It's been a few days short of a month since I started the regimen and my skin is *STILL* flaking- predominantly around my mouth & eyebrow area. And if I don't have a crap ton of moisturizer on (i.e. sometimes I roll around too much when I sleep and I tend to transfer most of it off onto my pillow, leaving my face dry in the morning) my skin then ends up looking leather-like in the flakey areas.
I'm pretty much used to the BP at this point - no burning or itching, just still a slightly flushed look, probably since I have fair skin, and tightness where the flaking is. Makes me nervous since I've seen regimen logs where the flaking and/or itching lasts wayyy beyond a normal time period... by that I mean years.
I'm doing everything I can to help the flakes - gentle jojoba oil rubs about twice a week, cleaning for 15 seconds at most (the extra few seconds because I have to cleanse Cortizone off my neck since I've developed dry patches there due to the weather change), and moisturizing generously (always including jojoba oil, using a heavier cream at night, and adding in an SPF during the day).
Should I possibly order the AHA at this point? Even if my skin is still pink-ish/flushed?
Has anyone else had a similar experience to this in the beginning stages?
I don't mean for this to sound like a sap story. I'm mostly just really annoyed.
I started the regime about 2 months ago, and my skin has just stopped being flaky about a week ago. But what I found REALLY helped, was applying moisturiser before and after I applied BP. My skin has cleared up so much, and is less flaky. A good exfoliator such as the Clinique one has also helped to reduce the flaky ness.
Not all moisturizers are created equal. Even though you put a lot of one brand, it is not always as effective as another. Maybe try switching it up.
Also, the AHA is definitely worth it. It really helps your skin feel like skin again after all the flakes and leathery feeling you get from using a lot of BP.
I too live on the East Coast, and I do sympathize with you because I feel that this weather isn't helping much with the dryness either on top of everything else. I'm going into my second month and trust me there has been a lot of ups and downs. I find that the AHA did help a great deal with the darkening effect, and I'm using it for spot treatment at the moment since I've gone off yaz.
Don't give up, I know there are days it just seems like this is taking forever, but if your skin is finally starting to get under control, stick with it. Here's to us both getting the results we're hoping for.
I had the same problem, and what I did was I began using the AHA+ and I greatly decreased my dose of BP. It got rid of my redness and flaking. I am going to rework my way up to the full dosage again, if my face can handle it. For now, a little bit of BP is still working wonders.
Yes as mentioned above, amount of BP is so important.
I started the regimen with bp twice a day and even though I was dry as hell, I figured the skin would eventually get used to it. It never did, the bp is giving the skin no such chance. Changing to once a day brought me the result of clear skin without the side effects. In fact, even if you built up slowly up to a month or two, it could be a good idea to cut it down again, I changed to night only from week 7 and it has worked great for me.
As for the moisturiser problem, give the skin time to absorb it before you jump into bed, once its absorbed, the effect is will start taking place inside, something your pillow cannot touch.