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Adapalene Log (Why, Oh Why My Are My Genetics Such A Bitch?)

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(@meheh)

Posted : 06/05/2013 6:36 pm

So, here's the down low (or low down?): I was on accutane for five months in 2010. Cleared my acne beautifully. Completely eradicated my cystic acne and oily skin. I had clear skin for a while, but the pustules slowly began coming back. Right now, I have acne on my forehead (tiny bumps everywhere that turn into big ones) and I get some around my mouth. I went to the doctors and he said that I should get some blood tests done to determine if my acne was hormonal. But he told me to schedule an appointment with my family doctor to make sure she ordered the RIGHT blood tests. (He also prescribed me minocycline, but I have a feeling it was so I wouldn't go away empty handed. I filled it, took two pills, then promptly stopped.)

So anyways, today on the day of my appointment, which would end in a VERY expensive tube of zit cream, I decided I should probably fast before my blood tests, so I wouldn't have to go to the doctor, THEN get up early before work tomorrow to get the blood work done. I thought I would do it all in one day. When I went to the doctor, she just looked at my face, asked me what I wanted to do (fuck if I know), and eventually prescribed me Tactuo (Adapalene and BP combo topical. I think it's the Canadian equivalent to Epiduo.) I wasn't very stoked about having a topical, but it was better than nothing. She then said that by just looking at my face that my acne is hormonal (which I already figured) and that I didn't need blood tests. So, I pretty much went without eating for fourteen hours for nothing.

I went to go and get my prescription filled and that's when the nightmare began (okay, I'm exaggerating.) When I got it, the pharmacist said, It's sort of expensive. I looked at the receipt and saw that was not only expensive, it was REALLY FUCKING EXPENSIVE. One hundred and twenty dollars fucking expensive, to be precise. WHAT?! ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FLIPPING DOLLARS???!!!! For a tube that's basically Benzyol Peroxide with something else thrown in?! Mother of fucking God. Stick around... I just might shit myself. I thought it would be thirty, maybe forty, if I was unlucky, fifty bucks. But over a hundred dollars?! That in itself wouldn't have caused the surge of rage and rush of panic, but I recently had an accident with my car (ran over a rock, put a hole in the transmission fluid pan) so I have a big, fat tow truck bill PLUS getting my car fixed bill to pay. On top of this medication, that's my entire paycheque I just got. How fun. I was considering buying some CeraVe lotion to use with the Devil Tube which I was recently acquired unwillingly, but sorry, that's another 20 bucks when I have Cetaphil in my house that will do just fine (for the record, I have not much against Cetaphil, it just seems to... Cetaphilly. Heavy, I guess. I wanted to put CeraVe next in the firing line of lotion for intolerably dry skin.) Excuse me while I cry myself to sleep... It's not that bad now that I've calmed down, but in my hunger-induced state, it was a terrible as catching your husband having sex with your mother in your bed... or something. Personally, that's has yet to happen to me.

I just stood in the aisle for about five minutes afterwards, staring at the price. I contemplated somehow taking off the label that said it was prescribed to me and simply leaving it on the shelf and walking out of the store. Can you tell the pharmacist that you don't want it after they've filled it? Perhaps someone... bolder... would, but I am as socially inept as it gets. I wanted to fall to my knees and cry out to the Gods in anguish at that moment.

I'm trying to calm down and look at this reasonably. Yes, it was 120 bucks. But it's a big mofo of a tube (60 g), so it will last me a looong time (I had a 30 g tube of retin-a from 2010 that still isn't even close to being empty. I barely will have to use any, as it is just for my forehead and around the corners of my mouth. If this works, 120 bucks is worth it for clear skin. Also, I spend about that much every weekend doing... weekend activities. Plus, I suppose, accutane or any sort of acne med will cost just as much, if not more (when I went on accutane before, I was under my Dad's medical plan, so it cost basically nothing. I feel like such a rich little bitch typing that out. Oh, I was on Daddy's plan!). I'm just pissed that PharmaCare doesn't cover fucking acne expenses. So we can be broke but beautiful, or malformed and rich (well, maybe not rich, but not having to resort to dumpster diving in the reject bakery bin in the alley for day old doughnuts, as is my fate as of now if I even plan on eating a meal again in the next two weeks.) I just really wish I never filled that prescription on minocycline, at least I'd still have that twenty-four bucks. However, looking on this site, I see some good reviews for adapalene, four stars, so I'm beginning to calm down.

