Im 30 years old and struggled with mild acne in my teen years but for the last decade I only got occasional pimples. About 6 months ago I started getting breakouts for the first time in many years. Bad cystic acne over my neck/chin.At first I thought it was cause I moved to a new city that has hotter weather, butits cooled off recently and Im still breaking out. My diet hasnt changed, no diary, low amounts of sugar.Im generally very healthy and Im OCD about keeping my face clean, washing pillow cases, etc. I did start vaping about a year ago after quitting cigs and Im really starting to think its the vaping thats causing. I honestly just ordered BP which I havent used since I was 20, but after reading all these postsIm gonna quit vaping first to see if thats the cause. Ill report back.
On 7/1/2017 at 4:55 PM, dreamcrazy said:Hi, just made account to reply to this.
So im 11 months cigarette free after 18 years smoking (im 30). Never had issues with acne as a teenager or even in my 20s. About a month after quitting and vaping CONSTANTLY, i started getting massive cysts on my chin, a huge one on my cheek which got so close to my eye I was worried i would lose it. Dont want to write a novel but nothing has changed in my life except the vape. Im 2 months into doxycycline, no change in fact i still have little ones pop up everywhere. They have gone hard and look like they are permanent. Went back to dermo yesterday and hes put me on accutane. Really nervous about starting this, hes put me on the lower dose at 10mg rather than 20mg i think maybe because my weight (50kg) or because I was nervous about starting this. I already knew what it was when he suggested it from my previous research. I told him i am a constant vaper and my mum is convinced its the vape. He didn't think it was the vape and said its becoming more and more common for people my age to experience outbreaks like this. My diet, exercise routine hasnt changed.. the only thing thats changed in my life is giving up smoking, and starting the vaping. Its been an absolute nightmare to the point i stayed home for a week just to give my face a break , but also because it was so bad and just too embarrasing to go out. Saturday night and im home because of it (not a hard partier, but normally would have a friend over on the weekends)
Im not being very thorough here, creams im using is azclear, crystacide, and normal nivea lotion. It makes me look so dirty and unclean when I am actualy boreline OCD. Just posting in here to add me to the list of getting severe and i mean severe acne /cysts from vaping. First i though tit was a staph infection, but these are so isolated to the chin mainlythat ive been told this is not staph. Drinking so much water incase its dehydration, i dont know but it sucks!! Cigarettes are disgusting to me now I can't even have one, and I can't afford it either. I was a chain smoker and never ever planned on quitting and was estatic when this vaping worked. I vape mainly watermelon and menthol. Ive just gone down from 12mg to 3. Face is scarred. Just gutted.
Try iqos.. heated tobacco. I experience the same.. my face has been breaking out so bad since vaping and now im going back to IQOS
Update Nov 27
I stopped smoking my weed vape pen and had afacial at the same time as my original post on Nov 9 and have not had a new blackhead since or any new breakouts since. I have smoked dry marijuana herb. I am convinced that it was the oil in the penthat was causing my skin to break out. The light therapy is supposed to kill the bacteria and I was dubious at first. From the research I did LED therapywas originally created to speed up wound healing for astronauts.The facial helped fast track the healing of my existing scars and pimples - sorry to be gross but the bacteria pushed out of my pores effortlessly after a week. I'm pretty astounded and have booked another one a month after the first. This is the treatment I had if you are looking for something similar in your area... 30 minute Light Therapy Boost https://formulafig.com/pages/light-therapy-boost followed by aHydrate and GlowFacial https://formulafig.com/pages/hydrate-glow
Original post Nov 9
I'm so happy to find this post and all the comments. I live in Canada and have been smoking weed (no tobacco) for over 20 years. My skin overall has been really good although can be oily, with very few breakouts and I was just using jojoba oil to cleanse it.
Over the last 2-3 years I've been smoking a cannabis vape pen almost on a daily basis. I was first using disposable pens then switched to oil cartridges. I've noticed that I'm getting an increasing number of breakouts, mostly blackheads but some whiteheads. The blackheads take about 5 weeksto heal and because I have dark skin I easily get hyperpigmentation so it takes forever for the mark to go away.
When I wear a mask if I travel then they are much worse. I've been trying everything from cleaning up my diet, to washing my makeup brushes more frequently, drinking tons of water, changing skincare products, you name it.
I haven't smoked in the last 3 days and my skin seems to be getting better. I called a couple of cannabis shops and it could be the oil and/or the natural flavours they use. I'm going to keep eliminating it altogether to see what happens but think this might be the key and am so grateful for all of the posts.
Thank god I found this thread. Thought I was going crazy.
In short: smoked for 20 years, but onset of Covid, plus general health concerns now that I'm in my mid-40s inspired me to switch from cigarettes to vaping. No such thing as a free lunch I guess...
I had acne as a teenager and in my early 20s, not so bad that I went to a dermatologist, but probablyworse than average. It had mostly cleared up once I hit my mid 30s, with only an occasional pimple here and there Within a month or two of vaping though, I started to get acne -- and not just small pimples, but painful, embedded, cystic ones. Concentrated around my chin, neck and nose. The ones on my nose were worst, as they would start to bleed when pressed even slightly, almost like it was a chemical rash. My skin also just felt toxic all the time, especially late in the day -- for a while I tried to chalk it up to having to wear a mask all day, but gradually I realized that all of these symptoms overlapped with the switch to vaping. I might have been motivated to act sooner, but the mask actually helped me disguise what was happening since I work indoors and have to wear one all day.
