The regimen gave me a ton of problems while I was on it. Though it did help clear up my acne to some degree, I never got to the point that I was completely clear. Before I continue I'd like to say that this was just my personal experience with the regimen- it could very well work great for you, but for me... it was hell. I was on the regimen for around 6 months. It's now been another 6 months since I quit the regimen. I'd also like to add that I was on an oral medication for acne, Solodyn, while I was on the regimen. Anyway, here are my problems with the regimen:
1. It took too much darn time. I had to start waking up at 5:00 A.M. (which is early for me) just to make sure that everything I put on my face had dried up before it was time for school.
2. My face's initial reaction to the benzoyl peroxide was just a mild redness... but it soon turned into a sort of orange color, almost like a tan. My neck looked pale compared to my face. It totally ruined picture day for me. My face is orange in my yearbook picture as a result.
3. I could not find a decent moisturizer. I tried the acne. org moisturizer at first. I liked the way it felt but it made my face yellow. I really think that the acne.org moisturizer is absolute crap. I tried cetaphil's moisturizing lotion. It absolutely burned the hell out of my skin. I tried an olay moisturizer which had an SPF in it, which my skin didn't absorb well at all and turned my face white. I eventually turned to Cerave moisturizing lotion. It didn't burn at all but it didn't even help with the dryness and flakiness.
4. As a result of the moisturizer problem, my face was flaking constantly. I remember always sitting in class and trying to scratch off the flakes without irritating my skin significantly. It was bloody embarrassing. For a short time I was known as "The kid with the flaky skin".
5. The benzoyl peroxide ALWAYS burned. I had followed the instructions pretty well, too. I slowly ramped up the dosage as Dan had said to do-- from a pea size and gradually making it up to a whole finger's worth of it. But it took about 10-20 minutes for the burning to go away after applying the stuff-- always.
6. As I mentioned in problem #2, my face looked tanner than my neck. Unfortunately this has yet to go away. I STILL am dealing with this. I'm not positive why this is. I mean, it's been six months since I quit the regimen. The only thing that comes to mind is that the Solodyne could've made my skin more prone to irritation. But I've recently quit Solodyne and moved on to Clindamycin, also an oral antibiotic for acne. This has caused me a ton of stress.
7.While I was on the regimen, I was always terrified to stop. I was afraid of breaking out terribly without constantly applying benzoyl peroxide. It took a lot of balls to stop-- and I did so cold turkey. Just straight up stopped applying that Benzoyl peroxide. The flaking continued for a few days afterwards. But the discoloration never went way. I told my dermatologist about it and she thought I was crazy, saying my face looked the same color as my neck. Personally I think it was the lighting in the room in which she told me that.
Since I quit the regimen I have tried putting small amounts of Benzoyl peroxide on certain parts of my face, but my face turns ridiculously red the day after. And I use so very little. Like, less than the size of a pea.
Regarding my problem with my face being discolored to this day, I do not know for sure if it was the regimen which caused it. It could've been the regimen-- but then again, it MAY have been the solodyn, or it may have been the combination of the two.
I am not saying that nobody should try the regimen. If you're so tired of acne that you're really desperate, I say, GO FOR IT. I am merely presenting my problems with the regimen. It caused me a lot of problems as you can see. Really, it ruined my sophomore year of high school.
just like everything else, some things work for some, and not for others
I am not a BP fan, I just hated the fading of towels, sheets, clothes...personally I found the Salicylic Acid works for me, but again not for everyone
With any topical though, you can use a moisturizer...that is always an option
Are you clear now?
just like everything else, some things work for some, and not for others
I am not a BP fan, I just hated the fading of towels, sheets, clothes...personally I found the Salicylic Acid works for me, but again not for everyone
With any topical though, you can use a moisturizer...that is always an option
Are you clear now?
Unfortunately I'm not clear now. I've still got a some breakouts here and there. I've been washing my face twice a day, morning and night, and applying some 2.5% salacylic acid gel on my face at night only. I've been doing this since the beginning of summer. It seems to have helped some with the breakouts but not to the point that i'm completely clear. I'm also on an oral antibiotic-- Clindamycin.