I will start using this tonight, just on my forehead and around my mouth. The doctor said to use it every second or third night, since my skin is very dry and gets irritated easily.

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(@jennyband)

Posted : 06/05/2013 9:07 pm

holy mother trucking... that is really $$$ my doc gave me FREE DUAC GEL, 2 tubes. but i filled a doxy script and only used one month, money officially wasted.

i'm feeling your pain. my best friend has had all her tyres punctured twice in 6 weeks and she cried for hours because those bastards have financially ruined her. she's a waitress at university...

so shit when we have NO MONEY and acne to boot.

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(@ccharms)

Posted : 06/06/2013 10:21 am

I'm surprised your doc didn't give you samples.. I mean, you don't know if it'll work for you and it isn't covered. I'm so thankful my family doc gave me a handful of samples to try out... if I'd had to pay for a whole tube of Tactuo, it would have added insult (financial) to injury (I developed a wicked case of contact dermatitis... even though I'd used both adapalene and BP before).

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(@meheh)

Posted : 06/06/2013 10:35 pm

@jennyband: I think my mother was more upset about the car incident that I was. I was actually more upset about the $120 tube of cream. Wrecking the car was my fault, I went up a mountain with it and hit a rock on the way down.

DAY TWO

Well, whatdaya know. I used that cream and now my skin is completely clear! Heh, what a lie that is. Although I do remember when I was around thirteen and my skin was starting to get offially spotty, I went to the doctor and thought they could do something to get rid of ALL my pimples within a day, and then was very confused when he said that was impossible to do such a thing and I just couldn't undertstand why. Oh, how naive I was. If only I knew then what I knew now...

But in all honestly, my skin so far has not reacted terribly to this stuff. Mind you, when I applied it to my visage, I put Cetaphil on first, and then the Tactuo, so maybe it didn't even penetrate it. My skin isn't even dry after using it yet. Perhaps the worst is yet to come. The only eventful thing I can think about it, is after applying it, I went over to my boyfriend's house later that night and he said, You smell weird. Different. You don't smell like you. Although, the Tactuo doesn't have any odour I can detect, so perhaps he is just an idiot.

My skin has actually been looking pretty good (I mean, compared to how it WAS a couple of weeks ago.) Right now, I have a few scabs on my forehead, one sort of scabby yet pus filled pimple, and a couple forming. Oh, and loads of little bumps, but that's the norm. The sides of my mouth are clear ATM, but will probably break out with I begin PMS-ing next week. I think a main factor my skin looking better is because I've been trying to cut back on the amount of dairy I consume. My body just doesn't like dairy, period (as is, terrible stomach bloating, hilariously loud farts, then constipation with no farts and just absolutely NOTHING moving) so it would be logical that my skin wouldn't do so well with it either. I remember cutting dairy out of my diet when I was around seventeen, and remember it helping slightly. And my cut back on dairy, I mean, I don't put milk in my coffee in the mornings. And try to refrain myself from grating cheese over everything I eat. It's hard, because cheese is my favourite food of all time, but I'm doing okay. The first few days were the worst, as my body went into cheese withdrawals and I had to avoid making eye contact with the transparent plastic cheese drawer in my fridge, lest I have a relapse and just start shovelling whole blocks of cheese into my face. Although, every time I pass the french fry stand on my way home from work, my mind screams, POUTINE!!!!!!!!! GO AND ORDER A DELICIOUS POUTINE!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I'm adjusting. Also, I've stopped picking at my zits. If it's huge and pustulating like that zit Bill Murray had in Osmosis Jones that pops all over that woman's face, then yeah, I'm gonna pop it, but I've stopped picking at all the little bumps on my forehead and it's looking better. I just have to let the little bumps clear out on their own without my meddling fingers.

