It’s astonishing how something as incongruous as a small, red mark can obliterate your self esteem, leading the best of us to regress to a state of adolescent insecurity. Even those who claim to be untouched by vanity find their moods are at the whims of their skin. Or I do, anyway.

As the body’s largest organ, skin is impossible to ignore – particularly given that adults, on average, carry around eight pounds and 22 square feet of it. That’s a lot of skin to maintain and, when it doesn’t do what you want it to, it’s a lot of skin to worry over and fret about.

I’ve always been lucky in that I haven’t suffered from any major skin problems. While I don’t have the poreless, matte face of the Nineties supermodels I grew up looking at (nobody does, of course), I haven’t had to contend with serious acne, rosacea or any number of other conditions that leave so many feeling miserable. Recently, however, I have been battling with spots that just won’t go away.

“This serum actually helped to get rid of my spots”