Acne.org Message Boards Community Blog List

Lindz's Blog - Day 21 - Accutane

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:49:44 -0600

I am not digging my skin right now! at all.
I'm pretty sure it might have to do with a combination of Initial breakout starting and those wonderful "monthly hormones" but my skin is getting worse, forsure. I thought it was getting better for a while there, such a little trick Claravis is playing on me! (not cool!) I hope this initial breakout doesn't last long, I don't want to look ugly for the Holidays when I get together with all my old high school friends on break and I look worse than they remember. I just can't wait to see results, my skin is just awful, all i want for Christmas is clear skin, LITERALLY, that's what I asked for from my parents was for them to pay for my doc visits, lol. My face is getting more dry, quickly, RIGHT when I get out of the shower I have to put lotion on, and the worst part is, is that I think my lotion (CeraVe) is contributing to the breakouts, has anyone had problems with CeraVe or found an amazing face lotion for using while on Accutane? ALSO- I can't find a good foundation make up, I'm using ALMAY and it basically blows, I'm regretting that purchase. Even though it's not going well right now- I'm being hopeful because I know people have amazing results. I just need to keep my chin up and trust.

silver&gold's Blog - day five and alive

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:09:23 -0600

hello, i am on day five now..my skin has cleared up kinda alot , like alot of the marks on my face have faded away...im getting little spots on my lower cheeks..but they go away and come back, other than that ,things are going alriight..so far. my lips are stiff if i dont put aquaphor..so yepyep.

oh i have a tip for dry body skin

once you get out of the shower, put johnsons baby oil on wet skin..than pat dry with towel.
works better than lotion! ..im totally going to avoid dry body skin by doing this.

<3

i cant wait for the day i get to wake up, and wash my face to clear skin. =)

Evelady's Blog - Day 5

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:41:22 -0600

Hello there. So the swelling is much better! The crust is gone except in two tiny scabby parts but the rest is really smooth. Can't comment yet on the scarring. Or I'd just rather not until the swelling is all gone. If you're reading this you're probably thinking "get to how the scars look already!" lol But I want to hold off on commenting on those until I'm closer to almost all heeled and can really gauge the difference. But the skin quality is (although red) just beautiful. It feels almost too smooth. I have a few tiny white heads but most of them slide off when I wash my face.

I know what you mean...all the raw bits of Quezya - UGH DAMN YOU OREO COOKIES

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:43:16 -0600

I'm so sick of this processed food allergy! I have to eat processed food to see if I have a bad reaction. WHY? Because if I'm out and I can't get a natural meal or eat something for my hypoglycemia I need processed food alternatives. There are processed foods that I can eat but its such a hard road to take when if you ave a bad reaction your screwed for the next few hours or even the rest of the day. I ate 3 oreo cookies and now I'm suffering from a huge headache and some confusion. THREE COOKIES!!!! UGH. I need to lay down and calm down cause I'm getting pissed off at the dogs and at this shitty body plagued with illness.

stinkeychezman's Accutane Blog - the power of the mind...

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:40:26 -0600

It is amazing to me that just knowing that I will be starting Accutane has miraculously cleared up most of my skin. Could it be that stress is really that big of a trigger? Just one lone zit mocking me... I hope the derm doesn't take a look at me in two weeks and change her mind. Or maybe it is just the sheer joy of having one week off work for Thanksgiving break!

Kye's Blog - Same old bumps

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:29:56 -0600

So I guess I was hoping for a vast improvement.

So far my skin texture has changed but I am still getting HUGE bumps and puss busting nasties on my neck and face. I will be trying on gowns in one month and all I really want is to be slightly clear by then. I go back to the DERM on the 14th so I am hoping after he sees that there is no improvement we can really get on this!!

Some days I feel so ugly =/ Sad part is I cannot tan right now so with my pale skin it looks even worse. I do not understand how we can treat cancer but there is no quick fix for acne. Doesn't make sense.

