I know I know back to basics.


But the other day whilst looking into the bathroom mirror thinking probably like most ''why i dont i have spots on forehead/chin/nose etc etc'' the non acne prone places i harshly scrub everyday


I noticed alot of my spots were red and slighty stingy.What more to do worse was annoy them even more but RUBBING onto them over and over.

So i decided to slightly change my moring regimen about a bit



Since 3 Days ago

Ive been showering first - Any temp

Then after shower using a foaming Tree Tea and witch hazel foam i always use.


I APPROACHED MY SKIN AS GENTLE AS POSSIBLE

i mean just nicely going in circle motions trying not to rough up the skin at all.

BECAUSE : scrubbing too hard with these harsh chemicals leads to IRRATATED/RED/

this will leave your skin MORE DRY which will lead your skin into producing MORE OIL = thats right





So basically i approached my skin completly differently being as gentle as possible.

SO

1. GENTLE ON YOUR SKIN WHEN WASHING - GLIDE OVER THE SKIN

- DONT THINK MORE RUBBING = MORE CLEAN

2. WASH WITH WARM - NOT EXTREMELY ANNOYING HOT

3. APPLY A NICE SMOOTH MOIUSTERIZUER*
(this can help you keep your oil levels down dramatically)




i know this seems extremely basic but when your away to wash your face take into consideration how harsh of a scrub you are doing.

ive noticed a hugh difference

- skin not so red/ spots not red

- skin not so dry

- have went from 60 to 85 percent clearer


Every once a week i shall exfoliate with a tre tea oil scrub to get rid of dead cells.



SEE IF YOU GUYS SEE A DIFFERENCE AND POST

Discuss?

I smoked weed once and it made me breakout for about a week and now its stopped thank god. I have gotten my hands on a weed brownie and i would like to know if that will also make me breakout. More specificly, is it the thc that makes me break out or the actual act of smoking itself?

Hey guys
I was just wondering if having a fringe (or bangs i think there called in the usa) would make my acne worse? or is it a myth that hair in your face makes skin worse?

should i be using an oil free moisturiser rather than one with oils in it on my spot prone face??

Allright so i have been on the Regimen for a little over 5 weeks now. I use cleanser, BP, Moisturizer, AHA when i wake up and before i go to sleep. And everything was going allright up until about two days ago. All of the sudden my forehead and lower cheek and jaw line area have broke out really bad for some reason. I'm not sure if it's my skin purging itself or what but i haven't had a breakout like this in awhile. Any ideas?

This is what finally helped me. For the first time in 6 years I have no Acne. I don't wash my face in the morning.

[AT NIGHT]
-Wash face with Olay Dual Action Cleanser+Pore Srub
-Neutrogena Alcohol Free Toner
-Then I put on Aczone Medication.
-10 Min. later I put on Tazorac Medication.
-Another 10 Min. Later I put on dabs of Clearasil 10% Benzoyl Peroxide.

The Aczone and Tazorac worked OK for me but after I added the Benzoyl Peroxide to my regimen it really helped.

I went through years of acne and many visits to the dermatologist. My skin has finally cleared up. I have noticed that if I forget to use the Benzoyl Peroxide a small pimple will pop out. For now I need to make sure to keep using it. Maybe in the future I won't have to keep using medication, hopefully.

I have tried antibiotics several times. They clear me up great at first, but then after a while they don't help at all. Has this happen with you guys and what do we make of this? I have mild acne btw.

anyone use 5% or even 10% glycolic acid? I purchased some of the 5% glycolic cream today because my once non inflammed acne became a bit out of control these past two months and I was looking for something to clear it fast.
also, any side effects like drying or redness??

Hi people, ive only just joined this website so im pretty new to it all....

Just wanted some advice, i have mild to moderate acne, im in my third week of taking accutane (30mg per day), and im unsure about what cleanser and moisturiser to be using on my face. My skin doesnt feel that dry, i expected it to be mega dry but it isent, just slightly drier than usual and feels less oily. I started using Cetaphil, but noticed i was getting blackheads on my nose which i didnt have before. Is this to do with the cleanser or is this what happens when you take accutane??? im confused Anyone had the same experience?? What products should i be using?? Im thinking i dont wanna use anything too moisturising becuase it might break me out. I dont know. Please help!!!!