So I made the decision two days ago to stop after my nose developed another bloody, cystic crater -- in fact the worst pimple I've probably had in my life, which will almost certainly leave a scar for the rest of my days. Even after 2 days my skin feels a lot better, and I don't feel any signs of oncoming outbreaks, something which hasv not happened in at least six months, when there was always something new developing even as the old ones were fading.
It seems like most (though not all) of those reporting acne problems with vaping had a history of acne when they were younger, so maybe we are just more prone to it than others, where toxic substances will invariably make their way to the skin's surface on our upper bodies. Whatever the reason, I'm glad my experience has been validated here -- I'm sick of reading (as someone already mentioned) it's just about dehydration.
Hi all!
Im new to this site and actually created an account after finding this thread!
I have been suffering with painful cystic acne, mainly on my cheeks and my jaw line. I am now 30 years old and I would say that my problem really started to flare up when covid happened and we went into the first lockdown.
I smoked since the age of 14 never struggled with my skin. I quit tobacco around the age of 22 and switched to vaping. I loved it and managed to stop cigarettes completely.
HOWEVER.when we went into lockdown I started chain vaping from being at home all the time and not working as I got made redundant. I remember thinking why do I keep breaking out? is it the stress and all. I then found work after a few months when things started to open again. I remember my skin be a little problematic but not as bad as it as been in the past year. I tried diet changes, drinking more water, supplements to help balance hormones, changing skin care, stripping it right back, making sure I was using the right products. My skin went through changes where I thought it was getting better then it would get bad again.
its only up until the last few weeks I thought OMG is it vaping after reading this thread and coming across other peoples stories. But why only now when Ive vapes for a few years!?
I became a very heavy vaper. I started a new job back last year in June. Thats when I can say my skin started getting worse. I work outside mainly meaning I was pretty much vaping so much during the day and then at home in the evening just having the vape glued to me!
Im convinced this is whats caused my skin to get so bad!
my question is, has anyone truly seen results after quitting? If so, how long did it take for your skin to get better? Ive stoped vaping so much to the point where I have a few puffs in the evening and thats it! Im hoping to get away from this too, but I have noticed since stoping just over a week I havent had a new break out which I was experiencing pretty much every day.
Id be so so grateful for any advice, tips or experiences!
Hi everyone! Thank you so much for sharing your insights , they are so helpful to me and many others as far as I can see. I myself thought was going crazy with finding reasons as to why I had such a bad cystic acne breakout at the back of my head. It made me feel so insecure to the point where I didn't even wanted to go out socialise with people. Then I've started looking for reasons as to why that has been happening for a while now. I literally blamed it all on gym sweating,sweets and alcohole. I've stopped doing all those 3 and things weren't getting any better. Then I've realised it could have been vape. Back in the days I used to vape for 1 month and then stopped. During these time I've developed acne but then went back to cigarettes and the acne slowly went away. Then 3 years later I've decided I'd go back into vaping. And here I am 1 month and a half into vaping with the worst painful breakout. Now I am convinced it's those nasty chemicals they put in the e-liquids. I have thrown away this vape for good...
Hey everyone,
While I have no scientific stats to back this up, it isn't just nicotine, or nicotine at all.. it's the vaping itself.
This is why I believe so,
I'm 32 right now but dealt with the majority of my acne issues in my mid twenties, when I found the regimen and it began to clear me up. In that time I would still have breakouts but they became smaller and smaller, eventually a pimple here or there. Anyway, I've smoked cannabis for about 12 years now and the only time I could correlate skin issues with my weed smoking was when I would have an active pimple or breakout, smoking always inflamed my blemishes so I'd take breaks from weed when I'd have an active pimple or whatever.... anywayyy I say allll that to say, I started vaping cannabis oil a couple of months ago, and after a week or so started noticing some of the side effects from VAPING, nicotine or weed.. constant dryness in my mouth being the biggest move obvious. This lead me to start thinking about my skin and that, if this was drying my mouth out, it certainly could be drying out my skin too, right? ...
Idk if its something in the metal from the coils in these cartridges (e-cig or weed pen), some additive in the oils that make them vape-able, I really don't know.. but I am coming to the conclusion after reading a lot of your messages here and doing some hard thinking, if nothing else, the vape is causing my skin to dry out really fast. But not noticeably so that it's tight and I would know to moisturize ... just enough to effect my skin without me catching on that I'm drying out.
I workout 6 days a week, play basketball 4 times a week, have a very strict and clean diet, have been on the regimen for years now and haven't changed anything (except this new moisturizer which is what I think is causing some of the other spots but that is another topic for another day). Yes there have been times I've broken out during and wondered wtf? what happened? but all of us know that we can get a stress pimple here or there fairly quickly. This right now is far more than that and has had to have an underlying cause, and I am almost sure it is vaping. I don't know if moisturizing more would help, esp since I'm already having big issues with the new moisturizer, but I'm not sticking around to find out. Yesterday was my last day vaping, I have a half a cartridge left and it makes me sick to look at it. I'll post again with an update in a week or so but these are just my 2 cents.
Peace & love.
Cystic acne can be a severe and painful condition, and if you suspect that vaping is a contributing factor, it's important to address both the acne and the underlying causes. Here are some steps you can consider to help manage and potentially get a better and suitable Vapes by INFY.