A rosacea sufferer whose skin condition made her feel like she was a ‘spectacle for people to stare at’ has claimed a £19.95 product helped to dramatically improve her skin in just one week.
Jarae Takai, 27, from New Zealand, told how she first saw signs of rosacea in 2013 when she was just 20-years-old.
‘Prior to this I had the clearest skin any girl could ever ask for,’ explained the biology student. ‘I cry looking back at old photos knowing how perfect my skin used to be.’
However, after trying various over-the-counter products, she found an unlikely solution in the form of a £19.95 treatment called Kalme Chameleon Concealer.
She started using the product along with others in the range around 10 weeks ago, and says she started to notice a difference by the end of the first week – most noticeably with the redness becoming much less aggressive.
Jarae Takai, 27, from New Zealand, told how her rosacea made her feel like she was a ‘spectacle for people to stare at.’ Pictured, the skin condition at its worst, before applying the product
The biology student has since claimed a £19.95 product helped to dramatically improve her skin in just one week. Pictured, after applying the product
When Jarae first developed rosacea it started as a small patch on the left, lower side of her cheek, but over time spread to both her cheeks in an angry, red lumpy rash.
She says how the first indication of the skin condition was when she kept blushing furiously all of the time.
‘Everyone thought I was shy or embarrassed,’ explained Jarae. ‘I didn’t know what it was until I got diagnosed later.’
‘I hated it when my face went bright red. I wanted to bury myself in a hole and come out when the flare-up was over.’
The biology student found an unlikely solution in the form of a £19.95 treatment concealer called Kalme Chameleon Concealer (pictured)
‘It made me feel as if I was on centre stage, a spectacle for people to stare at.’
Jarae says that while she’s quite a positive person who doesn’t usually pay attention to things that pull her down, she does get affected by the way people react to her skin.
‘There’s nothing more frustrating than having random people commenting on the condition of my skin, the way it looks and what treatments I should take,’ she explained.
‘It puts me in such a bad head space, especially when I’m doing all I can to fix my skin.’
Recalling one particularly memorable occasion, she said: ‘I remember standing outside church talking to some guys a few years ago and one decided to talk about how aggressive my rosacea looked.’
‘I played it down but they kept on and on and then the others joined in. I tried so hard to play it off, but the more I did the more it hurt me.’
Recently, Jarae explained how she was working in the laboratory for her studies when she needed to ask the lab demonstrator a question.
‘When he walked over my skin immediately flared up so badly I was sweating,’ she said. ‘I forgot my question, got really embarrassed and my skin went even redder and didn’t go down until the next day.’
Jarae told how she first saw signs of rosacea in 2013 when she was just 20-years-old – and it got progressively worse over time. Pictured, the skin condition at its worst
The student told how she hated it when her face would go bright red and added she wanted to ‘bury’ herself in a hole and come out when the flare-up was over. Pictured, before applying the treatment concealer
In 2013, Jarae paid privately to see a dermatologist to find out what was wrong with her skin, only to be told she had had acne.
‘He wrote me a prescription and I left in tears,’ she explained. ‘I knew I didn’t have acne; it looked nothing like what I had researched online.’
A dermatologist prescribed the student a concoction of steroid creams and pills and later was given hormone creams.
However, after giving up on doctors’ treatments that didn’t work, she tried several natural products.
‘I even did a liver detox, went gluten and dairy free and tried going without sugar for a month,’ she explained. ‘I tried almost everything.’
‘Through a process of trial and error, I found that drinking plenty of water, eliminating gluten, dairy produce and sugar from my diet, coupled with regular exercise, did help my skin.’
Jarae started receiving lots of recommendations and tips through her Instagram page about her skin, which she set up to share the ups and downs of living with rosacea with other sufferers – and that’s how she found out about Kalme products.
‘I always research everything very carefully before I try anything new for my skin,’ she said.
‘These products seemed to have some solid evidence on their main ingredient, which is made from capers and which I’d never heard of before.
‘Plus there were a lot of positive reviews on the products from people who had tried them. They were also natural which appealed to me as by this stage I had lost hope in most medicated products given to me by doctors.’
The young woman first found out about Kalme products after setting up her Instagram account to help other sufferers
Jarae was given a concoction of steroid creams, pills and even hormone creams, but claims the Kalme range of products were the only things that helped her skin improve
While Jarae tries not to use any thick creams on her skin as they often make it flare up even worse, she claims that wasn’t a problem when it came to the Kalme range.
‘The cream was really thick so I was a bit worried,’ she said. ‘But it didn’t cause me to flare at all and my skin quickly felt much more hydrated and smoother within a few days of use.’
‘It wasn’t until the end of the first week of using the products I noticed that my usual red aggressive rosacea had died down somewhat, which was impressive over such a short period of time. The Kalme treatment concealer was a life-saver.’
Now, Jarae has been using Kalme products for just over a month and claims the texture of her skin is ‘much smoother’ while the level of hydration has ‘improved immensely.’
‘The redness has gone down but has not disappeared,’ she explained. ‘However, I haven’t been using the products for that long and my skin is improving weekly so I feel sure it will continue to do so.’
‘My confidence has blossomed as my skin has improved and I no longer feel that my crazy skin has a life of its own. It feels much more under my control now and less reactive.’
The student has been using the product for around 10 weeks and explained: ‘My confidence has blossomed as my skin has improved and I no longer feel that my crazy skin has a life of its own.’ Pictured now, with her improved skin