So far, I have eliminated all my cysts and nodules. I started the Regimen during the worst outbreak I have had in months. I had a massive, pus filled cyst deep under the skin with multiple heads--gross. In 2 days, it was gone. I am still shocked and proceeding cautiously before celebrating. I had my acne improve after going on retinoids only to have the cysts return so I am holding my breath. But there is no sign on new cysts. There are have been a few pimples but they have cleared up quickly. I also continue to develop tiny blackheads but I think the continued use of AHAs will help reduce that.
I am still battling the dryness and flakiness. My heriditary skin condition prevents me from normally shedding skin cells as well as makes my skin extrememly dry. So I feel like I have to do more assertive exfoliation than what Dan suggests. I am doing more chemical exfoliation that seems to help and plan on switching to cetaphil cleanser.
I am just using the cleanser once at night, followed by BP, then mixing a dot of 12% lactic acid lotion (Amlactin) with Dans lotion. I am using my Neutrogena Grapefruit Salicylic acid cream cleanser in the morning. I also exfoliated with jojoba and a little baking soda this weekend before getting in the shower and it removed most of the dead skin buildup. I am also conscious of moisturizing under my eyes as the cleanser and BP sometimes gets there and dries out the skin making it wrinkled (I am almost 40, afterall).
In the morning I also apply Dan's lotion then Cerave with SPF after that is absorbed. I may switch to OWN moisturizer because I like the texture and it felt very emolient when I tried it last week.
Anyway, fingers crossed that I remain mostly acne free. I am entering my premenstrual period where cysts really appear so I will see what happens....
Wow. My skin looks way better than it has in the past 10 years. I have 2 blemishes that appeared in time for my menstrual cycle but one is already clearing up and the other is just emerging and I expect it to go away with some BP. I think they appeared because I skipped on night of the regimen--it was my birthday and i got lazy. I don't have the hard cysts on my cheeck that would last forever, as I used to. The scarring is slowly minimizing and the flakiness is not as bad since I have been doing the Amlactin and ocassional manual exfoliation. The downside is that I am seeing more wrinkles in my face because the cleanser and BP is a tad drying for my older skin. I just started using cetaphil for my morning wash so we will see what happens. I am getting a humidifier for my room so I think the dryness won't be as bad.
I have changed my regime slightly (see signature line) and just use one pump of Dans BP in the morning and none at night. I don't notice any change wrt to acne (still 99.9% clear) but I do have far less drying/wrinkly appearance. Also, the heavy moisturizing at night seems to combat the drying and peeling perfectly. In fact, my skin seems far less dry than ever. I don't even need to put moisturizer on right away after washing. No tightness or ashiness.
I don't really even have major issues from premenstrual acne. I do know that I cannot skip one day of the regime though, because I will end up with a zit.
I do seem to have clogged pores around my mouth area. They don't turn into zits but it is bumpy and filled with sebum if I squeeze. A couple of tiny blackheads sometimes appear too. It might have been from the Own Brand moisturizer. But since dryness is not a big issue anymore, I stopped using it. I hope the bumps go away. Otherwise, I suspect the Amlactin and may try Dan's AHA.