4 replies to this topic

[ATCMatt]

Think of this as the middle road between doing absolutely nothing to treat your acne and doing everything in your power to get perfect skin (e.g., following the regimen 2x day everyday & altering your diet). The bottom line is you will NOT have perfect skin but you WILL see improvement and a healthier skin tone without changing your lifestyle so much.

My genetics: I have my mother's skin. She is 37 & she'll get a new bump occasionally, otherwise, she has post-acne marks on both cheeks and the rest of her face is perfectly clear.

Day 1/My Regimen Experience: At first, I had mild active acne & bumps on cheeks, chin, forehead, everywhere except nose. Had alot of bumpiness, unlevel skin due to being rough on it in past attempts of treating my acne. Post acne marks on both cheeks. I used the regimen 2x a day for 3 weeks, worked my way up to 1 + 1/4 pump of the bp. It took care of all my acne and leveled out all the irritated skin but it left me with a persistent flakiness and discoloration and what I really hated was the time investment! It would take an extra 1-2 hours in the a.m to start my day which is senseless!


My new regimen I experimented and now for the last few weeks have been doing this.

Morning: Cleanse.
Night: Cleanse, wait 15 minutes, bp treatment - 1 pump, wait 15 minutes, then 2 pumps of moisturizer OR 1 finger length of aha. I alternate.
Occasionally I miss the night application and when it happens I just use aha the following morning right after shower.

The results: Pretty much have gotten myself to the same point as my mother. Post-acne marks on the cheeks and every couple days a small spot that comes and goes. For some reason my marks are more red while my mom's marks are just ''dark''. But I think it's because she has been tanning...
Also - no more flakiness and no more of that redness/fake tan b.s. that makes me look like I've been in the sun too much and I don't have to spend so much time on myself. I'm not a perfect person so I can live without a perfect face and actually I've had a few people tell me my face has cleared up a lot. PLUS I'm using less product and so less money.

Things I learned: I tried just using aha once a day - no bp. FAILED! Acne slowly but surely returned without the consistent use of benzoyl peroxide. It is evident to me that benzoyl peroxide needs to be used on a regular basis as a preventing measure.
There's not much value in spending 1-2 hours every day for the next 20+ years in a war against genetics. Rather, I see better benefit in trying to find the balance between (1) doing nothing & (2) altering your daily lifestyle to accomodate having perfect skin. The middle road I'm using gives me the best skin that my genetics will allow.
I also learned that the 2x regimen DOES work - quite fast. Personally, I'd recommend it if you've got moderate-severe acne and want to clear your skin up because that's exactly what it will do. But once you clear things up, why not be happy with it & spend less time and money to maintain the new skin condition rather than continue going out of your way to get perfect skin and maintain that? The day/life is too short for that.

I will leave this at that and should I experience improvement in red marks or if my skin worsens I will post feedback! Right now it's awesome.

[jkom]

I hear you, and I cut back to one time daily for the same reasons. Now I only use BP four days a week, and I think my skin is at its best. There were initial breakouts when I first tapered down, but those subsided. With less frequent use, I have no irritation or flakes, and I'm able to play sports and sweat in public again without having BP and moisturizer dripping off of my face.

Also, BP soap can sometimes be a convenient replacement for the gel/cream. You only have a short contact time with the soap, but it will still work at least to some extent, and it's very quick to use. Depends on what your skin needs. You might be able to eliminate a few more applications and just replace them with the soap.

My next goal is to start mixing in Retin-A (tretinoin) again. Alternating Retin-A/BP can be a beautiful thing once your skin adjusts and all you need is maintenance. I'll probably start Retin-A 4x/week with BP 3x/week (both one time daily), then taper a little from there. My skin is clear on BP, but has looked perfect with retinoids in the past. Point is, you can probably get away with less applications per week if you use the combination, in addition to having better looking skin.

And yes, I still have horrible acne without BP. I tried stopping BP completely last year after doing well on a four days a week regimen for several months. That was a huge disaster. I still can't believe that the BP was holding so much back with such infrequent use.

[Kairasa]

Hello there! I see you are just now starting on your skin clearing journey, I wish you luck! Keep us updated and as hard as it may seem, patience is key! It can take a month to three to see full improvement! =)

[ATCMatt]

Been around 20 days since I opened the thread. Figured I'd update

Been getting around 1-3 spots isolated to either my chin or right side of forehead. Rest has not gotten the first new spot. However red marks remain and haven't noticed fading.

Cleanse in the am shower; cleanse at night w 1 - 1.25 pump bp & 1.5 - 2 pump moisturizer or 1 finger of aha, spot treating with aha.

Some before / after. I don't think I need to indicate which is before and which is after. The acne.org products make a difference.

[LoveGreenSmoothies]

I'm using bp 1x a day with success too.