1636 replies to this topic

[Solid_Snake]

Although it's far too early to tell, I think the combination of the two products seem to be working well for me. First of all, I had two red "twin" bumps on the left and right side of my face that were very stubborn. I washed carefully and bombed them with BP and didn't see any improvement, except that area getting very wrinkly (I used PanOxyl 10%, and I remember Gaz mentioning how it gets you all wrinkly, shoulda listened). After two days of using this product, it made them "ripen" (if I could use such a word to describe them) and the pus (ugh sounds disgusting I know) came out very cleanly and whole. Little to no bleeding. My face feels really soft and smooth. I don't use moisturizer because my face gets very oily no matter what brand I've tried, but my skin doesn't seem to be getting dry or irritated. I did notice that my face is more sensitive to sun though, so if you give this regimen a shot, make sure to put on sunblock. As for how it feels, the little beads in the scrub feel kinda unusual. But it doesn't hurt like the ones made out of walnut shell. The BP wash is creamy and makes your face tingle. Again, too early to say how effective it is, but for myself, so far, so good.

-Snake

*probably not the best regimen if you have sensitive skin, since you're using 2% SA and 10% BP + makes you more sensitive to sunlight and burning

[Botchla]

yeah you're right.. it does make you more sensitive to sun. i thought that claim was all BS until i spent the weekend out in the sun a couple weekends ago. all of my friends with similar skin tone barely got any sun, and i got FRIED red sunburned. so i guess it really does make your skin more sensitive to sun!

[Creed]

Yeah, I'm sure anything that sheds layers of skin from your face will make you more susceptible to sun damage. Just make sure you wear sunblock. Nothing less than SPF-15.

[daniellewngs]

I went out today and bought the two products recommended by Clean&Clear as well as the oil free no shine moisurizer. After trying everything (Plexion, Minocycline, and currently on Tetracycline) I have deceided to give this a try. I just came from my Dermatoligist (another cortozone injection)and had asked him about using both sa and bp and he had told me both would be fine together, but maybe using sa in the morning and bp in the eve to prevent drying out. I don't have a problem with the small pimples, I get the BIG cysts (only once a month though) but when I get them I get them. On top of getting those, my previous scars have not completely healed. I am not bad enough for accutane (though my Dr. recommended it). Well after doing my first wash of the sa and bp, my skin does feel smooth. Has this caused anybody to brake out (using both) or dry out! Also did it help with the big cyst's?

[Creed]

Well, I just started this regimen 2 days ago and I did breakout initially but I know it's because everything is coming to the surface. Like any treatment, you need to give it some time. I'm going to see how it goes week to week.

Hasn't dried me out... yet. I'm sure when the cold NY weather gets here it will. But that's because I use both products in the morning and at night. I also use a light moisturizer to combat the dryness. If my face starts to get too dry, then I will use the BP only at night and the SA in both the mornings and night.


Good luck!

[fugazi]

Hm, I have a pretty similar regimen of my own. Figure I might as well explain it...

- Wash with Dove soap
- Wash with L'Oreal Pure Zone SA Foaming Gel Wash
- Pat dry (really well!)
- Apply a small amount of Hydrogen Peroxide and then a toner (cotton ball method)
- Apply BP
- Use a 6% SA oil-free moisturizer (Pure Zone, again)

There you go. The mixture of SA and BP in the past few days has left me with a remarkable difference. My skin is very absorbant as well. I can't believe I was using SA this whole time and wondering why it wasn't working as well as I hoped!

[ProStealth]

what about oxy pad? they've always work miracles for me, they have 2% SA in them and i use them after school. i use C&C BP wash in the morning and night

[sam387]

i can't remember when my acne nightmare started.. but i remember one summer in college (i was probably around 19 or 20) when my back went from visibly problematic acne to something so awful that denial was the only way to cope with it.. this was about 10 years ago and the internet wasn't much of a resource.. i saw a dermatologist who agreed that accutane would be an appropriate treatment..

i was supposed to be on the drug for 4-6 months, and i did notice that my body was producing less oil. the acne did recede somewhat but it was still there.. after about 3.5 months, my doctor took me off the drug. she said with the advent of summer and because of the inherent dangers of the drug, 3.5 months was enough.. the acne was still there, albeit about 15% less..

