Adulting - #64 Glowing Up In Lockdown with Lou Northcote

Episode Date: May 17, 2020

Hey Podulters, in this episode I speak to Lou Northcote, ex-model and creator of #freethepimple. We discus, beauty standards, the discourse around acne and 'bad skin' and why glowing up shouldn''t about losing weight or getting clear skin, but learning to accept the way you are! I hope you enjoy, as always please do rate, review and subscribe! O xxx Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Please play responsibly. Hi, poddlers. I hope you're well as usual. This week's episode is with the creator of Free the Pimple, Lou Northcote. Someone actually left a review on the podcast and said I'd absolutely love to hear from her and I always love it when I get recommendations. So I looked her up and I thought she's absolutely great. Her page is all about promoting skin positivity and talking about acne and trying to really get comfortable with the skin that you're in. And at the minute, which we talk about a lot, there's so much of this kind of new wave of the way our skin is supposed to be. Even I've got like semi obsessed with having completely poreless skin, which is

sort of impossible. And so we talk about this and why glowing up in lockdown shouldn't be about getting that body you think you want or, you know, looking a different way, but actually about coming to accept the way that you already look. So I really hope you enjoy this episode. We did have a tiny bit of technical difficulties. So right at the end, it might be a bit kind of jumbled, but hopefully it's okay. And hopefully you won't notice that.

I hope you enjoy it. And please do rate, review and subscribe. Bye. Bye. Hi guys and welcome to Adulting. Today I'm joined by Lou Northcote. Hi, thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much for coming on. Today we're going to be talking about the glow up in isolation and in quarantine, but maybe flipping that's on its head. So for people who don't know who you are or what you do, could you give us a little bit of info on you? So I am an ex-model that got acne and lost her career. So because of that, I decided to

create a hashtag on social media called Free the Pimple. I didn't feel like there was anyone in the media who was like me suffering with acne. So I wanted to change the sphere and show real images of real skin. What age were you when your acne came on? For me, I don't think I'm ridiculously late, but I think compared to a lot of people, I was probably later. I had really really really good skin for most of my like teenage life just a few spots here and there and suddenly when I was 16 my skin literally just went mental out of nowhere I basically woke up and was like wow what's happened to my skin and then so I guess now going on a page is absolutely amazing um seeing you like show your skin as you say it's not often that we see images like that but I wondered if you could talk about the journey that you have with your skin for want of a better word because it

can have such a big impact on us and we talk the whole time about body image and we talk about diet culture but I feel like there's a bit more of a taboo around skin like that kind of skin positivity movement doesn't seem to have launched as much as we would have liked it to. How did you get to the point now where you are today where you're clearly evidently so happy to post your skin and share what your skin is like? It's a very interesting topic, I think, Sin. When I posted the first picture, it started with me posting a makeup-free selfie, which doesn't sound like a big deal to a lot of people. But then when I asked all my friends, I asked my sister,

a lot of girls who have extremely clear skin have never suffered with acne in their life. They said they would never have posted a makeup-free selfie. So it seemed to be quite a big thing to especially show, you know, flawed skin. And I did. And to be honest, the picture wasn't that bad compared to what I post now. And I was expecting every single person to, you know, say horrible things. I was expecting to get trolled. I very much was expecting it because sadly, as you said, it's not shown and

people are very negative about, you know, if you don't have like clear skin, even if you have one spot, people are negative. But weirdly, the opposite happened. To this day, I still haven't had loads of like, I haven't had negative comments or trolls. Because what I weirdly realized is, every single person in their life has been affected by their skin at some point. Because at the end of the day, we don't have perfect skin. Every single person gets one spot. Even if they haven't suffered with acne, they've woken up and had a pimple and they want to cover it. So suddenly people started sharing their stories with me and going, oh, me too. I relate to this. Or my sister suffered with this. Or, oh my gosh, thank you so much. My daughter's suffering with this. I just feel the problem was, is it just wasn't spoken about enough.

It was hidden. And because society kind of tells us it's wrong, you grow up thinking acne is wrong, I have to cover it. So I did the opposite. Basically, I, you know, I, I showed something that was kind of like, oh my gosh, you shouldn't show this. So it shocked people, but I actually think it shocked them in the right way. How you feeling then had you already come come away with feeling like you could at that point when you took that picture could you have gone outside with your skin do you say I mean or was it still very much like you were or did you feel comfortable with it like what happened when your acne first came on for you personally so I it's it's not hypocritical I guess but I've got to a point now and I'm glad I did but in the beginning when I point now and I'm glad I did.

