I felt like I should share my (almost) success story with combatting my acne.

I'm a 16yo male who started getting acne in 6th grade of middle school. It started with a few on my forehead, and gradually made its way to my chin, jawline, and cheeks by the time I was a Freshman in high school. I didn't have terrible acne, but acne is acne! I had the typical white heads and black heads but also some painful cysts that would typically reoccur in the same locations.

I tried the typical products - AcneFree Severe, Proactive Extra Strength, etc. The only problem was after a week or two of using them, I became lazy and stopped. Nonetheless, they didn't really help and only dried out my skin.

Fast forwarding to this school year - I was using some cheap NutriBiotic Cleanser I bought off eBay because it was cheap, some witch hazel for a toner, applying the Proactive Extra Strength Lotion (7% benzoyl peroxide) to my entire face, and moisturizing with Garnier Refreshing Gel Cream. My acne was the worst it has ever been in December.....I had these huge inflamed pimples around my mouth, on my jawline, etc. They were weird because I don't think they were cysts, but they never came to a head. For some reason I thought they were caused by my Garnier moisturizer. I stopped using it and continued with the same cleanser, toner and Proactive treatment. There was zero improvement. I figured it was maybe my cleanser or toner, so I switched to using my Bath & Body Works foaming hand wash which had Triclosan (mainly because I didn't feel like hunting for a new cleanser at the store). Still, NOTHING.

I did many hours of research and decided to overhaul my regimen. For a cleanser I purchased Simple Moisturizing Cleanser, I continued using witch hazel as a toner, and instead of buying a commercial moisturizer I bought a bottle of organic hemp seed oil because I read it was non comedogenic and very good for the skin.

That same night I used all my new products including the Proactive treatment. The next morning, my skin improved slightly, but not by much. The next night I used everything again, EXCEPT for some strange reason I decided to skip the Proactive treatment.

The rest is history. I woke up, and all of those inflamed huge pimples were nearly gone!!!!!! I've never seen such a huge improvement over night in my life of having acne.

I'm continuing this regimen of mine: Simple Moisturizing Cleanser, witch hazel toner, and applying a small amount of hemp seed oil, day and night. Nothing else.

My skin is the best it's looked in years. Currently I have virtually no acne, only stubborn red marks from the acne (which IMO is just as bad as the actual acne, hopefully they fade quickly).

Another part of the equation I forgot to include: dairy. I stopped consuming dairy around the same time I started the new regimen because I know as I child I used to develop random allergies to milk for a while, and dairy problems run in my family. I wondered if this could have been contributing to my acne, and I think it could have been, because all of my bacne is 100% cleared already and I haven't even done anything topically to help it. Could have been a coincidence, but I won't risk it.

Last week I added Milk of Magnesia to my morning regimen to help with oil production, as well.

Sorry for the long post, I'm just so ecstatic that my face is finally clear after all these years, all while using an extremely simple regimen! I'm not sure if my acne cleared because I stopped using benzoyl peroxide, or specifically the Proactive lotion. I assume the latter, but either way, I'm finally clear!!!