5 replies to this topic

[Acneinremission]

Hello everyone! This is my first post here so bear with me if I do anything I'm not supposed to or mess up. I've had terrible acne since age 11 (I'm 20 now) which eventually brewed into cystic acne. I went to dermatologists (who recommended accutane, geesh,) estheticians and eventually went to school to be an esthetician. I loved learning how to clear my skin, and tried endless things to fix my skin until I watched a video on youtube from my favourite make-up guru recommending Mario badescu. It really doesn't matter if you use their particular brand as long as you follow these rules:

-keep your hands off of your face at all times if possible
-use non-comedogenic make-up if you must use make-up at all.
-use a gentle cleanser (such as the one from mario badescu or ponds) anytime you want to remove make-up and at least once per day
-follow that up with a toner, but only use toner AFTER cleanser with clean hands and no more than 2x a day
-once or twice a week use a drying mask such as a clay mask to dry out your remaining acne
-use a salycilic acid on your zits after following these steps. I love the one mario badescu sells because it is a salicylic acid/calamine lotion mix. Don't shake the bottle though, you stick a q-tip straight in and straight out and dab it on your spots. It doesn't sting because of the calamine lotion in it!
-exfoliate using a gentle brush and a 2% acid once a week but no more than that. Always follow directions!
-moisturize!!! Even extremely oily skin needs moisture with this regiment. I use an oil-free moisturizer generic brand from wal-mart. I use it every single day, especially in my t-zone because it's important or your skin will peel too much
-drink lots of water and try to eat clean, healthy balanced meals
-take fish oil and vitamins if possible, they DO make a difference
-stress less! It helps

Hopefully this advice will help some of you. I figured this out just before signing the papers at my dermatologist agreeing to all sorts of horrible conditions before going on Accutane, and thanks to this regiment, I didn't need Accutane at all. Here are my before and after pictures: not perfect, but definitely better!!! I saw serious changes in less than a month. Please be gentle because these pictures aren't flattering whatsoever, but I'm putting myself out there to help others. Thanks and best of luck to you!  acnebefore.JPG   744.53K   284 downloads  acneafter.JPG   57.25K   247 downloads

Edited by Acneinremission, 10 April 2012 - 08:56 AM.

[Ihateacne1995]

damn that was bad acne

[Acneinremission]

Yup. And very painful too! Even hurt to sleep on my side. Hopefully it will make a few people feel better.

[carmusen]

Damn gurl. Thanks for making me feel normal. Congrats on the road to recovery!

[Guywithsevereacne]

I'm new to this website. I've been very depressed about my acne for 2 years now.

2 years ago when I went off to college my skin was clear. No scars no nothing. Second semester i started developing bad acne and ever since it hasn't stopped. It's pretty severe now and I get mad at pictures of myself with clear skin from 2 years ago.

My acne isn't as bad as yours but it's still bad and the fact that you went from that to having no acne and clear skin is very very inspirational. I will definitely take your advice into consideration and I hope I can be like you some day, acne free.

[Tamar]

Thank you so much. It was very brave of you to post the photo. Your face looks sooo much better now. Glad to see it. Dealing with acne is hard!!!!