Minocin and Differin

I was trying to get rid of this on my own, but I realized that I need help.

I went to my GP yesterday, and she started me on a skin regime. If this doesn't work, she'll refer me to a derm. But I'm hopeful.

Since I was around 11, I've had a couple floating pimples at all times, probably hormonal. I only broke out on my forehead and chin. My skin was good all-around, but I was always pretty self-conscious.

My normal regime was to was my face with Dove and a buff puff in the shower every morning, and then put lotion (any kind) on.

When I was 19, I started using my friend's old Cleocin. It worked great, and my skin was perfect- the best it ever was.

I stopped using the Cleocin abruptly. I got an eczma rash on my cheeks that went away in a week with Hydrocortasone cream. Then I got a few pimples, the worst of which were a pair on my right cheek.

I started breaking out more and more. The two pimples on my cheek left large red marks that eventually turned brown.

I was self-conscious about my worsening face for a year.

Last summer, when I was 20, it started looking great, and I was jogging every day. Then I stopped jogging, and my face EXPLODED.

I semi-recovered, but the the two old marks on my cheek became pimples again. And more and more pimples joined them. They all left marks.

I was getting a pimple every week or so, and every single one left a mark.

I HATED my face.

I tried a bunch of regimes from this site. Nothing made a change.

I came home for Xmas, and my face looked worse than ever.

HORRIBLE- a quarter-sized patch of severe acne on my cheek. Additional redmarks on my chin. A large active zit on my chin, and a few tiny ones that have been there for a month.

I went to the Dr. yesterday, and she gave me Differin gel (2x/day) and Minocin (100mg/day).

This is a log of my (eventual) recovery.

Baking Soda Mask

I've heard a lot of conflicting thoughts about the baking soda-

Pro:
Cheap
"Natrual"
Most gentle of exfoliating scrubs
Fades red marks
Alkaline, but can be neutralized by ACV, resulting in a neutral facial pH

Con:
Alkaline products burn the face, and the effect is instantaneous
Damages the acid barrier on the top of the skin
Is too harsh for the facial skin, resulting in increased sensetivity

Where do you weigh in?

I used the baking soda/ACV combo for 4 or 5 days... I didn't see any change in my red marks in that time (who would?), but (in congunction with the egg white/lemon juice mask) my complexion was glowing. Then I heard all this bad stuff about baking soda, so I quit.

What would you do?

Weight & Acne

I've been noticing for a while how many people on this forum describe themselves as especially thin. I was thinking back on the people I've known in school, etc, with (bad) acne, and they were thin also. I myself am on the lean side, but I know there are people here who are eating 3X the recommended amount of calories just to mantain a healthy weight, which I've never heard of in my regular life... it seems as though it is difficult for a lot of people here to gain weight... strange considering most of us are American and British!

I don't know much about the diet related side of acne, and I was wondering whether other people had noticed this as well, and what it might mean....

My only guess is that fat has a lot of female hormones like estrogen, and maybe since we tend not to have a lot of fat, our male hormones aren't correctly balanced out?.... just a guess.


Is there a corralation between being thin and having acne?

Gentle Regimen

So, I have mild acne, but have/tend to get red marks.

Since I was around 10 or 11 I started getting isolated mostly hormonal breakouts. After that, I usually had one or two pimples floating around, but my skin tone was good and there weren't any that just stuck around.

Still, these pimples bugged the hell out of me.

So, I started to use one of those shower poof things to wash my face every day in the shower (that one time a day was the only time I washed my face), and the exfoliation seemed to help my skin (when I didn't exfoliate every day for more than a few days, I broke out)... so I'm still doing it.

Friends recommended using Dove, and it seemed to improve my skin (fewer, milder pimples)... so, I'm still using it.

A couple years ago, when I was about 18 or 19, a friend gave my his old Clyosin (sp?). I used that instead of lotion, each morning after I washed my face. My skin was absolutely perfect.

Then, when school ended for the summer, he took the medicine back. And....

I got this weird rash/eczma thing on my cheeks. It went away after using hydrocortezone cream for a few days. But then, I got these other horrible pimples on the side of my face. Only two, but it sucked. I was also getting these weird days when one of my eyes would swell, but I think that was connected to an allergy to bug repellant (which I was smearing all over my face).

So, I broke out on and off for the rest of the year. I used this Clean & Clear astringent, and a Clean & Clear spot treatment (both w/ SA), and my skin was manageable, but not great.

Meanwhile, those two pimples from earlier in the summer had become red marks, then brown marks, then slowly receeded until they were two tiny black dots literally the size of pinpricks (they got to that point by last summer).

I was jogging every day, drinking TONS of water (the water is as usual), and I had a great, healthy glow. But, due to a new work schedule, I had to stop jogging. And all of a sudden I had THE WORST BREAKOUT OF MY LIFE.

It was horrible. It started with a surprising reappearence of the two pimples. God, that was a nightmare- they had been semi-plaguing me for over a year, and there they were again, worse than ever. The rest of my face continued to get worse, too, until I woke up one day and EVERY CENTIMETER of my face was sore and semi-swollen and red and probably contained a pimple. I was so upset that my MOM was upset FOR me.

Well, my skin rebounded from THAT lowpoint pretty fast, but suddenly I had this slotch of heavy red marks and acne on my cheek- it was about the size of a nickle, but it was BRIGHT. So, the rest of my face had pimples on and off, but I had this MONSTER on my cheek, right under the cheekbone.

Sometimes, it would receed a little only to get two more pimples the same day. The irony is that the rest of my face would be totally, completely clear, and looking really good. So frustrating, and SUCH a puzzle!

To top it off, I would hormonal acne like usual, and that started leaving brown or red splotches. So EVERY pimple I got left a mark.

I went to my Student Health Clinic, and the nurse got me Eurythromycin. Tried it for a month, and it didn't seem to do anything- my new pimples would clear up faster than usual, but I got at least as many as before, if not more of them.

Gave up, talked to the nurse again. She said she didn't understand my strange skin problem. I dropped the Eurythromycin, started putting Neosporin on my red marks, drinking ACV, and taking asperin to stop hormonal acne BEFORE it comes up.

So, the neosporin seems to be fading the marks, but I haven't been doing any of this long enough to say if it's great or not. I'm writing this blog for my own referance, mostly, to chronicle my use of these things to see how they're working. But I decided to do it on a public forum because I know a lot of you are trying to go natural, or to be gentler on your skin... so I thought it might be interesting.

Here's my daily schedule:

Morning:
Wash face with Dove bar soap in shower with exfoliating shower poof (along with the rest of my body)... let it air dry
Put Neosporin on red marks, and let it be absorbed.
Drink 1 tablespoon ACV

Afternoon:
Re-apply Neosporin, maybe wash face with Dove (using my hands only- no exfoliation)

Night:
Drink 1 tablespoon ACV
Wash face with Dove soap with hands... let it air dry
Soak cotton ball with one part ACV, two parts water and brush it over my face... let it air dry
Put Burt's Bees lotion on selected parts of my face (the parts that are especially dry AND not at all acne-prone)

Ok, I don't really expect many to read this first LONG LONG LONG post, but I hope the log itself will be helpful. And thanks to anyone who read this whole thing!