The last time I visited my dermatologist she mentioned that Accutane may be something to consider if the clindamycin does not help. She said it was because I've got a ridiculous amount of scarring.
BP doesn't work for me either. I found the best success I had with BP was a couple of years ago using DUAC for some chin acne, but only sparingly at night. About six months ago I tried to use BP for a couple of cysts on my left cheek that kept coming up and down. It seemed to make them go down but when I looked at my skin close the red marks were taking ages to go away and my skin looked wrinkled almost, if you look at my left cheek and right cheek there was a clear difference where I used the BP. I stopped using it and within a month my left cheek (only my left cheek, and chin where I had used it a bit) flared up like never before. Differin and the birth control pill are just bringing it under control, now I'm not blaming the BP alone, who knows maybe it would have happened anyway, my skin was getting more oily and I obviously used it as I had a couple of cysts but I do think it has made my skin take longer to heal, before I could burst a huge cysts and the red mark/scab would be gone in the week, now even a small white head leaves a mark. Again maybe my skin is just changing. I would say to anyone using it, use it sparingly and only where needed! It clearly works for some. I've found differin suits me better, but again sparingly, only at night. It makes my skin feel smooth and supple and finally these red marks look like they are going. There are other options. Although some people hate differin so everyone is different. I always think going gentle on your skin is the best way to go.
I didn't get on very well with the Regimen either. Everybody kept saying that the red, irritated flakey skin problems were temporary and would go away after a few months and I was desperate enough to keep trying it for a year and a half in the hopes that I would get the brilliant results I could see other people getting.
Unfortunately I never got rid of the dryness and irritation. My face was always an angry red and so dry that I couldn't open my mouth properly to eat and so flakey that make-up became impossible and it was just a nightmare all round. I guess my skin's just oversensitive to the benzoyl peroxide or something but I'm honestly not convinced that using the amount of BP recommended for the Regimen on your skin for any prolonged amount of time does any good to it at all. Yes it clears your acne, but my skin felt totally destroyed by the time I finally admitted defeat and gave up with the Regimen.
Unfortunately I then had the worst breakout of my life but now I'm using Epiduo once a day and my skin seems to be tolerating that remarkably well considering it's got the same 2.5% BP in it. Here's just hoping it can clear up the acne now!
Yeah it's a real shame when any type of regimen doesn't work out for you after you spend so much time and mental energy on it. I guess it goes to show that everyone is different and their skin reacts differently.
I had all the symptoms that the op describes when I first started the regimen but thankfully they all went away within 10 weeks or so. I sure don't miss that burning sensation.....it used to even wake me up at night in the early weeks. Awful sensation.
I too was concerned about the amount of Bp applied over the long term but I was lucky that I remained clear even after dropping the Bp application down to once a day.
It's a shame it didn't work out for you and I sincerely hope that the antibiotics help to clear you from acne for the long term. If they don't I sure hope another topical will help you to clear before you resort to accutane which really should be a last resort thing (in my opinion).
Good luck with it all and crossed fingers your skin returns to its normal colour soon.
It's unfortunate that we're the small subset of people which the Regimen didn't work out for. For me, I'm not sure if it was specifically Dan's BP or just the sheet amount of BP that you had to put on, but sometime in my 4th month my skin became oversensitive to it and now I can no longer use BP on it's own - any brand. I'm positive it was the regimen since I had been using BP as spot treatment for years before attempting the regimen. My skin became scaly and so flaky, and it was always itchy and rough.
I really don't like Dan's moisturiser either because it made my face super yellow. I'm asian so my skin already has a yellow undertone, but I remember looking in the mirror some days and thinking that I looked so yellow it was almost orange. I've since switched over to Cetaphil and I love the way that stuff works! Honestly I'm not even a huge fan of the cleanser probably because I'm under the belief that none of Dan's products work for me. The jojoba oil, while helped me combat the dry skin from the BP, also broke me out. I used AHA before but I think I might've amped up the amounts a little too soon because it burned a part of my cheek and left me with red, flaky and irritated skin, which took another month for me to fix........