BLAH

jennuhhfurrx's Blog - Week 4: Day 23

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:09:12 -0600

I'm at week four of my first month! WOO. I go to get my blood work on Monday, November 23 and I have my first dermatologist appointment since I started Accutane on November 30. The updates that I have are that washing my hair every other day is doing wonders for my dry scalp, and the best part: my hair DOES NOT get oily! I love it. Also, I have not blotted oil off my face in over 2 weeks which is also awesome! My chin has been mostly re-moisturized thank god! I have a few pretty dry, flaky spots on my chin still but much better than what it was on Tuesday. I have a painful spot in the right corner of my mouth. I think it may just be really dry skin that cracked open so I caked on the vaseline and we'll see how that moisturizes throughout the night. I am just so excited that I'm on week 4, mostly because I have successfully taken every single pill that I have except one time I missed it and it was too close to squeeze it in before my night time dose. I am curious to know what my dermatologist will think of my progress so far... I wrote a list of questions and side effects I have to discuss with him. I am going to ask him if he's going to up my dose or not and a few things that I've read about that have helped people to see if they'd be right for me. I do not want to start taking vitamins and using products that I read about other people using before checking with him to make sure that they don't mix in the wrong way or whatever. Here is my list to take to my dermatologist appointment on Monday:
side effects:
1.dry scalp (started during beginning of week 3)
2.back pain (started during week 3)
3. knee/joint pain (sporadic, not real concerned about it)
4. rash on the back of my hand (this occurred during 1/2 week and went away)
5. blood when i blow my nose (this started during week 3)
products that other people have used:
1. emu oil for acne scars
2. can i exfoliate or is my skin too sensitive?
3. will black heads clear up (i can already see a pretty big improvement on this)
4. taking vitamin E to combat dryness
5. taking vitamin D for joint pain
6. taking vitamin B to help prevent hair loss
various questions:
1. will you be upping my dose?
2. how long will I be on it?

I believe that that is all that I have to update on. Will post again in a few days

<3

Adult Non-Inflammatory Acne Hell - KEY ingredients are not ALL the ingredients :(

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:07:16 -0600

Little hint: when an anime character looks at you with enormous doe eyes and says "YES! Only two ingredients!", Do Not Believe Them!!!

After about 4 days of using FANCL washing powder, I began to get suspicious, because it seemed like I was beginning to break out! Not in a huge huge way. One small pimple under my nose, and one of those oh-so-attractive jawline pimples. "But," I reasoned with infallible logic, "It couldn't be the FANCL -- It's so pure! Only amino acids! It must be that ... hm .... MY SKIN IS DRY!". So I ran (not walked) back to FANCL and asked them about my pimples. They tested my skin using some kind of futuristic zapper machine, and said "It's dry!!! It's OFFICIALLY DRY!!!!!", and then proceeded to insist that I needed a moisture lotion, and a moisture cream (each of those were $15USD -- that seems to be the magic price at FANCL), and that these would (TOGETHER, no - you can't buy Just One) solve all my problems in the entire world. I demanded to know the ingredients in the toner/lotion, and was impressed, AGAIN, that there were only TWO INGREDIENTS in each of them! Wow -- what a pure product!! (cue doe-eyed anime slow-blink).

So home I got, and I lathered and lathered, and lo and behold, an hour later, MORE PIMPLES! WHAT? "My skin must be detoxing" I reasoned, letting my inner genius out to play again. I optimistically let my skin "detox" over night, and in the morning found enormous pussy pimples proliferating all over my face. And as if that weren't enough, huge spots of contact dermatitis were breaking out all over my cheeks and eye area (ouch!)

AGH! WHAT THE H-E-Double Hockey Sticks was going ON!?

So I decided to appeal to my best ever friend: GOOGLE! I googled FANCL, washing powder, INGREDIENTS, and was distressed to find the following:
KEY INGREDIENTS: Amino Acids
INGREDIENTS:
Mannitol, Sodium Palmoyl Glutamate, Glucose, Potassium, Myristoyl Glutamate, Zea Mays (Corn) Starch, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Sodium Stearoyl Glutamate, Pullulan, Sodium Lauroyl Aspartaye, Potassium Myristate, Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Serine, Allantoin, Dextran Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride

Ah -- KEY ingredients. KEY ingredients. PUBLIC ingredients. I see. Fantastic. So there are two kinds! And apparently the anime characters at FANCL are only allowed to reveal the KEY ones, while your skin gets to experience the full effect of ALL the (SECRET) ingredients, including the horrifyingly clogging burning ones.

I'd been FOOLED by FANCL!!!

Now, interestingly, none of "secret ingredients" are on the list of "commonly found comedogenic ingredients". But they kind of sound similar to some of the worst offenders. Of most concern are the Myri___ ingredients: Myristoyl Glutamate and Potassium Myristate. They sound like they are at least in some way related to Myristic Acid which is a 3, or Isopropyl Myristate, which is a 5!! And as we all know, just because something isn't on the list, doesn't mean it's not comedogenic, it just means it hasn't been specifically tested. Harumph.

Time to let my skin recover.

