A Journey to Happier Skin

Julie Fell’s Nu-Derm Diary

I have always taken an interest in my skin care and even more so after I started the menopause. Regrettably, I was a sun worshipper in my 20s and now, together with the ageing process, I have developed sun spots/age spots and uneven skin tone. Plus my skin is dry!

Over the years I’ve tried most skincare products, both cheap and expensive, in addition to my regular use of fake tan. I felt it gave me the appearance of a nice healthy glow, which I tended to hide behind. But then I became increasingly aware of the medical grade products from Obagi. I was reading a lot about the Obagi Nu-Derm System and had seen the great before and after photos and impressive reviews.  So I decided to ask Laurie for a full skin consultation via FaceTime to see exactly what she would recommend for me. She thought the medically prescribed products in the Nu Derm Skin Transformation Trial Kit would indeed be a very good route for me to go down.

So, what did I have to lose? Laurie prescribed my kit and arranged for it to be delivered to my door. I was ready to embark on my journey to happer skin. Apart from the great reviews, Laurie picked this trial kit because she felt it would be best suited to tackling the old sun damage. You’ll be pleased to hear I don’t sit in the sun all day long these days. I worship my skin, not the sun!

I was super excited when my kit arrived, comprised of 6 products (Gentle Cleanser, Toner, Clear, Exfoderm, Blender and Sunshield in a beautiful white Obagi make up bag). To ensure I had the full recommended regime, I also purchased Obagi Vitamin C 15%, Obagi Tretinoin and Obagi Hydrate Luxe.  I was all ready to go! I applied the products in the order as stated, both morning and night. Each product in the kit was labelled 1 to 6 and with AM or PM indicated on them, which helped me quickly get into the correct routine.

Week 1

Great! First week completed and here are my skin diary findings:

My skin felt very clean, smoother and slightly tighter. My pores looked smaller, especially on my nose. Some brown spots had reduced a little in colour. I did experience some irritation above my eyebrows in the form of red patches which felt slightly itchy. Overall my skin felt nourished; despite the irritation.

Week 2 

With not a hint of fake tan in sight, my skin had colour! Now I had a healthy, rosy, glow of my own. Finally the blood was flowing back into my skin!

I experienced some flakiness, redness and slight irritation and my skin felt dry. I had visible fading of my brown spots, the darker ones looking reduced. Some smaller ones had completely gone, my pores seemed smaller and the irritation had subsided. Overall, very impressed!

Week 3

This week was a different ball game. On waking, my skin was flaking/shedding even more and was very dry, again with slight irritation and redness. However, once I’d popped on my products, all seemed nourished and smooth again. I felt this kit was really working and I can honestly say I was starting to get the results I’d hoped for. And in just a short time. So far, so good!

Week 4 

Over halfway through the trial kit. This week my skin was looking great and very clear. Pores were almost non-existent and my brown spots had faded some more. The bigger brown spots were still slightly visible but as I said before, my smaller ones had gone! Still some slight redness, dryness and shedding but my skin looked healthy with its natural redness and glow. Overall, my skin looked even clearer and with minimal side effects.

Week 5

My skin was totally acclimatised to these products now. Hooray! Minimal shedding, no redness or irritation. Wow. My skin was so much clearer and the larger brown spots had really decreased in colour and nearly disappeared. (Believe me, I always had a lot of brown spots hidden away under my make-up!)

Week 6

My last week of the trial. I had absolutely no peeling/shedding , irritation or redness. Everything looked great. I had been a little concerned about my anti-wrinkle injections being overdue during lockdown and about how long I might have to wait for my next treatment. But my forehead now felt tight. On raising my eyebrows, there was hardly any movement. I was feeling quite a bit better about the wait for clinics to re-open. There was a natural rosiness to my skin, which was smooth and clear and it looked and felt tighter with hardly any visible pores. Fantastic results…. I was very happy!

I have to add that I religiously stuck to this programme morning and night in order to achieve these results. If you do purchase a kit for yourself, please be sure to stick with it for the entire trial period!

My tip: If you do get a lot of skin shedding  (around the nose and chin are the most common areas) or a slight feeling of soreness or stinging, stop the Blender and Tretinoin for a night or two. I did this and everything completely settled down again and I re-started the complete regime.

So in summary, after the six weeks of the trial kit,  yes you are able to see some great results if you’ve followed it fully. I’ve been advised that for even better effects, 18-24 weeks is the recommended protocol. So I may do kit number two soon, as I was so pleased with the initial outcome and really want to keep this going.

The Nu-Derm Skin Transformation kit has not only made my skin clearer; the pale and pasty face that used to look back at me in the mirror after my fake tan had worn off is no longer staring at me.  I actually have some natural colour to my face. Laurie is also very pleased to hear this too, as she’s been subtly nagging me to give up the fake facial tan for a while now!