I'll try to describe my long journey with my acne battle...
Currently 27 years old, started getting pretty bad acne around 14 years old. I started trying different products which made it worse most of the time. I also did dans regimen and, while it got rid of active acne, my face always looked like a tomato due to the BP which was almost worse than the acne itself.
Then I started doing more research on MY acne. I realized that 99% of my acne were white heads which turned into a painful bump sometimes, but they never really started out as a painful red bump first , if that makes sense. After looking into it more I decided that my acne, which was white heads, was caused more by clogged pores rather than bacteria I guess? So thats when I discovered exfoliating products (aha and bha)
After I started using exfoliating products, I noticed I started to have more control over my acne. To make a long story short, over the years I have started using less and less products and now have pretty good control over it. I currently wash/splash my face with only water, which has helped TREMENDOUSLY with redness and irritation. I even used the gentlest cream cleansers before and they still caused redness and irritation.
So here I am now, washing my face with only water and applying paulas choice 1% bha gel nightly, plus using a 10% aha once per week. I pretty much only have red marks and broken capillaries from so much damage over the years. I'm getting vbeam done on tuesday by a highlyrated rated derm, so hopefully that will help with the years of face abuse. I have very light/fair skin so any imperfection just stands out unfortunately. To put it differently, I'm pretty sure if I have a nice tan or some color on my face, my skin would look movie star-ish
Now on to my question...during my long 14 year journey i've been coming off products slowly, so now I'm thinking about using the BHA every other day instead of nightly. I know bha and aha are good for your skin, but I still think using it nightly causes some irritation and redness. I'm just afraid doing this will cause whiteheads to start coming back.
If you were in my position, what would you do?
You are on the right track...less is more with acne. Don't even use the BHA in my opinion, it might cause more irritation unless you apply a very small dose every couple of days. Why not try aloe vera gel, honey masks, and other natural things? The less preservatives you put on your face, the better. Consider washing with spring water if your area has harsh tap water, that might help with the redness.
Thanks for the reply. I was always under the assumption that BHA is good for your skin, even if you don't have acne. To be honest I think BHA is the only thing that has actually helped control my acne, which is why I'm afraid to start coming off it.
I should mention that I used to use 2% bha which caused more irritation than I liked, so that's why I switched to 1%. I still feel that the irritation and redness can be cut down though.
Maybe I'll start trying it every other day now. I'm not confident enough to come off it completely.
One thing I will say though is my face looks awesome in the morning the night after I use an AHA. I like how the aha makes my face feel more than the bha does, but I think the bha is what controls whiteheads.
Depends how you look at it.
Others say yes,
Others say no,
Others say dont know.
I say yes it is good for your skin but only if your skin doesnt have the ability to exfoliate on its own. The chemicals we put will somehow interfere with our skin i believe and because of that we need more products to help the skin. It is a smart move for companies since they can sell more and keep buyers dependent but it is bad for us. You need to experiment with your skin. People are very different. So in my opinion, try cutting it out for a month then asess. Your skin will get worse at first since your skin is adjusting.