So I posted a topic back in January saying that I finally conquered my acne, but that was a sham. I went right back to school after winter break and BAM pimple. I had to re-evaluate everything before figuring out what I was doing wrong. Now, I've ACTUALLY gotten rid of it. I gave myself time before posting, and it's been pretty much 3 months since my last pimple, so I know I've gotten it right this time. I'll copy paste what I wrote in my orignal post and add on to it.

I started getting acne about 5 years ago. I mainly got pustules on my forehead. After a bit of experimenting I found that my go to product to combat acne was the Clean & Clear Deep Action Exfoliating Scrub. I used a Clean & Clear cleanser in the morning, and after a shower in the evening I would use the exfoliating scrub. My acne was well under control afterwards. Two years later I moved on to college, where I started to get pimples every now and then on my cheeks. It was normal I thought, so I ignored it and continued my routine. A few months later, instead of the one or two pimples, I started breaking out BADLY. I decided to check and see what I was doing different than from what I was doing when I used to be clear. I decided that the culprit was night moisturizing, a habit that I picked up in college. I dropped this from my routine (and went back to only moisturizing in the morning), and voila, I went back to being relatively clear with one or two occasional pimples.

Then came the summer. I read up online about acne and learned about toners and how they assist in cleaning up after cleansers. I added a Clean & Clean toner to my morning routine to follow up after the cleanser, and bam, I didn't even get the occasional pimple anymore. It was great. This happiness lasted about 5 weeks, and I started getting these little bumps. These bumps gained steam over the course of two days and became pimples, and I started breaking out like mad. I didn't know what the heck was happening. This started the week that I began my summer class and I was commuting to campus through the NYC subway. The class was extremely tough, and on top of that I was sweating from the unbearable heat in the subway. I figured the sweat was the culprit, and I also suspected that it may have been a health thing, as I was no longer working out and I was eating pretty badly because that class was just THAT hard (grabbing fast food instead of cooking). Once the class ended (I got an A ) I became a health nut. I cut dairy from my diet, I began working out much more often, and I stopped drinking alcohol. At first it seemed like it worked, as I was clear for the first two weeks after the class ended. In reality, none of these changed a thing, and my acne continued on. I began to buy numerous treatment creams one after another, and all of them did nothing. After searching through many forums, I read posts from other people claiming that their skin became immune to their cleanser. I began to believe that my skin became used to the exfoliating scrub, and that I needed a new cleanser with a different active ingredient in order to combat my new acne. I found that the Purpose Gentle Cleansing Wash was very popular, so I decided to pick that up. However, I was a little worried by the "gentle" part in the name, so I picked up an astringent from Sea Breeze. So I discarded my normal after shower exfoliating scrub, and replaced it with the Purpose cleanser + Sea Breeze toner astringent combo. I also learned that my original moisturizer was comedogenic, and I switched to CeraVe moisturizing cream. I was still getting those weird bumps, but I discovered tea tree oil. I figured that if I caught the bumps early enough, I could nail them with the tea tree oil and stop them in their tracks.

I soon had a very rigid routine going that kept my acne under control: 1) cleanse, tone, moisturize in the morning. 2) do NOT sweat ever ever ever! Sweating breaks me out! 3) check the humidity, if it's too humid don't spend too much time outside. 4) GET HOME BY 5 PM EVERYDAY AND TAKE A SHOWER OR ELSE YOU WILL GET A PIMPLE. 5) cleanse with purpose gentle cleanser and tone with the seabreeze toner. I lived by this code very religiously. I structured my class schedule so that I could get home by 5 pm and take a shower. I didn't know why 5 pm was that magic hour, but whatever, it worked. I thought I completely nailed all sources for my acne, and for 4 months I was completely clear. Those weird bumps never gained steam and faded away, and so did my hyperpigmentation. So, the products were:

In the morning - clean and clear cleanser + clean and clear toner + cerave moisturizing cream

