Acne videoblogger hoorah

So I saw an interesting channel on youtube by a girl who apparently solved her acne. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post links (mods?) but I thought I'd share the link and see what you guys think.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Tarynbeth

Acne.org regimen gave me wrinkles

Recently I switched from using CVS on-the-spot 2.5% benzoyl peroxide with clindamycin phosphate (which I used successfully for over a year) to the acne.org regimen with clindamycin, and I have noticed an drastic increase in the wrinkles on my skin. I usually have perfectly smooth skin, but after using the regimen for about a week when I smile I see hundreds of cracks and wrinkles in my skin, it almost looks my face has turned into leather. Could this be a really bad reaction to these products? It's really scary -- I f*ing look like an old man. I'm going to stop using the regimen for a while and see if these wrinkles go away.

Probiotic topicals for acne: Is this a really possibility?

It seems that acne medications (such as benzoyl peroxide) kill of both the good and the bad bacteria on the face. Do you have any ideas on ways to restore the good bacteria?

I was thinking of trying a yogurt face mask. I've heard that yogurt helps because of the lactic acid, which is an AHA. But I'm more curious about whether yogurt might help be replenishing acidophilus bacteria on the skin and thus hopefully making it harder for p. acnes to grow. Do you think there is any chance of this working? Also, does anyone know what bacteria normally populate healthy facial skin?

I found an interesting article on pubmed about this topic. You can view a full-text english auto-translation of it at http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y...history_state0=. While the translation is quite terrible, I could glean from this that there are two avenues of treatment, pre-biotics and pro-biotics. Probiotics actually supply live organisms to the skin, whereas prebiotics are substances which promote the growth of organisms, but do not actually contain active cultures. For example, a yogurt mask would be a probiotic, but according to the article ginseng root is a pre-biotic.

If you know German, you could perhaps understand the article much better by reading it in German at http://viewer.zoho.com/store/e/eaTaYb/eaTaYb.htm.

Another question: Even if a yogurt mask is helpful as a probiotic, then when would be the best time to apply it? If I apply it, then wash my face and apply benzoyl peroxide, wouldn't this defeat the purpose? Or maybe it's better to leave it on for a while, but then it would probably be a big mess?

Time spent taking care of acne

So I'm curious how time consuming it is to take care of one's skin. Please answer the poll with the amount of time you spend on an average day applying meds/ washing face. You can include time spent applying makeup if your makeup is intended specifically to cover up acne. Please include anything related to treating acne but don't include things related to discussing acne (such as writing on acne.org).

My benzoyl/clindamycin/neosporin regimen

So here goes, I'm starting a log.

I've finally reached a point where I'm generally happy about my skin. I think I'm mostly clear and I really think benzoyl and clindamycin work great together.

The biggest lesson I think has been its really important to be consistent and persistent. If I miss a single dose, my acne gets worse, but if I manage to not miss any doses for an extended period I really hardly get any pimples at all (maybe one/month when I used to get about one every day or two). I still have some inflamed red spots on my face which have been slowly improving but its taken a really long time (over 4 months). Hopefully if I stick it out I'll finally be able to get rid of this of the spots that really don't seem to want to give up (p. acnes is quite adept at surving but I think I'm definitely winning now).

For the past circa 6 months, I've had the following routine

-benzoyl peroxide 2.5% every morning and night (I've progressively been upping the dose, now I go through about one of those neutrogena style tubes a week b/c I use a little on my shoulds and back also)
-cindamycin phosphate lotion 1% every morning and night (takes about 1 - 2 months to use 50grams).

-recently (a few days ago) i started doing a midday 3rd application of benzoyl, just as an extra spot treatment (not all over my face).
-today i used neosporin for the first time on one pimple, and I'll keep you updated on how it works