1 reply to this topic

[Commander Crisp]

Hey everyone, I'm brand new here and I really need your help! To start off, I'm an 18 year old male and have been fighting acne for around 5 years. Over the years I've tried several different things in a desperate attempt to get rid of my acne. I've been on doxycycline hyclate, an antibiotic prescribed by the derm, and 0.025% tretinoin cream also prescribed by the derm. What I do switch around a lot is moisturizer and cleanser. For cleansers I always stuck to Neutrogena and I've used their oil-free stress control and redness soothing washes and now I'm Liquid Neutrogena which seems to be making my skin incredibly dry, although I recently ordered acne.org cleanser. I also used to use the Neutrogena alcohol-free toner for a while and recently got off of it because I started breaking out a lot and wanted to see if it might have been a culprit.For moisturizer I've used Olay complete all day UV moisturizer/skin shield SPF 15 and recently I started using cetaphil moisturizing cream (after I seriously broke out) because my skin was really dry and flaky. My skin is worse than usual and I've broken out on my lower cheeks, chin, and jaw line. I have some on my forehead too and I usually don't break out there. Oh and my mom decided to put me on honey-oatmeal masks for 20 minutes whenever I can during the night...this was after I broke out badly, not sure if I notice improvement or if its making me worse. Please and thank you in advance to those of you who took the time to read my giant block of words and tried to help me out.

[ohsailor]

Have you considered using Dan's regimen? I've never used it but it may be a good starting point to assess how to go ahead with your skin. If you have already ordered the cleanser, then you're a step towards it. If you start on his regime (either using his products or from a drugstore) you might be able to work out what helps or hinders you by adding in and removing products. You have to give everything time though and it won't be solved overnight, however much you might want it to be. Consistency is key with treating acne because nothing will get solved if you switch products (as I used to do constantly) without giving them time to work.

You also might want to think about using a BHA product. BHA cleans out pores and calms inflammation.

Try looking at your diet recently as well - have you changed anything or eaten anything different? More of something maybe? Some people find it helpful to eliminate some common acne triggering food groups from their diet - I don't think it will rid you of acne completely but (like with me) it reduced the frequency and inflammation of whatever acne I did get. Common acne dietary triggers are considered to be gluten, dairy, soy, citrus and sugar. You obviously don't have to eliminate all of these But you might want to try gluten, for example, if you eat a lot of gluten containing foods.

I wouldn't do the honey oatmeal mask if I were you. Maybe an aspirin mask might help - some dissolvable aspirin mixed with water to turn into a paste (some people put honey with it) and applied to your face (all over) for about half an hour or less. It might sting but it has salicylic acid in it (BHA) and can help to "dry up" or reduce inflammation of existing acne.

I think you need to completely reconsider what products you are using and steer away from products specifically targeted for acne (like Clean and Clear, Neutrogena and Clearasil)They are far too aggravating and have so many irritating ingredients and hardly anything that will benefit you.

I am very keen on Avene products as they are gentle but their Cleanance line still manages to fight my acne.

I hope some of that might help but you should look at some of the threads at the top of this forum as they have some great tips, ideas and product recommendations. The Org is such a great resource and you really should make the most of the information here.

Anything you do decide to buy, have a look at MakeupAlley.com where there are customer reviews of pretty much every product imaginable! You have to register to read them (which is totally worth it - I've been a member for years) and it can give you an idea of which products are the ones to avoid. All reviews are obviously subjective and might not be the same with you (what works for one might not work for another) but it gives you a general idea of what the product is like before you buy and the experiences that other people have had. Also, the messageboards over there are so informative and lots of members suffer with acne as well so there are some great tips.

I hope that helps