroded.

‘New Research Examines Treatment Strategy for Resistant Rosacea’. I am always keeping my eye out for research and studies related to rosacea. I want to stay as up to date as I can for my own interest, but I also like to be able to bring you information about things that are happening. Even if those studies or breakthroughs aren’t necessarily relevant to you, or are still early days concepts, I still share them to demonstrate that people are working away behind the scenes. There is always work happening to find ways to make rosacea easier to live with. There is always hope.

My current skincare routine: Earlier this week I published a blog post taking you through my entire skincare routine in detail. Those of you who’ve followed me for a while will know that I used to switch up my skincare routine *every month* which makes me cringe looking back. It took me a long time to realise that my skin loves routine and that finding the products I love and trust is always better than constantly chasing the newest, sexiest thing being marketed to me. So although my skincare updates are few and far between now, there’s good reason behind it! The post also includes an update on why I stopped using Dermatica, for those of you who were asking. You can read it HERE.

If you subscribed to Discovery+ to watch the Olympics, I have a TV series recommendation for you: Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV. It’s about the abuse (psychological, physical, and sexual) that took place at Nickelodeon in the early 2000s. There are very candid and detailed interviews with victims so please be aware of the obvious trigger warnings. It’s a hard watch, but the bravery of the victims is inspiring and the ongoing conversation about the ways in which that industry chews up and spits out vulnerable children is an important one.

A book recommendation: Conversations With People Who Hate Me by Dylan Marron. Dylan is an online content creator who started contacting people who left hateful comments on his work and inviting them to be interviewed on his podcast. This book summarises how the series started, what he’s learned over time, and how it’s changed how he approaches working on the internet. I had never heard of Dylan or his podcast, but I feel like this book found me at exactly the right time. It discusses empathy, vulnerability, shame, internet anonymity, troll culture, and finding humanity even with people who show you none. I think anyone who spends time online would find this interesting and eye-opening.

And finally I have two instagram account recommendations: getyourskinout and fordtography. The former is an incredible psoriasis campaigner who I’ve followed for years and she does incredible work to raise awareness and support her community. The latter is a fantastic photographer who specialises in portraying real, unedited skin and celebrating it in all forms. They’re currently working together on something top secret that I’m really excited to be a part of and cannot wait to show you. I am a big proponent of unfollowing accounts that make you feel bad or less-than, and replacing them with people who make you feel joy, make you feel seen, and show you the full range of the human condition (as opposed to the narrow beauty ideals we’re often fed online). These two accounts will improve your feed no end.

Thank you so much for reading this newsletter, I’m so glad you’re here. I’d love to hear what your favourite part of the newsletter was, if you’re going to check out anything I recommended, or just feedback in general. It’s nice to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Lex