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I have been using differin every other day for the whole year and my acne is so much better than before. I also started taking birth control pills and i'm pretty sure it helped. I used to have painful cystic acne all over my cheeks that left me with scars and hyper-pigmentation. Now i only have occasional small pimples.
The hyper-pigmentation has been fading away VERY slowly, my scars haven't really gotten any better and some of these occasional pimples do still scar. I NEVER pick them. Honestly, i don't mind my current acne scars, but i'm very afraid that i may keep getting more and more. I panic whenever i get a new pimple because of the fear that it will leave a scar.
I don't want to use differin every day because my skin gets really dry and flaky. I spot treat my pimples with clindamycin sometimes but idk if it's working. Also, my skin can't stand anything with benzoyl peroxide, it gets extremely irritated and flaky and it doesn't even help my acne.
What should i do?
I never scarred very easily from acne, i certainly have a fair share of marks but they fade more and more as time goes on. Yes BP also damaged my skin after long term use. Id recommend from personal experience that maybe you try an AHA, though Differin which is adalpene is essentially an AHA that just works deeper in the skin from what I understand. You can look into AHAs if youd like, and also facial icing. Icing your face, at least for me, helps tremendously with redness and reducing the appearance of any marks. I hope this helps you. And obviously as you stated, try not to pick or pop...
I agree with Whrlebird, icing is very helpful for slowing down inflammation and decreasing bump sizes.
If you are unsure of when you get a pimple at times, then I would recommend fixing up the diet. Excluding bad foods (dairy, gluten, sugar etc.) and introducing good food (omega 3s, vitamins and good carbohydrates).
For acne scars I would suggest using exfoliants and some daily rituals such as aloe vera or essential oils on the skin.
You mentioned thatclindamycin makes your skin dry. I dont know what it is with dry skin and acne but usually when I over dry my face, my pimples tend to scar easily. When I used to use BP on each one of my pimples (big or small) all of them would leave dents or craters ranging in size. Ever since I stopped using BP, Ive noticed how none of my pimples are scarring. Maybe dry skin slows down the healing progress and maybe it prolongs red marks by not allowing the skin to heal itself properly.