5 replies to this topic

[catalinapicante]

to anyone who is interested-
i am a 22 year old female who has struggled with acne since a pretty young age. it's gotten better and worse at times but since attending college (the past 3 years) it has been pretty bad. i've tried: different makeups (wide variety of mineral brands including BE, drug store brands, liquids and powders), different lotions/ facewash (clean and clear, neutrogena, vanicream, cetaphil), dermatologist (antibiotics, tazorac, differin) and some natural type cures like using lemon juice as toner, yadda yadda. seems like many of us have this exact same story!

SO my point is that nothing seems to be working for me and i've been especially fed up with trying and buying new things that don't work and my skin looks worse and worse under my makeup. so i decided to do something radical (for me) and stop wearing makeup, stop wearing lotions and stop using spot treatment. right now i'm rinsing my face 2x a day with lukewarm water and once daily using a nuetrogena naturals face and body bar in the morning because my skin tends to get little dry after washing. i'm also trying to drink at least 64 oz of water a day, taking a multi vitamin, and eating more fruits and veggies. since last summer cutting out meat and most dairy seemed to improve my skin i am gradually trying cut meat and dairy out as well.

right now my main concerns are 1. i want to try as many natural and gentle cures as possible. 2. i stopped wearing all this junk on my face about 4 days ago and my face is quite pink. some leftover blemishes but my main concern is some scarring and redness. the scars aren't deep but i think because of my very pale redhead coloring they appear red. is there any skin calming masks to make or foods to eat? and will this redness go away with time or should i look into it? 3. i don't like wearing makeup and would prefer not to if i can get away with it, but if i need to wear a lotion and makeup what would you suggest for dry and sensitive skin?

i want to skip class and work and stay in till this gets better but i can't! i know i need to suck it up and hang in there but i feel so bad about my skin any suggestions would be helpful! i'm going to try and come back and update this, hopefully i can help others too.

[catalinapicante]

I am happy to report that my skin is looking less red day by day! I've only had one new breakout by my nose and I think this is because I put some concealer on it yesterday since it was a little red in that area. Today i used no concealer or lotion of any kind and other than the one zit everything seems to be healing

I've read on a lot of these posts that positive thoughts are helpful in this process and I think they're right... I'm going to keep thinking positive, stop staring in the mirror and keep my head up (literally and metaphorically).

Some posts mentioned food that makes them break out, and I can only think of meat, dairy and hard alcohol but I'm going to try and pay attention to this. I'm also going to be taking a one a day for women vitamin and half a zinc pill (25 mg i think) daily if I can remember! Wish me luck!

[TexMurphy01]

Well yeah, there are many things you could try, each with varying levels of effort.

But, while you could try all of those, the simpler the routine, the better, so I'd stick with what you have now. Since there are some results, great. In my case, I have a godly diet, yet I can only get my acne down so far. So that's rather frustrating.

Still, I (and I'd say most of the people here) know exactly what you're going through. I wish you luck, as I'm sure does everyone else here.

[catalinapicante]

Thank you Tex! I agree with simpler is better. Good luck to you too!

My skin has definitely been less red than when I stopped everything, but I have gotten some more zits in the past couple days. Most of them are on the right side of my face because I tend to sleep and hold my phone on that side, so I'm going to try and sleep on my back if I can and try disinfecting my phone after each use (hopefully that won't ruin the screen). I've noticed I have a tendency to pick at my face when I'm bored or when staring into the mirror for too long and this makes it worse- I need to try and stop doing that. Otherwise most things are looking better- my skin isn't as dry as when I first started. Every other day I've done some light exfoliating with sugar, honey and a little ACV to get the dead skin off, rubbing very lightly.

Something I might try is drinking tumeric and water. It's supposed to have good properties and nobody has reported any bad side effects when ingested orally so why not; I bought some earlier in the year for cooking and never used it again.

Thanks for reading, good luck to you all!

[TexMurphy01]

Yeah. I even went so far as to change my pillow cases. Apparently the ones I have now are less likely to store up bacteria.

Still, my belief is that if and when I sort out my insides, I'll be able to pick and touch my face like everyone else. It might be a naive approach, but hey. Of course, I still try to refrain from touching my face and I wash my face twice daily with warm water.

A couple of common remedies people have mentioned are, firstly, vitamin B5 and, secondly, green smoothies (basically get yourself a smoothie with plenty of greens in daily). Oddly enough, I've never tried the first of the two, but it's fairly soon on my list as regards things to try.

If you feel like a read, check out the 'diet of freedom', it's a record of my efforts and what not. Possibly might provide some help.

[mei-ling]

Hey catalina, was checking in and wondering how you were getting along?
Did you try turmeric?