Thursday, June 7, 2007

green with envy

I'm jealous of my daughter. She has the most gorgeous skin. It's smooth, and it has no (well, very, very few) scars or freckles or moles. If people really turned green with envy, I would have an even bigger skin problem.

I spend a lot of time thinking about my skin. The stretch marks on my stomach from being pregnant. I slathered on the cocoa butter during and after my pregnancy, but I still have stretch marks. I even got them on my thighs. My thighs! I wasn't carrying the baby there. Obviously I carried some extra weight there, though.

I have scars here and there, although I will confess that some of them provide some fun stories, like the time I was five and went down the firemans pole...face first...without using the pole.

I also have zits now. I did not have them growing up. What is the cruel trick of nature that I didn't have them at 16, but get them in my thirties?

But the thing that gets me most is the spots. I have dark spots appearing on my face. Are they age spots already? Freckles? Scars turned dark? I have one on the side of my nose that I have tried all manner of creams to get rid of. I tried soaking a Q-tip in hydrogen peroxide and applying to the spot twice a day. I tried this Avon product that mysteriously called itself a "laser," but when I opened the tube it was a rather large roller ball - like the kind you get with some lip glosses. It provided neither laser precision, nor laser-like results. The spot is still there. And has not faded at all. Every now and then I see an article in a magazine and think "maybe that will work..." but really, I've pretty much given up hope.

This does not keep me from sighing every time I look at it in the mirror. I'm working on acceptance. It is not easy.

And so I carefully slather my daughter with sunscreen every time we hit the pool, in hopes that her skin will stay so perfect. But surely, someday, she'll have a drawer full of useless gypsy potion creams as well.

6 comments:

Run ANC said...

Hey! Thanks for visiting my site at MBT! It's really cool to find another actor/mommy blog too. I keep thinking when I'm writing, that no one really cares about all that "actor crap". It's really nice to know that someone is as interested as I am.

I have a lot of similar skin problems -including zits. What's obsessing me now is the spider veins in my legs. So attractive.

Anonymous said...

girls, the hill gets a little steeper approaching 40.

My mother has an entire closet filled with potions. Shall I just grab a handful next time and dispense them?

I really hope that my kids do keep up with the lotions I've rubbed on them daily since birth. It's truly worth it.

Beck said...

I'm all scar-y. What REALLY bothers me is my varicose veins - hot!
Don't worry about the link stuff - I thought it was sweet that they asked but it was not necessary, okay? Thanks for wanting to link to me in the first place!

painted maypole said...

thanks, beck. it seemed to me that if anyone would want to link to another blogger, that blogger would be happy, but then I worried I had broken blogging protocol. usually i research things before i do them. blogging... i just dove in. so.. for the record to you MILLIONS of people reading my blog daily (but not posting) you can link to me any time.

Bea said...

Dwelling with these luminous creatures is definitely hard on the self-esteem - the stretch marks just add insult to injury.

kittenpie said...

Heh. I am skin obssessed, too. The stretch marks (yes, on my thighs too) and the skin that just didn't snap back to tautness make me pretty unhappy, truth be told. I got dark spots on my face too, and was told by a dermatologist that it was one of these things: It was sun damage, but without the pregnancy creating the perfect conditions, it wouldn't have shown itself for another ten years. I've been using Retin-A she perscribed, which has so far vanquished one of them, and with that success, I'm now working on a couple of others. Might be the same thing for you?