Just come off accutane and it worked, acne has gone, however the debate is still out on if my skin has recovered properly, the thing is, I think my skin may be going greasy again, which is a bad sign.

Does anyone know what normal skin feels like?, you know skin that's not dry and not greasy.

I was just wondering, does facial skin always have a slightly greasy feel to it?

It's been like 3 years since I did'nt have acne, and this is my first time without it.

Just wondering, Thanks guys.

My rutine:
AM: Nutrogena [bar] wash
Aloe ver 99% pure gel (trader joes) [for dryness, im in the pool daily + retinA makes me dry)

PM: Nutrogena [bar] wash
Retin-A from derm

Vitam-E
Multi-Vitamin w/ herbal extracts
low dairy (scattered skim milk here and there)
lots of water
moderately healthy diet, i eat my fruits/veggies.

problem:::
ok so i dont get very many actual red pimples, but i get these.... idk? theyr white and small. some are just white, some are white and red and red around them. they Always scar ;[ partially becuase i pop them or take the white part off, i cant dare have one during school. and im a guy. so no maNke-up ;[

i get them on chin, the sides of my cheeks, and jaw line.

what are they?
how do i prevent them?
how do i treat them?

I've been meaning to ask a bunch of questions on here but I don't want to start/search a billion different topics to find the answers.

Okay so.

I've stopped using anything with BP or salicylic acid on my face because i'm preeetty positive it only makes my acne worse. A lot worse. I get cysts and all the fun stuff. So for the past almost 4 months I've been using only natural things, and lemon has been working best for me.

Question one - is there anything I could add to the lemon to make it more of a like, paste? It freaks me out that when I rub the lemon juice on my face, I like, can't see it. It makes me feel like it's not there, or rubs off. All the other creams and stuff that I used to put on, were visibly there. I don't want to add honey because sleeping with that is a bitch. D:

Second questionn.
My face is clearing up a bit, I'm getting less whiteheads, but when I'm finally happy with the appearance of it, when I wash my face or shower, I can feel all these hard tiny bumps all over my skin. It's VERY irritating and when I can't resist the urge to scratch them, it's just like.. tiny hard skincolored... yuckiness? It's like there's pebbles in my skinnnn and it's awkward. What are they and how do I get rid of them? o-o

Third, I've been using Neutrogena moisturizer for combination skin every morning, because after I wash my face in the morning, it's tight and dry. If I don't moisturize, it stays dry for a bit and then gets eeeextremely oily by the end of the school day. If I DO moisturize, it feels nice for a couple periods, and then I feel so nasty gross oily ewwish by the end of the day. I don't know if I should start buying moisturizer for oily skin, because I have sensitive skin and I CAN get extremely dry sometimes. ASDFAJSDFG. Advice please.

And and lastly any relation of getting eyebrows / upper lip waxed and acne?

If anybody actually answers any of these or even reads it, thank you soo much.

And Ive got what I think to be three papules on my cheaks. Is there anything I can do to reduce the redness of them or even the size?

Thanks to Dan's regimen, my inflammatory acne has been cleared completely on my cheeks, chin, and nose, and only about five inflamed bumps remain on my forehead. But my question isn't about the regimen, it's actually about exfoliating after the inflamed bumps have cleared. I have no inflammatory acne on my face except my forehead as stated, but I have nice grouping of post-hyperpigmentation red/darkish marks on my left cheek and white/blackheads. I am aware that Dan dislikes manual/physical exfoliation because it's irritating, but does it really matter when inflammatory acne isn't present anymore?

My skin is extremely oily. I can literally soak up three Clean&Clear oil-blotting sheets to the point where the lipids in the oil completely make the sheets translucent. I think my oily skin is the problem of black/white heads and comedonal on my entire face, so I'm driven to exfoliate somehow and try to clear dead skin cells before my oily face traps them in my pores. I have used a home-made recipe of a sugar scrub on my face before that didn't break my face out, and of course I didn't use it on my inflamed bumps, but that was only once. I also have 2% salicylic acid and a toner with 3.5% glycolic acid, but I read that below 4% glycolic acid was pretty ineffective, and even with daily usage of a 4% glycolic acid it would help with red marks after acne.