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(@jennyband)

Posted : 06/09/2013 11:25 pm

me + dairy aren't really friends either, without rehashing everything you just said its Ditto for me. do you have issues with breads? i've stopped drinking coffee for nearly 2 months... and i work in a coffee shop. its rough. i had one soy milk coffee the other week but thats has been the only exception. I actually do not believe that milk gives me acne (or caffeine), because when i am clear it doesn't break me out, the only thing that breaks me out is hormonal fluctuations and stress. eating a bad diet in general isn't going to do anyone any favours and i've been there before too. Chocolate can break me out, depending on the type of chocolate and the quantity consumed... but fuck the world to hell if i'm giving up chocolate completely. dark chocolate is fine.. so i'm thinking its probably just the refined sugar in milk chocolate, and sugar in general does me no favours. the caffeine thing (or the reason i cut back) was to see if it helped detox my liver somewhat and helped reduce the side effects of dehydration, i heard coffee does dehydrate you a lot. instead i'm consuming large quantities of water i have green tea and fresh OJ. i miss coffee for the energy boost, green tea has a lot of caffeine in it though. I replaced ice cream with this soy vanilla dessert thing and it doesn't taste to bad. i still have small amounts of ice cream but i guess its more in moderation.

the diet acne connection is interesting, but it seems to hard to pin down the exact cause and effect.

cheese is a fucking food group of its own. it also makes nearly any other ingredient immediately better.

here's to not picking. i've been avoiding all mirrors at work when cleaning them and don't make eye contact with the bathroom mirror at home. i've just moved house and i don't have any mirrors in my room. i even started to use my computer camera to apply mineral coverup becuase i can't see my skin that well. its actually making a huge difference and my skin is healing faster instead of spreading.

also working a jojoba oil and lavenders oil combo in the shower after goats milk soap on my face once a day (in the evening) and it seems gentle enough to treat the infected areas and moisturise the skin. using Duac to spot treat though, with this combo i've stopped getting rashes on my next from the Duac dryness. so if your medicated $120 miracle elixir cream starts to make your face crazy i recommend this combo (and its cheap).

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(@meheh)

Posted : 06/10/2013 7:07 pm

DAY SIX

So, I just got back from a loooooong day at work of weeding carrots for seven bloody hours. Every time I close my eyes, I see weeds. I also had the pleasure of digging a weed out of the ground and uncovering two ladybugs having sex. I felt like some pervert as I crouched over them and literally watched the top one wobbling all over the bottom one like some possessed spinning top. It was... charming.

Anyways. I'm going to stop scrutinizing my forehead every time I go to write an update on here, for it is just depressing. Pretty much, my forehead always has 2 4 spots ready to activate, as it were, 2 4 spots filled with pus, and 2 4 scabs. This is better than last month, when it was double that amount. I am positive that the little bumps all over the place are reducing slightly. They also appear bigger, as if they're getting ready to do something. My miracle elixir cream doesn't really seem to be drying me out or anything, so I'm going to start applying it every two nights, then give it a break every third night. Anyone know if you're supposed to apply topicals BEFORE or AFTER applying moisturizer? Inquiring minds want to know. I doubt it matters that much, since it all sinks into your skin anyways.

I finally caved yesterday and ate cheese for the first time in what seems like forever (although it's probably more like two weeks.) I was hungover and was craving it. When I put that curdled milk product in my mouth, it was as if my life was suddenly complete, accompanied by an angelic choir all singing La Donna E Mobile as I just laid there on the bed, waves of ecstasy pulsating over me. However, in lieu of the current cheese binge, I refrained myself from putting cheese on my Mexican food tonight, although the burrito seems hollow and incomplete without it. I have, however, made up for it by putting copious amounts of guacamole on it. Oh, I suppose I also had a lot of butter this weekend as well, having made some hash browns while I was drunk and putting in like, half a pound of butter in them. Although I don't really think of butter as dairy for whatever reason.