i don't really remember trying different things after that.. i really wasn't looking for a solution that would require me doing a bunch of steps every morning.. with contact lenses, brushing my teeth, doing my hair, etc. i was already looking at long times to get ready for a guy, and i wasn't interested in adding more to that schedule..

i did see one or two more dermatologists over the next few years, and they recommended bleaches, makeup, and various peroxides i could use while in the shower.. i tried them all (except for the cover makeup, which was just a ridiculous suggestion for my back), but nothing killed my acne..

i had just decided to live with it, figuring it was still something left over from my adolescence.

in my late 20's, a friend decided to throw a big pool bash at his parents' house.. i hadn't been swimming or at the beach for about 6 years (because of my back). i don't know what it was, but something in me made me angry that i was about to pass up on yet another shirts-off event because of my acne. it was then may, and the party was scheduled for july.

for the first time ever, i decided to use the internet to read about acne and other people's solutions. yea, i ran into a lot of the web site versions of those late-night infomercials and wasn't interested.. like i said, i wasn't interested in any creams or lotions.. i didn't buy into those ideas as a solution.. so i read and read and read.. what really caught my attention was talk about how soap can cause acne..

i thought about my past experiences.. how if i didn't shower for a couple of days my acne got better.. whenever i went camping, my acne had always improved when i got back, and i had always thought it was the clean air up in the mountains.. but i never had an explanation for why when i didn't shower over an entire weekend, my acne was somehow better on monday when i did my daily routine of looking at my back with two mirrors before hopping in the shower..

so then i started doing searches on the internet for "acne soap", and i was excited.. if it was the soap all these years, i could just replace it and not have to change anything in my daily routine..i look around and find something called kavi soap.

the first day i tried it, i only used it on my back, having no idea if it would dry or mess up the rest of the skin on my body which didn't have acne. anyway, this soap stung on my back.. it was stinging and almost felt like it was bubbling.. i kinda freaked out.. i didn't see much of an improvement, but it was only one day.. i was used to disappointment anyway.. the next day rolled around, and i was kinda worried about using it again, but i told myself what the heck.. the second day it didn't sting as much.. in fact, it almost didn't sting at all.. i didn't really know what to make of that, but whatever, i went to work and went on with my day. day 3. get up, walk into the bathroom, and do my same daily demoralizing activity.. pick up the hand mirror and stand against the sink mirror and look..

i really don't know how to describe it.. it was like looking at a lottery ticket and realizing you'd hit all 6 numbers.. my acne actually looked better.. now mind you, we're talking about 10% better.. but that was a lot for only using a different soap for two days.. i hopped in the shower and used the soap.. scrubbing away..

day after day after day, i looked in the mirror before my shower and saw improvement.. after the first week, i started taking a shower in the evenings too.. the july pool party was rapidly approaching and i was counting improvement everyday.. it was like watching a stock you bought rising every day..very exciting :-)

by the time of the pool party, much of my acne was gone, and i braved that day and walked around without my shirt..

in retrospect, my back still looked horribly disfigured from all the scarring still left behind that july, and i think everyone noticed, but to me it looked a lot better..

it's been about three years now.. i don't have acne anymore, and i've been using glycolic acid (conveniently from the same place) to heal the scars.. the scars haven't totally healed yet, and i'm thinking it'll be another year before they're completely gone.. i still do my ritual every morning, and never forget how lucky i was to have found a fix..

as an afternote, i should mention that even though the kavi soap was working great, i got ambitious after the first few months and thought i'd try other soaps to see if they were even better.. kavi was the first soap i'd tried.. maybe there was something better.. i tried a german soap called sebamed i think.. tried it for about a week.. got only a few new zits, but i freaked and went back to kavi.. i didn't want to lose any more time out of my life with this back acne problem.. i also tried another soap from stiefel.. i bought it at the local pharmacist.. it stunk so bad when i took it out of the box that i never even used it.. still in my medicine cabinet..lol.

ok, i've been writing for about an hour.. if you have acne you can't get rid of, try kavi soap. best of luck..

sam

[silent_night]

Dont you need a treatment though? or is the continous control acne cleanser a treatment and a cleanser?

[Botchla]

what do you mean by "treatment"? if you define it as containing chemicals used to prevent acne, both of them are "treatments" really. i mean one contains SA, the other contains BP. you just don't leave them on like with other products.

