On March 3 and 4, I applied BP all over my face. I was using 10% and then 5%. I stopped applying all over face because it was burning too much for me to tolerate when I would apply my moisturizer. I have since switched to applying the BP as a spot treatment. It is now March 7, and my face is full of flakes. The degree has gone down in the last day or so, but they are still very very present; around my eyes and my mouth/chin area is the worst. I don't seem to get flakes on my forehead. I wash my face in the morning and at night with Neutrogena Extra Gentle Cleanser and as soon as I pat dry (I don't wipe), the flakes start to appear. I have not used my Dickinson's Witch Hazel Toner in about 3 days as I thought this was causing the excess dryness. But as soon as I apply my moisturizer (I have tried thick and thin moisturizers), within a few minutes, the flakes and dryness will be back. Even when I reapply my moisturizer several more times, the flakes and dryness and tightness still comes back. It doesn't seem to matter how many times I reapply my moisturizer, they still come back. I am at my wits end with this!

I have job interviews next week and I can't be looking so flakey. My cleanser is not supposed to be over drying and I thought moisturizer was supposed to help. How long after stopping full face BP will it not cause any dryness? When I do spot treat with BP, it is not drying in the area I have applied. My face gets dry and flakey in areas I have NOT applied the BP.

The weather where I am at has stayed pretty constant. The only thing is that I am visiting my parents house right now. Could hard or soft water cause dryness and flakiness in some people? EDIT: I just asked my mom if there is a water softener for the house and she said yes. There is also one at the house I live at. So this must not be it.

My parents have a humidifier that my dad fills up every day. There is no humidifier at my house and my face doesn't get flakey there.

Any insight would be much appreciated! Thanks! If any other information is needed please let me know and I will try to give it the best I can.

EDIT 2: I used to use St. Ives Sensitive Apricot Scrub every morning to wash my face. For years I used this stuff, it made my face feel like it was clean afterwards. NEVER had dry skin with this stuff. But I did recently stop using it. Could stopping this cause my dry skin? At this point in time, I would rather deal with the occasional pimple and just spot treat it if need be. This dry skin is worse than my acne. And I never really had an acne problem, just the occasional breakout. If this is what is going on, then I'm gonna start using my scrub again.

It's going to take a few days for your skin to stop flaking. Being on the 10% and 5% BP can be really drying. Also, I suggest you stop the scrub for now until your skin gets used to the BP. Just apply more moisturizer throughout the day if dryness and flaking are a problem.