Hello, I'm a 19 year old that's had acne since I was 13 and nothing I tried ever worked so recently I got put on Differin .3% by my doctor. He said rub a pea sized amount all over your face. Well, now that I have the prescription I find that statement very vague. I'm a person that likes to know EXACTLY how to do something. Or else I worry if I put it on wrong or what not. The reason I find it vague is because the pea sized amount all over my face just simply doesn't cut it. Not even close.
I have to use more than a pea sized amount and I don't even cover my entire face because some of my face is clear. (Nose, cheek bone area) Now when I put the Differin gel on my face it doesn't spread much at all. It absorbs so fast and soon after I start rubbing it around my finger drys and then there is nothing left to spread. So I have to use more.
Does anyone in the world actually know how to apply this medication correctly? Cause I even read the instruction manual booklet thing and it also said cover the entire face with a pea sized amount. That is physically impossible for me to do.
Lol, any tips for application? Also, if you could share how you apply Differin in detail it would help me tons!
What I do is apply small amounts to separate parts of the face then spread it in those areas until it absorbs. The areas I do are my temples, under jaw, nose, inner cheek area, rest of the cheek, and chin. If you try to do your entire face at once the medication will absorb really fast and you wont have any left for areas you didn't get. I know it seems like you're not applying anything since it absorbs so fast but the tiny amount recommended is enough, you will start to notice this if you get irritation and dryness. During my second week my skin started to get really irritated and I cut back the retinoid to once every 3 days then once every other day.
I'm using Retin-A Micro gel, but it also has the same direction (pea-size application)
I also thought it was ridiculous direction to follow... how can you cover the entire face with such little application!?
here's the trick... take a small amount from the (a bit big) pea-size and dab a little dots on your cheek. After that, very gently spread it on the cheek, making a thin layer of application (which is very adequate amount of medicine)
repeat the process with other cheek, chin, nose, etc...
I tend to run out of the pea-size by the time i get to the forehead, so I squeeze a very small amount just for the forehead.
But YES! DO use pea-size, because more medication won't speed up the process, it will just irritate your skin more.