5 replies to this topic

[shenanigansSG]

New here, just thought I'd share my regimen; basically what has helped me keep my acne under control for the past 8 months or so.

Earlier this year in Feb I saw Dr. Ong at the NIKS maple clinic in Singapore for something to help me with my moderate-moderately severe acne.

Here's my current regimen:

EDIT!: forgot to mention the cleanser I use!
NIKS vitamin A cleansing lotion, just a rather basic non-lathering cleanser.

Morning:
0) NIKS vitamin A cleansing lotion
1) NIKS glycol 12 gel - 12% glycolic acid
2) NIKS aroma acne clear gel (I think this is basically a toner, smells very alcoholic, supposed to treat and prevent breakouts...)
3) Clindagel 1% - 1% clindamycin (topical antibiotic)
4) Neutrogena oil-free moisture, combination skin
5) Neutrogena Ultra sheer dry touch sunblock - SPF 30 when I'm in the UK, and SPF 50+ when I'm in Singapore

Night:
0) NIKS vitamin A cleansing lotion
1) NIKS glycol 15 cream - 15% glycolic acid cream
EDIT: stopped using glycolic acid at night in case it might in activate the tretinoin
2) NIKS aroma acne clear gel
3) Clindagel 1%
4) Neutrogena oil-free moisture, combination skin
5) Stieva-A, tretinoin cream USP 0.1%

Of course I didn't start with tretinoin 0.1% straight away, I went to the clinic every 4 weeks, and though I can't exactly remember, it went something like this:
First visit: aroma acne clear gel, Clindagel, moisturiser, sunblock, tretinoin 0.025%
Second visit: added glycolic acid 10% gel, tretinoin increased to 0.05%
Third visit: glycolic acid increased to 12%
Fourth visit: added glycol 15%, tretinoin increased to 0.1%

She did initially give me sunblock and moisturiser from the clinics own range, but they were too expensive and I preferred the ones from neutrogena anyway.

This has significantly helped my acne. I started seeing a dramatic improvement about 5 weeks into the regimen, and it's been improving/maintained ever since (from about 15 active pimples to about 2 at a time, sometimes none at all!). Now that uni has started I am breaking out a bit more from the stress/change in environment etc. but absolutely nothing compared to when school was starting for me a year ago.

Now I'm moving on and looking for something to help me with my scars. And if you're wondering, I got my scars before I started seeing Dr. Ong. I don't think I got any scars from this regimen; I remember breaking out quite a bit on my forehead when I was starting with the tretinoin, and now my forehead is virtually scarless...

And anyone from Singapore who is suffering from acne, I truly recommend visiting Dr. Ong. The stuff ain't cheap but it really works. The only problem is that the queue to see her is really, really long. (it's a walk in clinic). And you have to go to the clinic like 1-2 hours before it opens just to get your queue number...

OK that's all, sorry if this is a really long post. Feel free to ask anything

-L

Edited by shenanigansSG, 14 December 2011 - 02:47 AM.

[Paperboy Bike]

Good to hear it's working for you but the night section doesn't make any sense! Glycolic acid inactivates the Tretinoin so its of no use!

[shenanigansSG]

Hmmm really? I've never heard that before. Only heard you shouldn't use BP and tretinoin together...

Just a quick google search and I found this abstract:

www ncbi nlm nih gov/pubmed/15724102 (replace spaces with . )

or just google: "ncbi Pharmacology of RALGA, a mixture of retinaldehyde and glycolic acid"

seems that some retinoids may have 'potentially complementary activities' when used with glycolic acid. Though they mentioned retinaldehyde which isn't exactly tretinoin? I'm not sure, and I'm certainly no expert on this...

Interesting point though...

[Paperboy Bike]

Here ya go,

[shenanigansSG]

Oh ok, thanks for the link!
I might try cutting out the acid at night and just use it during the day and see what happens...

[Paperboy Bike]

Yeah I don't think it has been proven that it defitnley does inactivate the Retin-A but I just use my glycolic during the day to be safe.