But in the beginning when I posted that and I was, you know, saying hashtag free the pimple, I would not go outside with my skin. And I think the problem was I got to breaking point where I wouldn't go outside. I was at university and my boyfriend was working. And if we didn't have any food in the house, I wouldn't walk to the shop, which was literally five seconds down the road to go buy food because I would have this argument in my head, like, I don't want to wear makeup to go to the shop because it's for five minutes and then I come back. But then it's like, but I wouldn't go makeup free because I'm really

scared someone's going to see my skin or look at me or something about my acne. So I was in such a turmoil place that I kind of decided to post this image seeing if anybody would, you know, be like me and I would find someone like me because I didn't grow up with anyone with skin like me or see it in the media. So at that point, 100% no, I would not go outside without makeup on. Even my my family I would literally like wake up put foundation on and come downstairs and be like morning for breakfast however because of the amazing people online who commented and started sending me messages of their skin and also being very open sharing images of their skin that I gained more and more confidence to continue to show it because everybody else was showing me theirs. And slowly over that time, I have been able to go outside

makeup free and I really don't care who sees my skin, but I get asked all the time how to get to that point. And it really takes time. It's not an over the night like thing. And weirdly, I feel a lot of the acne community prefers to take images and share it online than go outside. Because at the end of the day, you know, you are posting image, you see the numbers, but you don't have to see people face to face. So it's, it takes a longer process, I think, to be face to face makeup free with acne. It's one of those things where I think one of the biggest misconceptions around skin, which I've only learned in the past few years, is that you're told that it's like dirty when you have a spot. And I remember when I was at school, me and my

friends would like scrub our faces to an inch of their lives. And we were getting like, you know, you're going through puberty and you start getting spotty. And we would actually make ourselves have worse spots because we'd be squeezing and scrubbing because there's such a big narrative to say that bad skin comes with bad hygiene and that's simply not true and I wondered if you could talk on a few more of the kind of misconceptions or the lies that we're told about skin that make us feel like it's our fault because I think a lot of the rhetoric around skin is we feel like oh we've done something wrong we've eaten something wrong we've slept on the wrong pillow like really ridiculous things that make us feel guilty when actually like acne can happen to anyone irrespective of what age you are what gender like what you're

eating I think that's something that really needs to be changed when we talk about skin that is so true because I think growing up you kind of you you knew a bit about acne and as you say especially when you're a teenager and you're a kid anything's funny if that makes sense you know if like if someone cuts their hair it's hilarious if the girls wear makeup to school it's hilarious you have such a mindset but weirdly when you grow up and I said to some people it's so true as you said you are told that you're dirty and you're unclean and you don't wash your face and you eat loads of bad food. This perception has been around for years. And I really don't know where it came from.

And I've said so many times, I wish I knew where it did, but it has. And that's all that there's ever really been. It's like you don't learn about skin in school. You don't learn about acne. You don't learn about skincare or don't learn about you know skincare or ingredients that side of it so all you kind of have is this perception that society has told you for some reason as a kid that it's this certain way so you believe it and only until like I have acne did I look into it as like to educate myself because no one you know helped me and yes there's

dermatologists but it's not that easy to actually see a dermatologist especially in the UK if you've got the NHS you have to jump through a lot of hoops to be able to get referred and see the right person to ask these questions because even though you're suffering with it on your face you have no idea so the sad thing is is there's just lack of education, I think. Whereas, you know, as you said, like body positivity movement and things, there is a lot of education on body because so many people have spoken out about diet, you know, it's all over. It's in schools now that they had to change, you know, canteens so kids had healthier food. Nutritionists talk about it. It's on the TV. People are interviewing people

about fitness. People are fitness gurus, et cetera. There's so much more education suddenly that everybody's like, you're supposed to exercise this amount of times, et cetera, that people change their mindset of body and exercise and understanding that we are all built differently. But there hasn't been that with skin. So sadly, there's just such a lack of education. And that's another thing what I try to promote is I'm not trying to tell people who have acne that, you know, here's a before and after product that's going to clear your skin. No, I just want to show the reality of skin, the emotions you go through through and educating anyone else that

doesn't know it because the amount of unsolicited advice I get of people, and I know some of them are trying to be nice, but it's always like, oh my gosh, you need to change your diet. You need to stop eating this. You need to put this skincare in. You need to take this skincare out. And as much as I share a lot, I obviously don't share my whole life because you can't. So they say things and I'm like, yes, I know I've actually don't eat this. And I've tried this and you try so many things and you still have bad skin, but because people are uneducated, they have this weird perception. It's such a massive industry. It's like a billion dollar industry. And they're

constantly new creams coming out that say that they can do this and do that with your skin have you ever gone further than skincare like have you been to a dermatologist and taken things like roaccutane or and and what was the impact of those kind of drugs on on you and and your mental health I had it when I was 16 as I said I've had a weird roller coaster of my acne I've had a few points in my life where it was actually really clear. And I'm 23 now. And my skin at all is not as bad as it was. And a lot of people are like, wow, it's so much better. It's still not where I wanted to be. But yes, it's got better. And people are always like, oh, just clear acne. And I'm like, I've had it for what, seven years now? If it was that easy to to clear do you not think I would have just you know cleared it there isn't an easy cure and as you say the same as skincare I now have been

lucky to be exposed to you know skincare specialists and scientists and dermatologists and ask questions and learn things myself I'm very picky with skincare I use and I use it for a certain reason like for instance I actually have quite dry skin, even though I have acne. So I will go for like a product with hyaluronic acid because it's really hydrating or because I have acne skin, it's weird, but you should actually use a gel moisturizer. So only small things, but only for specific reasons. Same if I want to exfoliate because I've got some dry skin to get rid of. But I don't say, okay, put this and this and this and this and this because you're told to or because it's targeted for acne or this is going to clear your skin because unfortunately, that is not going to happen.

So I try to just educate people on more about the ingredients in skincare because at the end of the day, you are bombarded with it. And as you say, there's a skincare coming out here and there everywhere. So you think you have to buy all of it. And you look at the package and you're like, what actually does this have in it? Because it's got all these strange ingredients you've never heard of. So I try to educate people on a few ingredients to look out for when they're trying to achieve a certain thing. If they want to calm their skin or they want to cleanse their skin, things like that. But I will never say, oh, this will clear acne because sadly it won't. And then you kind of have to go to the next length if you want to clear acne, which is medical. And that's the other

uneducated thing people don't get is they think, oh, you just clear your skin. Having acne and going to the doctor is the most weirdest thing because at the end of the day you do not have a life-threatening disease you are not you know debilitated because of your skin you could be because it affects your emotions as I said I didn't leave the house but you're this weird anomaly because it is just skin and you can wake up and walk and live your life and do everything with it it's not easy to be given medication for it because it's so strong so you have to go through a lot of processes you always have to basically go to your GP but I've been to so many GPs in my life which sounds it's very strange like to go to the doctor because is it you don't feel ill and you're just like hi I'd like to clear my skin. So I've been on three different courses of antibiotics, which is

crazy, six months at a time of each. And I went on them when I was very young and I didn't know what antibiotics does to your body. And I think a lot of people still don't, is it can really affect your gut health. And especially because I went on them three separate times in my life, as I said, six months for each, I wasn't told by a doctor to take probiotics or to look after my gut. So I came out with really bad problems with my gut. So I had to go to a nutritionist and she really helped me with supplements. So I took supplements as well. And they did help my skin a bit.

But the antibiotics never cleared cleared my acne and the same with the supplements it helped but it didn't clear it and then if you want to continue to go on anything you have to go back to the doctor again and they kind of treat you like a guinea pig in the beginning they will not just give you the strongest thing they will try you on the lightest thing first as i said it's not for like a week. They will try on it for months. If that doesn't work, then they'll give you something else for months and then something else. So it actually becomes this huge long period of time that you're putting your body through so much and trying so many different things you've never heard of. The same with the creams. They give you these extremely strong creams on your face that my face

used to like get so dry that it would like crack and I couldn't put any makeup on and it would be really sore and really red and I kept saying to like the doctor I don't think it's working and they're like you've got to keep going with it we've got to see if it works so you suddenly put your body through all this stuff basically to clear your skin and a lot of people I think get to the point that I've met some people with acne that they're like, you know, I'm sick of this. Like I don't want to keep putting my body through all of this and nothing's working. I'm just going to have to deal with the fact that I have acne. Or then people go to the higher extremes, which I have actually chosen to do now is go on Accutane as you mentioned and a few people know of the name Accutane but it's not spoken about loads and a lot of people throw

it around who haven't had acne will just go if they see anyone with you know acne on social media they're like oh just go on Accutane oh you should just go like, oh, just go on Accutane. Oh, you should just go on Accutane. People go on Accutane, don't they, for that? And I'm like, yes, but do you actually understand what it does? And none of my friends or my family really knew the extremities of it until I've told them now. And they're all like, oh my gosh. And they're all actually really worried for me. They're like, are you sure you're going to be okay? Because especially as a female, it's quite hard to go on Accutane because you cannot get pregnant so you have to sign a form that if you get pregnant you will actually sadly

abort your child because the child would have birth defects so it's such a strong drug that if you have a child it would have birth defects in the beginning, let alone what else it does to your body. It dries your body out so much because it apparently basically sort of closes your oil glands so you don't get acne. You can have everything from hair loss, you get muscle pain. Some people get problems with their eyes. Some people go blind in their eyes for a little bit. There's so many side effects that can happen. and now as a person deciding to go on it I was given this huge booklet like literally the book that's like I think it's like six pages long all full on each page of like all the different side effects that can happen and I

knew a few of them but even me I'm like wow I've never heard that this could happen on it and obviously a lot of people don't have these things happen. They have to put the side effects they do on, you know, Panadol. If you read the back of Panadol, you probably wouldn't want to take it. But when you realize that you're going to put your body through this just for skin, it kind of messes with your head. And it is scary because a lot of people go on Accutane that actually doesn't work, which is another misconception that people don't know. And you have to go on it for like six. It varies from six to 12 months, basically.

