My name is Elisa and I am 35 years old. I have just retaken the skin typing questionnaire because when I took it the first time my skin was still healing from a bad "light" chemical peel and air travel to England to see my in-laws. I had also mis-read two of the questions (forgot to add 5 points if ever diagnosed with acne by a doctor and I have used retinols occasionally and thought a question only pertained to prescription strength retenoids which I've only had once in my life). So, I had originally thought I was a DSNW, but I am a DSNT. I still have a borderline score on the T/W, so I have been re-reading both sections of Dr. Baumann's book.

I battled acne in my teenage years. The acne was treated with antibiotics and Retin-A at first which literally caused my face to bleed because it was affecting my capillaries and making my skin too thin. Then I progressed to 2 courses of Accutane which cleared all acne and permanently changed my skin from oily to normal. I live in Charleston, SC which is extremely sunny and hot and has very high humidity most of the year. I took a job last year that is in a very low humidity environment (a passport processing center) so that the paper used for the passports won't "curl" due to the high humidity outside. Working in this environment has made my slightly dry skin very dry.

In September I thought, "I'll get a peel from an aesthetician so that my skin will look 'fresh' again." I told the individual that I was allergic to any type of alpha hydroxy acid, but apparently that went in one ear and out the other. My skin is finally looking relatively normal (it's now mid-November) and not like a burn victim, but I still don't think it's healed up totally. My purchasing of approximately $200 worth of different types of moisturizers and treatments to get it back to normal probably didn't help things too much!! So, I began reading Dr. Baumann's book in the beginning of November while visiting my in-laws in England (very harsh climate compared to where I live and the air travel did not help my skin either).

I'm a stinging subtype (ever since I was a child) and I occasionally get acne from very occlusive products. For this reason I try to avoid mineral oils, petroleum, and petrolatum in my products. I am very sensitve to silicones in products as well. Sometimes products with dimethicone are okay and sometimes they're not. I think this may have to do with the percentage of that ingredient in a product. Anything that has a "silicone smell" (I don't know how else to describe it, but it is unpleasant and very identifiable) will give me cystic acne even though my skin is dry. Lactic acid roughens my skin like you wouldn't believe. Any alpha hydroxy acid that is stronger than that, such as fruit acids or glycolic acids give me a horrible, itchy, tiny red bumpy rash all over the skin that was subjected to it. Vitamin C seems to be okay and parabens don't give me reactions.

I'm frustrated because I want to be using anti-aging products so that my skin continues to look young and firm, but a lot of them are contraindicated for my skin type. That's depressing because I really don't want to start looking my age, I think it's a slippery slope once I get to that point! I had purchased about 4 products from Dr. Perricone and was thinking, "this is a different type of stinging, this must mean the product is working and being 'active'". I have stopped using those for the time being. My mom had a reaction so bad to some of the Dr. P products that she had to go to the doctor!

I use mineral make-up because of sensitiivities to lots of things in liquid make-ups and because I am so fair it is very hard to get a match with foundation. I have never been able to use a drugstore foundation in my life. It is good that mineral makeup has SPF in it because another one of my struggles is I'm very sensitive to sunscreens. I usually will get a rash or it will sting or I will break out from it. This is with using "baby" sunscreens as well as "oil-free" sunscreens. This would happen even when I had oilier skin than I do now.

I am hoping to learn a lot through this forum. I look forward to meeting everyone and sharing our skin care tips and discoveries!! Thanks for taking the time to read this information!