25 replies to this topic

[vegasgirl]

I am currently on my 2nd month and 2 weeks exactly today.

History: Took accutane last year, cleared up beautifully, 6 months later acne gradually came back. Suffering moderate persistent acne. Now on Dan's regimen after some research on the web.

So I will summarize what has happened in the last 2 months and 1/2. The first week - second week I was clearing and it was surprising that it was working so fast. Once I hit the 3rd week I began breaking out. Then from then on the breakouts got worse and worse and my face was at its LOWEST point, it was awful.

Right now, I'm still breaking out. My face looks horrid from the constant draining of cysts. Oh another thing my acne never consisted of painful deep cysts. My breakouts consists of many of these cysts now on the sides of my cheeks now and it's so painful.

Honestly, I can't catch a break with this regimen. Why will it not kick in?! It is so frustrating, painful, and embarrassing.

I am using the right amount of BP (a finger's length morning / night), washing gently for under 10 sec, and moisturizing gently.

[accushame!]

shit.. you might be having an adverse reaction to the BP. last year i tried to clear my mild acne with salicylic acid, i figured it was in almost every acne type cleanser so it would work for my skin. turns out im allergic or something because the salicylic acid is what turned my mild acne into moderate-severe acne.. i was COVERED in cysts, enough for a walk-in clinic doctor to prescribe me accutane (no joke). anyways, just a thought, but if you started with mild and are now at the point of getting painful cysts, maybe your skin doesnt tolerate bp just like mine didnt tolerate salicylic acid!

[vegasgirl]

How do I know for sure if I'm indeed allergic to benzoyl peroxide? It's not like I swell or anything... hmm do you think I am really allergic to it? I thought I was simply just purging like crazy.

[accushame!]

no i dont think youre allergic to it, but ur skin might be extra sensitive to it. idk im not a doctor lol you should go see a derm and ask him what he thinks is going on. but like i said salicylic acid did that to my face, i thought it was an initial breakout and that my skin was purging so i stuck to it for a couple months and it kept getting worse and worse and worse.

[vegasgirl]

so i'm still breaking out... hmm getting discouraged once again but hopefully it just means i'm purging ... nothing new to report really

[vegasgirl]

oops i accidentally added a new post meaning to add a reply but i don't know how to delete a post.. anyone know? lol

anyways, i am still breaking out like usual. Getting discouraged, nothing new really. hopefully this phase goes away soon because i am seriously fed up with these painful/itchy bumps!

[c'est la vigne]

Members can't delete posts, but I've merged your new post into this thread for you. ; )

[christinatinaxo]

are you using Dans products the acne.org products?

[vegasgirl]

thanks c'est la vigne! and yes i am using dan's products except i just recently switched moisturizers to neutrogena's oil free sensitive skin moisturizer just because i've always used it with no problems and i hated dan's moisturizer after 2 months of faithfully using it. it felt tacky and it just didn't feel right but i use his cleanser, bp, aha.

Oh btw just to share some positive feed back i have been using dan's aha on my chest/back for really mild acne and i'm basically almost 90% clear with maybe one little bump here and there the aha really worked well for my body.. WOOHOO haha but as for my face it's still being bumpy lol -__-

do you guys recommend me starting to use aha as a moisturizer every other day or something? i heard that helps... and i am pretty much good about handling my dryness and i never got red maybe it's because i'm asian and i just don't get red in general...

not giving up anytime soon!

[SunniMarie]

I really like that you're not giving up just because things aren't going exactly how you expected/wanted them to! I also told myself that i'm giving myself 6 months & i refuse to quit before then. I mean, i'd have acne either way if it doesn't work, right? And i'm gonna spend that 30 bucks or so every two months that i'm currently spending on Dan's products on SOMETHING so it might as well be something that could work, right?! Right! Anyway, i'm on my third week now, and i think i am at the tail-end of the "two-week breakout" Dan mentions in the What to Expect chart... It was pretty rough, but i think and am hopeful that this means i'm on my way to clearer skin!

So, good luck, and keep sticking it out!!

[vegasgirl]

exactly what i was thinking sunnimarie! but call me crazy but today i feel like things were better with my skin! like lately i haven't been getting anymore cysts which is such a blessing literally lol and all the cysts i had are gone now and some are just dying off and they go away faster now but a couple weeks ago it was just cyst after cysts and they wouldn't go away like i would drain them and they would just reappear the next day it was so terrible.

I have been good about using the full dosage of bp and being extra gentle maybe that's whats helping a lot oh and i changed my moisturizer to the neutrogena oil free for sensitive skin that i loved!

even though my skin is horrid Ok i guess im exaggerating because i'm the critic here but i have been going out lately which i basically refused a month ago because my break out was pretty bad.. but honestly it's just acne i have bad skin genes get over it.. actually i need to get over it haha. so yes i have another party to attend tonight and i'm hoping make up will do the trick and i'll have a blast

I know this is going to work because I have never broken out this bad from a product and purged other than accutane and accutane did indeed clear me up completely so i just have to keep it up! and for the rest of you on the regimen.. DON'T GIVE UP !