And you're not allowed to drink on it when you're on it because, again, it affects your liver. So, you know, if you're out with people or even if it's like a celebration, you can't really have a drink. It just changes your whole life and as I said again it is kind of just skin. Wow I didn't realize the extent of the side effects I'd heard that it can um like make people feel suicidal which is a really awful side effect but I didn't know about um it like making you not be able to have a baby and it's interesting because I think you're probably one of the only, it's really hard because you're in it. The difficulty is, and I agree with you, is that we have as a society conjured up this idea that having bad skin is so awful or not bad skin because it's not bad. That's kind of what I want to say.

Like, it's not bad for your health to have acne, is it? Like it doesn't, it's literally just a visible thing on your skin so it makes you wonder like why we put people as you say like through all of that just to in various commas solve a problem which in reality isn't posing any threat to your health it's just a threat to your mental health because of the way we look at beauty and beauty standards and I wonder if like when I was at school we would have as you say some people wear makeup some people wouldn't some people had acne some people had spots but it was kind of like that deep I think now with the culture of filters like we can talk about the filters on Instagram and

Facetune do you think that people are having worsened mental health with with acne because the bar for like the standard has been set so much higher now because of social media we think that everyone's got this flawless really smooth shiny skin 100% and firstly I just want to say that actually the crazy part when it does come to acne is it can have some medical issues. And I think that's also the problem as well. It could be something wrong with your body, but you don't know. So as a female, especially, you have to have... I had to push to have this test, which is ridiculous because it should be...

It's something called polycystic ovaries. So a lot of women who have acne have polycystic ovaries, or something I've learned is some people who have endometriosis also have acne. So there can be some underlying health problems. But again, that's a whole other road you have to go down is to try and eliminate stuff. So people like that, it's even harder to clear because you then have to live with a condition like polycystic ovaries, which flares up and down, which means your skin flares up and down kind of in the indefinite future really which then makes it even worse you say to see these images of women living their life with what looks like you know perfect skin whether you say completely porous that you're like, oh my gosh, I will never achieve that. But the thing that I have realized is, you know, there is no such thing as perfect skin.

And that's the sad part is people spent so long editing and filtering Instagram that all of these young girls are exposed to these images, you know, straight away that that's what they think is real. Growing up, I had, you know, magazines and stuff like you, I was a kid sort of before social media. And when we first had Instagram, it was taking like really bad pictures of like, I don't know, yourself with your friends at school, and even like your pencil case, or like a palm tree, something, you you know ridiculous that you just put on instagram it was never your face so now this generation of girls you know they all have instagram they all have tiktok and they're looking at women who aren't even their own age they're looking at actual women and nothing against you know cosmetic surgery

but there are a lot of you know women who they're looking at as well who have cosmetic surgery. So they're comparing themselves to people who are completely different age to them. And a lot of them, you know, have had procedures because they also, you know, wanted to change the way they look, but they don't disclose it. So they go into this headspace where they try their best to cake themselves with makeup. And then they start editing themselves and then going you know why don't I look like my edited version and sadly it just gets into this whole spiral that you know that's not reality and I think social media is actually worse now than magazines because at the end of the day in magazines you can kind of see you know they've got

a makeup artist who's done them and you look at them and they're much more sort of theatrical images because they've you know creased a backdrop and um you can see the hair makeup you can kind of tell it's photoshopped but on social media it's sometimes hard to know whether someone's photoshopped it or not especially because you know some girls even do say like oh you know makeup free but they've edited themselves or let or not especially because you know some girls even do say like oh you know makeup free but they've edited themselves or let's say there's a bikini picture of them so they look so natural but actually they've edited themselves so these girls just compare themselves to unreality and it's really sad because it's the younger

