rant time...i was looking through some of my old acne free pictures and i looked so much happier. ugh. now my face is covered by this PIH shit. I literally had clear beautiful skin before and then BAM...you have acne. great world. I wish I could go back to that careless feeling of laying around without makeup or not having to get ready with the lights off because you cant afford to look at your freaking self while you are getting ready...acne is awful. it deserves to die. even when its gone,, it leaves its best friends..the PIH...to remind you of the torture you went through just a few short months ago. and the PIH are quite some chatterboxes of friends because they linger around and sit on your face forever...almost as long as the acne itself did. PERFECT. I hate acne. I want that old skin back

update day 40 - last deep clogged pore went away, it kinda surfaced so i extracted it, skin a little red around it. still getting a few red bumps some worse than others, PIH slow to fade.

the bump on my chin that kept coming and going, i decided to squeeze it and the plug came out so it shouldn't come back

I think differin might be slowing down PIH healing process

do any of you experience that after the plug(blackhead i guess yellowish and hard) came off the bump still remains,i have quite a few of those they do mellow down but i can still feel them under my skin they dont have any head now their just smooth bumps under my skin.

kind of like this on the pic

[Edited image out]

Week 18. Still slowly clearing up and not really breaking out anymore.

Its pretty quiet on here, how is everyone?

P.s . I hate the sun!

Hi guys

Update-time!

Well, I must say, I did something VERY stupid on wednesday..

I went to the beach, and although I covered myself 3 times with 30 spf, i got a really bad sunburn in my face.

And yesterday I had like all these tiny fluid-blisters on my face next to my nose. And my face is going to peel today or tomorrow.

so, DON'T GO TO THE BEACH WHILE TAKING DIFFERIN!!!!

I never had such a bad sunburn, and I did protect myself really well.. But still my face hurt like hell yesterday.

So I made a decision, i'm gonna quit using differin, because the sunburn in the summer is just NOT worth it!

My face always looks good in the summer, so i'm gonna restart using differin when it's winter

Now it's just waiting till my face turns back to normal, and I guess it's gonna take another week..

Update - starting week 7

skin going through ups and downs, some days it gets clear other days have new bumps pop up.

face is very flaky, when i wet my face n rub my fingers across it i can feel and see all the dead skin, its like layers and layers.

I'm paranoid about the sun as well since differin makes your faces sensitive. I'm tan color so normally this isn't a issue

@Pcosgal they look like papules to me

@jacintha i was reading a article by a dermatologist, he was saying differin takes 12-16 weeks to modify your deeper layers of skin, then you only need to use it 2-3 times a week for maintenance and after a few months you can stop all together.

hey ya'lllll :DDD sorry i hhaven't updated in a while. There hasn't been too much to update. I am pretty much acne-free...I have 2 closed comedones and the rest are red marks which are fading so fast. I love that hydroquinone stuff!!! They are starting to look like freckles now. Pretty cute. Anyway, hope ya'll are doing well!!! Retin a is definitely working at the comedones that differin didn't get to.

My derm prescribed me Differin because my old derm took me off of tazorac when I was done with Accutane which was NO GOOD. I was pissed haha but I am just trying to test Differin on one side of my face right now, I'm sooo scared because my skin is o.k but I don't want to purge!! Is that a good idea to test it or nooo? allisioncatherine are you still purging??

gina...nooo I'm not I purged like hell at weeks 3-4 into the treatment....but remember you HAVE to be patient. Differin works slower than Taz. It took me about 2.5 months to see noticable results.

@allison really? I always chickennn out when it comes to this stuff haha. but would you say you love differin?

@allison really? I always chickennn out when it comes to this stuff haha. but would you say you love differin?

 

I think everyone who has posted on this topic (except one) has liked Differin and is clearing up their acne.

Looking back on it, I did have pretty bad acne and 4 months later, even though I am not fully clear, it has worked a lot!

Its just one of those things you have to be patient with. Gina, I guess there is no harm in trying it out?

well I'm on Duac and have been for 2 years, do you think the Duac will actually prevent an initial breakout from the Differin?

Gina, get your derm to prescribe an antibiotic for the first few weeks to help with the intial breakout. But don't keep using them...just use them as a sort of crutch to get through the rough periods. Haha, I remember I purged so bad...I had to cover my face with bandaids so I wouldn't look at the pimples and cry....but remember, if you PURGE, it either means a) you're allergic or b) its working. Lol.

um and to answer your question Gina....

I LOVE DIFFERIN

lol. Seriously, I'm on retin a now....and the doctor said just to use it 3x a week but I still alternate nights with differin because I just can't let go of it. I love it way too much. lol.

Heeeeey guys!

So quick update:

my face recoverd from that really BAD sunburn. It was s³ bad, but now I just have a nice skin-colour So i'm quite happy!

And the thing I'm really thrilled about: the prominent redmark on my cheek is almost gone! I had such a bad sunburn that my whole skin started flaking 2 days ago, and I guess it also flaked off my redmark

Also, I haven't used differin in about 6? days. Guess I had to let my skin heal. I'm not breaking out more then I did w­th differin. I used it for almost 6 months, so I guess I can quit it now

I have now like 3 pimples? Guess because I expect my period anytime soon, so that's nothing to worry about And they're like in hormonal places, 1 on my chin and 2 above my eyebrow. Oh well, shit happends right

went out for a few hours on saturday and my skin got sunburnt despite wearing broad spectrum spf30, monday night it all peeled liked crazy, yesterday i went in the sun for only a hour same thing happened again, and today one side of my face has started to peel already. I usually NEVER sunburn.

so now im worried, differin thins your epidermis and causes peeling anyway and sunburn peels your skin. I feel like my skin's going to end up raw becuase of how frequently it's peeling of which will only make things worse

Oh I feel so sorry for you Noregrets!