I also have acquired an ass zit for the first time in... well, a very long time. I think the last time I was blessed with these accessories was during accutane. I put a dollop of the elixir on that as well as it didn't hurt the next day. I don't exactly know where that ass zit came from, and quite frankly, I don't want to know.

I purchased some Burt's Bees products online to replace my current cleanser that I am almost out of. I have been using SpectroDerm for as long as I can remember, but sadly, we must break up, as they are not cruelty free, and I've been replacing all of my evil animal-tested products with bunny-friendly ones once they run out. For some reason, I just really want to try out the Burt's Bees. If it disappoints me, I shall try CeraVe next. How, might you ask, am I affording to pay for such treats like cleansers and moisturizers when my entire paycheque went towards my Tactuo gel? Well, I've decided to start selling drugs in order to support my skin care routine. It would make an interesting TV show, don't you think? We need another drug show now that Breaking Bad is coming to an end.

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(@crazyinternetman)

Posted : 06/11/2013 9:56 am

lol.giflol.gif

I used a Burt's Bees cleanser 2-3 years ago, it smelled like angels oughta smell, unfortunately, like all things acne related to my acne, it's not the outside that matters, it's the inside.

When you read their ingredients it sounds all very natural-y, like vanilla extract and honey extract and wildflower-picked-in-the-first-moonlight-of-May extract and of course, live bees.

Fortunately, it didn't seem to have any side effects and I ended up using it just to keep smelling divine. Don't you folks have Pharmaprix (Shopper's Drug Mart) in BC though? They sell Burt's stuff there.

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(@jennyband)

Posted : 06/11/2013 10:44 am

yeah like you diet isn't really an issue for me, other than a dairy or sugar binge which never helps any matters.

i apply moisturiser first, but not a lot. i rely on the jojoba oil i use in the shower.

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(@meheh)

Posted : 06/12/2013 6:35 pm

@CrazyInternetMan: Yeah, we do have Shopper's in BC, unfortunately, the closest one is an hour and a half away. And my little town doesn't have a large selection in their drugstores. So I - having acquired a slight addiction to Burt's Bees in the past two years - just order their stuff online and decided, "What the fuck, I'll try out the cleanser this time."

WEEK ONE COMPLETE

I am in the long and terrible process of cleaning my room, since I have actually begun to LOSE clothing in the mess. HOW, HOW, HOW, DO PEOPLE STAY ORGANIZED?! I feel as if it is an overwhelming full time job, like an unruly child, that I will just never get a grasp on. I just want to take a blowtorch to it all and start over again. I would also like to just take a blowtorch to my forehead and start all over again with that as well. The worst part about cleaning is that it just looks WORSE for 95% of the time, with so much shit spread all over the place that you can't even sleep in your bed, let alone access it. Hmm... sounds kind of like acne treatments... IT ALWAYS GETS WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER. Perhaps cleaning my room is an allegory for cleaning my forehead... of zits.

I don't really actually have much of an update. Why, then, am I wasting time doing this? Because I am bored. I've decided to just jump in with both feet and start applying the all-mighty Tactuo every night instead of every second night. So far, I've had no dryness or redness or rawness or anything, but perhaps this is a bit like accutane, where you take it for a few days, think, Hmmm there's no dryness. Perhaps I will magically luck out and NOT get dryness. And then BAM! Like Spongebob in Treedome. WATERRRRR WOULD BE NIIIICE!!!

Sometimes, I look at my forehead and think, THIS IS NEVER GOING TO BE CLEAR!! But then I remember that's what I thought about accutane, and my skin was 10000000000000x worse then, and what do you know? It did eventually clear me. I have to think in terms of months, not days or weeks now. A month ago, my forehead WAS worse, with big zits all along my hairline, sometimes six of them. The number is gradually going down. I have a lot more patience this time around too.

