- Keltie O’Connor, 32, documented an emotional journey to stop picking her skin
- O’Connor stuck to a strict skincare routine and tried implementing new things
- She explained that she had been picking her skin since she was a ‘young girl’
A woman has shared her emotional journey as she attempted to transform from a compulsive ‘skin picker’ into having a glass-like complexion in only 30 days — but it turns out that the answer to the problem isn’t as simple as one may think.
Keltie O’Connor, a 32-year-old former college basketball player turned content creator and DJ, documented her process in a powerful YouTube video that was posted this week.
In the beginning of the 14-minute video, O’Connor, who is based between Sweden and Canada, admitted that she had attempted the challenge a number of times before, but hadn’t been successful.
‘I’ve had an interesting skincare journey,’ O’Connor divulged. ‘I always had horrible, red, patchy skin that I thought was acne, and absolutely incurable.’
‘I had an ah-ha moment three years ago, being like, why can’t I fix this?’ she continued. ‘Like, I’m not the only person to have red, patchy, awful skin.’
She explained that three years ago, she realized that she didn’t have acne-prone skin like she had once believed, but very dry skin instead, which required different products.
To kick off the journey, the social media personality said that she was going to stick to a multi-step, strict skincare routine every day, morning and night.
In the morning, she used active Vitamin C, a hydrating serum, moisturizer, oil and sunscreen. Before bed, O’Connor slathered on retinol, hydrating serum, moisturizer, and oil, in addition to a cleansing balm to take off makeup and a gel face wash.
In addition, she made swaps for some of her makeup products to ensure that they had skincare benefits and didn’t ‘agitate’ her skin.
For the past three years, O’Connor said her skin has been ‘night and day better’ than it was before, but there was just one problem — she still struggled with pimples and skin picking.
‘There is a villain to this story,’ she admitted on the third day of the experiment. ‘OCD. Compulsive picking. I picked until I broke blood vessels. I don’t think I’ve ever done that. I’ve just hit my breaking point, where I’m like, I hit puberty 15 years ago, how am I still picking at my skin and pimples?’
Getting raw, the DJ revealed that since she was a 10 years old, she had always picked at her skin and pimples, especially when she was feeling bored or stressed out.
‘This is utterly embarrassing, because people don’t get it, and it just seems like this really weird like, you’re gross and weird, but like, there’s not been a single day since I was probably 13 years old I haven’t picked at my skin, even though I don’t want to, even though there’s not something there, I just physically can’t,’ O’Connor said through tears.
The content creator emotionally disclosed that skin picking used to be a coping mechanism for her since she was a young girl in a ‘living situation that brought a lot of stress.’
‘It was where I would hide away,’ O’Connor said. ‘And it’s been 15 years, and I can’t get over it, and it’s maddening.’
But by the end of the first week, she acknowledged that she had already noticed a difference after being ‘dialed in’ to her skincare routine, and began to come up with things she could do instead of picking at her skin.
These new habits included a structured sleep schedule, calling her mom, journaling and using a Theragun to replace the ‘satisfaction feeling’ she would normally get from skin picking.
And, on the eighth day, O’Connor had a breakthrough: she went her first day in years without picking at her skin.
‘I never thought I could get through day one, and I did it, there’s hope for me.’ she said, tearing up. ‘I didn’t think there was. I thought I’d be like this forever. I really always thought I was broken, and I’m pretty broken, but you know, I’m not unfixable.’
By the second week, she said her skin was looking the best it ever had, and had gone days at a time without picking.
O’Connor admitted she wasn’t sure what the ‘lightbulb’ moment was, but credited a lot of it to making the time to sleep, call her mom and not isolate herself.
‘Doing all those good things, I wasn’t so emotionally and mentally drained by the end of the day that I needed to resort to negative coping mechanisms,’ she shared.
However, the real test came when she was thrown out of her routine, and was traveling for work, on top of receiving a ‘frustrating’ health diagnosis.
During her travels, she admitted to picking her skin once again, as she was stressed out and low on sleep.
When the creator arrived back home, she encouraged herself not to throw the video away due to the so-called ‘screw up.’
‘I just was like, K, try to get back to it, get back to your sleep routine, do those things and feel luxurious,’ she said. ‘I think that’s always the biggest thing that’s really helped me in my skincare journey, is like, when I do my skincare, try not to think of it as a laborious task….’
O’Connor attempted to get the ‘satisfaction’ she usually got through picking by focusing on carefully applying the products in her skincare routine.
During the third week, the former athlete confessed that she had begun to ‘panic’ as she was nearing the end of the video documentation, and wanted to get her skin in tip-top shape.
As she overloaded her skin with masks and new products, she realized that she was still picking.
‘After week three, I was like, let’s just slow down,’ she explained. ‘You know what I’m gonna do? Sleep. I’m gonna get in bed at nine every day for the next week, and I’m just going to go straight for my skincare, just going to do those basics.’
Even despite a trip home to her family, which threw off the routine, she focused on ‘nourishing her soul,’ and tried to change her attitude.
For the last few days of the experiment, she was consistent, and went without picking her skin.
All in all, O’Connor vowed to not be so ‘black and white’ in the process — just because you may have screwed up once, she said, doesn’t mean you have to start self-sabotaging yourself.
‘Sleep enough, rest enough, call your mom, go out with your friends, put up boundaries,’ she advised. ‘And I’m realizing, the more I do those things, the less likely I am to self-sabotage.’
‘As much as glass skin can be the goal, and you can get your skin pretty darn close and some days it will be, just like everyday you’re not going to wake up in the best shape of your life… skin’s like that,’ O’Connor continued. ‘I have to give myself some grace, like I’ll always have a pimple or something.’
She explained that you should do your best to accept the pimple, and avoid wanting to ‘nuke’ the pimple the second you see it crop up on your face.
‘I’m not perfect, I have to constantly remind myself that sleep and boundaries are important, but it’s crazy how often I am reminded that you can’t just, like, bash your face into a wall to get over your negative mental health issues,’ O’Connor concluded.
‘You have to feed yourself the good things, and then you naturally don’t want to do the bad things.’
Sarah Carter is a health and wellness expert residing in the UK. With a background in healthcare, she offers evidence-based advice on fitness, nutrition, and mental well-being, promoting healthier living for readers.