What happened with me, the places where I burned the most, started flaking in 3 days, and yeah when the flaking started some raw skin appeared beneath it.

So don't pick at it! Just let it heal and flake off itself, otherwise you'll end up with raw patches (which will leave PIH if you enter the sun again).

So if you just let it heal, everything will be fine. Today my skin is totally back to normal (so it took a week to fully heal)

And DON'T go in the sun while you're peeling. You should wear a hat or don't go outside for about a week. And that sucks (I know) but it's the best for your skin, and you don't want dark spots from the sun.

And maybe you should use a SPF 50 or 60, or just the highest SPF you can get.

Thanks for the reply jacintha

trouble is that my skin is oily, clog prone, sensitive and tan coloured so it's difficult to find a high SPF that's non comedogenic, (regardless of what the manufacturer claims) matte, doesn't leave a white cast and is free of frangrances... Effort, took me and my girlfriend a long time and trial and error to find one that suits me, menscience titanium dioxide spf30. It worked fine until differin made my skin extra sensitive.

I'm going to try use differin every other night instead now, i'll be on to week 8 on friday. I want clear skin that's also not flaky and red because that looks bad as well so have to compromise.

Also I need to stop scratching/ rubbing of the flakes, that just makes my skin more irritated.

Ah the *hit we do for nice skin...

Week 19. Nothing really major to report, just slowly clearing.

I purchased Biore pore unclogging scrub today. Seen a few reviews and says it takes around a couple weeks to see results. So hopefully by then my blackheads will have gone and my skin looks a little clearer!

@ginamarie if your skin is okay ish, few clogged pores then the purge should be mild, during my purge I got a few small red bumps, that cleared in a day or two. My deep comedones mostly dried up and went away without getting inflammed. One turned in to a full on pustule, two others got a bit inflamed from picking, however in my 8 weeks of using differin that's my ONLY pustule. since starting differin i just get superficial stuff like small red bumps, some tiny puss filled spots that wash off a day later (its like just puss at the surface) and tiny clogged pores that go away by themselves. The way i see it youv'e got to purge because all that stuff has got to come out. my skin is actually the best it's been since I hit puberty, the sooner you start the sooner you'll attain results. For week one i used the differin every other night to let my skin accustome to it. Good luck to u and anyone else starting the journey .

My update 8weeks and 3 days - skin is smooth and even, 2 small red bumps, 5 PIH marks are slowly fading, still flaky in my usual places but not dry or tight, i'm guessing it's just from the increased cell turnover. I don't use any exfoliators which is probably why the flakes build up but I rather have flakes then irritate my skin i guess. The sunburn heeled fine. Recent trend in my skin is a few days ill have a couple of supeficial stuff next couple days i'll have nothing, the spots clear as quickly as they come and since it's onyl 8 weeks it's perfectly normal . I'm back to london on tuesday my skin usually gets a little worse but im fairly confiedent in differin.

Wiseboy, hows your PIH now? have any marks completely cleared up?

Good luck to everyone

hey youg uys sorry i haven't updated in a while...I was not in town!!!! My PIH is clearing up and my skin feels SO SMOOTH!!!!!! I love it. I think within 6 months I will be completely clear. Anyway, I love my clarisonic!!! My pimples heal so fast. If they come, they are gone within 2 days. I seriously am so blessed to have clear skin again!

Wiseboy, hows your PIH now? have any marks completely cleared up?

 

Not yet. But getting there!

On my left side, I have a bigish pink mark, which is slowly going. And right side is fading, which I'm sort of happy about!

Hopefully by the end of the month, it will be a lot clearer. Have done 5 months now, so better clear up soon!

update 8 weeks a 3 days.

Skin was doing well, so i decided to switch my gentle cleanser to my pre-differin cleanser which is harsher and strangely my face broke out after a few days. so back to being gentle with my skin and hopefully it should clear up in about a week.

laaa skin is doing so well!!!!

ZEROOO acne!

Red marks are fading FAST because of the Obagi Nu-derm CLEAR with 4% hydroquinone! The only problem I have been having is super DRY skin. Like my face is so itchy and peelinggg! I think I've kinda been on exfoliation overload and not moisturizing. I use the clarisonic cleansing brush, then differin or retin a depending on what day it is..and i do it every day! So yesterday, my face was soooo peeled and flaky, I said screw the retinoids and fell asleep with freaking VASELINE on my face! And my face feels SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH better!!! I need to reduce my retinoid use to 3x a week!

oh and also...BACTRIM ROCKS!

that's great allison,

okay for the last few days I've been braking out worse than the IB and things are healing slower, I'm confused why it's stopped working :s

im 8 and a half weeks in , i had my IB around week 4

Allison jacintha and wiseboy did u experience anything similiar? my skin was much better for weeks and now its gone worse

Allison, I'm on Bactrim as well!! The Differin and Duac have subsided most of my active acne but I have horrid acne marks (PIH) but I'm fair skinned, so I have red spots and patches all over my face

I'm going to a skin care center today and meeting with a physician's assistant. I know they sell Obagi products. I'm gonna ask about the one with Hydroquinone because I want to even out my skin tone so badly!!! I'm on Day 55. At what point did you add hydroquinone to your regimen?