I realize that this sounds like a rather negative post, but it's really not. I got really sick of my music today at work and starting listening to all the pop-punk bands I listened to when I was fifteen, like Blink 182, Gob and, god forbid, Paramore. So perhaps I am just in an angsty mood. I'm really not in a bad mood about my zits at all. I just enjoy complaining.

To keep track of my progress (and make you all look at my pustules in the process) I have attached a complimentary picture of my forehead decals. It actually looks worse in real life, when the light (OH THE LIGHT!) catches the bumps and revels them in a majestic sort of fashion. You can see a couple of them in the middle of my forehead, but there's loads more scattered on the right side that, unfortunately, the camera failed to pick up.

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(@jennyband)

Posted : 06/13/2013 9:10 am

I fucking LOVE PARAMORE. haha and its really not like any of the other music i listen to. but they are fucking great.

your skin doesn't look too bad, i reckon you'll find success soon. hifive.gif

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(@meheh)

Posted : 06/18/2013 8:43 pm

Captain's Log. Stardate 18.06.13

It has been nearly two weeks, and the war still rages between Tactuo and the enemy known as The Acne, which has infiltrated the Forehead Zone. The right section of the Forehead Zone is filled with The Acne, small, forming stars that swell up quickly into Red Giants, before supernova-ing into a black hole. On the left side of the Forehead Zone, several binary stars have appeared.

The Acne clusters around the mouth have remained at a standstill. Several more small bumps, the Young Acne, have surfaced, but the mighty Tactuo seems to have kept it at bay for now. A young star was ready to Super Giant on us the other day, but the Tactuo has stopped it in its tracks.

At times, I feel as if we are winning this war, and at times, I feel as if The Acne will dominate after all. Only time will tell.

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(@meheh)

Posted : 06/23/2013 10:44 pm

WEEK TWO, DAY FOUR

Waaaaaah sad.png I'm breaking out. (Small warning, this isn't going to be a positive post.)

Well, the IB has started. Well, I don't really know if it's an IB, since the zits were already there, they were just little bumps, but they are all swelling up at an alarming rate. The right side of my forehead is the worst, mainly because it had the most closed bumps and now they're all blowing up into big heads. It is very... scabby there now. I feel like a dragon. I can see a whole bunch of other heads getting red and ready to swell up. It sucks, but at the same time, it's good because there's no new zits, it just all the bumps finally leaving in an overly dramatic fashion. Also, I suppose I am lucky because none of these zits are scarring or leaving red marks.

The little bumps around the side of my mouth were at this weird stand still for a while, but there's two of them that are getting bigger. I suspect this is because my period is about the start, because I also got a random zit between my upper lip and nose and that area is pretty clear. Also, I've been eating like shit over the past few days, mainly because of the PMS, and PMS makes me and poutines become BFF's.

I also had this disgusting patch of dry, tight skin on the corner of my mouth that I put Blistex on and now there's a zit beside my mouth. That Blistex shit gets the job done of ridding me of my dry lip corners, but I get a zit there. EVERY. FUCKING. TIME. after using it.

Bah, so overall I'm feeling pretty rough right now. Just that icky, I-want-to-hide-from-the-world feeling right now. I didn't hide from the world, however. I went on a bike ride (well, more of a attempting to walk my bike through the woods and having every goddam stick get stuck in the spokes and then walk it up every incline more that 5 degrees jaunt) with a few other people. And then I got a sunburn. So I am very sexy right now.

The Tactuo doesn't burn when I put it on, but when I wash my face or put on moisturizer, it does. I would not say it's an entirely pleasant feeling. I feel like some sort of sick masochist when I put it on sometimes, because I know my poor, scabby, burning skin just wants a break, but we gotta get over this hump here (or many humps, I suppose), me and the skin.

