Ok... jeez, I'm so upset right now. You guys have no idea.
My story in short: the summer before last I had a MAJOR breakout. Went from perfect skin to more than 100 zits in the course of a week. It was horrendous. Started on Differin in September, had a rough road with a 3 month long initial breakout, but was pretty much clear by Christmas. By last May my skin was perfect. I didn't have to wear makeup all this summer. It was amazing. Came to college two months ago, and my routine got all screwed up. I started washing my face three times a day, in the morning, after my workout around 6, and then whenever I was going to bed around 1-2 AM. I would apply Differin at about 2 in the morning, but then I'm up at 7 the next day. So it was only on my face for about 5 hours... versus the 10 hrs that I had always had it on at home. I didn't even think about the possible consequences; I was having too much fun being a college kid...
I broke out this week.... I'm devastated right now. I've developed 9 active zits in the course of 4 days, and I'm terrified what happened last time is going to happen again... I just don't even know what to do or think right now. Three days ago, when it started, I immediately overhauled my life and tried to get back on the schedule I usually had at home. I don't want to stop my life and going out at night, but I've cut back to washing my face twice a day (morning and post workout) and applying my Differin at 9 PMish. Now I've noticed that my face is getting tight, red, and dry... like it did when I FIRST STARTED USING DIFFERIN!! I'm sooooooo scared that my face isn't used to the medicine anymore and I'm going to go through the IB all over again!!
Please, somebody tell me what you think! I can't believe this time last week I had perfect skin and not a care in the world... no makeup, no problem... I just want that feeling of freedom back!
My skin now, but its really WAY worse than in these pictures (it was PERFECTLY CLEAR less than a week ago!):
What are you asking, exactly? It seems that your skin was perfectly clear if you had Differin on it for 10 hours of a day, but because of a college schedule you can't keep it on for 10 hours a day. So either make it possible to have Differin on 10 hours a day, find a different solution that doesn't require that much time, or live with zits.
On the initial breakout, let me explain in better detail what is happening. It is not really about your skin "getting used" to anything. What Differin does is talk to the basal dermis of your skin (the bottom layer of your skin) and tell it to increase cell turnover. This is not exfoliation persay, it just tells the entire cycle of a cell going from the base dermis to the top layer to cycle faster. This is how a retinoid can bring an underground zit to the surface. HOWEVER, not all the acne you see is "purging" underground bumps. ALL RETINOIDS ARE ALSO CLASSIFIED AS IRRITANTS. Differin is the least irritating, but it still is classified as an irritant. You know how you can get little clogged pores or minor blackheads that will resolve on their own or that come out with some light pressure or a Biore strip? Well, the irritant action in a retinoid will take those little clogged pores and INFLAME them. This is why you can see a huge breakout when you first start a retinoid, because not only is it purging underground bumps, it is irritating your clogged pores until they inflame into a bump. When you're on the retinoid regularly, the increased cell turnover rate makes it less likely that sebum has a chance to make a new clogged pore, so you don't see them as much. But as soon as you go off the retinoid, your skin goes back to its natural habits.
So if you want to avoid a huge initial breakout, you need to alternate Differin with something that removes the clogged pores without inflaming them like Differin will. High potency pure salicylic acid 5% or higher will do this. ONLY PROPERLY FORMULATED SALICYLIC ACID OF 5% OR HIGHER will do this. If you go out and buy some crappy Clean & Clear 2% product from the drugstore I will hunt you down If you want my personal suggestion, I use Diana Yvonne 5% salicylic acid and if used daily it clears up clogged pores quite nicely and also has a preventative effect without irritating the crap out of your skin like Differin will.
