I'm not going to lie to you: your skin will most likely get a bit red, dry and irritated in the early stages of the Regimen. This can be mitigated relatively effectively with the use of a really good moisturiser mixed with jojoba oil after each application of benzoyl peroxide and by starting with very little benzoyl peroxide and building it up slowly over the course of the first few weeks. The other side of the coin is that, for the vast majority of people, the Regimen does seem to succeed in clearing people's skin and they are then able to add AHA into the Regimen to clear up the flakey dry skin and help fade hyperpigmentation.

For me personally, I was on the Regimen for a year and a half and was never able to stop my skin from being red, dry and irritated from the benzoyl peroxide. It did clear my skin but in the end I couldn't deal with my skin being in that state and had to stop the Regimen. But my skin is extremely sensitive and a lot of other people on these forums seem to have had great success with the Regimen and managed to clear up the dry redness after the first few weeks.

At the end of the day you have to weigh up how much you want clear skin as to whether you're willing to try the Regimen or not but my advise would be to give it a go and just play it by ear. Even if your skin can't tolerate the full amount of benzoyl peroxide recommended by Dan, smaller amounts of it will give you considerable clearing over time and produce less irritation. It's worth a shot if other things haven't worked for you yet. Good luck!

I just started The Regimen myself (day 2) and was accutane back in the day. I know The Regimen doesn't recommend it, but I highly recommend adding the jojoba oil to your moisturizer along with vegetable glycerin. VG is awesome on its own, but is even better when combined with the jojoba oil! If you decide to take my advice, do your research and make sure that you are purchasing VG that was manufactured in the USA.

I've had great success with the regimen and my skin was able to get back to its normal self. I am in my 7th month of the regimen and I regularly moisturize and I don't have a problem with redness or itching anymore. That went away for me around my 4th month in the regimen. It was a bit of a struggle at first, but really this has been the best skin care treatment for me acne.

I'm just a little over a month into the regimen and yes, my skin has been very dry and flaky and red - but all those 'side effects' are reducing a lot. I think it's just a matter of letting your skin adjust to the BP - and going slowly with increasing the BP. I don't think there's any way to avoid experiencing dryness / redness but I think you can lessen how severe it is for you by increasing the BP slowly, using as much moisturiser / jojoba as you need and being gentle with your skin (when applying everything).

Why do you say dryness causes worse acne? Just curious because I don't think I've heard that before... If you're thinking it's because the flakiness could 'clog' pores or something, I don't think you need to worry because the BP will be helping your skin straight away and even though you may experience a breakout in the first weeks of the regimen I don't know if it's due to dryness... And your skin will get better given time.

If you do decide to try the regimen - good luck with it! I hope you find that it works well for you