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(@meheh)

Posted : 06/26/2013 11:20 pm

WEEK THREE (WHAAAAA?)

Just a quick update. My skin is worse and better. How is this paradox possible, you ask? Well, it's worse as in all the little bumps are turning into large, unsightly zits, but better because the spaces between the little bumps are finally showing clear skin. There are actually PATCHES of my forehead with nice, sexy smooth skin, instead of before when I had pontillism-style dot art all over it. I'm getting lots of zits, but they're coming to a head quickly and then are gone. So, there's a lot of zits, but they're cycling through fast. My skin is also getting pretty fucking dry. I've started using CeraVe all over my face. It is a-very nice! I think I like it better than Cetaphil so far. Cetaphil always looks like I covered my face with shiny plastic wrap.

The areas around my mouth are also getting dry, but more uncomfortable, stinging dry. I'm breaking out ever-so-slightly around my mouth, but I don't know if it's the Tactuo doing it's stuff OR the fact that my skin is dry and agitated. I'm going to only put Tactuo around that area once every two or three nights.

I went to my little brother's grad tonight. My skin actually didn't look that bad from five-feet away, but I still despise getting all dressed up in, well, a dress and putting on eye makeup and whatnot when I have zits. I feel like, "Ooh, there's that poor girl with the terrible acne that's trying to look nice." I mean, I know that's NOT what people think, but that's how I feel (sadly.) It didn't help matters that all the girls graduating who are 17 and 18 for some godforsaken reason, all have nice clear skin. I thought teens were SUPPOSED to have acne?! Why am I the only person in the room with zits and I'm almost 23??!!!!! AHHHHH!

I sound bitter. I'm really not. My zits really didn't put a damper on the night. I just wish that all these zits I can feel surfacing would JUST SURFACE and leave so they can stop bugging me. My forehead feels like a miniature landscape of Io right now when I run my fingers over it.

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(@elliew8)

Posted : 06/27/2013 10:12 am

Hey, your posts really make me laugh (not at you obviously, but with you!). It does feel like a warzone with acne sometimes, the way you put things is very apt! Your skin sounds similar to mine from what I can tell - basically random/ inconsistent breakouts on whole face but a disasterous state of bumps and inflamed acne all over the forehead...bad times I know :( I hope this treatment works...120 dollars is just plain ridiculous so it definitely SHOULD work!!!

I know how you feel about nearing 23 and still feeling like a pubescent teen, I've noticed it too, nowadays even teenagers seem to have zero acne WTF?! Good job it didn't put a dampner on things though, I find it's always easier said than done trying to forget about my skin. Just things if stuff is starting to surface then the light is at the end of the tunnel, just got to crawl through the bloody awful tunnel first! :)

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(@crazyinternetman)

Posted : 06/27/2013 7:14 pm

I think we were the last teen generation of our evolution cycle to have carried the gene of the little-known-about 11th plague of Egypt: acne.

This next generation of teenagers seem to all have discarded it and evolved into marble skinned Greek demigod/esses of beauty and perfection.

Either that or they're all protected by the unholy power of their dark Messiah: justin bieber.

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(@meheh)

Posted : 07/03/2013 11:41 pm

WEEK FOUR

HOLY SHIT. Let's just say that. HOLY SHIT. As I was applying my miracle elixir cream tonight, I had a revelation: my forehead is actually SMOOTH. SMOOTH!!! No more tiny little bumps covering every little square inch of it. Mind you, I'm still getting zits, but it's so much better! I would say I have about two or three spots that are active and maybe that many scabs. That's it. It's great compared to a couple of weeks ago when there were always, ALWAYS about six or eight things hanging off my forehead like some sort of strange moss on the side of a cliff face.

