1 reply to this topic

[Menofmonsters]

ok.
im 19 and suffer from.....well.....i cant actually say what type of acne i suffer from because i cant find a specific description of what ever it is i have. But my main problem area is around my cheeks - which is hella annoying as i have very definaed cheekbones so when ever i get nasty cystic spots they flare up twice as much because whenever swelling ocurs against the bone with very little body fat between it always appears worse! plus, im a sucker for squeezing spots, terrible infact, i resist alot of the time but sometimes i just cant help it, i find the whole concept of a spot disgusting and the thought of having all that infection in my face makes me feel worse. Plus i model for a living and i cant be doing with having a huge acne pimple with a huge visible head on it (plus whenever i pop a spot or attempt to pop a spot i get about a 3-4cm circle of redness around it which takes about 3 hours to visibly disappear-my skins queer like that)

Anyway, my question,
i've been on erythromycin 250mg for i guess coming up a year or so now, before that i was on oxytetracycline for around the same time....the oxy worked really well, i noticed a vast improvement in like 4 months or so, but after a while it worked but just not to a degree whereby i could notice it further improving my condition, kinda like a plane taking off, it went up and up and up in improvement then just kinda levelled out, so then i went back to my quack where he gave me the erythro....i didnt like this stuff at first, trying to get the excess oxy out of my body and start a new course took AGES, i went for about 5 months with annoying spots and redness, inflammatory blemishes, the works, then things started to get better but not in the same way as it did with the oxy tablets. So i got a topical lotion called Zineryte to work alongside the pills. This was ok. improved slightly. improved the texture of my skin but spot wise only cleared up like a 3rd of the amount i had. So i replaced this with BP 2.5. At first, this was a GODSEND! i put it on the first time at night, and in 5 mins i could feel my skin tighten and tighten and i knew it was going to be a good thing. The first couple of weeks, my skin looked like it had been cooked, then rubbed with sand paper, i only used BP morning and night for 3 days and then didnt touch it for a week or so cos it hurt to apply the stuff. My skin was red and flakey and urgh!!....annoyingly sore, on the third week this went away and bagan using bp again, and it was working wonders. Im still using this now and with the same pills but i dont feel like there working as well as they did when i started using them, i used BP once a day at night, ive even started using some stuff called "freederm" cos its easier to wear during the day, plus if im on a photoshoot and they apply makeup over BP it comes out weird odd textured (maybe im using too much BP???) Anyway, this freederm stuff DOESNT work very well for me, to me its just like the bullshit they try and feed us in the "clearasil complete" adverts, so i'm considering upping the % of BP to 5% and looking into possible tablets replacements, however im curious to know what others have tried, how long they worked for etc etc.

so please leave a tag folks! id be most greatful!
John, UK

[hardertobreathe]

Hey
I've been on erythromycin and oxytetracycline (at different times!) before and i found that they didn't really do anything at all. I've never been on 2.5% bp i was put straight on 5% and at first it worked great, it got worse at first exactly like you said but pretty much all treatments make your skin worse before it gets better. However then it cleared a lot (not all) of my skin up. But now like you after a while my skin got too used to it and now it doesn't really do anything. I tried 10% but for me it didn't do anything the 5% couldn't do so i got put back on 5%. I find that the 5% now doesn't actually clear me up but it prevents really big breakouts. If i dont use bp for a couple of days i will get a big breakout, at least still using it keeps me levelled. For amounts of bp to use have a look at dans regimen he has pictures there and it shows how much you put on your finger.
I haven't tried freederm yet but if it doesnt work for you and bp did then you should try 5% cos it sounds like your skin is similar to mine. However it might stop working after a while when your skin gets used to it. And with the tablets well personally i dont think they do anything - i used them alongside bp and there was no significant change so i guess it was the bp doing whatever to my skin and the tablets not a lot! Anyway this post is probably a bit confusing but the basic gist is that upping the % probably will help just not for too long!