THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 22, 1996 TAG: 9606220374
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: CHARLISE LYLES
LENGTH: 64 lines
I'd like to talk to you today about two mature subjects.
Adult acne and 24-hour lip color.
Initially, you may ask what these topics have in common. But upon even minor consideration, it becomes strikingly clear.
Both add color to your face.
One in a most undesirable manner, and the other in a most desirable fashion.
All through puberty, I was a dermatological whiz kid. Nary a pimple nor rash. Clearasil, Oxy-5, Oxy-10 never saw the inside of my medicine cabinet. Staring from red, peeling, flaking faces, my classmates' eyes filled with envy.
In early adulthood, just a dab or two of Ten-O-Six Lotion dried the occasional dreaded pimple out of business.
But as my state of wisdom has deepened - all right, as I've aged - the old epidermis has taken a turn for the worse.
And it's not a pretty sight.
Millions of Americans suffer the scourge of adult acne. It seems a particularly potent strain, resistant to those over-the-counter remedies for teenagers and even cucumber poultices.
Even the dermatologist, after diagnosing my condition as - get ready - nonterminal ``perioral dermatitis'' and supplying me with that multipurpose antibiotic tetracycline, warned that I'll just have to wait out the yuck bumps.
Acne is especially cruel in maturity. Here come pimples and pockmarks to compound the heartbreak of crows feet, dark-eye circles, neck rings, permanently furrowed brows, and moles, not to mention multiple chins. Let's not even talk about the unpleasant subject of teeth.
Discussion of the ravages of time brings me to the topic of 24-hour lip color.
I use it to treat my fading lip line, another common symptom of aging. It is yet another source of adult perioral distress.
As the color that demarcates one's lips from the rest of one's face recedes, problems arise. The main danger being that at times, one may not know where one's mouth is. Meals can mean major difficulty.
I've always had the sort of countenance that, when not on display, slumps to a clump of Play-Doh. At times, it can be frightening, mummy- or scarecrow-like.
So, you can imagine why the little bit of brightening provided by 24-hour lip color is especially important to me and those who, through no fault of their own, have to look at me.
The problem is, the lip color doesn't quite last for 24 hours, or 12, or even six on my lips. I once made it to three hours and then . . . poof . . . No-Lips Lyles.
Maybe I have particularly wet lips. Maybe I talk too much. Maybe I shouldn't pucker so much. Whatever, the stuff just doesn't stick.
This, of course, leaves me with color where I don't want it - my adult-acne bumps looking like chicken pox with rouge - and no color where I would like it - my lips. Solutions are few.
Of course, if I were a man I'd grow a beard, which is what men do at the first sign of multiple chins. It's a kind of discrimination, when you really think about it. But those hairs can cover nature's crimes far better than any makeup brush. And that includes acne and disappearing lips.
Likely, I will outgrow the acne. I haven't seen many 85-year-olds with outbreaks. Oh boy, in just 48 years, clear skin again!
But I guess I'll have to live with these lips, or lack of lips. Of course, there's always the possibility they'll come up with lip transplants. by CNB