I have used both together and saw a change in my ance for the better....but the two products dried out my face before I used a mosturizer with it. Hope that helps!

what kind of products did you use with the two in them?

I used the clinique acne products....the night treatment has SA and then the emergency lotion contains BP. The emergency lotion was expensive for what you get....it's just a small tube. When I ran out of that I started using a clearasol product that contained BP....it was a little more reasonable.

SA is oil soluble. It breaks down the dead skin and uncloggs pores.

BP is used to kill bacteria.

They different things so their fine to combine.

But make sure you use the SA first. It removes the dead skin so the BP can penetrate the pores better.

If you had to choose, use the SA if you get congested/clogged pores.

If you just get inflammed acne, BP is better.

Or use one in the am and one in the pm. My suggestion is to NOT use the BP every night if you don't have to, but do use the SA wash every am.

I thought you weren't meant to use them together?

I've actually had good results using SA and BP together, though not by putting both all over my face. I have this stuff called Sebasorb that has SA in it, and I use it all over my face in the morning and at night, and at night I just put BP on the actual zits. Even when not using any other products, I can't use BP on my entire face without looking like I have a sunburn. I know it's supposed to be a preventative thing, but my skin never adapted to it. Being really oily, broken out and looking sunburned is really really bad! SA seems to be much gentler. You can use more of it without having your skin freak out on you. *sigh* my skin isn't clear now though.... HAS to be a stress related thing.

I use a phisoderm bottle that has 2% SA in it(pump bottle). I lather my face with that, then rinse it off and apply BP. It is working thus far.

btw-- I rinse my face using cetaphil gentle skin cleanser prior to the above methods.

Hatch- How can you tell the difference between clogged pore acne or inflamed acne?

clogged pores, blackheads, milia are non inflamed...which means there is no bacteria present - and no redness or soreness. This means an antibacterial like BP won't have any affect. This is where you need an exfoliant like SA. BP however kicks ass as a acne preventer and spot treater.

what's sa?,is the sycrilic acid or something?.

SA=salicylic acid

salicylic acid works really well to exfoliate those blackheads and get the gunk out. I don't have any actual pimples now but my skin just looked clogged up, large pored and dirty and SA helped far more than benzoyl peroxide which i can't use much either because it just makes my face look red and clogged up.

Clean and Clear Continuous Control acne wash with 2% salicylic acid is the best SA cleanser I've tried so far (it's much less irritating to me than the neutrogena oil free acne wash and it has a milder fragrance than the clearasil foaming SA cleanser). I;ve used it three times in one day without getting too irritated. Also, neutrogena oil free moisturizer for sensitive skin I like.

Clearasil acne fighting cleansing wipes are pretty good. I'm still searching for an SA toner to leave on that isn't heavily fregranced or menthol containing.

Chloe you should look into the sa products that Sage Skincare and Paula Begoun do.

i found using both together clears up both acne and blackheads and prevents them, and also helps to even out my skin tone so the red marks dont look that bad.

I thought Dan's regimen strictly asks not to use them together...cause at first I was using neutrogena acne wash and the bp, but I stopped using the cleanser cause it contained SA.

You can use them both together if you can tolerate it. Dan's regimen recommends against it, because a lot of people can't tolerate it.

thanks for that, guess I'm going back to the neutrogena acne wash

I was also wondering about which one is better between these two, found this thread really useful!