Hello, I am a 20 year old male. I never had terrible acne throughout my early/middle teen years (probably because I was a "late bloomer") but started developing moderate acne when I was 18. I was prescribed epiduo and doxycycline at that time and cleared up in 2.5 months. 7 months later it all came back. I tried doxy again but it appeared that my acne didn't respond this time. After trying various other OTC treatments I decided to go back to the doctor and try something else. I was told to give topicals another shot, since epiduo barely did anything. I was prescribed Clindamycin Phosphate + BP (1.2% + 5%) in the morning and Tretinoin (0.04%) at night.
Here I am, to log my progress. I hope to be clear by the time I have to go back to college (end of August). I understand that the Tretinoin can cause an initial breakout but I hope the CP + BP lessens the severity of it.
I will log once a week throughout the summer and may post pictures once every 30 days.
Start Date: May 25th, 2014
Regimen
AM: shower, wash face with Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser, apply tiny even amount of Clindamycin Phosphate + BP, moisturize with Cetaphil Daily Facial Moisturizer
PM: wash face with Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser, apply tiny even amount of Tretinoin, go to bed
Supplements: I have been supplementing with Zinc for over a month and often take a multivitamin
I used the CP+BP 3 days before the Tretinoin because the tretinoin was not at the pharmacy.
Next update will be this weekend (5/31 or 6/1)
Thanks for following along on my attempt for clear skin! May the force be with you.
Week 1 [May 24-May 31]
Not too bad of a first week. My face has about 3-4 active spots but is loaded with red hyper pigmented scars. My chin and jawline is my acne hotspot. I like putting the CP + BP on my face because it seems to attack my active acne but I really havent noticed anything other than dryness, nothing my moisturizer cant fix. I only used the tretinoin two nights this week and noticed my forehead started getting a few inflamed pimples, a place where I usually have none. The last two days I developed a huge one on my chin and nose as well as a noticable red one to the right of my mouth. I only used the tretinoin twice but could this be signs of an initial breakout already? Possibly. I am not proud of my face right now, wish I could fast-foward a month or 2. This week I will try tretinoin every other night. Week three I will try every day from then on. Next update will be 6/7.
Question to those who are following along: Do you know how long the tretinoin initial breakout lasts? It's probably different for everybody but what are the typical circumstances of it? Any response is appreciated.
Thanks
Good luck on your regimen. For me, my initial outbreak never went away but it wasn't horrendous to begin with - i just kept breaking out and never stopped. For tretinoin, be prepared to break out for all 3 months (i think your initial outbreak may be equivalent to the severity of your acne so if you have 3 pimples, you may get 12, etc). If after 3 months you have not had CONSISTENT clearing, i would revisit your derm for other changes to your routine.
How's your diet overall? I also suggest a dairy and gluten free diet to speed things up as many people find that diet may help their cause.
I am due to start Klaron (as i developed sensitivity to BP) as well as Atralin (tretinoin . 05%) soon and i will log about my experiences as well. In my sig, i have my previous tretinoin log so feel free to look at it. I also developed eczema on The Regimen so that complicates matters for me
Good Luck withe everything
Hello, thanks for the reply! My diet isn't the best in the world to be honest. I limit my dairy intake as best as I can. I haven't had a glass of milk in months but maybe twice a month I will eat pizza or something with cheese on it. I know I will breakout with the tretinoin (I honestly think it is happening now) but I hope the topical antibiotic and BP will keep it under control.
Have you had any sun sensitivity problems with the tretinoin? I work outside 25+ hours a week, sunscreen is gonna be a must but I don't want the sun to deplete the potency of the tretinoin.
Good luck to you as well!
Week 2 [June 1-June 7]
This week started off pretty shitty, with a huge guy on my nose. It seems to have died down. Honestly at one point during the week I had ZERO actives, it's just these damn red marks. My family got a pizza the other day so I was tempted to eat it, and I did. Woops. Hope it doesn't break me out. I never really noticed a connection between dairy and my acne but it doesn't hurt to try and cut down. Tretinoin used at night on 6/1, 6/3, and 6/7 . Increasing the frequency of using the tretinoin. Picture log linked below to hopefully show progress astime goes on. 2 weeks down and I am already seeing some good things. I start working this upcoming week so I gotta wear some good sunscreen!
Weekly picture log: http://imgur.com/a/eG5vq
Week 3 [June 8 - June 14]
Started my summer job this week. Used tretinoin on 6/8, 6/9, 6/10, 6/11, 6/12, 6/13. Got drunk at my friends house last night and didn't get to wash my face. My face was not looking good this week but I guess some fluctuation is necessary whenever you are in the beginning of treatment. My face was red to begin with and being in the sun 25+ hours a week is only making it more red, only thing I can do is put sunscreen on and hope for the best 
In the middle of the week I developed an active below my right lip, below my right nostril, left cheekbone below my left ear, and a couple between my eyebrows. Huge cyst on my forehead...Tons of redmarks still there, especially below my left sideburn. Every time I look in a mirror I can't believe my eyes and I want to punch it. Screw acne and redmarks. I work at a summer camp and a little kid asked me why I have so many pimples in comparison to the other counselors. It tears me apart. The past year I have lived my life around acne: making sure to sit in a seat where people can't see the left side of my face, canceling plans with a girl I used to talk to in high school, thinking about it 24/7, getting into fights with my own mother because I get angry at the most stupid things. I'm sick and tired of it. I will post pictures later.