After 5 pm shower - purpose gentle wash + seabreeze toner

Soon enough, this combo halted to a stop and I started breaking out again. I originally thought it was stress from studying for finals, but I eventually found out that it could not be the case. What happened? Did my skin get used to my cleanser already? After perusing through acne logs that I kept on my computer, it eventually hit me. My skin did not become "immune" to the Clean & Clear scrub, that scrub turned out to be too harsh for my skin. It dealt with my acne effectively, and I think at some point my skin just did not need that level of cleansing anymore. It seemed to have whittled away at my skin's defenses and sensitized it. That's why switching to the combo seemed to work wonders for me. However, this combo too, started to become too harsh for my skin, and it made sense because I started breaking out at the start of winter, when it became really cold. I re-adopted my night moisturizing when I got home from college for winter break, and my breakouts halted to a stop.

^^So that's where I thought I conquered my acne. Nope. The night moisturizing broke me out as soon as I got to the well heated environment of my college dorm. My house was cold. Really cold. That's why I got away with night moisturizing during winter break. So I dropped the night moisturizing and I was back to my clear face again. It was weird, but I wasn't complaining. I stuck to the code and I was relatively clear throughout the first month of that semester. And then... I stayed up all night one night studying for a physics exam, and the next morning I woke up with a huge f***ing pimple. Instead of stopping and considering what the hell happened, I decided to add another rule to my code: do not leave studying until the last minute, because stress breaks you out. The code became ridiculous as the semester progressed: do not ever get stressed out ever because stress always breaks you out every single time so make sure you smoke some weed for study breaks. Ugh. Then, I finally (and THANKFULLY) decided to hit the acne research again. So, stress gives us pimples because it increases sebum production or something. But why should that affect me now? I pulled all nighters all the time back in high school and never broke out THIS badly. Then I slapped my head, and banged my head on the desk a few times. I knew what was wrong, I ALWAYS knew what was wrong. The increased sebum production from stress was kicking my butt ONLY because my skin was irritated. I didn't break out after my all nighters back then because I wasn't assaulting my face with a toner back then. I threw out the stupid clean and clear toner and my routine then became:

Morning - clean and clear cleanser + cerave moisturizer

Night (not 5 pm) - purpose cleanser + seabreeze toner

And here we are now, completely acne free. No bumps, no whiteheads, nada. I pulled 2 all nighters during finals week and had no pimples the following morning. I'm also happily breaking every rule in the book this summer, playing tons of sports and sweating like hell. No more 5 pm shower, I can shower at midnight if I feel like it as long as I cleanse afterwards. Every theory in my code was debunked, since the only reason I HAD to follow that code in the first place was because my morning toner was freaking my skin out. So my acne over the past two years was self-inflicted... I'll get over that sooner or later. BUT hopefully my story can help some people out. Guys, please please PLEASE, check over your routines when you feel like your acne just isn't being fair. Skin irritation may not always be obvious, as I had no indications that my skin was irritated (other than the pimples). Not everyone has to live by a strict code.

I'll list a few things I've come to learn about my acne:

• Diet had nothing to do with it.
• Stress had nothing to do with it.
• Skin irritation was the root of most problems
• Mop up after your cleanser. The only reason I'm using the seabreeze toner at night is because the purpose wash leaves this weird residue that sometimes causes pimples. I use a little bit of the toner to sweep up, that's all.
• You don't need to rotate your cleansers. The only thing that will stop working after a while is a topical antibiotic. The only way BP could stop working for people after a while is if the harshness of the BP itself is breaking them out.
• I read from another post (not sure about it's accuracy) that if you have inflammatory acne, then it is most likely due to skin irritation. Don't know if that's true, but please consider it.
• For some reason, moisturizing at night breaks me out. I have no idea why, but whatever.

Obviously everyone's acne is different, but who knows how many people are suffering from the same mistakes I made. Before considering theories such as the effects of holistic health or dairy on acne, try to look at the fundamentals first. Take heed when adding toners to your routine. Make sure they're helping and not hurting.