So I've been battling with these flesh colored bumps for a while, it's quite depressing to think how long. My inflamed acne has gone away and at first I got used to the bumps, as I was just happy to be able to move my face without being in pain, but now it's starting to bother me, from far away or up close you can't really see that I have much acne, however the texture of my face is rough, and it makes me look a lot older then I am.

If I spread my cheeks (like put my tongue in my cheek) or my chin, you can see all these bumps, it's like there's one for every pore, which at first made me think they were sebaceous filaments ,but there are areas (ends of my cheeks, around my temples) that are completely clear, and smooth, which makes me doubt that. I've had these for as long as I can remember, before I started to get inflamed acne. So were talking around 7 years, these things don't go away, and they only get inflamed if provoked. I've been on accutane (which if anything made it worse) doxycyline, stevemyacin (not sure hot to spell that one), benzol peroxide, and currently I'm on Retin-A micro. I'm on my third dermatologist because all of them seem to just give up after the second treatment, dermatologists in Canada suck.

Anyway what I wanted to ask is if it's possible to have follicultis that isn't inflamed? Anyone ever heard/seen this? This could be why all these orals/topicals arn't working.

I just don't see what else it could be. When I put Retin A on it either does nothing at all (doesn't even dry out my skin - probably need a higher dose) or it inflames certain spots (chin), when inflamed the bumps fall out and you can see holes were they were located before this part is quite painful, and just when you think you've gotten rid of it, it heals, and the bumps return in the EXACT same spot they were in before.

What is going on!?