OK, I'm a 17yo female with most likely hormonal and inflammatory acne. My acne started when I was around 11 right at the beginning of puberty. I would describe it as mild: quite a few small blackheads/big pores (especially on forehead and front of cheeks), several small inflamed bumps at any given time with a couple small pustules (usually around chin, forehead or front of cheeks), I occasionally get cystic pimples (or "underground pimples) that are painful and inflamed. Always a couple blackheads and pimples on back and shoulders. I always used a combo of benzol peroxide and salicylic acid, although I went through month long periods of only one or the other. I tried incorporating an oil mix (jojoba, argon, etc) but it made me look greasy and seemed to cause congestion. I occasionally use diluted glycerine to moisturize my face and aloe vera when I literally cannot with my skin. I try not to pick but I do end up touching my face a lot.

When I eat high glycemic foods I see an effect on my acne almost immediately, such as small pustules appearing by my nose soon after and an obvious increase in pustules and inflamed acne the next couple of days. I find that when I eat a lot of carbs I tend to get cystic pimples on my back. Because of this I make and effort not to eat too many of these foods (although I still eat sugary foods from time to time and carb-load for sports). I eat dairy but no straight up milk because I am lactose intolerant. I'm also a competitive swimmer and have around 8 practices a week, so my skin gets very dry because of all the chlorine (most likely aggravating my acne).

Ok so I decided to a modified caveman regimen because I wasn't going to quit swimming. So basically I just stopped using my topicals and only rinsed my face with water after swimming. Obvs my goal was to obtain the beautiful clear skin that was supposed to happen but really I just wanted to not have such irritated, itchy dry skin all the time that would end up super oily at the end of the day. I also exfoliated a tiny bit with my fingers and water occasionally. Also I know that with swimming and stuff it wouldn't be possible to have that perfect acid mantle and cultivate good bacteria but I thought that it would still greatly improve my skin barrier or whatever.

So first week-ish of the regimen I was camping so literally nothing touched my face except for some lake water (which I thought was ok since dirt is supposed to contain a lot of good bacteria etc). My skin immediately broke out into a ton of pustules, especially in my general mouth area (chin, above lips, smile lines). They were small and surface-level but I didn't pop them so I looked hideous. My cheeks also started to get really bumpy (like a breakout ready to happen).

On week 2 and 3 I seemed to be getting less pustules than the first week but it was still a lot more than normal, but I was breaking out a lot basically everywhere (even places that normally didn't get too much acne) and my whole face, especially my chin, was inflamed. It was itchy, painful and very terrible looking. On top of that my forehead started to get super congested. BUT I was seeing signs of things that I thought meant that the regimen was working, like a ton of dry skin and my pimples would crust over and recede fairly quickly. I also noticed that a lot of my pores seemed to be pushing out plugs if that makes any sense (like I could often pull them out with tweezers and my chin pores had little short strands of white sticking out of them).

K so last week (I gave it 4 weeks so that the skin could flip over or whatever) and my skin is DEFINITELY the worst it has ever been. Tons of pustules, inflammation and blackheads everywhere. Like I cry evertime (except not really, but I am someone who is very resilient to being judged and stuff and am not prone to anxiety, but If I was OOH BOY, like I probably would've quit so soon and actually cried myself to sleep). Like my mom even confronted me about it (a fair bit) cuz she was disgusted and thought people would start treating me badly.

Recap: Good things that happened
- less oil production
- I became mentally stronger
- I gained a lot of confidence (cuz I realized not everything depends on looks)
- I started to accept and love my body (since it was the only good thing about me physically during this time)
- I realized that my skin was best when I just used salicylic acid (benzol peroxide is a little too harsh in my experience)
- I became way better at not picking (especially when it comes to not popping)

Bad things
- I became v ugly (thank god my skin doesn't scar easily!!!!!!!!!)

So ya, basically if you have hormonal/puberty acne DO NOT DO THIS. Even if it works out you'll basically give yourself depression during the months required for purging. I would instead recommend a healthy diet, salicylic acid 1x/ day, diluted glycerine for moisture and acceptance of non-severe acne because it is NOT A BIG DEAL. If anyone cares I can upload some pics of my skin. Also I'm giving it 2 more days cuz I'm a fighter.