Acne.org Products
Hey everyone,
I'm 25 years old and have dealing with mild to moderate acne for 7 years. I get larger, hard cyst type zits on my jawline, red standard zits on my chin, mouth, and jawline, as well as occasionally on my cheeks, nose, and forehead, and white bumps pretty much everywhere. I have very oily skin everywhere. I consistently have 10+ large or red zits, not including all the white bumps.
What I've tried: Acne scrubs, cleansers, pads, creams, etc from the following- Proactive, Murad, AcneFree, Neutrogena, Clearasil, Oxy, Biore, basically anything you can find in the Acne aisle at Target. SA and BP do absolutely NOTHING for my acne. I've also used The Body Shop's Tea Tree line, Burt's Bees Spot oil, Lush's Dark Angels, Ocean Salt, and Tea Tree Spray.
Ive also used Witch Hazel, Rubbing Alcohol, baking soda, Apple Cider vinegar, Aztec Secret Indian Healing Clay, African Black soap, toothpaste, cinnamon, lemon, ice, oil cleansing, water cleansing, honey cleansing, honey spot treatment, changing my diet, drinking more water, changing the number I wash and exfoliate. Probably various other home remedies through the years.
I am on birth control right now and take Hair Skin and Nails vitamins. I currently take Minocycline, but this is the second time my derm has tried it to no avail. I've used two other antibiotics on the past (can't remember the names unfortunately) and have had Aczone and Azelex. The medications seem to work for about a month, then nothing.
My current routine is washing twice a day with African black soap, toning with witch hazel, spot treating with alcohol, and my current Azelex cream, then moisturizing with Burt's Bees Skin Brightning Cream in the day, Yes To Grapefruit Correct and Repair Night Treatment or Alba Even Advanced Treatment. (All those moisurizers help a bit with scaring and don't bother my face) Twice a week I exfoliate with Dark Angels and use the Aztec Healing Clay mask. I like my routine in terms of my face feels clean, yet moisturized, but my acne takes forever to dry up even with the rubbing alcohol and medication, or avoiding moisturizing my acne (which I don't like to do because my acne is everywhere anyway) and I constantly get new zits.
I don't wear any makeup either.
I want to ask my derm for accutane or whatever it's called now but I'm not sure what I'm going to do if he doesn't prescribe it or it doesn't work.
I am just so desperate and my confidence is complete garbage. Any advice with anything new, similar situations, or even links to previous threads that could possibly be of help would be appreciated.
Hey RunnerFive, you've had quite a journey so far...it sounds to me like you're definitely a candidate for Accutane so I'd be surprised if your derm won't prescribe it for you...best wishes for success with that as it is probably your best option.
If you're wanting to try something else in the topical line you could have a look at epiology skincare. It's fairly new and available through their website.
Hi Exning,
I used almost all treatments for three-six months at a time. There would be improvement after the first month or two but after that it would just go back. The current regimen I've been on for 8 months just because I like how clean my skin feels minus the acne. I've been on this round of minocycline and Azelex for 7 months.
I've been taking biotin for about four years on and off. I don't see any difference from when I take it versus not in terms of skin. It really only makes a difference with my hair.
With the current routine, I've tried playing with the number of times I've washed my face during the day and how much I exfoliate. Twice seems to not irritate my skin, just general redness when I'm done washing my face. I've also removed the witch hazel, alcohol, and prescription at some points. The only difference I've really noticed is if I remove my prescription, my face doesn't feel as "heavy" with product, and in all honestly, at this point the Azelex is more of a mental thing because it does nothing for my acne.
I am open to suggestions and changing it up though if it's overkill.
Hey! I was exactly like you I had tried everything and anything that said acne solution on the package. Eventually I went to the derm and now I wish I had done it when I first developed acne!!! But either way, the derm prescribed tretinoin, spiro and doxy. 4.5 months later, my acne is GONE. Now I have some hyper pigmentation left but it is also fading away. I can tell you it feels so good to have something that actually works. I was tired of experimenting and failing every time. It's such a relief to let a professional handle your skin care. Especially because at the time I didn't realize that my acne was hormonal so nothing OTC would work on it. Maybe short term but acne always came back. Now my face has been acne free for about 2 months 
Make sure you use plenty of sunscreen when using tretinoin. I would ditch the other OTC acne medications, unless its prescribed by a derm.
wish this would leave us all alone 
I used to suffer a lot from acne and I was down that road where I just wanted to give up feeling totally helpless. However I had one belief that is not universally agreed upon and that is it is due to my food intake. Some kind of food that I was consistently taking was causing my face to respond negatively by creating acne. If my body could talk it would have said "please stop eating this food!" but alas it couldn't so it could only tell me by creating acne. For a long time I couldn't identify which food or foods that were causing acne for me simply because I was taking so many kinds of food it was extremely difficult to track down! So I decided to start from basics. I took the path I know many probably never would, I decided to water fast. It was drastic but it worked! During my fast the last of the acne came out as my body cleans itself. To take a less drastic path one could do a juice fast because fruits and vegetable juices do not cause acne at least for me. When the acne no longer comes it gave me lots of confidence as I realize that it is within my power, the feeling of helplessness is gone. I started adding foods to my diet one by one to identify which foods exactly were giving me acne.
