A Sight for Sore Eyes

As a teenager, I was fortunate enough not to have to deal with the unpleasantness of acne. Skin conditions in general were a foreign concept to me because my daily routine of washing with the same kind of body soap and moisturizing with the same kind of lotion -- a routine to which I adhered religiously over the course of many years -- seemed to keep such problems at bay. So you can imagine my surprise when, a few months ago, I developed an allergic reaction to a Lancome face cream containing sunscreen.

Until that point, I had been using Lancome face products for quite some time without incident, so it didn't really occur to me that things should be any different with a product that happened to have an SPF rating of fifteen. Apparently, I was wrong. Within a few days, the skin around my eyes became very dry and red, so I stopped using the product and instead reverted to another Lancome face cream that did not contain what I suspected to be the offending agent. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to fix the problem. So then I started thinking that maybe it wasn't the sunscreen that was irritating my skin, but Lancome products in general. Had I suddenly, after months of use, developed an allergy to an entire product line? To test my new theory, I completely stopped using Lancome face products -- face wash, toner, lotion, under-eye cream, lip exfoliant, everything -- and opted instead for more generic, unscented products.

After a few weeks, I noticed that removal of Lancome products from my daily cleansing routine had actually done nothing to alleviate the skin allergy. On the contrary, the skin around my eyes had become much, much worse -- wrinkled, dry, red, flaky and swollen. My parents urged me to see a doctor, but I resisted for as long as I possibly could. I'll be the first to admit that I'm stubborn, but in all my 26 years, I'd never needed to consult a dermatologist, so why now? I thought I was smart enough to diagnose and fix the problem myself.

At that point, I began to consider other factors that may have triggered the allergic reaction. The first thing that came to mind was my diet. Around the time I started using the SPF-15 product, I made my entrance into the world of carnivorism and tried chicken for the first time in my life. Were the gods frowning upon me for being a bad Hindu? Was this skin condition their form of karmic retribution? I then started to worry that I might have other food allergies of which I was unaware. Visions of my body convulsing in pain after eating something seemingly harmless started to haunt my dreams. I realized I had no choice but to consult a professional.

Two weeks later, I finally met with a dermatologist. It turned out that I had developed a case of allergen contact dermatitis -- in a word, eczema. The good news was that the condition was very unlikely to be food-related. The bad news was that I could no longer use any Lancome products. For that matter, the dermatologist advised me to stay away from any facial products that are perfumed, as they're much too strong for the sensitive skin found on the face.

The other bad news? I was prescribed a topical steroid cream that I have been using for the last four months, at the advice of the dermatologist. Four months! That's a long time! I did see dramatic improvements soon after I started the treatment, but anyone that knows me knows that I am highly suspicious of any kind of medication, prescribed or over-the-counter. Needless to say, having to use a prescribed cream on an ongoing basis is anathema to my very being. Oh, well. At least it's not the bulging-bicep type of steroid. One tube down, one more to go. Sigh. I think I'll go eat a buffalo wing.