I think one of the main reasons (apart from the fact that this cream is actually working) that my skin is looking better is that I got burnt to shit over the weekend (and the trend continues forth throughout the week. I'm becoming more and more lobster like as the days pass by.) Along with the terribly hilarious burn-lines that I got across my stomach that makes me look like I got some sort of strange Austrian flag tattooed there, it also burnt off a layer of skin on my face (sexy, I know.) So in addition to it being smoother everywhere, it is also darker and redder, so it sort of disguises the big swollen red lumps on my forehead and doesn't make them so prominent. Also, it may have just completely burnt off a few zits that were threatening to turn into larger ones. Of course, when I get sunburnt, my face always looks super blotchy thanks to freckles and the fact that my nose is so long that it is one metre closer to the sun than all of my other body parts, so that part just keeps getting burnt over and over, giving me the illusion that I have stuck a cherry tomatoe on my face and have chosen to walk around like that all day. Every other person I see seems to burn or tan normally, with the whole face even, and I'm walking around looking like some reject clown raggedy ann doll creature. Oh well. It could be worse. Like my entire forehead still covered in zits.

I've stopped using the Tactuo on the sides of my mouth for now. It was getting far too dry and peely to deal with in the summer with work and swimming and camping. Honestly, the last thing I want to do on a camping trip is wake up to a face full of flakes and then try and scrape them all off and reapply lotion to them without a mirror. The sides of my mouth aren't very terrible right now anyways. Got myself a couple of period zits, but they're gone now.

Enclosed down below is a picture of my forehead from a couple of days ago. My bathroom mirror has a weird orange tinge, but you can get the general idea. And it looks really flakey in the picture, but that's from wearing sunscreen all day over scabs and them itching my forehead on the way home from work. So it's not that flakey usually.

OOH but the pictures don't do it justice to how smooth it is! I'm getting my forehead back. I am just very pleased right now, like a weight has been lifted. Or rather, lumps have been promptly excavated. I can finally begin to stop looking at other people's smooth, flawless foreheads in envy and spite, trying desperately to remember what it was like to have a forehead like that.

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(@meheh)

Posted : 07/17/2013 8:16 pm

WEEK FIVE. (I MEAN SIX.) WEEK SIX

Well, things are looking pretty much the same since two weeks ago. Still steadily improving and what not. It's definitely just the last few clogged pores coming to a head. They're much less big and angry as the ones I got when I started the Tactuo. It's just like one little pimple and then it goes away in a day or two. I think I have about three or four zits on my forehead at the moment. It's no big deal anymore. I went out of town on a "mini vacation" to get away from the horrors of work and the endless weeding and harvesting on the farm I work at, and barely gave my forehead any thought. I also didn't put any Tactuo on in that time either, but that was more out of laziness. So yeah, it's just getting better.

One thing I've noticed is that the three wrinkles I have on my forehead are getting deeper. NOOOOO. WHY?! I think it's the benzyol peroxide in the Tactuo. I don't really know. I might start putting my mom's wrinkle creams on them.

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(@meheh)

Posted : 07/22/2013 6:18 pm

WEEK SEVEN (ALMOST):

Hmm. That's all I can say. Hmm. I am not entirely impressed right now. Why, you ask? Well, I shall explain. My skin was improving. There were only a couple little bumps left on my forehead to go and then all I had to deal with was hyperpigmentation. Then, on Sunday or Saturday or perhaps it was even Friday, I was looking at my skin reeeeeeaaaalllyy close in the mirror and saw that there was still a fair amount of blackheads on my forehead. Kind of like the blackheads I have on my nose, just flat and there. But there are SO many and I freaked out that these blackheads too would turn into little bumps, which would them turn into big zits, so I popped a bunch of them, hoping that if I excavated them now, they wouldn't cause me trouble later.

