I don't know what to do

I am always depressed about my skin lately. I have been off of accutane for almost a year now and my skin is not awful- but there is always SOMETHING. You know what I mean. I am back to my old habit of running my fingers over my face when I wake up to feel what broke out overnight. Not if- what. Sometimes there's very little and it's mostly small things but I'm starting to build up red marks again. I have tons of closed comedones but I'm scared to get a facial bacause unless the person is really good it makes me break out worse. I just bumped up my use of mandelic acid a few weeks ago and somedays I think its getting better and others I'm convinced it's only going to get worse. I don't know if this is a purge from the mandelic acid or this is just how my skin has become. The bottom line is that it's depressing me. especially since I am looking for a job- in the beauty industry no less. I'm going to try and find a clinic where I can get discounted services (no insurance) because if this doesn't get better soon I'll have to go back on accutane. I've spent more than half my life in this problem. I guess I just wanted to rant a little to people who would understand. BTW I use retin-a every other night also.

Advice on rose hip seed oil

I read some good things about using rose hip seed oil as moisturizer and I like the idea of using something natural. So I found some at my local health food store and was all excited until I read on the box that it is not recommended for acne prone skin, which I obviously have. Anyone have experience using this good or bad? My skin is really touchy right now and I don't want to do something to set it off. I REALLY want to try this. Thanks for any input.

sad and confused

Hey, I'm a 26 year old female and I've had acne since I was 11. I've been on almost any prescription there is: Clindamyacin, differin, retin-a, retin-a micro, minocyclin, doryx, glycolic acid 10%, benzoyl peroxide... the list goes on. About 2 years ago it started flaring up really badly and I freeaaked out. I was so depressed I never wanted to leave the house. If I hadn't had bills to pay I wouldn't have even gone to work. I ended up on accutane.

It worked great, my skin was clear and for the first time I wasn't waking up every morning and running to the mirror to check my face. After I was done with accutane I was so sure I would never need to worry again but a few months later I was getting minor breakouts. I went back to the derm and got 0.025% retin-a. Now it's been almost 8 months off accutane. Some days my skin is pretty good but some days it's not. I feel like I'm back on the roller-coaster. My acne is not nearly as bad as it was before but there's always SOMETHING and I can feel lot's of little things under my skin. I'm starting to get depressed and obsess about it. I'm even considering going back on accutane though I can't really afford it right now. Has anyone had better luck with a second course of accutane than with the first? Or any other ideas or advice? This was not the way I wanted to spend my summer.

accutane after everything else

Okay so I've been looking at the logs on this site for weeks now and reading everybody's stuff has helped me decide to go on accutane. Today I took my first pill and decided to start a log- I wanted to start one before but I was too superstitious. I felt like I shouldn't start a log until I got the medication, that if I did maybe it would jinx me and I would have problems with getting the medication. Here is my history for anyone who's interested- I am a 25 year old female and I have had acne since I was 11 ( I hit puberty early which anyone will tell you is not fun, all my friends still had the perfect skin of little kids and I had acne and a bra) Anyway first my mom tried getting me facials and buying me cleansers and OTC stuff. Needless to say it didn't work. When I was thirteen I saw my first dermatologist after a year of begging and he gave me clindamyacin and sulfoxyl. At that point I had acne mostly on my forehead and chin and very badly on my back. The clindamyacin and sulfoxyl worked pretty well until I was 17 and became immune to the clindamyacin. My skin got worse and worse and by that age my acne was cystic and mostly on my jawline, cheeks and chin ( also still on my back) Then I started on a round of several antibiotics and also used 15% glycolic acid pads. This sort of worked. I also tried proactive, acnezine, Glymed, liver cleanses and diets of no sugar, dairy or wheat. None of those worked, and some of them ( proactive and Glymed) irritated my skin really badly. Finally when I was 21 my skin was really bad again and in desperation I followed the system in this book called the acne cure. I was amazed, it worked really well. until one year ago my skin was mostly under control. Only a few pimples a month. Then last year it started again. First a few more than usual, I figured it was just stress or a bad month so I went back to the full acne cure program ( you do it intensely for a few months and then do a milder version after) but this time I started getting red itchy spots and my skin kept breaking out. Then it just got worse and worse. By 4 months ago my skin was never without a couple of cysts. I finally saw another dermatologist. He gave me Retin-a micro and doxycycline and told me to use BP in the daytime. He said it would purge at first and then get better. Eight weeks later my skin was a nightmare. I had probably 30 actives on my face. Worse than my skin had ever been in my life. It was so painful I couldn't sleep. Everyday I would bet home from work and cry for hours. I stopped using the Retin-a micro and saw another derm. Derms have told me before abot accutane, usually they say, "well let's try this and if it doesn't work we might need to do accutane." This derm looked at a list of all the prescriptions I've been on and said , "you need to do accutane." I had always said I would never do accutane, I had heard so many scare stories about it and what it could do to your health. The derm said we should at least do the first blood test so that if I decided to do it I could start in 30 days. So I went on line and started doing research and found that soooo many people said it worked and the really bad side effects I had heard about were rare. I decided to do it. My Dad said great, my aunt said great, my brother said he was glad I was doing it. My mom freaked. After a very long and tearful conversation she finally said she understood and that as long as I was careful..... God- I just realized how long this is. If anyone has actually read this far I congratulate you. So no more rambling.

Day 1

Right now my skin has about 6 actives but none of them are cysts- which is better than it's been for awhile but cheeks are literally covered with red marks. I am using the acnefree kit from walgreens and I will continue to use their stuff the first week of accutane until my skin gets dryer. I am taking 40 mg of amnesteen a day and hoping I get lucky and this will be my miracle. If anyone has any advice for someone starting out I'll take allllll the help I can get. Good luck to us all- Lain