I don't understand why he's said you can't use a moisturiser. I know some people add a blob of moisturiser with their tretinoin, but what I do is apply the tretinoin and after a few hours I dab a tiny amount of moisturiser on the areas where the peeling is happening (mostly chin, sides of nose and a patch on my forehead where I'm sure I'm over applying the gel).

If I'm not wearing make up I use a LOT of day cream to rehydrate.

If you use toner - DON'T! Make sure nothing else you're using on your skin has alcohol in it either.

My skin is very oily, so having peeling is weird, but the moisturiser really does help.

I notice you live in a very sunny part of the world, whereas I'm in a gloomy UK city. Do you use a sunscreen? I'm just thinking maybe the sun could be reacting to the tretinoin and making you more sensitive.

I'm not your derm doc, so I don't want to say he's wrong, but I use moisturiser as does a friend who uses tretinoin.

If you google search you'll find people (including doctors) who say moisturising is essential.

I know from experience that moisturiser is really soothing after dealing with a harsh treatment like tretinoin.

You can use moisturizer not sure why your doctor said not to. You may want to cut back on how often you use tretinoin. Its best to start off slow using it every 3 days then gradually working up to everyday. This helps reduce irritation and flaking. I'm in my 5th week and using it every other day. I've used tretinoin before and saw significant results in 4 months, I regretfully stopped using it as I thought I could manage my acne with natural remedies but things got worse. This time around I'm experiencing more breakouts but fingers crossed things will get better again in a few months.

So I started using moisturizer, and it looks like the cream is broughtout so much acne! My chin is painful and red. Hoping the cream will make it go away. I'm just nervous I'm not using it correctly, besides telling me not to use moisturizer the derm didn't tell me much else so it feels like I'm in the dark a little bit with this.

Hmmm...Hopefully your derm told you all of this but only use a pea sized amount for your entire face at nighttime only. Using more will not speed things along but only cause more irritation. Do not use tretinoin during the day, sunlight breaks down its effectiveness and also leaves you more susceptible to sunburn. You should wear sunscreen during the day too, I was able to get away with just wearing bare minerals makeup that had spf 15. Wear a hat if out in the sun for longer periods.

Basically what tretinoin does is increases skin cell turnover. So pimples will rise to the surface and heal at a much faster rate. Its regenerating your skin which is why it is also used as an anti-aging treatment as well. In this process your skin will shed old layers of skin exposing new skin and that is why you will be more sensitive to the sun. Over time your skin will breakout less and less.

Also avoid rubbing/squeezing your skin, use a gentle face wash and pat dry. Sometimes I will gently exfoliate with baking soda when im extra flakey but I don't recommend that because sometimes it can worsen the acne. Just be super gentle and only do it once a week if you must.

And throw an icepack on your chin it will give you instant relief while your skin is still adjusting to the tretinoin.

You guys are awesome! So I have one more question, once your acne goes, do you carry on putting the cream on your face so more don't come up, or do you just wait for more to come and just use the cream again.

I'm planning on using it for a year if not longer, cutting back to 1 or 2 times a week even if I don't have acne. Some people are using it for life as maintenance. I broke out terribly a month after I stopped cold turkey and after being off birth control. Although I'm not thrilled about using tretinoin long term, I'm going to keep using it until I (a) get pregnant or (b) find something else that works just as well.

Everyone's skin is different, definitely ask your dermatologist about weaning off tretinoin once your skin clears. Good luck!

I used this site to read about others experiences with tretinoin before I started with mine. I noticed that everyone's experience is different. I didn't have an initial breakout as such, but for the first couple of months these weird spots were appearing which weren't the usual ones that're filled with white gunk. They were like big spots that were full of water. I squeezed one and that's the LAST time I did because it caused the area around the spot to swell up and took a while to go.

These spots were the thing that almost made me give up on the stuff, but I'm so glad I kept on with it because I haven't had any more. It's like most peoples skin get worse before you notice a difference, like the tretinoin is getting rid of all the crap in your pores.

I've read some people could actually peel off chunks of dryness, whereas I've only had patches where I really think I was over applying. When I apply it at night IMMEDIATELY it brings oil to the surface of my skin.

Is the moisturiser you're using the brand you usually use? Maybe try another or something with more natural ingredients from places like Lush?

As somedayistoday says you really do need to use a tiny amount of the gel/cream. There's a video on youtube about how to apply it and everyone uses the "pea size amount" term.

At some point I'm going to start applying every other day or every third day, but yeah, I've read here how acne returns after stopping completely.

I love this thread:

You can see how much the poster's skin improved, and her posts give some good advice and she answers some questions.

I know this skin med doesn't work for everyone, but I really would say give it your best shot. After three decades of trying to find something to help my skin, this was it for me.

What % are you using by the way?

I think it's .05% but I will check for sure when I get home. I think it's working, my chin looked like it was pregnant for a week but now seems to be going down and nothing new has come up. I just want to keep it clear, using it only when the pimples cone up is a bit useless to me so I think I'm going to use it every couple of days once I'm clear. maybe even mix it with my moisturizer so it gets everywhere. Do you think that would help? Or is mixing it defeating the purpose?

I'd say do it! I've read people here who always mix it with moisturiser. Sounds like your skin's settling down a bit, so that's GOOD NEWS!

I'm on 0.05% as well. Not sure if I'll maybe use 0.01% in future, or just stick with this less frequently.

I remember when I first read that it takes 3-6 months to see results and thinking THAT'S AGES AWAY!!! but time passes quickly and patience is worth it.

Everything crossed that your skin keeps getting better and better!

So nothing new has come out on my face, and started mixing the cream in with my moisturizer yay!!! Hopefully the red marks from older pimples will fade. I'm now able to wear make up without dry patches coming through and it looks pretty good!!!

Thank you dot to dot and somedayistoday for your advice and opinions

Happy for you!! Glad I was able to help