You don’t need us to tell you that COVID-19 has changed….everything??? Over the past two years, photographer extraordinaire Colin Gaudet is like many of us who have experienced drastic changes through the body’s biggest organ: skin. Being diagnosed during the pandemic with acne rosacea, a chronic inflammatory skin condition that produces small, red pimple-like bumps, certainly didn’t qualify as good news, but the conclusive verdict ended up being a small blessing that helped lift him up and put him on the right track to treating his skin’s unique needs. A creative force on either side of the lens, Colin took to the other side of the camera to join our Love Your Skin while revealing the struggles and victories he’s witnessed on a journey of healing, acceptance and self-love.

Here’s his story:

What do you love about your skin today? 

I love the overall consistency of what it's come to after getting my skincare routine under control, because I feel like during COVID it went a little off the rails. In getting rosacea and not knowing what it was, I was using all these acne focused products that were actually making [my skin] worse. So, I am liking how it's looking now and I don't focus in on those points when I look in the mirror anymore. Whereas for a year that's all I saw: the redness, and badness.

When did you first start noticing changes in your skin?

I noticed in the first few months of lockdown. I have acne rosacea and it looked like acne at first. I thought ‘Oh, my acne is coming back’ because I've always had cystic acne, and the acne scars. I was thinking that it was just acne coming up and then scarring. And I was stressed out about that, so I was trying to use products that would help with scarring and also with acne. And [I was] getting recommendations from people, but not knowing what it was and it kept getting worse. For a while I was getting desperate, looking in the mirror and getting almost like skin dysmorphia. And I started resorting to using hydro colloid bandaids and I put those on overnight. In my mind it was doing something, but it was just stripping my skin of its moisture barrier even more. Since then I’ve found out that what rosacea needs is moisture. But I was literally stripping it every single day for a year, and it was getting raw and nasty.

How have you felt about your skin in the past?

It was never a thought that it was bad, until it was bad. I've never really liked [my skin] in all of my 20s, and I don't want to see pictures of myself. Only till recently, do I like it again. As my skin has cleared up a bit I don't focus on it anymore. Whereas before it was the only thing I saw. It was like don't show me a picture, I don't want to see it. And now you can see it, but you can't.

If I were to photoshop an image of my skin, after I got rid of the acne rosacea, there'd be no problems. I like the way my eyes do this, and my brows do that. It's literally just that redness.

How do you take care of your skin?

I use a really basic facewash from Vanicream. It's a US brand… I get into YouTube holes. But it’s one of those eczema-recommended ones, so it's really basic. I'll also use NIOD’s hyaluronic acid complex and the eye serum. I like Bioderma’s Sensibio moisturizer for sensitive skin that reduces redness, too. And I use Rosiver on the cheek area, and also a green gel-serum in the morning to get some redness out [of my skin].

Plus, in the morning, I’ll do my SPF which is either from AlumierMD or Deciem, but I put a little bit of squalane oil on to make it glowy after.

Then every other night I'll do the 1% retinol from Deciem – but I've worked my way up to that for years. Sometimes I’ll use Olay Retinol24 on my forehead because it’s not as sensitive.