End if week 7/start if week 8:

Skin still looks horrible and red and inflamed

I swear , if the redness was gone completely my face would look at least 50% better

And it's not even the kind of redness you can hide with make up - it's still really visible under make up

My forehead seems to be smoothing out brilliantly the last few days

My cheeks are absolutely horrific , the redness covers them all and makes it look so much worse

Hope to start seeing results soon as most people say they get results from week 8 (I'll have completed 8 weeks in about 5 days)

Someone help who has success after 8 weeks please ??

It just keeps getting worse and worse.... tiny bumps everywhere!!!! No money to see the derm for weeks! Im beginning to hate life. Wondering if I should go off the differin my skin just keeps getting oily and bumpy and full of zits

Hey guys. Today will be the completion of nine weeks. And things aren't looking so good. Forehead bumps seem to be slowly coming back with millions of tiny ones again. Right cheek has gotten worse. And left has gotten worse too.

@thechase I totally understand how u feel. At this stage should it even be coming back? I mean we have seen improvements but why is it back again?

But I'm still going to hang on. I really don't want my effort to go to waste. Hope u guys follow through too and have better results.

End of 8 weeks:

Haven't broken out so initial breakout is over definitely

Skin still looks HORRIBLE from existing acne though

Forehead started to clear up , almost clear

Cheeks are sometimes smoother and sometimes more bumpy ... I just don't know

Lots of redness from past acne

The funny thing is I only have like 5,6,7 spots on each cheek , but the redness and scars and all makes it look sooooooooooooo bad

If the redness was gone it'd look 50% better at least !!!!

Only one more month

Wish I could see changes quicker.....

It shouldnt be back like this the oil just keeps clogging my pores im at the derm right now waiting for the doc haha so we'll see what he says. I hope he doesn't want to Give me epiduo

@pink: hey babe! Do hang in there! The redness will eventually clear and I really believe things will get better from now. Congratz on having hung on for two months! I'm with u on wanting to see changes quicker, it is soo gentle and slow moving that I'm thinking whether to pump it up to 0.3%.

@thechase: hey there! Good luck and do tell him everything! I might have to go back to mine soon too.

The derm gave me tazorac because differin is probably the weakest Retonoid it dries me out quite a bit but that's better than oily skin. But I would recommend you both stay the course at least for tgree months even though it didnt work for me

Thanks for the update! I sure hope this works out better for u! And yes I will go for a maximum of four months and then I'll see from there! Meanwhile I'll still update weekly here.

End of tenth week/start of eleventh.

I have been religiously extracting the breakout I got on my right cheek the past week. Think it might be because of the tissue oil blotters I had started using that week. So had to bear with all the scars and swolleness. But as of now things are looking pretty good. A relatively clear forehead and left cheek. Right cheek is a lot smoother since I extracted all of them out. Scars faded forty percent in three days that's one good thing

differin fades new ones fast! Let's hope it stays that way and I shall check in in a weeks time

Hi livelife1992,

I'm from SIngapore too.

I have acne popping out main my jaw area, mainly right jaw. My left cheeks had cleared off & stayed clear for for quite some time, but right side is still struggling.

I'm on adapalene for about 9-10 weeks already. Skin getting dry with red patches sometimes. Looks like my skin has not get used to it.

My zits are much under control now, but still not totally cleared off yet especially on my right jaw area. Occasionally there will be 1 or 2 minor zit resurfacing.

I was wondering if the dryness will eventually go away.

Hi fellow Singaporean haha.

So ur main problems before the treatment were acne along the jaw and chin? Glad that it has improved! The redness I don't really have it anymore since I started using a lot of cetaphil! U could slab on a lot more and see if it helps.

Yeah tell me bout It my problem is always my right cheek. Right ones are the problems haha. Hang in there! I'm gonna go on till week 16 and see how it goes from there.

Have you achieved clearance ? My right side still struggling.

Just did extraction cause i was annoyed by those zits.

Does cetaphil clog pores ? I use neutrogena oil free.

I can say that it has cleared 65-70%, with occasional minor breakouts though. I know how easy it is to say don't look in the mirror, just do not touch it and everything will be fine, but it is sooooooo hard to stick and commit to it.

Cetaphil moisturiser is non comedongenic; doesn't clog pores. I haven't seen an increase in comedonal acne since using it so I guess its safe.

Week 10:

So I have completed ten weeks of differin. I'm quite happy now - almost down to all red marks /scars but there are A LOT!!!! They'll fade over time

Forehead completely clear really but was never my problem area anyway

Cheeks smooth completely

I have one spot on my left cheek but that's it

If the million red marks would fade I would be ecstatic

Red marks are really hard to hide under make up but it's Much better than all the million spots I had

My face is so smooth it's unreal !!!!!!

Now just for the red marks to go away and I'll be acne free

I feel like by week twelve they'll go hopefully - fingers crossed!!!

It's so strange touching my face and not feeling a million little bumps underneath

So good

Here's my timeline

Week 1-3: no difference at all

Week 4: red and more acne

Week 5-6: worst weeks if my life, acne beyond horrible / initial breakout

Week 7: face got LOTS of whiteheads everywhere

Week 8: looked in the mirror and thought my left side looked a little better/ less whiteheads but still bad

Week 9: skin smoothed out drastically and I only had about 10 spots

Week 10: all smooth just a million red maths

I'll do the rest of the timeline when it is week eleven and twelve !!

Hope everyone is getting on ok xx

Hi pink! I am sooo happy for you! You deserve it for sticking through the bad times and ur finally at the stage where everything is starting to get better.