The DKR really cleared my acne for the first 3 months but somehow it all went downhill from there.... I'm happy that it works for a lot of other people, just unfortunate it didn't work for me. It did push me to see a doctor though, which I was always scared to do because of my insecurities and hesitance to talk about acne with strangers. I'm now on clindoxyl which has BP in it but it's like 1% I think and for some reason it doesn't irritate my skin (knock on wood) and also birth control.
I'm on my 7th week of the Regimen. I'm pretty happy with my results so far, as I'm almost clear, but I am pretty upset with the redness from the BP and the amount of time it takes to do the Regimen. It takes me over an hour to do the Regimen because everything takes so long to dry! Is there any way around that?
I'm also scared of what will happen when I get the results I want from the Regimen. Has anyone ever successfully stopped using it and remained clear?! Is it possible to ever stop using BP after using such a large amount every day?
I'm on my 7th week of the Regimen. I'm pretty happy with my results so far, as I'm almost clear, but I am pretty upset with the redness from the BP and the amount of time it takes to do the Regimen. It takes me over an hour to do the Regimen because everything takes so long to dry! Is there any way around that?
I'm also scared of what will happen when I get the results I want from the Regimen. Has anyone ever successfully stopped using it and remained clear?! Is it possible to ever stop using BP after using such a large amount every day?
I'm not quite sure how it takes an hour for everything to dry enough for you to do the Regimen - is it Dan's products you're using? I've never used them before but when I did the Regimen with store products it always took me about 20 minutes - cleanser, wait 10 mins, BP, wait 10 mins, moisturiser.
I think what you do when you get clear is very dependent on your skin. It's sensible to wait a good few months of staying clear before changing anything at all. After that some people find they have success with slowly reducing their BP application to once a day and just cleansing and moisturising at the other end of the day and still remain clear. Unfortunately others find that they have to keep up the two applications each day to remain clear, so it's really just a trial and error process to find out how your skin reacts to changing the routine. Personally I remained relatively clear on one application a day once I'd eased it down gently but broke out phenomenally when I stopped using BP altogether.
I'm on my 7th week of the Regimen. I'm pretty happy with my results so far, as I'm almost clear, but I am pretty upset with the redness from the BP and the amount of time it takes to do the Regimen. It takes me over an hour to do the Regimen because everything takes so long to dry! Is there any way around that?
I'm also scared of what will happen when I get the results I want from the Regimen. Has anyone ever successfully stopped using it and remained clear?! Is it possible to ever stop using BP after using such a large amount every day?
I'm not quite sure how it takes an hour for everything to dry enough for you to do the Regimen - is it Dan's products you're using? I've never used them before but when I did the Regimen with store products it always took me about 20 minutes - cleanser, wait 10 mins, BP, wait 10 mins, moisturiser.
I think what you do when you get clear is very dependent on your skin. It's sensible to wait a good few months of staying clear before changing anything at all. After that some people find they have success with slowly reducing their BP application to once a day and just cleansing and moisturising at the other end of the day and still remain clear. Unfortunately others find that they have to keep up the two applications each day to remain clear, so it's really just a trial and error process to find out how your skin reacts to changing the routine. Personally I remained relatively clear on one application a day once I'd eased it down gently but broke out phenomenally when I stopped using BP altogether.
Me neither... I do use Dan's products. Cleansing isn't a big deal, that takes about 5-10 mins for my skin to dry afterwards. When I apply the BP, my skin takes about 20 minutes or more to dry! Am I using too much of a concentrated amount of my face? The moisturizer also takes an obscene amount of time to dry since I use 2 full pumps and slather it on my face.
I'm sorry that you broke out after stopping BP. That's what I'm afraid of...I don't want to do this for years on end! 
Eep!