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please play responsibly whereas that's what i try to promote is I don't really edit my pictures I actually use like high quality cameras on purpose to show skin because you said everyone has pores at the end of the day you know people have moles people have scars people have veins there's no such thing as perfect skin and for me the biggest thing I really try to do and I've been able to do it luckily a bit I've been in a few publications is to push that to magazines is even if they do it a few times or they had like one cover or one billboard or something it can have such an impact to show girls that this is what people look like they're slowly doing it I think with things like stretch marks um you know like ecom aren't editing um that anymore which is great but there needs to be more skin yeah it's skin i think is something which is becoming more um

like adored like i never used to think if anything my skin was my thing that i felt really confident in like i always thought i had quite nice skin i never really used to wear that much makeup i've recently started enjoying makeup because i like the art of it and I started like buying colors on my eyes and things like that but my actual skin I've become really conscious of it because I think I constantly see pictures and especially like the Glossier models and that generation which is really like dewy and I don't know maybe it's because I'm like 26 and I feel like I'm getting old but I've suddenly become really focused on my skin it was never something I really thought about before and I do think we've kind of this there's a really strong rhetoric

around glow and this glowy fresh dewy look and as you say like lots of people getting fillers done and I don't I don't care if anyone wants makeup if they got fillers done or anything so we're all on the same side of the argument no matter which way you look at it. We're all trying to contend with this one image of beauty that we're being sold. And we're all trying to work out how do we navigate life in the best way so that we feel as attractive as we want to feel. Because everyone wants to feel attractive, but without also feeling like we're doing ourselves a disservice or, you know, like stripping away who we are in order to fit into a really small idea of beauty and I wondered if like how do you feel in your skin now when you when you see yourself do you have do you see yourself beyond your acne I remember when I used to feel

like insecure about my body there was a sudden turning point when I saw myself beyond what I thought my body image was do you feel feel more confident? Do you just see it as you and it's suddenly become a secondary thing rather than like the first thing you worry about? A hundred percent. It's really strange. I'm obviously promote positivity and so many girls like, oh, how are you so positive? But I openly say to them, I'm like, I don't have every single day like this. Like life is not perfect. You don't have everything together every single day. You know, sometimes you wake up and you just don't feel everything together every single day you know sometimes you wake up and you just don't feel good or you feel like oh you know I don't want to see the world

but I just want to stay in bed and do nothing but that also is something that I want to show that there's ups and downs with anything even people who have perfect skin to extent it it's hard to to say I'm 100% comfortable myself I I would say not. But weirdly, as I said, my skin has got better. No idea why. I don't really focus on it. I don't spend loads of time looking at it. I used to like, literally the first thing I used to do when I wake up was get my phone out and look at my spots and like count them, which is ridiculous. I don't focus on it now. I'll go to the shops and not care without makeup. I'll sit in front of anyone without makeup. But I suddenly realized, I was like, wow,

my skin's getting better. This is really strange. And I looked at myself in a different light now because I haven't seen myself with clear skin for, oh my God, years, but I don't really remember what I look like. And I kind of caught myself and I was like do I look better right now and I was like no that's ridiculous like I'm literally the same person and my skin's got a little bit clearer but psychologically it's so strange it really does make you think when you have clear skin that you look better but I'm fine with my skin as I said I personally want to go on Accutane to not just to clear my skin because for me, it's not the way it looks. I get extremely painful spots that they really

hurt for a long period of time. I have to take painkillers. So I want to be able to clear my cystic acne because that's not just like getting a few red spots or whiteheads here and there. It's literally something under the skin that sometimes you can't even see but I can feel it and it really hurts so for me that's why I want to go on Accutane it's not about the way it looks but weirdly as you said now as well I seem to be focusing more like I'm not old I'm 23 but I'm focusing more on things like I have lines on my forehead and I'm like I'm 23 I shouldn't have lines on my forehead so then I'm thinking you know I said I'm I'm all like for who anyone wants to have surgery so now I'm just focusing I'm like oh my gosh maybe I should have Botox and then I'm like no no no but you know we are in the society as you say when everybody kind of has a bit of this or a bit of

that and you're intrigued so you're trying like do you think they have Botox like because they have no lines like no matter what sadly we compare ourselves to people just because we have been bombarded from a young age of this perception of beauty like it probably started with the whole fact of barbie dolls i love barbie dolls i used to play with them as a kid but at the end of the day they were not a realistic figure to grow up with i guess yeah and also no one I would no I'm sure no one would ever judge you for going on maracatain I don't think I think whatever anyone wants to do it's it's your body and your choice the same thing goes for your skin I think what's really like crucial that you've done is that you were like you've you have kind of been at one with it

and then you want to like be like actually no do you know what now i do want to kind of see if i can get this under control in a way that's going to make you in less pain and and whatever else but i think sometimes with surgeries and and fillers and things like that they're like an immediate like knee-jerk reaction with no kind of pre-thought out before it seems like you've obviously like been like this is my skin this is what it's like you've completely like shared it with people which skin this is what it's like you've completely like shared it with people which must be as you say like so difficult even anyone there's it's a really weird thing to do um that not weird thing to do but weird feeling that we get when we