I recently got back from a trip and today is my 11th weeks and four days of treatment. And im at my best stage yet. (Please please don't let it be a jinx). I don't know if it was the trip but right now I have 0 active spots. Zero. I can't believe it myself and like u said pink it feels so odd to wash my face and not feels bumps underneath. My scars are 70 percent faded and now I'm just slowly waiting for them to fade more. I sure hope this is the end of the roller coaster ordeal Ive had to face and pray that things will only get better from here.

Truly and sincerely anyone else trying this treatment out there. Don't give up.

Live life 1992-

Hello!! I am so glad it's working for you. That's amazing !!!! It's great.

Not feeling all those bumps underneath makes me feel so happy and I'm sure you can agree!!

I'm just finished week 11 todsy- I have about 20 bumps over my cheeks which are coming to a head but they don't bother me that much considering I had 200 plus 11 weeks ago!

Red marks fading slowly but surely

Cannot wait until end of week 12 to see how I get on!!!

So happy for anyone that differin works for ! You deserve it after having acne for so long and putting up with it and not giving up.

Update : week 13 and 3 days.

To say that month 3 is the most optimal period is not true. U should START noticing results by month three. And by that it could range from a mere 30% to 50% improvement. For me it was a 60% improvement at month three. A bit of it came back after month three and I was really upset but I realised that the time it takes to come back has lengthened considerably and each cycle also lasts considerably shorter.

Presently no zits but there's still a few clogged pores, here and there. Hoping that I will see improvements down the road and shall update soon.

@again: hi there! May I know when did u stop using differin after it cleared u the first time round? Do we really have to keep using it? I was thinking of weaning off of it slowly when I'm clear. Hmm I do think that when used together with the others it will fasten the process.

Hay I'm on week 8 on differin and I can say my skin is getting better, & I was wondering if benzoyl peroxide will make a good combo with differin on healing scars , and is there a IB with benzoyl peroxide ?

Hello everybody i'm so glad I found this topic I've been using differin for almost 4 weeks now and for the past 2 weeks I've been experiencing an awful initial breakout but nothing too crazy, they're now fading away and the scars too but I can't see some major improvement I'm still at week 4 It's just so hard to look at a mirror when your acne got 3 times worse you know how it feels

How is everybody doing with differin? What was your initial breakout like? I hope you all feel satisfied with the final results

Hi guys!!! Month 4 and day 6 into treatment. It has slowly calmed down since my last update and been seeing loads of improvements. But now a new problem has surfaced and I get a new pimple every two days! Trying to see where this leads me and will update in a few. Other than that everything is good and am quite happy with the results. Hope u guys are doing well and do hang in there!

Question for long term users (approximately a year), have any of you found that it has the side effect of hair growth on the face?

I think differin has had this effect on me

Hi guys. Its been so long and boy do I have updates. Since my last update, I went on differin for another month, up till my fifth month on it. Till then I can conclude that differin had a total of 30% improvement for me. I was in constant denial of the fact that it was not properly taking out my clogged pores. It would leave me clear for a week and then the second week would lead to tennbumps coming back on my cheeks. The cycle goes on and I guess its the constant fluctuation that led me to believe that it wasn't working out well for me at month five.

So I arranged for a visit to a proper dermatologist and got the tretinoin cream 0.025%. Have been on it for 3 weeks. These 3 weeks... What can I say. It has done more for me than what differin has ever done. It gave me new pimples for sure cause of the purging but holy cow boy did it do sth to my clogged pores. It is actually possible for clogged pores to dry out and disappear altogether. When I have new ones I just dab it on and sometimes it disappears the next day (notnjoking) but the maximum it takes is 3 days. So I'm so psyched!! It has been a period of 2 and a half weeks since I got any clogged pores. And I am so so happy. So yeah just wanted to update that I'm not on differin anymore and wished it could have worked for me. For the rest of u I hope it works out fine <3

My skin was like a battle ground when all hell broke loose last november. It healed all by itself. But my derm prescribed me Differin 0.1%. I initially just did not use it because my acne cleared. But a few were still popping up here and there. So I decided to use the gel and just get rid of it once and for all. Have been using it for the last 1 week. Can already seen a lot of clogged pores waiting to erupt. Either I am gearing up for an initial breakout or differin not working for me at all. But I am gonna go ahead with it. I am so nervous. Will it work for me or not? My skin driving me nuts.

I have been using Differin for a week now and my skin has ERUPTED, like I thought before was bad, but this is way worse than I could imagine, I don't want to go out in public baad. What's worse is I have to go to school everyday and I hate feeling self-conscious. Literally in some of my classes everyone in my row has the smoothest, clearest skin, with no sign of a single pore. I thought we were all teenagers here?! Did they already grow out of their hormonal phase and leave me behind? Was I the only who inherited this horrid acne gene?! I want to wear a bun to school, but I would hate to reveal these horrid cheeks and mountains on my forehead even more. Anyways hopefully my acne goes away eventually. I'll try to stay strong I hopefully it will all work out.

so ive been using differin with cleocin-t and its *kind* of working.. ive been using it on my back and the top of it looks clearer than it used to
i did temporarily use it on my face, i did it twice.. and i guess since my skin is so sensitive my face is dry and it feels so tight
every moisturizer i put on burns soooooooo bad so I've been using sweet almond oil just to prevent the stinging... it helps a little bit. its the only thing i can put on my face that doesnt make it feel like its on fire