Hi guys,
I don't really know where to start. I've been dealing on and off with acne for the past 2 years, it all started when I got on BC(long story). Anyway, I've had months where my skin looked so bad, while others not so bad but it's still somewhat present and can't seem to find the light towards clear, smooth skin. For the past few months my skin has definitely gotten better. I've used all types of topicals, drugstore to high end and even natural remedies, while some have really helped it never has gotten rid of the problem completely. I suffer from A LOT of whiteheads/closed comedones. Naturally I have very dry skin which leads me to believe that these whiteheads are caused from the dryness. So I finally incorporated a good regimen that I have been using for the past 2 weeks or so. I started doing weekly peels of salicylic acid 20%, which is supposed to help with this problem and also help lighten previous scars which is a huge plus for me. I've also been using rose-hip oil, which is supposed to be great for lightening pigmentation, improving texture, getting rid of whiteheads with daily use and takes care of my dry, dehydrated skin. However, for the past week it seems my skin is breaking out.again. I'm torn between if it's the actual oil pulling out impurities. Lets fast track a bit, when I said that I never was completely clear I mean I had no inflamed acne, it was not red, bumpy. I couldn't feel the bumps unless I pushed my fingers into my skin and felt them. My forehead has always been more prone to small whiteheads, at first I thought they were large cysts but then I realized that they were just whiteheads in bunches. I always knew they were under there but messaging the oil into my skin I thought they would eventually dissolve, or come to a small point where I could easily extract it. While for one I'm happy that my skin is pushing out these once small whiteheads but I didn't expect them to come out inflamed, red,big and angry looking. I don't know what to do, keep massaging the oil into my skin and get rid of these pests for good or take a break until my skin calms down? Is this normal? Can I expect clear skin after this? I'd really like to get someones opinion or better yet, similar experience. I don't know where else to go. I've included some pictures, it has taken me a lot to take these and post them and I would appeciate some answers :[ I do still have some pigmentation from previous breakouts, but the dark, red spots are where the inflamed spots are at. I know my skin looks terrible, I've counted around 11 inflamed spots. It's definitely hard to capture the detail but you can get the jist of it. While I know my problem isn't severe, it still looks bad, feel bad, and most of all it affects my quality of life. I'm sure many of you can relate to this feeling. Like I said, it took a lot to come on here and post my biggest insecurity and I would hope it would be worth it, so please advice :[
-Sky
I think you should stop whatever you're doing and give the regimen a try. If you look at my thread in the regimen section, you can see my acne was much much much worse than yours and the regimen is clearing up my face slowly but surely. It's only been 5 weeks, and I haven't been this happy with my skin in a long time. I think it'll do wonders for your skin since your acne is much more mild than mine!
Hi, thank you both for the suggestions. I think I will give my skin a break, when I was writing my previous post I had every intention of just sticking with it and hoping someone would say it's normal but I think it'd be a better idea to give my skin a break and maybe try incorporating it later on when my skin clears up. Anyway, UK, I actually did try the regimen a few years back when my skin first started flaring up.It was the first treatment I used to try and clear up my skin. I tried it out for 2-3 months and didn't see much of a difference, I figured since my acne was never terrible it would clear it up fairly quickly or at least showed improvement. Other than that I had read the tons of reviews so I had high hopes for it but it was a flop. To be fair, at the time I was dealing with cysts more than anything which are harder to get rid of since they're underneath the skin. It didn't make it better or worsen it, on top of it, it was really changing the texture of my skin for the worse. Like I said, my skin is naturally very dry to begin with and the dryness never subsided even after using for the 2-3 month span. Flaky, dry skin+bad texture+acne= not cool. But I'm glad it worked out for you and thank you for at least listening and offering a suggestion none the less.