feel about sharing ourselves so I feel like you've really like felt out every option and I think that's what we kind of need to do when we want to make these big changes to our appearances I don't think there's anything wrong with anyone wanting to get a boob job or whatever it is. But my fear is that because everything's so accessible now, everyone, I mean, slightly different, as you said, with Accutane, it takes a while to get there, but everyone kind of thinks that they can just do this and change it. Whereas I think the reason I wanted to call this episode like glow up in quarantine is we've got this time now where we're not going anywhere and we're kind of in the house and we don't need to dress up for anything where we could maybe get used to seeing ourselves in the mirror as we actually are the

biggest glow up isn't you know inverse commas fixing your problems or getting rid of your imperfections but it's actually getting used to them and seeing them because I think that's really empowering and I'm sure you'll feel the same but like when you finally think oh do you know what fuck it doesn't matter and get over it that's like the biggest glow up I think that confidence that's so true and this is what I just say I try and say to people is at the end of the day you know you are in your skin kind of for the rest of your life and you need to to love it, not just like, you know, the way it looks. Like I always say to people, I'm like, we're lucky, you know, we're living, we're breathing, we're walking, we're laughing, we're smiling. We have like, you know, go smile with your friends.

That's so much better than caring about your skin. It definitely takes time, but you have to get into this mindset of not to focus on it and also even when you're trying to clear your acne as you said it is not an overnight thing it takes months you can't just go have an injection and oh my gosh you know it's done you have to have this journey before you get to clear skin of acne so while you're there why not love yourself still? You can still love yourself, you know, whatever part of your journey you're on. So it's hard to accept. As you say, I think you have to get used to seeing yourself in a certain way as well. And for me, I just spent so long wearing makeup to cover my skin that I was used to seeing

myself with makeup that it was even kind of a shock, especially like taking images of myself, you know, with acne acne that's something I never did but I've really found it empowering to be like this is what I look like you know I don't like take selfies to be like oh look we good it's literally like this is what I look like and that's me and I should accept who I am because I'm being able to live in this body and do all these things I can I'm grateful for it and when you don't wear makeup as much and I guess maybe you agree especially like being inside it's so much more liberating as a female it feels so much nicer you can like rub your eyes when you want you know there's no mascara you can itch your face you can go wash your like face with some water throughout

the day it's so much nicer that you have to get comfortable in your like your skin in the rawest form I guess because we do spend so much time you know going out um dressing up that you think that's what you should look like always when you don't obviously and as a female it's it's so much harder I think than men because guys don't wear makeup we have this sort of mask that we put on and can change our appearance and play around with it and I love makeup so like as you say like play around with it I used to wear it as a mask now I just you know I love trying different things and colors but we need to be able to strip that back and live with ourself makeup free because at the end of the day that

is who you are and you can still be beautiful without makeup it's sadly just society does tell us that we should look a certain way so I think it's a big important thing on social media to follow positive people and people who are trying to show the reality because it really can change your mind when you're exposed to those images of real women and real skin you know what else i do think it's interesting that you said they're like guys don't wear makeup but i often do wonder like whether that accelerates their um ability to be comfortable in the skin or if it's actually like a bit of a hindrance because i do sometimes feel like one of the things ways that we are lucky is that while sometimes it might be slightly damaging to be able to cover our skin because it

makes us not like appreciate what we are and who we are and we cover up we do also have that ability sometimes I use makeup to make me feel I don't know like if I've got a meeting and I'm not really in the mood if I put a load of makeup on I can kind of convince myself that I'm this sassy woman that's going to smash the day it can be a really cool tool in that sense to kind of elevate your mood and stuff and I do wonder with men like we do like the conversation around men's confidence when it comes to more um cosmetic things isn't touched on as much because it is seen as such like a feminine problem whereas I think for guys it must be almost even harder because you kind of can't talk about it without it being a gender thing of, oh, he's obviously a bit of a worse for something really derogatory. Do you know what I mean? No, it's easier. And I find that really hard as well, because I post

about other people, like I have my free the pimple page on Instagram and it's not just me. I literally post so many different people with acne and try and share their stories. And this was like months ago, I was literally like on the hashtag of acne and things like this and free pimple and I was like where are the guys because obviously acne is not a gender thing either but guys weren't showing it and as you say the cosmetic world is so focused on women um whereas guys can use it like my boyfriend uses my products you know I have so many products he's like oh what does this do what does that do and just because it's in a pink package doesn't mean he can't use it but they're also not exposed to I guess beauty or makeup as you say so

they don't think even like it's like what moisturizer why should I use that and it's so crazy but it's just so much uneducation that we go through growing up. I think as an adult, I try to tell people all these educational things, especially guys. And I've had both different sides of guys with acne saying, some of them saying that their friends actually don't focus on it as much because, you know, guys don't wear makeup. So that's their face always that the boys just get used to them. You know, know okay he has acne that's how he looks that's my friend I've only seen him like that because obviously girls

