Hi, im new to the board. I am 19 and went on a accutane dose of 40 mg twice a day in June 2007.. finished things up right before Christmas. My acne(which was moderate, but never close to cystic) practically cleared only leaving along the typical side effects of lots of dry skin and peeling lips.
My upper cheeks and nose area was where my skin was the most dry. The skin peeled sometimes in the shower near the end of the treatment leaving behind a red blemish that comes and goes. Now a month off accutane, my lips are back to normal and the dry skin has for the most part subsided. What does remain is overall redness on the cheeks which on my pale complexion tends to stand out. I try to use no BP to avoid any further irritation on my face and some cetaphil face wash daily. Sometimes a oil free neutrogena moisturizer is used but usually just brings out the redness even more.
My derm said the side effects should go away in 2-4 weeks, but the redness remains the same. What is the general consensus here for the accutane effects to leave my system completely on average? Is there anything else besides the typical over the counter anti-irritation cream which usually just makes things look a little redder? Im starting college again soon and trying to make things a little easier on myself before hand.
Sorry for the wall of text, any comments are appreciated
cheers. 
Im basically in the same situation as you. I started accutane in the summer and finished up recently a week ago. So you are saying that your cheeks are red but you dont have red marks/scars?
I have red marks but my cheeks aren't really red. I will probably wait a month or 2 as you did before I put anything on my face to avoid irritation
Thanks for the reply.
I was just browsing and saw this :
Aqua Glycolic is amazing. Now, I've been using it three days and while it hasn't made my red marks amazingly disappear, it softened my skin and reduced the constant flush look of my cheeks. Which in turn, makes them look a lot better.
Thanks for the reply.
I was just browsing and saw this :
Aqua Glycolic is amazing. Now, I've been using it three days and while it hasn't made my red marks amazingly disappear, it softened my skin and reduced the constant flush look of my cheeks. Which in turn, makes them look a lot better.
This intrigues me, any thoughts before I buy it?
Hey again!
Got my vita oil in the mail but the results were less than satisfying. While it did a somewhat better job moisturizing the skin, it made it look very oily and brought out the blemishes even more.
I guess I'm gonna do some searching for something else or just wait till this 'deep dryness' disappears.
Hey, here's a little update :
It has been a good month and a half off the tane and the red blemishes are slowly fading. The dryness occurring now is going into a more mild and flaky stage which is a good thing.
What I try to do now to bring down the red marks on the cheeks is to not wash my face after the shower but only once at night avoiding excessive dryness. I found out that a small of amount of aquaphor rubbed into my hands onto a dry face tends to moisturize not only well, but decrease blemishing.
Oh and i can now put small amounts of BP on isolated areas without much irration(but still use with caution at first).
Hey! been gone for a while
been 4 months off the accutane and practically no breakouts whatsoever. Still i get some dryness and redness on my cheeks. Im pretty discouraged that after 4 months the redness hasnt changed... How long does it take for the tane to fully get out of my system? I just want a normal skin tone back 
Hi,
I'm basically in the same boat. I finished taking Accutane just before Christmas as well, after having taken it for approx. 6 months.
In February I had another appointment with my derm because I was worried about the flushing and redness on my nose and cheeks which didn't seem to subside. Now, 4 months later, I think I can say the redness and flushing ARE getting less, it just takes a lot of time and patience. My derm said I shouldn't worry about it, it could take up to September before things are back to normal. I DO worry about it though, I don't mind the rosy cheeks that much but the flushing really bothers me. However on tane I had bad flushes every day and everything seemed to be a trigger... at this point the last time I flushed was about 3 weeks ago...
So I hope this comforts you a little, and maybe it helps to know you're not alone 
Good luck!
Hey, sry for the late reply. Thanks for the feedback, feels good to know Im not the only one. Like you said, the redness and flushing is slowly going away. It shows sometimes in a picture but now looking through mirror, it really doesn't look all that bad. Its only in the areas that still get dry so Ill check out the Aveeno as well.
Guess all there is to do now is give things time. 
/cheers! 
Hi I read your posts. I finish accutane back in the 30th of July I feel yeah on every level. Before Accutane I use to use cosmetics and was on Clinique for two years. Although I was able to pull off cosmetics it got annoying and aggravating. I finish Accutane have one of two breakout once and a while, but nothing like before. He said it will take about a month or so for the read to go down, but it's almost going to be a month. I thought it was rosasia, but its just a side effect from all the dryness just stay hydrated and away from the sun. I use aveeno products they do not irritate my skin at all. I suggest them, and what I do now because I think the redness bothers me is that I use a sheer tint moisturizer over my ultra calming moisturizer both contain spf, vitamin e, vitamin c. the sheer tint is temperary until the redness goes away.
Get back to me
x Johnny.
