Hello,

I'm a 22 year old female experiencing acne for the first time ever. I never experienced it during puberty, high school, or even university, where I was under the most stress and had the worst diet. I started getting random breakouts in the summer that were upsetting, but I was able to get them under control myself. By September, my face broke out badly and it never went away. I was and still am waking up with at least one new zit every day. In November i finally decided to see a doctor about my acne. I was convinced it was hormonal as I've never had acne prone skin, but my doctor seemed to think different. She asked about my skin care routine and then asked if i moisturized. I told her yes, and she sort of snickered and said "you should NEVER moisturize when you have acne". That's when I broke down and started crying in her office. I felt doomed.

Anyway, she prescribed me epiduo. She told me the next month was going to be "hell" for me because my skin would be dry, cracked and red. She said after that it should help me. I pushed her to switch my birth control pill and she suggested Yaz as apparently thats notorious for helping acne. The first couple days of epiduo were not terrible, my skin only felt a bit dry and itchy and only one small spot on my face was a bit red when I woke up in the morning. For the first 4 days it looked like my skin was actually clearing up and I hoped that i maybe escaped the initial break out that I have red so much about. I was wrong.

By around day 5 or 6 the little red marks that laid dormant on my cheeks for the past couple months broke out into a bunch of pimples. My chin broke out as expected as thats my biggest problem spot. The worst part though, was that i broke out right in between my eyes and eyebrows. some of the lumps were so close to my eyes i could see them when i looked in certain directions. This took quite the toll on my confidence. The break out persisted, though the cream seemed to dry out the zits faster. However, I was still waking up with new pimples so it didn't matter much that they were clearing up. On Day 14 and 15, I thought that the initial break out was ending. my cheeks were clearing up a bit, my chin only had a couple spots. The zits between my eyes were now lumps under the skin that i could cover up with makeup. Today is day 16, and I woke up with about six new zits. So much for the progress I thought i was making. I'm so frustrated. i know it's only been two weeks and I've been trying so hard to tough it out. The lights at my work are very bright, and it looks terrible there. In the morning I get up earlier than my boyfriend so i can put on makeup so he doesn't see my face in this condition. I'm angry at myself for getting down on myself about my appearance in the past, I had great skin then. i should have been happy with myself.

I should also mention that since the day I started tactuo I changed my diet. I started drinking a lot more water, cut dairy, and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. I cut out pop as well, though the past 3 or so days I did have a couple glasses which I'm wondering now if that's what caused this new break out. It's difficult. I'm definitely one of those people who eat when they're stressed. Acne is stressing me out, and makes me want to eat crappy food.

I guess I just wanted to share my experience so far. Epiduo costed me 120$ and I can't afford to switch to another treatment so i'm really relying on this to help me. What scares me the most is that I've read so many reviews about this product working wonders for people, but I've also read many that say the product ruined their skin. If anyone could offer some input about their experience with epiduo/tactuo or if anyone has experiences similar to mine, I'd love to hear. I should also add that I cleanse twice a day with Aveeno positively radiant make-up removing cleanser. i moisturize with Aveeno spf 15 during the day, and use cetaphi moisturizer at night. I guess i have combo skin, my skin never really gets oily except slightly between my eyebrows sometimes. I don't believe i have sensitive skin either, as this product barely bothered my skin, besides a very slight dryness/redness.

Thanks for reading.