it's like you have makeup and then if you see someone without makeup you're like wow oh my gosh I didn't know your skin was so bad because you wear makeup um but then again of course the guys who say they find it really hard to go out because they can't wear makeup or some guys who've tried to wear makeup and then people are like oh my gosh are you wearing makeup so there's so many different experiences with skin which is crazy when it comes to both genders but I think the problem still is you know say girls can change the way they look very easily and weirdly we don't see each other without makeup a lot like you know when my friends have sleepovers yeah they're fine taking makeup but when you kind of see people out it's not usually a thing that you're around someone without makeup

so it has more I guess of like a shock factor if you see them without makeup and they have acne because you didn't know that before whereas Whereas guys don't really wear makeup. So you're like, okay, cool. Like that, you know, he has acne. It's not as much of, I guess, like a shock factor. And that's what I think was with me, that people knew I had a few spots here and there. But when I started Post-Base Skin, people were like, oh my gosh, I didn't know your skin actually looked like that.

And I'm like, yes, I can cover it well. I think the other thing is because whenever we see articles about women without makeup on it's always like oh my god makeup free stunning blah blah and it creates this idea that not wearing makeup is reserved for women with unbelievable skin and it was something I kind of believed as well it's like it's really it's really weird women have really played off against each other especially in the media so on the one hand it'll be like gorgeous Kendall Jenner goes makeup free and it's like, oh my God, she's so amazing for not wearing any makeup. But then if someone had bad skin and didn't wear makeup, they'd be vilified. And then if Kylie Jenner wears loads of makeup, they're like loads. It's like no matter which way you go, you're fucked kind of thing. For other people that

may be struggling with their skin and maybe they've just got acne or maybe they've always had it and they've never felt that strength. What kind of steps could people make to try and maybe feel more at one with the skin that they're in during this time? The strange thing that I say to a lot of people is as much as social media can be, you know, it can be a hard place to go on because you're comparing yourself to people. It can also be a really positive place, especially with someone who's suffering with their skin, because especially as we're now inside, you're just exposed to yourself. You know what I mean? So you're just

staring in the mirror, looking at your own skin. You've got to navigate the right people to follow because say me, I literally didn't have anyone who had skin like me and felt so alone, even though, of course, I knew there was people in the world who suffer with acne. It's actually like 80% of people in their lifetime will have a form of acne, but there wasn't those images. So you need to kind of find someone like you because you stop comparing. Whereas if you're on social media and just seeing people with makeup or face tuned, you're going to compare the whole time. It's amazing that the community of acne sufferers, we are all so kind. We are more than happy to talk to anybody. And if they want to ask any questions, we're so open to it because we know exactly how they're feeling. And I wish I knew that before. And I wish I did this like years

before when I was younger, because it has given me the outlet to feel so much better about myself and not focus on myself as much. And then if I do feel down, I like will go and talk to someone who's suffering as well. And they relate in a whole different level than anyone else. So you need to really remember you are not alone. And social media can be a positive place, but you have to navigate it in the right way and do that because it will stop you just spending all the time focusing on yourself and comparing. Yeah, I think that's such helpful advice. And I completely agree that social media is one of those double-edged sword things where you can either find it like

really damaging, or if you create your feed in the correct way, it can actually, I find it really helpful now, but I know that there's certain pages and certain people that I can find like triggering for different things. And your free the pimple page is yeah is so great I've just been looking at it whilst you're chatting it's that it's such a good idea and I think it's just important for everyone to like I do think skin is like something that's going to have to happen it's so weird when you think about it I can't even tell you the amount of conversations I've had on the podcast in my work about body image and body acceptance and it does just seem so interesting that it is like the kind of last thing to come along when we all sort of experience it and it's seen as such a problem and

there's one of the the pictures that you've put on here and it's like a woman which has done her makeup and like the before I'm like I think that she looks incredible and the kind of skin that we do now with the like Kardashian style makeup which even I try and emulate sometimes it doesn't actually even look like skin like it it's like a whole yeah we've kind of gone so far away from knowing what real skin looks like even good skin looks like not perfect I can't explain it it's like the things that I would think were really normal about my face so like maybe my under eyes were a tiny bit darker or I'll get a bit of pink on my cheeks like any sort any infinitesimal sign of blemish I suddenly think is a problem now because of the way that we decided to like the I think the filter thing is a massive thing like all the