[Jenn4dex]

Well I was getting cystic acne. I cannot tell if the two C&C cleansers help with that because I have been on Yasmin for 2 months now, but the C&C has kept my skin clear of even small pimples and it is so soft. I don't feel oily even after 5 hours at work, which I usually felt after a few hours before using the two cleansers together. I will never stop using these cleansers. I just use them together in the morning and at night i use the C&C Sensitive Skin Cleanser. The only time I see any drying is when I use my Mandelic Acid for my scars. And then I just tape a little of the dry skin off before my C&C moisturizer........works excellent! So maybe its a combination of the cleansers and the BC pill, but no cysts anymore. Cysts cause scars on me, so I cannot get another one. So far so good!

[daniellewngs]

What is this Mandelic acid you use? I have scars from acne cysts as well (the only kind of acne I get) and though I only get it every once in a while in isolated spots, it has caused scaring. I have only been on the Clean&Clear for two days now, but feel really good that no new ones have yet formed and old ones are healing. My skin feels so soft as well. Kudos to this treatment!

[Jenn4dex]

I got the recommendation of the "SCARS" section in this forum. A lot of people are using it, and I got it from SKINCARERX.com. You can read about it in that section. It is a less irratible exfoliating serum than gycolic acid and it basically exfoliates I guess so that the scars don't look so deep. I am happy with it, it seems to be helping although I don't use it everyday like most people were posting. I use it about 3 times a week. It was like $30 I think. I am just trying to fade two scars that I have from cysts and numerous cortisone injections in the same pimple. My cysts are very stubborn!

[Jenn4dex]

Oh sorry, my previous post was regarding Mandelic Acid!

[Troopa]

Hi everyone! Two things:

1. The acne.org F.A.Q. says not to mix SA and BP. It seems mainly because this causes a lot of irritation in some people. I've noticed my skin can irritate/burn with BP (a lot, like Dan recommends), but I would consider it minor.

What the original poster said also makes sense though. So basically, is it safe to use SA and BP together? The only possible side effect is drying/burning, right?

2. Jenn, if you don't mind me asking, what type of acne did you have? I would classify mine as mild I guess. I mainly get tiny blackheads and whiteheads on my forehead and along the side of my face/eye region. They're not bad by themselves but when they get a bunch of friends then it can be bad.

I'm asking you just so I can know what I may expect. It seems to me though that different regimens work good for different people. The acne.org regimen works pretty good for me, and all I used was the BP cream. No special soap bar or moisterizer (spell check!).

[Jenn4dex]

Well I am not exactly using the two together, first I wash with the SA Cleansing Scrub and then I rinse it off and then I wash with the BP wash and rinse. So the only time I use 2.5% BP is on a pimple at night or something. Maybe that's why I don't feel any irritation, in fact I love doing it! I actually had "what I thought was mild cycstic acne" but my doctor seemed to think it was pretty bad and recommended accutane...these derms are all being pushed by the drug companies though, so what do I expect. But I told him I haven't had a cyst in 2 months, which I think is mostly thanks to the Yasmin BC pill, but he insists that it takes like 3-4 months to kick in.....duh, my acne is gone? Maybe its the cleansers but even before I started with these two cleansers together, my cycsts had gone away. And by mild I mean I got like 3 cysts on my face and 2 were very close to eachother and had to get at least 4 shots in them over a period of 3 weeks, it took THAT long for the bump to go down. It (in my opinion) is VERY STUBBORN cystic acne. If it were just a few pimples, please, I could just hide that with makeup, but this was gross and they left scars, two of which I now have to deal with. I am 34 for God sakes, what is this crap! But hopefully I beat it.

[Troopa]

I'm planning on trying Botchla's regimen soon. It sounds like you do that but with some modification. His regimen also washes off the C&C SA and then washing with the C&C BP.

Thanks for your help! /

[Jenn4dex]

That is where I read the recommendation to use the two cleansers and trust me, I don't think your acne would get worse from it. I have literally not even gotten a tiny whitehead, absolutely nothing! Yahoo!

[Botchla]

troopa, it's perfectly fine to mix SA and BP. the worst possible outcome is dryness or irritation.

[Troopa]

Okay cool. Thanks for your help! =D>

I plan to see if my local stores have the cleansers. If not, drugstore.com will get my business! Their shipping fees are high though, maybe I can find someone else.