When I started eating MSG containing foods such as seaweed snack packets (my favorite food at the time) the acne came back! I had to stop eating them although I love them so much but the acne no longer occurs. I realize my body doesn't like monos idiom glutamate and it was warning me against it. What makes the topic of acne tricky is that different foods trigger acne for different people.
I used to believe acne has nothing to do with diet but it absolutely does. I was a long time sufferer and this knowledge really enlightened me as now it is my past.
Hello!
You should definately get referred to a dermatologist. See your GP, ask for a referral. It will be the best thing you will ever do for you and your skin. I had a course of accutane 3 years ago and the residual effects were amazing.
This is before:
Jan 2013
and this is 15 weeks into treatment in June 2013 (my treatment of 30 mg per day was stopped after 3 months as I had a side breakout on my right shoulder but even at 15 weeks my skin was much better).
And this is after:
June 2013
What I found amazing (and not really raised by the consultant) is that the residual effects are good, very good). This is a photo from November 2014, cleansed skin, exfoliating toner and moisturiser. No concealer or foundation! Positively glowy! 
If you have any doubts, talk them through with a dermatologist and the specialist nurses. They are brilliant and will support you through the process.
I revisited the dermatologist yesterday, as I have developed a breakout on my chin (face on my skin looks perfect face on) and I'm about to commence a second course of accutane (20 mg per day to be reviewed monthly). Knowing how well it works, I'm feeling so positive going into the treatment.
Get that referral kicked off via your GP as the dermatologist appointment could be up to 3 months wait, which is pretty average. I hope this helps and do message me if I can do anything to help.
LBB
Hi there, what kind of birth control do you take? Some make acne worse, the ones used to help acne are yaz, Yasmine, dianette and orthocyclen. Sometimes adding Spiro + birth control does the trick as Ugirl said. I'm taking Spiro+ yaz for 2 months, still getting g a few breakouts but overall they are diminishing and my skin is much less oily, which I love.
As for topicals I think maybe you're doing too much. Use a gentle ( not for acne) wash and skip the toner. Maybe try epiduo or tretinoin.
Foods can cause acne to get worse IF you have an allergy, with me its milk and one or two fruits. Those are more like allergic hives than regular pimples but they iutch.
Other odd factors, try zinc, vitamin A, green and spearmint tea. I hope yu find the answer, acne sucks.
11 hours ago, littlebrownbird said:Hello!
You should definately get referred to a dermatologist. See your GP, ask for a referral. It will be the best thing you will ever do for you and your skin. I had a course of accutane 3 years ago and the residual effects were amazing.
This is before:
Jan 2013
and this is 15 weeks into treatment in June 2013 (my treatment of 30 mg per day was stopped after 3 months as I had a side breakout on my right shoulder but even at 15 weeks my skin was much better).
And this is after:
June 2013
What I found amazing (and not really raised by the consultant) is that the residual effects are good, very good). This is a photo from November 2014, cleansed skin, exfoliating toner and moisturiser. No concealer or foundation! Positively glowy!
If you have any doubts, talk them through with a dermatologist and the specialist nurses. They are brilliant and will support you through the process.
I revisited the dermatologist yesterday, as I have developed a breakout on my chin (face on my skin looks perfect face on) and I'm about to commence a second course of accutane (20 mg per day to be reviewed monthly). Knowing how well it works, I'm feeling so positive going into the treatment.
Get that referral kicked off via your GP as the dermatologist appointment could be up to 3 months wait, which is pretty average. I hope this helps and do message me if I can do anything to help.
LBB
wow you have great results! Your skin looks wonderful in these
Thank you @snarkygirl . To be honest the acne that has reoccurred is not that bad but the scarring is awful an I thought I should get help before it got much worse.
To answer your questions, I use a Mirena IUD, which I love; fewer hormones just where they're needed and better than an oral alternative (I've used several over the years including Dianettte and Minulet, all awful side effects).
Regarding my cleansing, toning, moisturising routine, I use stuff for dry/sensitive skin which is so much less harsh than the specialist acne/oily versions I used previously. I swear I'm lazy when it come to this stuff so simple and quick are my style. I cleanse my face in the shower.I'm going to request tretinoin when my treatment is complete. Dermatologists here are reluctant to prescribe it but I'll see a private dermatologist if necessary to get it.
With regard to allergies, I cut out cows milk 10 years ago and have almond or soya, where available and eat very little fruit due to the high natural sugar content. I stick to berries mainlyand no citrus as it aggravates the acne.
Supplement-wise, I will take zinc post treatment with flaxseed or fish oil but avoiding vitamins of any kind at the moment as insotretinoin/accutane is high dose Vitamin A and I don't want to overdose on it.