Me neither... I do use Dan's products. Cleansing isn't a big deal, that takes about 5-10 mins for my skin to dry afterwards. When I apply the BP, my skin takes about 20 minutes or more to dry! Am I using too much of a concentrated amount of my face? The moisturizer also takes an obscene amount of time to dry since I use 2 full pumps and slather it on my face.
I'm sorry that you broke out after stopping BP. That's what I'm afraid of...I don't want to do this for years on end!
Eep!
Ah right maybe it's something to do with those products then. BP definitely never took 20 mins to dry for me but I didn't ever use the full recommended amount because, as you may have gathered, my skin wasn't too fond of BP at all! I used a gel one... not sure if Dan's is a gel or not or whether that makes a difference to the rate of absorption.
Sorry, didn't mean to scare you that was just my experience of it. There may well be other people who have successfully weaned themselves off the Regimen over time. There are certainly quite a few people who can manage on one application a day once they get clear so that would at least reduce the amount of time it takes out of your day. You never know, you may yet be one of the lucky ones! 
Me neither... I do use Dan's products. Cleansing isn't a big deal, that takes about 5-10 mins for my skin to dry afterwards. When I apply the BP, my skin takes about 20 minutes or more to dry! Am I using too much of a concentrated amount of my face? The moisturizer also takes an obscene amount of time to dry since I use 2 full pumps and slather it on my face.
I'm sorry that you broke out after stopping BP. That's what I'm afraid of...I don't want to do this for years on end!
Ah right maybe it's something to do with those products then. BP definitely never took 20 mins to dry for me but I didn't ever use the full recommended amount because, as you may have gathered, my skin wasn't too fond of BP at all! I used a gel one... not sure if Dan's is a gel or not or whether that makes a difference to the rate of absorption.
Sorry, didn't mean to scare you that was just my experience of it. There may well be other people who have successfully weaned themselves off the Regimen over time. There are certainly quite a few people who can manage on one application a day once they get clear so that would at least reduce the amount of time it takes out of your day. You never know, you may yet be one of the lucky ones!
It very well could be. You have to use so much of Dan's products...my skin just can't absorb it that quickly. 
Dan's is also a gel, which definitely does help. Maybe once I'm clear I'll be able to use less BP.
No worries, I'll just have to play it by ear when the time comes. I still have a bit to go. One application a day would be lovely!! I'm hoping that my birth control will kind of take over in the end.
I think things work differently due to peoples skin type. I've never really had sensitive skin. But since using too much BP my skin is now really sensitive, I thought it had given me rosacea, but it just made my skin over sensitive. BP just doesn't suit my skin, I thought for a while it had ruined it completely, that wrinkled texture I could tell that wasn't right and I didn't like it one bit, I didn't want to have no spots but wrinkled, dry unhealthy skin. But it seems to work great for other so I would never write it off for other people, I'm just sharing my experience. I don't want to tempt fate but Differin is really working out for me. I used the BP for about two months and found I just got dried and my skin did clear up but it seemed to get oilier and red marks took forever (I still have some from March!). I used it from March to May. Once I stopped (cold turkey) my skin went haywire...worst skin of my life, I'm not saying this to scare you I'm just being honest, I was getting cysts (not a lot but kept popping up) where I had used the BP the most and the rest of my skin was so oily, red and had those under the skin spots that made my skin texture look awful...I was distraught. I went to a derm in June and since then have been using Differin (on Birth Control Pill too) and honestly I think it has improved my skin so much. I'm mainly worried if I'll be left with some shallow scars now, But I'm not even at the three month mark so hoping things will only get better. After a few weeks of a little bit of redness a the start, which was pretty mild, my skin is so soft to touch and my red marks are really fading now the acne is down. I feel like differin is helping my skin and something I would look to always use, you only need a tiny amount not a finger length of the stuff. But I have also heard people who hated Differin. I guess what I'm saying is that if BP doesn't suit your skin their are other options. I think it's all about being as gentle as you can with your skin while you use any topical. Good luck with your regimen 
If you're seeing results that's great!
