@ Paperboy Bike
Yeah, the side effects look scary but my flakes almost gone by today. I will limit the use of it. If I don't get flaky then I will stop use it for sure. I tried using a anti dandruff shampoo this morning on my face whose active ingredient is coal tar. But I also used hydrocortisone so I don't know if the shampoo will work by itself. If that works, I will stick to shampoo instead of using hydrocortisone.
@ ohhhhhhnooooooo
Thanks for the advice. I tried using tretinoin along at night but it really dried out my face and the flakes were so noticeable that even my BF noticed. Anyways, I already got some great result from my regime so I may stick to it. Of course, if I can apply tretinoin along, I would be more than happy because I can save one step of regime. 
Now my main task is to eliminate the flakes.
I tried AHA for quit a long time before. It sting to the highest heaven on me. And it also cause the same flaky problem on me without really clearing my acne.
@Paperboy Bike
I haven't tried vitamin E cream yet. Could you tell me what particular thing you use?
I am currently using walmart equate dandruff shampoo on my face and Fruit of the Earth aloe vera gel for two days. Spot treat with hydrocortisone on sever flaky area (crease of my nose). I also skipped using tretinoin for two nights. My flakes is a lot better now.
I also would like to give some credits to Avene cleanser. I feel it calms my skin a lot ever since I started using it. Maybe it is due to the soothing ingredients in the cleanser. Now I realized that even though cleanser are supposed to only stay on the skin for some seconds, it does play important role in skincare regime. I really feel it.
Since my flakes is a lot better, I resume using tretinoin tonite.
the PM regime is as followed
Avene cleanser
Fruit of the earth aloe vera
wait for 30 mins
Tretinoin
Thank you lovely for your suggestion.
Now my skin is not as flaky anymore since I backed off from tretinoin for around 7 days and used hydrocortisone to treat the irritated areas (around crease of my nose and and my center of my face) for around 4 days. In between when I feel I can handle tretinoin I used less than pea size (rice size) for my whole face then I stopped for two days until today. I think I will follow lovely's advise to stick to the products and let tretinoin do its thing.
I also am liking a sunscreen FaceCotz SPF 40 now and will stick to it. I would say it beat all the sunscreens I have used. I have been using it for a week or so and not only it drys totally matte and feels light without being sticky, but also it did not make me break out and most importantly, it acts like a primer which really holds my makeup well without making skin dry. My foundation got creased on my eyelid easily even when I used UDPP. Now I figured the reason foundation get creased easily on my eyelid. My previous sunscreens did not suit my skin. Ever since I changed to FaceCotz SPF 40, I have not yet seen foundation crease on my eyelid.
My regime
AM
Avene Cleanance Soap-less Gel Cleanser
Vanicream
FaceCotz SPF 40
Makeup
PM
Avene Cleanance Soap-less Gel Cleanser
Vanicream
*I do this only when I feel my skin is able to bear
Wait for 30 mins
Tretinoin (rice size)
No spots now. Scars here and there.
I think my skin become paler from using tretinoin because I needed to use paler foundation.
Alibaba, your face looks amazing. Looking at your acne and face in general, i see that our trouble spots and acne are similar. I get those nasties mostly on my chin and occassionally clogged pores on cheeks and forehead. I am on a regimen of Ziana, Aczone and Finacea and i am 5 weeks in and my chin is getting nasty with many under the skin bumps. At what point did you notice daily breakouts subsiding and those chin bumps going away? Ziana is not as powerful as it is .025 tretonin with an antibitoic so........
Again, congrats!
I notice fewer breakout after 3 months. Pretty long time though.
Recently I was browsing on the internet and I was inspired that I have been treating my skin way too harsh! I constantly pick on my face, use pretty "warm" water to wash it, wash my face very hard...etc that are all contributions to my irritated skin. In other words, my skin is constantly hurt by me and therefore it doesn't have chance to heal.
Now I change the way I treat my skin. With the same products, the way I am gonna apply will be very gentle. Gentleness is also a very critical point.
BTW Vaniceam broke me out due to high concentration of Cetearyl Alcohol, Ceteareth-20 I believe. I really liked it though. I think I will stick to embryolisse for good......
I think I will take "stick to embryolisee for good" back. I am now using aquaphor as moisturizer for 3 days or so. My skin is totally finally hydrated and flakes free (Knock on wood). I also noticed that in these 3 days or so period some blackheads were literally falling off by themselves which is a really good thing. My blackhead on my nose reduced dramatically! I even use aquaphor in the morning before sunscreen and I did not get really shiny face throughout the day.
AM
Water
(Aquaphor)
FaceCotz SPF 40
Makeup
PM
Avene Cleanance Soap-less Gel Cleanser
Aquaphor
*I do tretinoin only when I feel my skin is able to bear
Wait for 30 mins
Tretinoin (rice size)
I may have to take me words back about Jojoba.
