Seconds later I am courageously, though mentally moaning to myself, "Jesus! Uhhh! Help! It feels like she's rubbing glass into my face."

"You're doing fine. Just a few more minutes and we'll be done. Yes, it is tough to be beautiful," coached Dana.

"I am out of my body, I am out of my body. I am free. I feel easy, light. This is not working, it still hurts like hell!" I whimpered to myself.

A satanic eternity later, Dana was done. And all the Heavens rejoiced in my cosmetic liberation. To all appearances, Dana took my face from scarred and acneic to blistered and tamale red in a matter of 7 minutes.

"Here, take these home and use them as I have instructed. You must do as I say or you will damage your skin and it will not look like baby new skin when you return in four days. Be extremely careful with your skin, it is very fragile now, be gentle with it. Do not scrub or wash your skin for the next three days. Use only the materials that I have given you."

Dana's words were all I could think about in the coming hours. As I rushed home from the spa looking like a red version of the Blue Men, I congratulated myself for following through on a decision that took over a year to make.

For the next three days I avoided the sun like a bat and hid away from society. If I did have to face the sun, even just for a few seconds, I slathered my skin with a physical sun block that contained titanium oxide that Dana gave me.

Day One After the Deep Peel: My face is no longer red. It became extremely dry. My face is like a fish out of water, scaly. I use the thick cream Dana gave me as she foretold, "Your skin will become very dry and then begin to peel off in chunks. And then you will have nice, new and beautiful skin like a baby."

Day Two After the Deep Peel: "It has begun! It has begun!" I scream like a mad scientist. The moment I was waiting for- my skin began peeling off in chunks. I could just lightly rub my face and dry scales of skin would come off. It was amazing all day long this was happening. Scales of dry skin coming off my face. It did not hurt. It was just amazing to witness first hand.

Day Three After the Deep Peel: More of day two type activity. My skin is peeling like crazy. I'm a happy because I can already tell that most of my scars are gone.

Day Four After the Deep Peel: I return to see Dana. She gives me a facial to remove the excess dead skin cells from my face. Afterwards, Dana and I are both amazed at the results. She bemoans, "I wished I had taken a before and after picture. You look completely different now. Your skin is beautiful!"

I agreed with her 150%. I had new clear skin that was as soft and firm as a newborn baby's face.

In my next blog, I'll talk about how this deep peel turned out to be a hasty move on my part, because just a few months later, my skin was just as scarred with zits as it was before I started the deep peel. I realized that I need to have my acne under control before proceeding with serious, and not to mention expensive, skin treatments.

Alas, benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid and most other acne washes do not wash away zits.

One trap to fall into with cleansers is over cleansing, which can aggravate acne. The next trap, which is common, is to expect too much from one product.

For example, benzoyl peroxide works by destroying excess acne provoking bacteria. Salicylic acid exfoliates the skin and clears the pores, which reduces the chances for waste buildup in the pores and producing a zit.

If you have severe acne like I did, over the counter acne washes cannot provide the amount of bacteria control and exfoliation you need to keep acne at bay.

It's like trying to empty a bathtub with a teaspoon instead of just unplugging the water clog. Severe acne requires regulating the skin on an internal and external level. You can regulate the growth of excess bacteria on the face and body in a number of ways.

1. Decrease or control your stress response. Stress sets off a series of hormonal reactions that can ultimately produce excess oil on the face and provide an ideal environment for excess acne-causing bacteria growth on the face.

2. Moderate sugar consumption. Excess sugar, like stress, moves the hormones to excrete more oil on the face. It's not the chocolate the causes the acne, just the collective hormonal response of a sugar overload.

3. Take a multi-vitamin. It may sound silly, or trivial, but taking a multivitamin can provide vital nutrients that boosts the immune system and help you manage stress better. Collectively, strong immunity and stress control help reduce acne breakouts.

I learned these three points the hard way. Trial and error and buying a lot of acne skin care products. If you're at a loss about choosing an acne product, I can only say this, high price does not guarantee high quality. When I used Oxy 10 for instance, I found it worked just as well as products that costs 5 times as much. One drawback is that these drying products are not ideal for maturing skin. If you are battling acne and wrinkles, I suggest using essential oils to combat acne flair-ups such as tea tree or eucalyptus oil.

On a final note, if you've been using an acne cleanser for months with no noticeable improvement in your skin, I suggest trying to regulate you skin's condition from the inside, with sound nutrition and relaxation.

Next I'll talk about my colonic experience to treat acne.

I am writing this blog, because:

1. I have a serious desire to help people not only overcome acne, but to learn from this emotionally devastating condition and;
2. I have a lot of hands-on, practical information to share with you that I've learned from years of trying drugs, cosmetic procedures, herbal supplements and alternative healing to treat acne.

Well, it all started when I was a teenager, of course. At thirteen years young little red zits started to spout on my forehead. It was annoying. I tried the products advertised in commercials by actresses who probably never had a zit in their lives. Nothing worked. So, I developed a "I guess I not gonna look so hot now" complex. Like most teenage chics, I spent way too much time in the mirror looking at myself, or I should say at my uninvited zits. As I reflect on my teenage years, I realize that I was probably suffering from acne coree. This type of acne happens when you obsess about you zits, constantly look at your zits in the mirror, and then pop your zits impulsively in a hurried and desperate effort to have clear skin. A maddening situation indeed.

Let me tell everyone who does this a little secret. Popping zits makes acne worse. You've propably heard it a million times, but I was there folks. I still sometimes impulsively pop zits but I have developed a zit-popping control mechanism. Here it is:

• One, before I pop a zit I say, "Yah know, if you pop this one, you will spread germs and probably have 3 new zits in this same area tomorrow."
• Two: If I know I have a zit, I avoid looking in the mirror, or give myself a time limit for looking in the mirror, this reduces the temptaion to squeeze.
• Three: Put ice on the zit. this reduces swelling.
• Four: apply a clay mask to the zit to dry it out.
• Five: Distract yourself with another fun activity.

OK, enough for now. Next I'll talk about mishaps that are too easy to make when using acne cleansers.

From a circle of Love,
Naweko