But today, I looked in the mirror and saw MORE bumps on my forehead than there was previously. Now, a large part of me thinks this is because of my naughty little picking spree, and that I didn't get all the blackhead gook out and now I aggravated the pore and I must live with my mistake. But there also is a part of me freaking out that these are just newly emerging bumps coming from NOWHERE and I will have to go through this whole terrible process again and never be clear. But I'm pretty sure it's from the picking. The places that have bumps and shit and the places I recall picking at. Ahhh... fuck. I feel as if my progress is DEVOLVING. I'm going to take a break from the Tactuo in an attempt to determine how indeed this event came to be

It doesn't really help matters that I'm also breaking out slightly around my mouth. But those are just period zits / I've been failing to NOT eat dairy zits. Oh God, it's SO HARD not to eat cheese while PMS-ing. All day yesterday, I told myself I wouldn't have any dairy, and then I was just sitting there for two solid hours after supper craving cheese. So naturally, I had to have some. BAH. I want the dairy.

Also, I have terrible eczema on my fingers from work. I look like the lizard man, hahaha. I also have suffered from what seems like fifty TRILLION itchy, terrible mosquito bites all over my leg. I am just a big old red, bumpy mess

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MemberMember
13
(@biggs881)

Posted : 07/22/2013 7:07 pm

 

It will take about 3 months to see results:

post-145613-1306745549_thumb.png

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cont...8.full.pdf+html

 

Effect of Differin (aka adapalene) on inflammatory and noninflammatory lesions.

Good luck

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MemberMember
0
(@meheh)

Posted : 08/08/2013 8:24 am

WEEK NINE

Bah, so it's been what? Two weeks since my last update? The blackheads I was bitching about last time seem to be nothing of great significance. They're sort of just... there. There's maybe seven of them that are HUGE, so HUGE it's hard not to pop (that's a lie, I did pop two) and then they turn into a little whitehead and go away. My forehead is almost clear now. I have this one beast above my eyebrow that is brewing like some sort of third eye beginning to surface. I am assuming that this is an early birthday present from my skin to me and that it will fully surface into a glorious pustule with whitehead when I wake up on the day of my actual birthday. But apart from the beast, my forehead is clear, just full of red marks that will fade with time. I'm only using the topical every second or third day now. I have red marks left over, which I'm using AHA lotion on in an attempt to fade them. Also, picking at my skin doesn't help. I'm not just talking about the forehead, I mean that whole face, the rest of the face that looks alright and not very zitty. If I'm in a hurry, or staying at someone's house, I just wash my face quick, don't even bother to really look at any zits forming, and don't go SUPER UP CLOSE to the mirror like I do at home when I have time. The worst is when I pluck my eyebrows and get in really close to the mirror, and see all these little balckheads and what not that I couldn't see before, pick them, then have them turn into angry zits and lesions.. So, I'm trying really hard not to pick. AHHH it's so hard!!!

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MemberMember
5
(@elliew8)

Posted : 08/08/2013 9:32 am

ah i know how you feel about picking....even though it's bad it's like my hands just don't trust my body to get rid of the crap under my skin quick enough or at a convenient time (ie not on the day of birthdays, anniversaries, holidays etc! :@ ) it's so frustrating when I do it to stuff that wasn't event remotely inflamed until I messed with it...we know it's bad and completely frutile but that doesn't make it any less tempting to take matters into our own hands *excuse the pun! Like a lot of things, easier said than done, just got to figure out a way to think about my skin less and less, plus magnified mirrors are the blimin bane of my life :|

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MemberMember
0
(@meheh)

Posted : 08/28/2013 4:26 pm

WEEK 12? 13? 11??? Fuck it. Who cares, my forehead is clear. Well. Mostly clear. The bumps that riddled it are now gone. For now, I've stopped the Tactuo, because for one, it's fucking expensive, and two, my forehead had to be purged of preexisting bumps, so I wasn't using it to control my acne, I was using it to get rid of all the bumps that just wouldn't move.

Anyways, so yes. Clear! I did have a couple of big ass blackheads that I popped and they just went away. I do have a couple of flesh-coloured bumps that just appeared again, although, I'm not going to start obsessing about every uneven little patch of skin on my forehead. I do have red marks. Somedays they look ok, and some days like today they look like shit. But that's expected, they'll go away eventually. The nicest part is just being able to touch my forehead and have it be smooth.

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