How I used to use jojoba oil is by mixing it with other lotions/creams. Maybe the mixing action gave some chemical effect or the emulsifier in the lotion/cream changed jojoba oil because as a simple ingredient itself with no other things, I really could not figure out it would give me breakouts.
Now I start to try out jojoba oil again. This time I use jojoba oil by mixing it with Aquaphor/Vaseline. I have been using this combination day and night since yesterday. The result is pretty good so far. No signs of breakout. I will report back how this works on my skin.
I kind of figure out ALL THE MOISTURIZERS I USED IN THE PAST DID NOT SUIT ME AT ALL because my blackhead was so big and noticeable all the time! Ever since I start to use Aquaphor as moisturizer, my skin now is not only peel/flakes free but also has way fewer/smaller blackhead! My makeup stays put throughout the day. My eye makeup did not smudge as fast and badly as before ( before my eye makeup would smudge badly within 3 or 4 hours, now it can stay over 8 hours)
A lot of people might be against this but it really works on me. I use hydrocortisone as spot treatment.
Current status
99% Cleared.
Red marks left behind but can be easily covered with makeup.
Big pores on my nose and center of my face.
Fewer and smaller blackheads
Regime
AM
Water
Only if I feel dry: Aquaphor/Vaseline mix with Jojoba
FaceCotz SPF 40
Makeup
PM
Avene Cleanance Soap-less Gel Cleanser
Aquaphor/Vaseline mix with Jojoba
Wait for 30 mins
Tretinoin (Pea size)
Hydrocortisone as spot treatment
I may have to take me words back about Jojoba.
How I used to use jojoba oil is by mixing it with other lotions/creams. Maybe the mixing action gave some chemical effect or the emulsifier in the lotion/cream changed jojoba oil because as a simple ingredient itself with no other things, I really could not figure out it would give me breakouts.
Now I start to try out jojoba oil again. This time I use jojoba oil by mixing it with Aquaphor/Vaseline. I have been using this combination day and night since yesterday. The result is pretty good so far. No signs of breakout. I will report back how this works on my skin.
I kind of figure out ALL THE MOISTURIZERS I USED IN THE PAST DID NOT SUIT ME AT ALL because my blackhead was so big and noticeable all the time! Ever since I start to use Aquaphor as moisturizer, my skin now is not only peel/flakes free but also has way fewer/smaller blackhead! My makeup stays put throughout the day. My eye makeup did not smudge as fast and badly as before ( before my eye makeup would smudge badly within 3 or 4 hours, now it can stay over 8 hours)
A lot of people might be against this but it really works on me. I use hydrocortisone as spot treatment.
Current status
99% Cleared.
Red marks left behind but can be easily covered with makeup.
Big pores on my nose and center of my face.
Fewer and smaller blackheads
Regime
AM
Water
Only if I feel dry: Aquaphor/Vaseline mix with Jojoba
FaceCotz SPF 40
Makeup
PM
Avene Cleanance Soap-less Gel Cleanser
Aquaphor/Vaseline mix with Jojoba
Wait for 30 mins
Tretinoin (Pea size)
Hydrocortisone as spot treatment
I now officially will not use jojoba oil on my face. It gave me breakouts after about a week. I used it on my face and hair. My neck starts to break out. I will only use vaseline or aquaphor along.
I liked jojoba oil though, It seems to calm redness.
Some picture update
I bought Paula's Choice BHA 1% just now to deal with my blackhead. And I just got tretinoin gel 0.1% from mail. I am gonna level up the tretinoin strength since I am using aquaphor as moisturizer and my clog pores are quite stubborn.
Regime still the same since I got rid of Jojoba for me face. I can tell now my skin has felt happier since I start to use Aquaphor. Now the task I need to achieve is to stop picking or touching my face. I have a lot of indented scars due to such bad habit.....
Well... I was experimenting with new cheaper sunscreen and it dried out my skin and broke me out......... I have three big pimples on my face..... two small ones on my chin.......
I think FaceCotz is going to be the only expensive stuff in my regime at the mean time. I want to search for cheaper ones.....
Anyways I got my Paula's choice BHA 1% gel. 2/11 is my first day using it. Experience so far is that it does ball up and kind of peel off so I would only use it at night. The gel doesn't irritate my skin so far.
I read through some posts about skin PH level so I started to use Apple cider vinegar diluted with water ( 1:4 ) in hope that I can adjust back to the right PH level of my skin.
I also like to share a pretty cool website http://www.skinacea.com/index.html , found like half an year ago, but I was not allowed to post any web link that time.
I think my additions are too much for my skin because my skin got dry again. I now only use apple vinegar as toner first and put aside BHA. Tretinoin seems to penetrate better in acid environment (BHA dose for sure) so I will see if the combination use of apple cider vinegar and tretinoin will help my blackheads.
