I am 16 years old and i started my proactiv plus journey february 12, 2014. I thankfully never suffered through severe acne throughout my life. I usually got occasional pimples which started when i entered high school, which is normal for any teenage girl. Throughout my freshman and sophomore year in high school, my skin was normal, again had occasional pimples like any other teen, and it went away in a few days/weeks. (Also, i personally noticed i never had any breakouts or any acne during the summer). During my junior year, specifically after new years, once i got back to school from vacation my skin took an odd turn (note: my acne began in january). I had acne on my forehead (specifically close to my eyebrows) and acne on the upper part of my cheeks close to my nose (note: i never had acne on my cheeks ever). The pimples that i had were just pink bumps and pimples that had whiteheads. Besides these places on my face, thankfully i didn't have acne anywhere else. I was afraid to admit that i was suffering through acne because i never really had to worry about my face breaking out because it never did. So i decided to handle the situation and take complete control of my skin, so i purchased proactiv plus.
4 days-
It has been four days and the bumps on both my cheeks have vanished. I have not gotten any new pimples. The small pimples on my forehead have reduced drastically. I can feel smooth parts on my forehead, so im waiting for all the small little blemishes on my forehead to be gone soon. The parts on my face where i had acne, aren't pink or red, so my skin isn't irritated at all. I suffer from dry skin, so i knew that that would shine through sometime throughout my journey. I have began peeling or have some dry parts on my face, specifically on the edges of my mouth.
I am personally wondering how proactiv plus is working for everyone else who is using it or have tried it?
Although proactiv+ does come with a moisturizer, it's not as moisturizing as one would hope, and comes with some "alternate" agendas such as brightening and treating with salicylic acid, so I suggest that you add on another oil-free moisturizer on top of it or cut down the use of the full system to just once a day. I'm using proactiv+ too, and since it's winter and I live in a dry climate, I'm having to very, very (><) slowly increase my amount of the treatment to allow my skin to adjust. I think that because of that I'm seeing slower results, although they are still certainly there.
The products in the three step system that i see that has benzoyl peroxide is in the step 1 product, the skin smoothing exfoliator and step 2, the pore targeting treatment (each having 2.5%). I personally like the exfoliator because its gentle, soothing, and it cleans your face very well all at the same time. I haven't gotten any type of irritation after using the exfoliator. As for the pore targeting treatment, i feel like it does what its supposed to do and i haven't gotten any type of irritation also after using this. I think what's causing my dryness is the salicylic acid in the third step, the complexion hydrator (which is ironic since it's a hydrator). When i use this (which i only put on the area around my mouth) it burns at first and my skin turns a little pink but it goes away fast as soon as the hydrator dries and seeps in to my skin and the pink color also goes away. Then throughout the day, i see the area around my mouth is dry and flaky. I found out that i can use the hydrator more than once throughout my day if my skin begins to get dry. So i think that's what im going to start doing and see how that turns out.