Skin care savior

 Remember how when you're a pre-teen and you can't wait to be, like, a teenager and stuff and get to be all grown up, but, instead wake up in fear every morning, because, maybe today would, like, be THAT day that you.... BREAK OUT?!  Sometimes on the bus in the morning, we'd all roll up to Vicky's house, or to Jennifer's, and she just wouldn't be out there waiting for the bus.  Then we'd get to school and in properly discreet and hushed tones, someone would explain that, Vicky 'broke out.'  And I'd stand there all perplexed and think, 'and you get to stay home because of that?'   Well I made it through highschool with a few large annoyingly timed zits, the ones that appear in time for the homecoming dance or the big date.  But overall, it wasn't horrible. Oh I had friends though, who really embodied the 'this world is just not fair' school of thought, because they really had it bad.  But little did I know, that fate was wringing it's hands in delight, waiting for the perfect time to pounce, planning and deliberating and methodically plotting an attack for when I'd least expect it: post - baby, post over-the-hill 40th-birthday...  A HA! Now!    WTF.  I was getting quarter sized welts all over my chin. Zones of full blown acne across my forehead. Nothing like showing up to a meeting, the oldest broad in an office full of fresh faced college grads all vying for my job, with a giant zinger on my nose.  Even better on those days that I hadn't had time to properly dye the gray. Anyhow, so I went to an endocrinologist and begged for help. I expected a diagnosis of a ridiculously high level of some hormone that appears in puberty. (If that were the case, then I'd be sure to get a second chance at double Ds.)  But after a round of tests, all levels were normal. I was told to exercise. My raging non-hormones wanted to stomp stomp stomp and SLAM my door. Then blast some Van Halen from my cassette deck.  I decided I'd get a massage, some acupuncture and a facial, as any smart, sophisticated New Yorker lady would do.   The facialist pretty much told me that everything I was doing to prevent breakouts was what was actually causing them. I hadn't changed my face washing routine since college and had only added on new creams and lotions and potions as I got older, for wrinkles and sun spots etc.   She reduced the entire regime down to this one cleanser: The Clear Skin Probiotic Cleanser.  I wash with that and that's IT.  She also gave me a moisturizer that has witch hazel and chamomile to reduce redness and inflammation.  Since I started using this in July, I can honestly say, I have not had more than 2 zits.  And when I see one started to flare up, I leave a drop of this cleanser on overnight, it absorbs in and the f*&ker is gone.  Take that puberty.  Score: 1 for me and 2 for fate. I'm still waiting on the double Ds.