My old acne scars seem to fade somehow because they look less red except one big monster beside my nose since it is a on going thing.
Can anyone give me some advise if I can use lemon juice in replace of apple cider vinegar?
Do they do the same thing (adjust skin ph level)?
Apple cider vinegar smells really bad.
Alternative nights using either treatment products ( Tretinoin or BHA )
Looking for cheaper physical sunscreen I can stick with. Facecotz's price is kind of steep and zinc content is not good. I am trying out Neutrogena pure and free baby one.
Have been using BHA for past two days. It seemed to purge me a little. I break out with some tiny whiteheads near my brows and mouth and on my chin and nose. I don't know whether is due to BHA or the sunscreen.
I take out the toner in my regime.
I have used blue lizard face sunscreen for several days. So far I really like it. Maybe due to increased concentration of tretinoin, I think the recent breakouts are the result of purging so I am not very concerned since it is not deep big or many. My skin is happy with me of using mineral oil as cleanser because my skin texture's got better. Especially around the crease of my nose, the area is noticeably less peely as before that my foundation would crease around my noise badly no matter what. Not anymore! Hope this improvement continues.
BTW I start to use Cetaphil cream again.
My skin has been feeling so comfortable since I start to take fish oil!!!!!!! I took fish oil which I bought from Costco before but I never felt any impact on my skin or whatever until now I start to take "salmon oil" from now foods which really makes a really difference! My skin feels soft and balanced! I don't know if it is due to I change my cleanser from Albolene to Baby oil or salmon oil I take. I will probably update my skin picture someday next week.
I think I will return Paula's Choice BHA since I blackheads seem to be able to be improved by taking salmon oil and using baby oil as cleanser. Or I will try cheaper BHA alternative from neutrogena.
BTW I found a very useful website which can help to know how effective your sunscreen is as to UVA protection. I found out even though Blue lizard claim itself as Australian sunscreen, it did not provide enough UVA protection.Neither Facecotz provides enough UVA protection. Sad. So I bought Bioderma Photoderm sunscreen online but I haven't got it yet. I will report back when I receive it. I m now using Neutrogena Spectrum spf 100+ as the moment but it stings my eyes really bad..... I think I will return it too. There is a pretty thorough list of effective sunscreens on Skinacea.com. She recommends using sunscreens that at least provide PPD of 8 or above for decent UVA protection.
Regime
AM
Cetaphil Gentle Cleanser
Neutrogena Spectrum SPF 100+
Makeup
PM
Baby oil
Cetaphil cream
Wait for 30 mins
(Tretinoin (Pea size))
I think I will not level up my tretinoin to 0.1%. Even though I only applied it once a week, my face burns the next day or two on contact of my Cetaphil or sunscreen. Since my blackheads are healing up with 0.05%, I will just stick to using 0.05%.
I will use 0.01% on my neck nevertheless.
I am so depressed. Baby oil broke me out like hell. My chin now is total mess. Due to use baby oil, my skin became very weak. My skin all roughed up even though it was not dry. But the texture just became very rough and every time I put tretinoin, my skin became even rougher and flaky and I had to stop using tretinoin for several days. Until I realized, my chin started to breakout like crazy. They are as sever as when in my purging. I stop using baby oil right away and only use cetaphil, then at least my skin where doesn't breakout become normal.
I hate myself. Why I kept breaking my skin up? I am so stupid. I had kind of fixed it once and now it all went worse caused by me. When I don't have pimple, I hate my blackheads. Now I have pimples, I don't hate blackheads as much as pimples.
Why I turned to using oil to clean is because I read somewhere saying like dissolve like, oil cleaning will help your skin to push out pore clogs. I actually tried this with almond oil long time ago and it broke me out just as sever or worse. When I finally fixed my pimples all this OCM come to me again because I want to get rid of my blackheads and I thought previous failure maybe due to the oil I use. I tried mineral oils this time because they are not suppose to clog the pores and I did not react to using Aquaphor as a moisturizer. And when I massaged those oils (Baby oil and albolene), I did really feel some grainy things coming out, making me believe and feel it is working, even though it seemed to work for several days then worsen skin.
I know tretinoin can get me back to clear state but it's just gonna take time. I know and understand. But now really sucks and my chin is really sore.
Maybe I can only chose either live with pimply face with blackheads or live with blackheads alone. Of cause I will chose only live with blackheads.
At least I found a gentle cleanser which doesn't dry me out or break me out yet does cleanse pretty well. If using tissue off method with cetaphil gentle cleanser, it will remove anything except eye makeup. (Avene is drying on me) I don't find I need to tissue hard at all to remove cetaphil gentle cleanser whereas I had to use a lot of pressure using tissue to remove cleansing oils (Albolene the worst). Then splashing face with water will take away any residue.
I don't feel the need of using a moisturizer that often when washing with this.
