Other than active inflamed pimples, I struggle with having a bumpy skin texture. When i look in a mirror that creates shadows I can see very small bumps over the entire surface area of my face.
And when I look at the skin on my neck, it's all smoothe looking. ALSO, my pores look really dirty and clogged up. I can see black pores and I can also see pores that look clogged. Like there is yellow stuff in them.
Does anyone else have this problem???? I don't want to feel alonne lol. I noticed I had the bumpy skin texture a year ago and it looks way worse when I wear foundation! When I wear foundation, it accentuates the rough/bumpy skin texture.
I was thinking about getting v beam laser or doing deep chemical peels.
Oh and on another note, I have been using salicylic acid products and it has been working great at clearing up my back acne and on my face i only have 4 tiny tiny tinyyy active pimples. Does anyone else use these products and knows if I see results if im gonna have to use these products the rest of my lifeee???
Sorry for adding two thoughts in one thread..It's just that these 2 things have been on my mind lately.
Those bumps are likely something stuck inside your pores, irritating them. Salicylic acid is good at unclogging pores but it's not an instant thing. There's a process of loosening up crap inside your pores and then having that crap move up out of your skin. This can take days or weeks. Sometimes when that crap is moving upward in your skin, it does so in the form of a blemish or bumps.
BHA/Salicylic acid is good at cleaning out pores as it exfoliates the actual pore itsef as the above poster has advised. I would stick with it and possibly add in an AHA product to even out skin texture.
A gentle peel (maybe salicylic or glycolic) might help the skin texture but don't jump in at the highest percentage - that will aggravate your skin more. This may take several applications to see the full effect of the peel and you will need to be careful about sun exposure as well.
As far as I know, you will need to continue using the salicylic acid products - perhaps less frequently as you get older but it will be required for maintainance.
The effect of the BHA on your skin texture depends on the product you use as well - Paula's Choice BHA is apparently one of the best there is because it contains minimal ingredients (especially the liquid)
I have the same problem at the moment and it looks way worse with makeup also! Now that I think about it, my skin started becoming bumpy like this when I started using a lot of acne-fighting stuff all at the same time(cleanser with salicylic acid, toner with salicylic acid and BP). I now have just started only using two products with acne-fighting ingredients(cleanser and BP) but my skin is still bumpy maybe not as bad as before but still. I plan on doing some kind of laser or peel to help with this. But I just wanted to let you know that you are not alone.
Ps. My pores are dirty looking too even though I wash my face twice daily.
i found this thread searching for answers about the sudden roughness of my skin around my upper back, shoulders, and neck. another tab i opened with a very similar first post led me to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keratosis_pilaris "chicken skin" is what i knew it as when i was a kid. but i didn't know it was a condition, i thought it was just normal, it never hurt so i just ignored it. but often (and still) my pores would look dark inside but no amount of cleanser or exfoliator would fix it. other ones looked like bumps with white tops but if i scratched them off they'd just bleed a little, nothing inside. and it was always on a hair follicle and rarely much larger.
take a look at google image search for that, i recognized a LOT of them as phases my skin has gone through over ~20 years. it says it's a common thing, affecting "approximately 50%-80% of all adolescents" and i definitely remember some classmates having the same problem with foundation, but years later it cleared up on its own. don't be too hasty with lasers or chemicals. if you've google image'd keratosis pilaris you'll have seen the laser treatments, and they're not pretty. try acupuncture first, and if it's still a thing in your mid 20s then you can see what treatments are available. salicylic acid is considered a treatment for it.
as for your second question, a lot of people out grow it. cleaning your face and neck is the most important thing, even without chemicals. but a lesser known treatment for face/back acne is putting down a clean washcloth on your pillow and sleeping without a shirt on or using a different, clean shirt every night. if i do just those two things i have 0 breakouts and maintain a clear complexion without chemicals.
sorry to bump an old thread but the keratosis pilaris thing came as quite a shock to me and wanted to share in case it could help jenny p.