Hello everyone!
Im gonna try to keep this intro short.
1.5 years ago my cystic acne returned after I thought that it was under control with minocycline and drug store topical acne treatments.
To tackle the cystic acne, my derm put my on doxycycline and epiduo. The combo worked pretty well (I'd give my skin an 8/10 after 3 months on this regimen). However antibiotics are not a long-term medication so after 6 months of full dosage, I weaned myself off of the doxycycline (over the course of 6 months) with the hopes that if I cut down my dosage a little every month, I wouldn't get a big breakout from cutting out doxy.
In the past 6 months after cutting out doxy, my skin is probably a 7/10. Clear forehead, clear cheeks, not-so-clear chin and jawline. At any given time I had 1-2 pustules on my chin/jawline. And during my period it would be 2-3 pustules.
In the hopes to completely clear my skin of the hormonal inflammatory acne that epiduo wasn't able to control, my doc prescribed Aczone 5% (I don't know why she didn't prescribe 7.5%) for me to use in the morning and to keep my epiduo at night.
I started this on 10/09/16. Let's see how it goes!
Hi there, just a quick skin update and rant because the self-esteem is not looking so good right now.
It seems the older I get, the more obsessed I become with my skin. In a very unhealthy way. I can't stop staring at my face looking for blemishes,and I keep picking or squeezing any little non-inflamattory bump i see, and its making my face look so much worse than before I touch it. As far as acne goes, I only have 1-2 inflammatory spots on my face right now which is pretty standard. However, because I've been picking at my face so much these last couple of days, i wouldn't be surprised if i just made it way worse. I'll do a full update on Sunday the 23rd when it's been 2 weeks since I started Aczone. Hopefully by then I'll have thought up of some way to manage my picking and acne anxiety.
Hey y'all.
So it's been exactly 2 weeks with aczone added to my regimen.
If you're reading this hoping that in these past 2 weeks my skin cleared up entirely.....well you're going to be disappointed.
No magical skin clearing like other people have been saying with aczone. I will admit that the NUMBER of pimples has stayed exactly the same (1-2 inflammatory + 2-3 non inflammatory at any given time) the SIZE of the pimples has gone down. Since starting Aczone I haven't had any cysts or deep, painful pustules. Just some mildly painful surface pustules (that still look nasty lol). I'm gonna take this as a good sign, and hope for the best in the coming days and weeks.
I'll update in another 2 weeks!
Wow it's been 3 months since my last reply....
Anyways aczone has helped my skin. I think I'm back to an 8/10 again, which was what I used to be with the doxycycline... In order to maybe take this up to a 9/10, my doc finally prescribed me the aczone 7.5!!!! If i see anything good or bad happening, I'll update again!
Hey y'all so it's been exactly one week since I started Aczone 7.5 (up from 5). My skin has been responding well to it, I believe. No extra dryness or itchiness, and my skin is looking pretty decent too! Only one active pimple currently! I'll update y'all next week with further updates.
Hey guys! From February 5-March 20 I had AMAZING results! Unfortunately, in the last 5 days I have developed a HUGE breakout. Don't really know what is going on since 7 days ago my skin was perfectly clear.... I'm hoping this is a temporary thing because I really loved the results from the last couple of weeks!! I'll update in a week or so to let you guys know if the breakout was temporary or if aczone magically stopped working all at once.
Turns out it was temporary guys! That breakout occurred right during my week of midterm exams in college PLUS it was also the week before my period. Lots of stress + period hormones = weirddddd breakout. Anyways, my skin is much better than it was when I started the regimen and I'm back to 85% clear skin 
I'll keep updating every so often