I know this post contains many references that are specific to other topics on the board, but my main question centers around moderate inflammatory acne. Will manual exfoliation still irritate areas cleared of previous inflammatory acne and provoke another onset of an inflammatory breakout? Or should I just try the salicylic acid or AHA? I'm really kind of set on some kind of manual exfoliation with natural, non-irritating ingredients because I don't want to add anything extra to the regimen, and I want to exfoliation as soon as possible, and I can't use AHA on the regimen for another week. I just want to keep my face clear of dead skin cells since my oily skin (I think) is prone to trapping dead skin cells that most likely lead to my current problem.

Hopefully this long and drawn out post is clear about my question centering on what happens when you exfoliate areas (and the best way to exfoliate these areas) that were previously infected with inflammatory acne. I just tried to give as much info as possible.

Any info on the best ways to exfoliate after being cleared of moderate inflammatory acne would be awesome. Thanks!

I've gone throw a mental minefieldand came out to where i am today. Here's what i believe, and here's my regiem. I'm big on the minimalistic aproach to preventing acne, i know it's an internal issue thus that BP and other over the counter chemicals just don't top the bar. My diet is pretty good, i don't believe that is the cause for me. I'm into my second week of taking many vitamins including omega 3-6-9 and the slugger, flax seed oil. I'm just starting to use baking soda every other day. i run in the morning then go for a shower and wash with spectro jel. i hit the sauna at night and spectro it up after as well. twice a week i exfoliate with salt. after i wash i always use spectro moisturizer. i recently quit smoking week and i limit my sexual activity as i believe that my acne is largly hormonal based. i think i should be acne free in a couple weeks of religiously folling my routine but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

kyle

For some reason the sides of my face have been not really breaking otu but like alot of red marks ..not sure if it like razor burn or what!

[IMG]http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/3235/wtffffh.jpg[/IMG]

It's just a simple question. Using Duac + Neostrata AHA 15 moisturizer. First three days didn't notice any signs of my skin getting red, but on the fourth day after applyin Duac and AHA it became red and a bit burning. I feel like it' to strong for my skin, but I paid to much to stop using it, also my derm prescribed it to me. Please answer : )

Right, I'm coming to the end of a 4 month course of accutane, I've got just over a week left. Now I have seen very good improvements overall, however I do seem to be getting red marks and seem to still have about 3 or 4 spots around my chin and lower left and right hand side of my face. Any tips on why I only still have acne there? My mum said it could be something to do with my digestive system. I think I have a relatively stable and healthy diet and I drink plenty of water.

Any help would be most greatly welcomed.

Thanks

Hey everyone!

I've been using one of Neutrogena's newest line of face wash, which is the new Green-Minty stuff.
It's called "Neutrogena® Oil-Free Acne Wash Redness Soothing Gentle Scrub" which is a cream.

However, there is also Neutrogena® Oil-Free Acne Wash Redness Soothing Facial Cleanser, which is a gel.

Now, I've only used the cream one for about a month, and I noticed it actually DOES reduce redness! However, I'm almost out... so I need to go buy some more pretty soon.
I've been curious if I should try out the gel, or stick with the cream?

I don't know if any works better than the other, or if they are pretty much the same product.

So, my real question: Should I just repurchase the cream? Or try out the gel next time?
Is there any significant difference in these products? Or are they just for personal preferences?

Thanks guys!

hey guys should i be exfoliating? When i take a shower and wash my face with soap i can peel a lot of skin from my face. Is this dead skin? And should i rub it off to remove it or leave it? I get a bunch of small pustules and just want to get rid of em. was wondering if the "dry skin" might contribute.
Thanks

which leads me to believe that this is related to the side of my face has contact with the pillow when I sleep. How do I fix this problem?

I'm 17 years old girl with combination skin.
I'm having bad problems with my chin for the past years.
I have a lot of zits, whiteheads, blackheads, underskin acne(cysts?), and dark scars very often.
They're on the middle part of my chin, and some right below the lip.
Since I am Asian, the scars look very dark.
I think the blackheads on my chin are turning into underskin acne(?) overtime.
I don't touch my face with my hands because I'm scared that another skin problem will arise.
Before my period, it seems to get worse.

