Hi y'all. Please excuse my directness.
So my problem is I've been struggling with acne since 5th grade, which was also when I had my first menstrual period. I am now 17 and my self-esteem has been lower than ever before. I would say I've tried a lot of over the counter products and nothing really seemed to help. I stopped using those chemicals altogether for a while and then just went back to using them recently. I decided to buy the Neutrogena pink grapefruit face scrub and that was the worst decision I made. My skin started to break out even more and those rash-like bumps started to appear in patches on my forehead and my nose. They itched and burned badly so I had to throw the product away. Thankfully they gradually subsided and eventually disappeared after my applying olive oil for about a month. I thought it was just my skin being sensitive so then I narrowed my options down to natural oils only. Yes, I did research, the articles actually said natural oils do cleanse my face, removing all the dirt and excess sebum. I still had breakouts and they even came more frequently. Then I came across The Regimen and saw great reviews on the product so I decided to try it out. 2 and a half weeks in I still don't notice any difference. Just so you know I only used 1 pump of the moisturizer each time because I have really oily skin. My skin started to flake off and at the same time looked shiny. Should I use more moisturizer but it would make my face oily and shiny? Or should I use less but that would make my skin flake? However I do have to credit the BP for drying out my new acne and making them go away. The problem is it would leave dark marks (hyper-pigmentation) as a result. I really want to continue using the regimen as long as it'll work. Sorry if I sound ignorantto you but the regimen is quite expensive and I don't want to waste money on something that does not work. Please give me some advice and thank you very much for reading and understanding my struggle.