I just want to post that tretinoin really heal my skin. I WILL USE IT FOREVER! Since those oil cleansing concept crash my skin especially on my chin, I kept a journal and took picture everyday to documant my reactions to products but the only thing I kept using is tretinoin 0.05% (Retino brand). By this chance I can show or say prove that TRETINOIN REALLY WORKS FOR ME!!!!
Even though tretinoin made my skin dehydated, it is a lot better than pimples hanging on my face. Here is before and after pictures. In the after picture I only have one active pimple which is dying down but I have a lot of discolorations. During the re-experiencing course, I changed a lot of moisturizer and sunscreen, here is the detailed list.
LRP Capalist recovery gel: Oily sticky cause me breakout in one day but really works on smoothing flakes.
Cetaphil cream: Oily sticky and heavy and did not hydrate my skin or at least make me feel hydrated. My face simply is flaky and oily when I use this. Cause me random white little pus which can be picked out easily.
Olay active hydrating fluid: I just bought it yesterday and used twice. Light, not greasy. Feel more on hydrating side instead of simply coating the skin with oil. But the fragrance is really strong in a very bad way, smells like really old lady purfume.
BIoderma Photoderm Spf 50+: Really heavy, greasy, and coating feeling but it is actually designed for use on body. I bought this is because I compare the ingredients and they are pretty much the same for face but comes in bigger bottle. But even if the ingredients for face and for body are very similar, the "texture weight" comes out really different. It says it is water resistant but can be easily washed off by water. Awesome UVA/UVB protection according to sunscreen simulator calculation. Makeup goes on ok.
Bioderma Photoderm Ultra fluid for face Spf 50+: Much lighter but still shiny and greasy. Take like 10 mins to dry down. Dewy finish. Awesome UVA/UVB protection according to sunscreen simulator calculationMakeup stays on it pretty good though.
Neutrogena Liquid Spf 70: Light but greasy and oily. Stings my face!! Take 5 mins to dry down. Dewy finish. Makeup stays on not good because my face will get drier and drier over the course of day making my flakes more obvious yet tip of nose will get extra shiny.
Biore Spf 48: Light and dries quickly to a matte finish. Very drying on skin. Makeup will accentuate my flakes.
My current regime
AM
Cetaphil gentle cleanser
Olay active hydrating fluid
Bioderma Photoderm Ultra Fluid spf 50+
Makeup
PM
Cetaphil gentle cleanser (tissue off then rinse with water, if too lazy I simply tissue off)
Olay active hydrating fluid
Wait 15 mins or so
Tretinoin 0.05% cream (Green bean size)
My skin has healed from the trauma by god damn oil cleansing. No active. Even though my pores are still large, but they look much more refined and clean.
Luckily, I found some products I truly like and will stick to.
Cleanser--- Cetaphil Gentle Cleanser
Very effective cleanser yet mild. No scent.
Moisturizer --- Physiogel lotion
Truly moisturizing. Only small amount needed. If apply too much might be too greasy. No scent.
Sunscreen --- Bioderma Photoderm Cream Spf 50+
High UVA UVB protection. No white cast. No unbearable shiny face. No drying on my skin. No unbearable sticky finish. Doesn't run to my eyes. No scent.
Alibaba, i've been keeping up with your progress and it seems to mirror my struggles. I am only in week 11 and thus far, still breaking out. Week 10 i almost cleared up completely and then BAM.....setback. Curious to know, at one point did you stop breaking out/not break out everyday? I am trying to stay positive but its hard.
Keep us posted!
I would say keep your head up with tretinoin which is a great god sent for me. Ever since I realize all the facewash I have used are too harsh and drying and changed to Cetaphil gentle cleanser, my skin now is a lot healthier. Although my skin turned back to being oily, the texture is refined and very very minimal dry flakes would appear with continued using tretinoin. A while ago why I broke out terribly is me using oil cleaning method but now all of them are healed.
Recently I start to use Paula's Choice BHA gel 2% again, this time not only my skin did not freak out, but also BHA seems to help get rid of my blackheads or clog pores better than treitinoin. Anyways, my skin status is 99% clear. Red dot here and there caused by my picking.
Haven't been updating here for quite a time. I am still doing well with my skin with just occasional red dot here and there. I have not found my HG sunscreen yet so I am still looking.
These are what I have tried so far:
Biorderma Photoderm ones
Break me out although not very bad. Greasy.
Some Japanese ones
Too drying to a point, making skin uncomfortable.
La Roche Posay
Break me out in blackheads and clog pores, and ball up really bad. Moisturizing and relatively light. But make my face oily with time goes by. Work bad under makeup.
So at the moment I am using blue lizard face Spf 30+. I really like how it feels on my skin (moisturizing but not greasy) and works pettey well under makeup BUT I don't feel comfortable about its UV protection power.
