Hello everyone, I am 26 year old male European descent....looking for some advice on my long battle with acne/oily skin/ redness.
Background:
-breakouts started in junior high
-pimples all over chin, nose, forehead, back
-nose extremely oily with redness
-age 24 pimples on chin, back and nose start disappearing
Current regimen
Daily:
-cethaphil gentle skin cleanser
-cethaphil moisturizing lotion
-neutrogena SPF45 when going outside
2-3 times a week
-exfoliate with baking soda and blackhead extractor
As you can see from the pictures (taken right after exfoliating nose) large pores mainly on nose, leading to yellowish dirt/blackheads to come out daily. Without using 4-5 oil absorbing sheets everyday nose and forehead are drenched in oil. This cycle repeats every single day. Around scalp/forehead when I move hair to side there are small bumps and occasional pimples.
I have tried hundreds of products; creams, vitamins, home remedies, prescriptions (retin A, tetracycline, benzoyl peroxide) without any success.
Sorry for long post but now my questions:
Is this rosacea or adult acne? (The two different dermatologists that prescribed retain A, tetracycline told me it wasn™t rosacea.)
What regimen would you recommend?
Would low dose of accutane help?
Any opinions or advice appreciated.
Thanks.
(sry for high res pictures, makes me puke looking at them as well)
Hows it going, I have same problem, huge pores on nose and blackheads....they seem to be spreading all over nose. I hate blackheads. I can deal with the zits but hate Blackheads....
For me Cetaphil broke me out bad. I use clean and clear oil free 15 spf moisturizer...and Neutrogena Oil free Scrub, its in a white cleanser with orange little beads. I am going to stick with the scrub and see if it helps my skin...
I did try differin but it made my skin on my nose so bad and gave me more blackheads.
Has anyone ever used Tea Tree Oil before? I don't recommend using it too much on your face in excess.. but the nose is in a slightly different category of skin in my opinion. As we all know, the pores are the biggest on the nose. Apply tea tree oil to the nose several times a day. Many people (me included) have found it to literally "lift" and unclog pores. Understand though that too much TTO can be toxic. Just use common sense- if it's severely aggravating your nose, give it a rest. Hope this helps somewhat!! 
Excessively oily skin almost always boils down to some hormonal imbalance. For many acne sufferers, this starts at puberty and yet the body never "grows out" of it.
My nose looked much like yours for years, it stopped once I went on an anti-androgen. You could have DHT levels that are too high, or just a genetic sensitivity to normal levels of DHT. Either way, the anti-androgen mutes your receptors so the DHT isn't triggering oil 24/7.
Accutane has actually been found to lower testosterone temporarily, which may be why it helps acne more than the other things it does. You might as well just address the DHT directly rather than go through Accutane.
Excessively oily skin almost always boils down to some hormonal imbalance. For many acne sufferers, this starts at puberty and yet the body never "grows out" of it.
My nose looked much like yours for years, it stopped once I went on an anti-androgen. You could have DHT levels that are too high, or just a genetic sensitivity to normal levels of DHT. Either way, the anti-androgen mutes your receptors so the DHT isn't triggering oil 24/7.
Accutane has actually been found to lower testosterone temporarily, which may be why it helps acne more than the other things it does. You might as well just address the DHT directly rather than go through Accutane.
My problem is that DHT plays a large role in lot of other things then sebum production. Anything that changes way 5AR inhibitor behaves could have serious side effects hair loss, male libido, impotence etc...
And I am not really comfortable to be messing around with body's natural hormones.
Has anyone ever used Tea Tree Oil before? I don't recommend using it too much on your face in excess.. but the nose is in a slightly different category of skin in my opinion. As we all know, the pores are the biggest on the nose. Apply tea tree oil to the nose several times a day. Many people (me included) have found it to literally "lift" and unclog pores. Understand though that too much TTO can be toxic. Just use common sense- if it's severely aggravating your nose, give it a rest. Hope this helps somewhat!!
Will give it a shot eventually, after hundreds plus products why not.
How does you skin reacts to washing with lukewarm\cool water? I have a similar case and for many years I had the habit of washing my face with warm and sometimes even a bit hot water even in summer thinking that keeps pores open and unclogged. I suspect probably that besides the frequent visits in the past to the spa and steam rooms (besides sebum production) has contributed the visible pores I have now.
Recently, I started adapting to washing with lukewarm water to see if that helps a bit and donnot know yet whether or not that is helping.