Hi all,

I'm 27 yrs old male. I've always had back acne but when I use something like Acne-Free or Proactiv EVERY DAY it seems to really help. It's that EVERY DAY part that really gets me haha.

But anyway I'm not here about the back acne, I'm here about this odd thing I get every so often.

My face is usually quite clear of acne, despite me not washing my face with some type of cleanser every day. I mean I'll take a shower or whatever but sometimes I just rinse with water or whatever, like I forget.

I'll get the odd blemish here or there but nothing serious EXCEPT.

Every now and again, typically twice a year maybe less seemingly for no reason I will get this TERRIBLE occurrence of dozens of tiny white-heads all around my mouth. Like on my upper lip, low lip, upper lip, like around the edges of the mouth and into where the cracks of your nose nostrils start or whatever.

Sometimes if I catch it quickly like right now where there are only a few there, if I soak my face with a hot cloth then scrub my face really well and wash with a strong cleanser (like my Acne-Free cleanser) I can almost stop them in their tracks. I might get a few the next day or the day after but they will almost stop right there.

If I wait too long I will start to get DOZENS of them. This flare-up lasts maybe around a week then they will dissipate. It seems like after a certain point if I don't catch them quickly enough they will last around a week no matter what.

I would take a picture but as mentioned I just started noticing them today so I did the scrubbing thing and you can't notice them anymore.

I am not super familiar with the different kinds of acne. All I know is that all of them will be white on top, so I'm assuming they are "white heads" but normally if I get an odd blemish here or there they will also be white heads.

The stuff I get on my back can be much, much worse. Often being quite painful and will bleed a lot if I break them open. I really need to stay on top of the acne-free with the "repairing" lotion to stop that from happening. I haven't been using it on my face much, at least the repairing lotion, because like I mentioned I hardly get any acne on my face. I would use the cleanser in the shower whenever I wash my upper back with it though, my face first, then my back.

Does anyone know what this type of acne could be called, or even caused by? I haven't been able to think of any dietary reasons this may happen. I've eaten a very broad range of foods over the past 10 years that this has been intermittently happening so I'm not able to pinpoint anything. Also yeah, as mentioned, the first time this happened to me was AROUND 10 years ago, so I would have been 17, 18'ish.

If it does flare up again I will take a picture of it and post it, but if anyone has experienced anything like this please let me know.

Also I will mention that it is ONLY this area around the mouth. Never on my cheeks, neck, forehead, nose, anything. Just kind of the area around your mouth where a guy would typically grow a goatee type of beard. I don't grow beards (I can't) and I shave with an electric razer (braun 7 series) because manual razers caused me acne problems in high school so I switched to electric ones way back then and it seemed to help immensely.

Thanks!