face shooting filters and things and it's weird you need to like I want to see more fresh skin on my page like real skin to retrain my eyes to remember what skin looks like no it's so true and I think the sad thing is as well is people don't they aren't honest as what I think as you say like I'm sure you know like even Kylie Jenner when she had her lips done she didn't tell everybody until the last minute. And of course, that's her own choice to have it done. But when you are exposing yourself to this many people who idolize you and look up to you, in a weird way, I feel that you have to be honest with them. Because it is a lot of people's mental health that you are kind of, you know, you could affect, which is crazy, but I just wish that people were more honest with it. And there wasn't so much

stigma around everything, you know, whether it be wear makeup, whether it be makeup free or having surgery. I just, if people were more honest, I think it would be better because it would be like, okay, that's why they look like that. Of course you'd get the horrible people like say, Oh, you shouldn't have surgery. And I can't like that's why they look like that. Of course, you'd get the horrible people like say, oh, you shouldn't have surgery and I can't like, you don't look like that. But it would help a lot of girls, I think, to realize that it's not actually achieved by just waking up. You know, like there's certain things that have to happen.

The final thing which I've just seen on a page, which is the cutest thing is you're like lying in bed and your boyfriend's kissing your feet and it's so cute. And you've put like just want everyone to know that like you don't need to have perfect skin to be loved and I think that is also like one of the most fundamental things is that we because of that idea that like having bad skin is dirty and stuff that we get obsessed with the idea that no one's going to fancy us or find us attractive but that it's so true like no one's really going to give a shit

what your skin is like like I couldn't give a shit if my boyfriend had acne but it's so true. Like no one's really going to give a shit what your skin is like. Like I couldn't give a shit if my boyfriend had acne. But it's so true that I would probably think in reverse if I was that way around. I'd be worried about what they would think. I think that's such an important. Everyone needs to watch that video because it's so cute. It's really strange. It's so true. I used to sleep with makeup on when I used to date a guy at college.

I literally would wear makeup to bed because I didn't want him to see my skin. He didn't like say anything about it. It was just like, I felt that sort of way. And I've been with my boyfriend now for six years. And one of the biggest questions I always get asked, and not in a horrible way, is people like, how do you have a boyfriend when you have acne? Because girls are so scared to date someone or even talk to someone when they have acne. And it makes me so sad. But my boyfriend's really speedy spoken now about this as well to people

is at the end of the day, you do not date someone's looks, you date someone's personality. So whether they have really good skin or they're, I don't know, extremely pretty, etc. If you don't get on with them, you're obviously not going to be compatible. It's not about looks. You have to live with the person. Like I live with my boyfriend. We have to get on and, you know, click and like the same things, et cetera.

So that's another thing I try to promote to all these young girls is because you are bombarded with the same, like I love watching Love Island, but of course you take it and you're like, wow, they've got really good bodies or they all look like this etc etc when you have to be compatible with a person it's not about your skin and you need to find someone who doesn't care about the way you look it's obviously not easy and you know especially with social media guys

expect girls to look a certain way sometimes they're like oh it's like no they don't look like that because there is a lot of filters and makeup etc but there you you just have to find the right person and you know it's not easy but I try to say girls you can do it as I said I've been in a relationship for six years but sadly that is one of the biggest questions I get asked is how do you have a relationship with acne and to be honest my boyfriend doesn't really even notice if my skin gets worse or better like it's like was like, my skin's got better, right? And he was like, yeah, it has. But you know what I mean?

It's like he didn't really focus on it to like come up to me and be like, oh my God, your skin looks so much better. Because it's not something he focuses on. He focuses on so much more than the way I look. You know, I make him laugh. The fundamental crux of your relationship just has to be that you get on and that you make each other laugh. That's my favorite thing.

Oh, I've loved, I absolutely love chatting to you um and I really hope that people find it helpful because I do think that it's something which again feels so taboo and people are so worried to talk about it but hopefully if there's one thing that people can do during quarantine time it is maybe just get used to looking at yourself a bit more feeling a bit more secure so you've mentioned you've got your two instagram pages which are loo northcote and free the pimple um is there anything else that you want to point people towards that they can look at that you've done or any other things about coming up well i've done a few a lot of things but yeah i i'd say go on those um those instagrams because both of them once by

my personal what i try to do my personal is like I work in fashion as well as much as I have social media actually do you have a full-time job in fashion so I try to explain you know I I'm so much more than my acne but then uh the free the pimple is amazing because it shows so many other people sharing their own stories to help anyone else who's not feeling alone but no I'm I'm cracking I'm cracking the industry as much as I can. I was just in Love Magazine makeup-free with my acne, which has never been done before. So that was really amazing. So I'm trying to get it out to the media to get us, you know, as people with acne shown to people.

So it's amazing what can happen. But yeah, if anyone is feeling, you know, alone or suffering with their skin, please go on either of them. As I said, there's so many of us who will talk to you. We're not just, you know, like posting pictures. We genuinely interact. Thank you everyone for listening. I really hope you enjoyed it.

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