For as long as I can remember I have always had some sort of blemish on my face, not severe acne but pretty bad skin. This I have concluded is due to my genetics, female hormones and occasionally the food I eat/makeup/other external factors. But it wasn't until I few years ago I started breaking out on my back and shoulders and then also on my chest and upper arms.

I think at first I assumed it was 100% acne based, but recently I've come to notice that perhaps it's actually folliculitis based and that by picking and scratching at said 'black head's' on these areas caused infection and inflammation to look like acne. I tried eating healthy and although it had an effect on my face problems it didn't really change my back/shoulders/chest/arms at all.

For the past week I finally just had enough of simply living with the issue and I decided to tackle it straight on. I have started washing with H&S every night, only showering once a day, and then applying BP 2.5% strength to affected areas by mixing it with Cetaphil moisturizer so that I can cover a large area faster. I have also stopped picking and trying to pop the black heads, that are basically in every single pore on my chest and back. I have also been taking magnesium, as suggested in another thread. There has been quite a good improvement. I'm not too sure whether this is just because I have stopped picking at everything so now there is less red and less healing scab type wounds or whether the HS and BP are actually working. My chest has become significantly smoother - can no longer feel a million black head bumpy type skin - but my back still feels horribly bumpy from blackheads still present. It doesn't matter if I exfoliate until my back is smooth, the morning after it's back to being bumpy again. There are also still a few small pimple looking raised areas on my skin so I am unsure whether this is acne.

I really don't know where to go from here, I know its only been a week but I hope the improvement doesn't stop here because it still isn't enough to actually go out side wearing strappy tops with confidence. Does anyone have any suggestions on other techniques or products I could use that are actually affordable? I was going to trial showering in the morning and night, and applying BP twice a day. Still not 100% certain it is folliculitis but it seems more like that than acne.