I use Spectro Jel Cleanser and a moisturizer in the morning and at night.
For the chin acne, I use Clean & Clear Advantage Acne Treatment twice a day.
Or sometimes, I use Fruit of the Earth Aloe Jel.
Btw, I don't use a scrub/exfoliator.

This chin acne started when I was about 11.
Back then, just one whitehead or so that would appear on my chin infrequently.
Now it's getting worse; they're mostly cysts now.
It's not itchy but it's pinkish red, especially when I open my mouth wide.

Is there anything I can do about this ?
Please give me advice

I just recently purchased proactiv and have been using it for a week now. My acne has decreased sense i started using it but i feel im still missing something. The acne on my chin has much improved by now i see it has moved onto my cheeks. I try to not pick at my face, but cant help myself when im temping to pop a disgusting white head. My acne is mostly white heads surrounded by red irritation seen on the cheeks, chin and around my mouth.

The 3 step proactiv im using does not dry out my skin so i was thinking that if i added a product with a high percentage of BP ( currently at 2.5%) that my acne would go away for good.

Ive try many products and proactiv has worked the best so far so i feel that im on the right track. I will be seeing my dermatologist if my skin doesnt clear up within the next month.

Hi everyone,

I will firstly give everyone a brief description of my acne history. I just turned 20 and i started getting acne on the rosy part of my cheeks around about 16-17. Its never been horrible but i would classify it as mild to moderate. It has basically stayed the same for the last 3 years with it occasionally clearing a little and then flaring up. Ive got fairly dry skin normally, little family history of acne (brother had it but it was milder then mine) and generally my skins pretty decent.

Now for my story.

At 17 GP who was family friend said he could prescribe something for my acne (at the time i didnt even care or know i had it), so i took him up and got differin gel .1%. I used it for about 3 months and i dont think there was any noticeable results, at least it didnt get worse. The problem was that my skin got stupidly dry, flaky etc etc, so i would literally bring moisturizer to class and lather myself up.

Age 18 i went overseas for a year and thats when i stopped using differin gel. Went at the end of aussie summer so i got the europe summer and then i came back for the next aussie summer. In this time my skin improved dramatically, never dry and the acne was just a few small red blemishes on my otherwise pristine skin. My theory behind this is that in summer the air isnt as dry, when i get a tan it hides the acne a little and swimming in the sea does huge wonders for my skin.

Anyways since ive gotten back my skin has returned to the school era of cheek acne and now a terrible red nose that bumpy and sore.

I decided to go back on the differin gel .1% (this story's not going to continue going around and around i promise haha). A few weeks later, dry flaky skin. More moisturizer. Skin gets irritated from all the flakyness that i like to try and scratch off and the moisturizer ive got to use (tried no moisturizer for 2 weeks and i couldnt resist the urge to put it on cos i looked pretty dirt). Stopped differin.

I started reading some of the forums and saw differin cream .1% and that its for sensitive, dry skin. Got a tube of that and duac (friend recommended it) and started applying.

That was 2 weeks ago, every day my skin has improved and im just hoping every morning that i wake up and check in the mirror that things havent gone down the crapper.

My skin can be a touch dry on the lower cheeks in the morning but i dont moisturize them unless ive got something v. important and need perfect skin straight away because by the end of the day they're nice and normal. Apart from that and a little dryness on the forehead (im stumped by this one) everything is awesome.

What i do:
Shower at night (if i cant then i cleanse face), wait till its dry and apply a really thin layer (i got tempted to put a thicker layer on and the next day it was kinda dry) of differin on the affected area of the cheek, then duac on the affected parts of the nose.

I have no reason why i put the duac on the nose just thought it could be fun and its ridiculous my nose is soft and pimple free. Got lucky on that one.

Keys:
Real thin layer just to cover area in moist layer.
Hit the beach as much as possible - no kidding its crazy how great my skin is after.
Shower or cleanse face at least once a day.
Try to refrain on the moisturizer, if skin is heaps dry and you HAVE to then dont and just use less differin cream or stop for a day.

Why i believe its worked for me:
The main reason would definitely be changing from the differin gel to the cream. The gel was waayy too harsh and made things worse from the irritation. The duac just seems to work but i really have no idea about this product as i only just started with it.
No kidding people, the beach is the cure to acne. If you go to the beach every day over summer i would guarantee your acne would improve a huge amount and if it doesnt i give you permission to bash me.
Get a consistent routine.

