A graphic designer who questioned whether she would find love due to her “terrible” acne is in a happy relationship after her boyfriend fell for her when her face was “at its worst”. And she has found a solution for her skin using data and artificial intelligence (AI).
Lucie Marvanova, 28, who lives in Prague in the Czech Republic, said she never experienced any problems with her skin in her teens, but when she started studying at university, she began to develop “pimples and papules” on her face. She said her acne progressively worsened over the years, but she did not know what caused it – she believed it was exacerbated by the stress of studying and the coronavirus pandemic, when she felt “caged” due to the restrictions.
As she “struggled to accept it” and her acne affected her confidence, she tried several different skincare products to treat her skin, as well as using makeup to cover it, but “nothing helped” and she was “really frustrated”. When her acne was at its worst in 2020, Lucie said she felt she would not be able to make new friends or find a partner – but she is now in a relationship with Grant Hall, 24, a waiter, who “fell in love” with her.
As a “bonus”, Lucie has cleared her skin with the help of NOIE, a company which offers data-backed and dermatologically tested personalised solutions for people with skin conditions, and she has regained her confidence. “I didn’t have the confidence in myself that I could, for example, make some friends by myself or find somebody and have a partner in dating,” Lucie said.
“It really impacted me because, suddenly, when I had a face like that, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, who would actually want me, looking like that? Who would actually talk to me?’.
“That was probably the biggest impact, but then I realised that doesn’t matter because my boyfriend fell in love with me when I had the worst face of the faces. I realised that, actually, I guess it’s really not a problem for many people, that they don’t see it. It’s not the biggest quality in life.”
Lucie said her acne was at its worst at the height of the coronavirus pandemic while she was studying at Prague University of Economics and Business and she tried every skin product recommended to her. The graphic designer said no one commented on her skin, or made negative remarks, but her friends would regularly ask about her acne and what products she was using.
“The older I was getting, the worse it was,” Lucie said. “During the coronavirus pandemic, it was very hard for me, mentally, and my skin was reacting to stress. The more stressed and caged I felt, the worse it looked.”
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Lucie said she felt she looked like “a 13 year old” going through puberty, and she described her pimples as “really ugly”. “I was really frustrated because I just didn’t know what I should do,” Lucie continued.
The acne affected her mental health and also impacted her when it came to dating. Even if a man showed interest in her romantically, Lucie said she did not believe it, because of her acne, and she ended up “ruining” some potential relationships.
When she met Grant, who lives in the USA, this all changed. “At that time, I didn’t know that he actually liked me, but after half a year, he confessed to me that he actually fell in love with me,” Lucie said.
“We discussed this many times and I was like ‘I’m actually really surprised to know this’ because I just felt really not good in my body and what I had on my face during that time. He said, ‘It wasn’t your face, it was you; it wasn’t what you had on your face’.”
She continued: “Before I met him, guys were interested in me, but it was usually me who was so shy and awkward and feeling ‘why would you?’.”
After restrictions began to ease, Lucie said she started to try a different approach with her skin. Lucie decided to visit a dermatologist, who recommended she try Roaccutane – a prescription medicine used to treat severe acne – as her acne kept “growing”.
She also tried acupuncture and visited a cosmetician. However, due to the potentially serious side effects of taking Roaccutane, Lucie said she wanted to try to find an alternative and “go in a different direction” with her skin.
After Lucie finished her masters degree, she said her acne improved slightly and she felt the acupuncture was helping, but she also came across NOIE – a Danish start-up which develops care for people with skin conditions based on their unique data and biomarkers – and she ordered some cleansers and a cream. With its AI-driven model, NOIE has collected data from 80,000 people with different skin types and conditions, enabling the provision of more effective recommendations.
Lucie said the combination of acupuncture, visiting her cosmetician, and applying the personalised NOIE products helped significantly and “stopped (her acne) from growing”. From start to finish, Lucie said it took her around six years to clear her skin and she has been left with some scarring on her cheeks, but she is glad she was “patient”.
She would advise others who are struggling with their acne to try NOIE as you can always update your profile or alter your skincare products, and “it’s very easy to talk with them”. Most importantly, she thinks it is important not to stress about your skin and to be kind to yourself.
And when it comes to dating, she said: “It’s not necessarily how you look; it’s a bonus if you look good, but in the end, it’s not what is usually important in any kind of relationship. I know it’s hard because you just wish you could get rid of it right away.
“But every time when you injure yourself, you also need to take some time to fully recover and, basically, the skin is another part of your body which needs some time to actually react on things. So definitely, just be a bit more patient, and it sounds very cheesy, but try to be positive and accept the face how it looks because then usually it improves as well.”
To find out more about NOIE, visit noie.com.