I rinsed my face with distilled water, and applied my 3:4 mix of Apple Cider Vinegar to distilled water (to get the PH of the ACV up to 5.5). The redness of the contact dermatitis receded before my very eyes!

But the dryness remained.

So I did some searching around this wonderful website to try to find some ideas, specifically for moisturizing my "officially dry" skin, and came up with glycerine and aloe mixed together. 4 parts aloe gel, 1 part glycerine. Cheap, and completely non-comedogenic. I invested $2.10USD on some glycerine, and used the aloe gel I had in the fridge already (Aubrey organic, pure aloe gel), and mixed. Delightful! Slather slather slather and POOF! Dryness gone. In fact, dryness was gone for so long, that I didn't need to moisturize the next morning -- I just applied my ACV mix, and my skin still felt supple and happy.

And now, just one day later, I'm inflammation free. PHEW.

Now, if only I could get these under-skin horrors to disappear. Back to the drawing board on that

Á bientot!!
E.

ginnylondon's Blog - Day 5

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:27:47 -0600

Day five and although I haven't noticed any changes to my acne yet, the nausea after taking the pill in the mornings is really getting to me. Very annoying! Today I had to eat about an hour afterwards, as I felt so nauseous. Really hope this symptom lessens soon as I don't want to give up on the medication.

I still have the two spots on my cheek, they're slightly bigger but other than that no change to my spots. The only change in my face is that it is A LOT oilier than usual during the day. Tonight I've left out the jojoba, to see if that makes any difference. My face is currently like an oil slick, very unattractive, and blotting papers don't really sort out the problem.

I hope the antibiotic kicks in soon!

I know what you mean...all the raw bits of Quezya - What I use for topical treatment

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:01:56 -0600

So Yesterday I had the morning smoothie which I wrote about but then later on I had another one. This one I added soy milk. Bad Idea. I'm a true believer in the glorious taste of FULL FAT milk. The soy added this nasty health drink taste/vibe that I didn't like. I also tried applying Apple Cider Vinegar to my skin after washing it around 5pm. It stung like I knew it would. It smelled at first to which is an automatic given. At around 11 I washed my face again applying a neutrogenea spot treatment gel.

Which brings me to a message I received on here asking me what I use. So heres the list...

First and foremost I take Tetracycline everyday twice a day. Its $4 for a months supply. Its a prescription only pill which helps by reducing my acne about 40%. There was a topical cream she also gave me but I've run out and don't remember its name. it helped another 10-20%. For the topical over the counter front...

I use neutrogena :

1: Rapid clear oil eliminating foaming cleanser
2: Acne stress control power clear scrub
3: Oil free acne wash daily scrub
4: Oil free acne stress control power foam wash
5: The wave with deep clean pads
6: Rapid clear acne elimiating spot gel
7: Advanced solutions acne mark fading peel

Plus I also have clean and clear

8: Advantage 3 in 1 exfoliating cleanser
9: Advantage oil free acne moisturizer

Now I'm not using all of these at the same time but I like to use something different everyday for the most part. I've found that my skin reacts better to different cleansers rather than just one. I'm going to toss out whats left of 2... Don't buy it people its not very good. It doesn't feel nice it doesn't clean very well and I never saw results with it. Also number 1 doesn't do anything really. It just reduces the oil a little. I wouldn't buy that one either. Number 7 should only be used on closed nicer skin. If you need to use it like I do only apply it to acne free areas. Its not good to put it on open acne spots. Number 9 is nice but I prefer the neutrogenea moisturizer because its lighter and yet it still treats skin.

If you were to only try one thing on here I would recommend 5 or 6 both do a nice job with visible results within the first day to first few days.

Moving back to yesterday. I liked what the Apple Cider Vinegar did for my skin. If you read my previous blog you would know that I tried Lemon juice just the day before. Both are worth trying on the home remedy front in my opinion. My skin is defiantly nicer since starting this blog three days ago. Another thing is last night I swapped out my usual milk for soy milk in my nightly cereal. I'm not sure about soy. There are people out there who have bad acne reactions to it and those who have great results. I might have to keep and eye out considering all the denominators have going on right now.

ONE LAST THING: Stress is a big factor. Even if the stress itself doesn't have a negative effect on your skin the things you do when stressed will. You tend to eat more comfort foods, more easy meals (fast food) you also care less about things being perfect so you might do things like skip washing your face or spend more time picking because your agitated or worried. I think that people give chocolate a bad wrap when it comes to acne because when your stressed or emotional you tend to eat more of it. Anyways I'm glad that some of you a reading and happy that I'm getting profile and album views.