Hi all! I've been occasionally lurking around this site both casually and frantically ever since I got moderate/cystic acne 6 months ago. Before then, I had never had a pimple in my life. I went through all the home remedy routes from toothpaste to proactive, nothing worked.

Then I came across a natural salicylic acid cleanser with green tea (St. Ives) and that stuff completely cleared me about 80-90% within a month. That summer I was completely clear except for maybe two or three zits on my chin jawline, I could never get rid of those (I'm male btw). When this stuff cleared me up, it cleared the occasional group of zits I got on my forehead, the whole clan of zits and cysts on my cheeks, and almost all if the cysts on my jawline, which were my main breakout areas. I stayed clear for about two months until October, when I started breaking out more and more in my chin area- that wouldn't stop, still wasnt too bad I thought. Then I started getting old cysts on my cheek again, which I had never had in months.

Nope! I wasn't going to put up with it or have to deal with more scarring that I had from a mere two months with acne. So I went to a dermatologist, not a particularly good one in my opinion, but hey IDC it was my first chance to get prescription medicine. He took a look and said that I needed a treatment that would halt my acne enough so that it would clear up AND something that would lighten and prevent scars. He prescribed Clindamycin Phosphate & Retin A. Both of these brands were generic, my insurance didn't cover Retin a, so its just a tretinoin .05% cream treatment. The clindamycin is phosphate. I started using the retin a along with the clindamycin a week ago, which I was scared too because I have very sensitive skin and my derm warned me of peeling and IBs, but I applied retin a at night and clindamycin in the morning. My skin did flake, and was pretty itchy, but I did not break out at all- my breakouts stopped and my present marks began to fade immediately, and for some odd reason my face was less red!

So I guess my question is why is retin a working so quick and great on my sensitive skin? Yes I know, it might be the topical antibiotic working, but I use that in the morning correct? I use retin a at night. This is when the tretinoin does its job right? So even if I had a topical I would still notice the breakout from tretinoin from last night since its right after I wake up, after the tretinoin is supposed to turnover and unplug. I'm not saying I'm unhappy I mean this is awesome, but why does it work so well? Thanks guys