I have been battling acne since I was 11 years old. My face break out every so often but ever since last summer I had a horrible break out that left ugly scars and now I recently broke out bad and nothing I put on my face helps. I've tried zinc, lemon juice, honey, African black soap, OTC acne cleansers and nothing works. I feel so horrible I can barely look at myself in the mirror and I now lack confidence. I don't know what to do : (

Welcome to our little club! Sorry that you are going through this but you are among people who are experiencing the same thing.

Tell us more:

Age?

Where you breakout?

Types of acne?

Current skin care and how long you've been doing it?

Diet?

Lifestyle (do you exercise, what's your stress like, emotional disposition, etc)

Once we have this info then we can make changes.

Looking forward to seeing more from you

I am 24 I am in school & I work so I barely have time to excercise. My stress level is high I get anxiety over almost anything and stress out even more. My current routine is St Ives bright and even scrub in the morning followed with nip fab glycolic pads then a vitamin e moisturizer and I put on mineral powder makeup to cover my spots. At night I wash my face with shea moisture African soap and use a tea tree oil toner then put on a moisturizer. I made a appointment for the dermatologist but it's a month away and I need help asap.

I also take zinc for acne it's been two weeks no improvement yet.

Ok, scrubs which have tiny particles are bad bad bad for acne prone skin. They cause unnecessary irritation so stop using it. The same thing can be said of the glycolic pad. Why not try to use your ABS in the am and pm? Also, hopefully you don't apply tehbar directly to your face as it has grain stuff in there as well.

Stress is a big ole red flag. Make the time to workout - it helps regulate hormones including the ones that cause stress. You can have the best face routine in the world but if you are stressed 24/7 it might amount to zilch. How's your diet?

Tell us about your acne (cystic? pus? red lumps under the skin?) Do you breakout everyday? Before your period? Do certain foods mean more acne?

BTW, are you interested in helping your acne via diet changes or just topicals?

A derm will probably recommend a retinoid such as differin/retin a and BP or antibiotics (which you should turn down as acne almost always comes back after your antibiotic course is finished).

I am 24 I am in school & I work so I barely have time to excercise. My stress level is high I get anxiety over almost anything and stress out even more. My current routine is St Ives bright and even scrub in the morning followed with nip fab glycolic pads then a vitamin e moisturizer and I put on mineral powder makeup to cover my spots. At night I wash my face with shea moisture African soap and use a tea tree oil toner then put on a moisturizer. I made a appointment for the dermatologist but it's a month away and I need help asap.

I also take zinc for acne it's been two weeks no improvement yet.

get rid of dairy/sugar/junk food / high carbs for a month and see how that goes

exercise only takes atleast 15min , even tho you work im sure theres alway time to squeeze in priorities if needed

and lastly no stress at all , just gotta know no matter how much u worry about it aint gonna change a thing but do more harm