10 replies to this topic

[acowles]

Hi, I have light acne and pretty oily skin. right now im dealing with a breakout thats been going on for about 3 weeks.

im not sure what im doing wrong / how do i clear up my skin?

one pic is in natural light w/ flash and one is in natural light, without flash. sorry the pictures are pretty gross..

my skin care routine is

morning:
wash with olay foaming face wash for oily/combo skin
tone with DIY ACV toner
moisturize with olay complete

night:
remove makeup
wash 2x with same olay face wash
tone with same toner
retin-a .04%
moisturize if needed
spot treatment with either diluted tea tree oil or 10 % BP

i will use a clay mask 1x a week, and exfoliate with lush's ocean salt 2-4x (depends)

*ive also been trying to drink lots more water. i eat lots of spinach salads

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[Chestercool]

i told you the best cure in other posts, have you already tried it?

retin-a just work for some people, for how long have you been using it, 10% benzoyl peroxide is way too much, it had been proven that 2.5% concentration works better. In contrat, whose producst might be irritating you face and not letting clear your skin itself. I recommend repeating your morning routine in the night, and change spot treatment to 10-12% glycolic acid or aloe vera/honey

[alexisc]

I would recommend removing dairy, sugar and wheat from your diet for a few weeks and see if it makes a difference. If it does you can try adding these foods back in one by one to find out how your body reacts to them through your skin. Eat lot's of fresh fruits and veggies and drink tons of water. I bet you will start seeing a big difference.

[jennifer36]

Look into diet changes, they've helped me more than anything else.

About your regimen, there's a few things that jump out at me as potentially harmful. Maybe it's just me though, since I have super sensitive skin and despise chemicals. I looked up the ingredients in your cleanser and moisturizer and ran them individually through the EWG skindeep database. Quite a few of them seem dangerous to me.

The cleanser contains sodium lauroyl sarcosinate, iodopropynyl butylcarbamate both are moderate risks on the EWG skindeep database. As well, more dangerous, it contains dmdm hydantoin which receives a hazard rating of 7-8, which is HUGE on a scale that only goes up to 9.

The moisturizer contains octisalate, homosalate, octocrylene, dimethicone, benzyl alcohol, hydroxyethyl acrylate, polysorbate 60, iodopropynyl butylcarbamate, peg-4, methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, peg-100 stearate which are all moderate risks on the skindeep database. Also, again more dangerously, it contains peg-4 laurate, peg-4 dilaurate which both receive high risk ratings between 6-8.

As well they both contain fragrance, which is usually synthetic and is generally a no-no for acne-prone skin. It's quite possible that the products you're using are exacerbating your acne problem.

10% BP seems rather harsh to me and could cause permanent damage to your skin, like Chestercool said, try a lower concentration. I'm in favour of tea tree oil over BP though since it's all natural. It works wonders on my skin. My TTO is diluted with vitamin e oil, but you could try buying pure TTO and diluting it with jojoba.

Also, be careful exfoliating your skin. When you have inflammatory acne, often exfoliation makes the problem worse. For me it most definitely does. I feel like it just spreads bacteria around on my skin and into previously clear pores. Be careful with the clay mask you are using. I've only ever found one which I approve of the ingredients on, made by derma e. You could look into making your own with bentonite and/or kaolin clay.

I feel like a huge part of my acne issue stems from using harsh, dangerous chemical filled products on my skin when I was younger. When I stopped using harsh chemicals and harsh cleansers/moisturizers my skin improved significantly. This was probably about a year and a half ago. When I changed my diet a few months ago my skin got so much better, about a 90-95% reduction. Much more than any product I've ever used, including accutane which never kept me clear. Recently I have given up almost all chemicals in all parts of my body and skincare routine. This has helped my skin further. My regimen is in my signature if you're curious!

Consider simplifying your regimen and eliminating some of the harsh chemicals you're using. Not only could they be making your acne worse, they could be causing your body serious, long term damage.

[acowles]

thank you for all the replies!

jennifer36- yes i understand everything you're saying i just recently started using the olay face wash, and even more recently; the olay moisturizer. before i had been cleansing with my face with this trader joes tea tree face wash (which i think broke me out horribly so thats why i switched to the olay) and cera-ve moisturizer. i guess ill return the olay lotion. thank you!

+ where did you buy your manuka honey?

[jennifer36]

I bought it at my local health food store called Nature's Emporium, it's not a chain or anything. I'd say check out Whole Foods or any good health food store near you probably carries it. I buy Wedderspoon brand UMF 16+ manuka honey.

I've actually heard of various tea tree face washes breaking people out, I'm not sure exactly why this is though. A girl I work with was breaking out a little bit, bought The Body Shop brand tea tree face wash and her breakouts just got worse. I told her to buy The Soap Works creamy clay soap (I used to use this but my skin is too sensitive and dried out) and spot treat with TTO and it cleared up her skin pretty fast. She's lucky though, she eats like crap and has little to no skin issues on a regular basis.

I try not to buy skincare products, but when I do I only buy things available at health food stores and always check them on EWG's skincare database before I use them.

Let me know if you have any more questions!

[acowles]

my parents are thinking of getting me a clarisonic mia for my early birthday since i found one on ebay. if i used that once a day (at night) would that be fine?

[jennifer36]

As long as your acne is non-inflammatory acne it would probably be okay. I know if I used one my skin would break out like crazy since I have inflammatory acne. Just exfoliating makes my skin break out.

There are users on here that do use the clarisonic and like it a lot, I just know it wouldn't work for me. There are tons of reviews on the clarisonic and probably lots of threads you could look into about it as well!

[acowles]

how do i tell if my acne is non- inflammatory or inflammatory?

Edited by acowles, 30 January 2012 - 11:01 PM.

[jennifer36]

Better than me explaining it, look at the "What is Acne?" page under the "Acne Info" section of this website. There's lots and lots of info/diagrams there.

http://www.acne.org/whatisacne.html

Edited by jennifer36, 31 January 2012 - 12:42 AM.

[Samsamsamsamsam]

You're washing your face twice at night? I think that's over washing, I'd stick to 2x a day total.