If anyone can help with the dry forehead give me a shout

Hi everyone,
I have mild acne, nothing serious at all, but I would rather clear skin anyways, so..

Well, I get the frequent white head, or just red bumps? I use SpectroJel all the time, for a wash, and at night i use an OXY 5% BP cleanser. In the mornings, I use an OXY cleanser again, but this time it's SA. After I wash up, I put 5% BP lotion on my spots.

The treatment works ine, but I keep getting whiteheads, and I don't know why. I mean, when I feel my face, there is no oil at all, and I think that's what causes pimples?

Well anyways, I don't know much about this stuff, so I was wondering if any of you had any tips or suggestions? Thanks.

I'll be honest in saying that my acne is not as bad as some of the people on this forum, my heart goes out to them. It all started when I was 15 and now I'm almost 21. All my brothers and sisters grew out of it in their 20's. So I guess the worst is over, unfortunately whatever acne I wake up with is exclusively around my mouth. I would do anything if it moved to my cheeks or jaw or somewhere besides the place that is for kissing. Anyway...

My question is how do people deal with waking up somewhere besides your own house? When I'm at home, I feel fine as I know I can nip into the bathroom and spend as much time as I like cleaning my face up for the day. And that will actually last all day.

BUT, one of the reasons I've been ignoring invites to go out drinking or staying at friends place ever since this started is because how shit I feel in the morning.

I don't like going into someone else’s bathroom - none of my products are there.

People will be wondering why I am taking so long...

If anyone has seen me before I go in then they will notice a big fucking difference to when I come out...therefore they will really know what I was doing (social awkwardness)

The main thing is no matter how long I spend in someone’s bathroom, I need to go back several times to actually make my face look good. The 2nd time I'm in there, I'll be wiping up all the puss from the pimples I popped the first time...the 3rd time I'm in there I'm picking off flakes I never saw the 1st time...and so on and so on.

By this time, everyone will be wanting to go into town (not something I ever want to do) to get some breakfast and meet up with other people..all this time I know I look like shit and make an excuses to bail home and really treat myself.

I think this goes a little bit deeper though...perhaps I spend too much time in the mirror as it is? I'm not satisfied until it looks as good as it can. But this can take up to an hour of going back and forth. Hell my acne isn't even that bad, but any flakes and dryness and dead skin must be removed before I feel good.

Now that I think back to when I was younger, I have no idea how I survived staying the night at a friends place and everyone waking up in the morning. Everyone looked fine except me, but then I didn't care because I was young. And in fact, I believe all my self conscious issues around acne are all to do with waking up in the morning.

I find when away from home, sleeping on my back all night helps, as my face doesn’t dry up from rubbing again the blankets and pillows. This is easy when you're drunk enough not to move. But when I sleep at home, I roll over and change positions like every hour...wake up and my face is a dry mess. The only other thing I can think of is waking up really early while everyone is still asleep and fixing it up.

How do you deal with waking up at the morning out of your comfort zone? Can it be done? Any tips on how to make the aftermath of a good night out not an apocalypse?

http://acnecommunity.blogspot.com/ read about the acne articles here. really great information about acne and different treatments.

i kinda have moderate acne, i used to be getting it only on my chin but a lot. now i've been trying this product for about 3 or 4 weeks now and the chin has gotten better, but now im getting a lot of acne on my cheeks, which i never had as bad. what should i do?

Hi, I'm Cody. 18 years old, and i have had acne since probably 8th grade. I've tried alot of things, Proactive, doctor prescribed things, and other over the counter stuff, my acne isn't as sever as it was 2 or so years ago. but its still pretty bad if you ask me. I'd like to walk into college, with a clear face, and then i can have some confidence to talk to the girls a bit more, I just don't want them to stare at my acne so much.

What can I do when I've tried all sorts of options?

Ok so i have gym first period every other day. We run the beep test now, and for those of you who don't know that that is, it requires a lot of running and causes a lot of sweating. My doctor gave me duac to use every morning, and I'm just wondering should i keep putting it on? would it make a difference if i put it on a long time before school to let the medicine work? Please give me your advice.