[xjessaminx]

Hey just wishing you good luck! I'm a week behind I think and in about this last week I've suddenly gone from terrible break outs to noticeably clearer skin finally (I have pretty bad red marks but they're another issue!) I'm reeeally dry since upping my bp though (took me a while longer to finally get there) which is a bit crappy but get there in the end I hope ;p I'm going to give this around 6 months to work as well before going back to my dr. x

Edited by xjessaminx, 10 August 2011 - 02:16 PM.

[SunniMarie]

I'm almost halfway through my third week on Dan's regimen & (knock on wood) my skin seems to be clearing up again, too!

Also, i just ordered & received Dan's jojoba oil today! I can't wait to start using it for the flakiness that i'm still facing... I'm going to use it as an exfoliater (exfoliant?) in the morning, as one person described in a previous post. I'll let you know how it goes! Also, I didn't expect Dan's jojoba oil to be so big; it's going to last FOREVER since you're only "supposed" to use 5-6 drops at a time. So before going to a drugstore and paying almost the same price for a 2 oz. size of jojoba oil, i really recommend ordering Dan's 8 oz. It's only a few dollars more & really will last me forever.

So, good luck to all you newbies out there trying the regimen (like me!)!!

Edited by SunniMarie, 10 August 2011 - 06:56 PM.

[vegasgirl]

xjessaminx: yay! I'm glad your clearing up. I'm actually finally not breaking out as much .. I think it's slowly kicking in now! Just need to get rid of current actives/red marks but my hope is coming back I started the AHA last night and i pretty much love it it makes my skin so smooth... I'm going to use it every night.. maybe that's too much ? Not sure but I'm really loving the aha.

[tranceaddict]

every night is probably a little bit too much. I would do every 3-4 days, then slowly progress to every other day. just my $.02

[vegasgirl]

Yeah good idea I'll use it 3 times a week and then every other day. But today I woke up my face is smoother less actives LESS CYSTS thank goodness it's more like regular pimples now thank goodness at least i can handle the regular pimples but cysts are just like unmanageable deep pits of death.

So less breaking out. I just need to heal from the past 2 months of breakouts and the scabs/redmarks that were left. Finally healing

It's comforting to know that even though I'm breaking out and whatever I'm ultimately in a "process" of healing. Like before I would use products and be like omgsh i'm clear now but i might break out the next morning.. with the regimen I know that Im constantly getting better. Even though I did purge it was for good reason now i don't have those tens of small under the skin acne on my cheeks because evidently they all erupted into cysts and pimples haha! They were all needing to surface anyway ... I guess people see the initial breakout as a bad thing because they impatiently just want FAST FAST results and their acne to just magically zap away back into the skin like I did... but if you think about it all those small teeny bumps and clogged pores to purge in order to heal. If it just stayed and sunk back in it would just create problems forever! So even a 3 month purge like my case is well worth it as long as the end of the road is crystal clear skin

Don't be discouraged guys! just be patient. (that is a quite an understatement)

[vegasgirl]

still breaking out a little but a lot less and a lot less painful skin looks clearer though my forehead, tzone, back, and chest are pretty much clear just waiting on those cheeks haha

feeling happier about the regimen

i'll keep you guys posted.

[vegasgirl]

the sides of my cheeks seem to be healing but the sides of the apples of my cheeks are kind of breaking out a little. hanging in! it's like i'm progressing while i break out a little if that makes any sense lol.

hopefully college will keep me so occupied i won't even have time to worry about my acne!

[vegasgirl]

DAY 73

Here I'll put the day I'm on now so it' clearer to more people how I'm progressing haha.

Well it's been 10 weeks and 3 days, so almost 3 months but not quite. Same deal, I'm still breaking out (much less though) but at the same time my overall complexion looks smoother, everything seems to be healing faster. My problem areas are still mainly the sides of my cheeks but just trying really hard to have faith in the regimen and push on.

The similarities between accutane are so insane! I broke out just like this, maybe even more on DKR! On accutane I broke out sparingly like a controllable amount at once each month and it lasted about 5 months but on the regimen I instantly just broke out everywhere and I got bumps at once which was so overwhelming! Hopefully it won't drag on to 5 months though... The dryness is familiar like when I was on accutane except it's only my face! Not my arms, legs, and lips. Anyways venting out on here always helps so bare with me haha.

hopefully tomorrow will be another progressive day

[xjessaminx]

Hey glad to hear things are still looking up for you! A lot of people say that the regimen takes longer than the three months to get clear/stay clear so there's still plenty of time for the break outs to stop happening. Keeping positive and pushing on is hard but I have faith it'll be worth it in the end (: