I have a few but they're just the other bumps I had finally coming to a head. Hopefully it means they're on their way out for good. these were the last ones. My forehead looks amazing now that I switched face washes. None of the others became inflamed, they just went away. I'm wondering if it's because I stopped my glycolic or if it's because I'm at the 6 week mark with the regimen (tomorrow) so this is new skin and they're coming out. These were bigger bumps than the others and now they've come to the surface which may be a good thing. Even so, I'll pop a baby aspirin today just to reduce inflammation and may use my glycolic wash tomorrow.

I haven't had a smoothie all week bc I ran out of my smoothie veggie stash and have been too lazy to run to the store

Today is 6 weeks on the regimen nightly.

I bought my smoothie ingredients but haven't made one yet. Tomorrow.

I used my glycolic wash today.

I hate that those old bumps came out, but at least they'll go away for good now. The others just went away w/o coming to a head & I don't know why these didn't do the same. I guess they went deeper.

I'm thinking of going to 2x a day, but light layer during the day.

When I did this years ago I never started with mild acne, but moderate/severe, so I don't know if I was purging or just breaking out still then.I remember it taking about 3-4 months for me to get clear totally and for my skin to be used to bp. I used to end up getting tan in the summer (recall starting this in the spring) so I'm sure that helped clear everything out too.

I wish there was a breakdown of when the purges stopped and all of that. I read something on here but it wasn't that helpful as far as purges go.

I noticed my skin was better when I was regularly working out.

I'm starting to think 2.5% is not effective for me. When I used to do this years ago, and it worked, I used 10%. I feel I should be totally clear at almost 7 weeks since I was clear when I started. This is BS. I'm annoyed obv.

I felt like I should finally update this.

I've changed my regimen and.... It's working! Yay. My skin looks better lately than it has in years -- even better than when I was on anti androgens. This is how my skin looked after accutane.

So the changes:

1. Upped my dosage to 5%

Had to start at only 1x a day, down from 2x a day with the 2.5% bc of course it's stronger. When I was on 2.5% 2x a day I was still breaking our all month and my face felt tacky or oily. I upped it back up to 2x/ day with 5% after 2-4 weeks a little over 2mos. Ago and that really got rid of acne in general. When I switched to 5%, my acne went away except for TOTM. With 2.5% I would get random outbreaks during different times of the month. The 5% stopped those, but I still got TOTM outbreaks.

2. Changed my wash to acnefree pore foaming cleanser 2.5% 2x a day.

I went through a lot of different cleansers with them all causing acne ( cerave foaming, dans) and some that are for acne (a bunch of clean and clear washes, hibiclens, acnefree CREAM Bp cleanser and probably a few others I'm forgetting.) The gentle ones always caused outbreaks of little bumps and the others had scrubbing beads and/or fragrance which irritated my skin and caused issues. The foam cleanser has been amazing.

3. Stopped aha's. I may add them back, but I found it was breaking me out also.

I noticed a great change in TOTM acne when I added zinc (30 mgs) and vitamin C 500mgs. 2-4 x a day and omegas (Nordic naturals ultimate omegas 2x a day). I've taken all of these before but separately and never had the same good effects as when I take them all together.

I still use LRP TOleriane Fluide for my moisturizer.

I still drink green smoothies, but sometimes skip days.

This is the first month that I have had NO TOTM breakouts-- and I even have gone down to 1x a day with the bp this week with no outbreaks. I should be doing it 2x a day, but just didn't feel like it. But will start again ASAP. I think I was able to get away with 1x a day bc I'm on my last week of my cycle, so testosterone is low right now.

I really think that using both the supplements & the Bp have been the perfect combo for my TOTM acne. Prior to the supplements, I was clear all month except for mid month when I would get acne again.

On top of that, my skin tone looks great. I don't even need blush and it looks healthier and smoother compared to what it did before.

I'm also eating things I've never eaten much, like carbs and sugar, which may be helping me, ironically. I realized I was eating way too much protein and not enough carbs because my sweat smelled the way it does when you don't get enough carbs, so I made an effort to eat less protein and more carbs. But I only noticed the good skin effects after adding the supplements. Just wanted to mention my diet changes too.

I decided when I last posted and I was changing my Bp dosage that I wasn't updating this until I went a full month with no acne, so finally I am able to do that.

So there is hope for people wth PCOS or hormonal acne who can't take hormonal meds.

I probably won't update this unless something changes.

Forgot to add that when I wear makeup I use avocado oil to precleanse, bc the acnefree wash doesn't remove make up well.

Just an update...

I'm still doing this and still relatively clear. I've switched my Bp to acnefree.

Don't know if I mentioned it but I had to stop the zinc & C bc it killed my stomach. I may try to reintroduce them Later.

I'm also not eating tons of carbs and sugar. I was fine for a bit but then it messed me up. I started getting sweaty and also breaking out a bit and I hunk its because my estrogen went down ( nightsweats) and it raised my test. I still eat some carbs but low carbing for the most part and no white carbs and things have finally gone back to normal. It took about a month for it to get bad and the same amou nt of time to go back to normal.