Hello, thanks for the reply! My diet isn't the best in the world to be honest. I limit my dairy intake as best as I can. I haven't had a glass of milk in months but maybe twice a month I will eat pizza or something with cheese on it. I know I will breakout with the tretinoin (I honestly think it is happening now) but I hope the topical antibiotic and BP will keep it under control.
Have you had any sun sensitivity problems with the tretinoin? I work outside 25+ hours a week, sunscreen is gonna be a must but I don't want the sun to deplete the potency of the tretinoin.
Good luck to you as well!
I never wore sunscreen when i was on tretinoin but i wouldn't suggest doing that. Even with sunscreen, you should wear a hat and reapply as often as you can. My issue with sunscreens was that every single one irritated my face or made my acne worse.
Week 3 [June 8 - June 14]
Started my summer job this week. Used tretinoin on 6/8, 6/9, 6/10, 6/11, 6/12, 6/13. Got drunk at my friends house last night and didn't get to wash my face. My face was not looking good this week but I guess some fluctuation is necessary whenever you are in the beginning of treatment. My face was red to begin with and being in the sun 25+ hours a week is only making it more red, only thing I can do is put sunscreen on and hope for the best In the middle of the week I developed an active below my right lip, below my right nostril, left cheekbone below my left ear, and a couple between my eyebrows. Huge cyst on my forehead...Tons of redmarks still there, especially below my left sideburn. Every time I look in a mirror I can't believe my eyes and I want to punch it. Screw acne and redmarks. I work at a summer camp and a little kid asked me why I have so many pimples in comparison to the other counselors. It tears me apart. The past year I have lived my life around acne: making sure to sit in a seat where people can't see the left side of my face, canceling plans with a girl I used to talk to in high school, thinking about it 24/7, getting into fights with my own mother because I get angry at the most stupid things. I'm sick and tired of it. I will post pictures later.
With any acne treatment, the best advice is to not judge effectiveness of the treatment by the daily/weekly fluctuations of your skin. It takes i think 8 weeks for the life cycle of a regular pimple so those pimples that show now were probably in the making for 8 weeks. So once the pimples pop up, you just have to let them run their course. 3 or better yet 4 months is a better time frame to judge if treatment is working or not.
Keep your head up - it's a process
Week 3 pictures are updated. Going to be taking higher quality ones from now on
Week 4 [June 15-June 21]
Still experiencing breakouts in the usual areas. The dozens of red marks on my left side seem to be healing slowly but as they are healing new breakouts appear right next to it. My cheeks are usually clear but I just recently noticed my left one had a few new actives. Not too happy about that. I had borrowed my sisters cover-up a couple times to spot cover some inflamed ones, I really feel stupid wearing it but it helps me feel better knowing the redness isn't THAT noticable. Last week I was very down in the dumps but this week was a lot better. I now try to limit my mirror time and it has kept my stress down pretty well. 1 month mark is tomorrow, hoping to see better results by the end of month 2.
I called my doctor up because I was told to do so after a month. They asked if I was happy with the treatment, I said not really but I know from experience that this stuff takes a while to really start working. They asked me if I wanted to incorporate Minocycline, and I said yes. So from now on I will be taking 200mg of minocycline a day as well as the topicals.
Week 5 [June 22-June 28]
End of month 1. Well, this is the worst my face has been in 2 years. I was at a party last night and I thought about my face the ENTIRE time. It's ruining me but I am, of course, going to stick with it. Taking the minocycline has been going very well, I really hope that accelerates things. Things are still getting worse, nothing much else to say.
Week 5 [June 22-June 28]
End of month 1. Well, this is the worst my face has been in 2 years. I was at a party last night and I thought about my face the ENTIRE time. It's ruining me but I am, of course, going to stick with it. Taking the minocycline has been going very well, I really hope that accelerates things. Things are still getting worse, nothing much else to say.
I'm sorry that things are going slowly. When i was using retinoids, it felt like I was waiting forever. I found it helpful to count down on a calendar the number of days that I had been on it to keep myself motivated to continue. Avoid mirrors as much as you can and know that your friends and family don
t care about your acne.
Week 7 and 8 [July 7-July 20]
The redmarks left from old inflamation are fading away very nicely! The area around my chin and mouth is still very awful. My face has some good days and some bad days, I had a lot more good days as of recently but a huge breakout this past weekend put me back to a group of bad days.
Weeks 8-14
Wow, I forgot about updating this. The past weeks have been up and down. Some days my skin looks awesome, some days not so much. I will be going off the minocycline soon because I want to give my body a break from the oral antibiotics. I moved back into college this past week and of course I broke out. My chin and the area right of my mouth looks awful and my forehead isn't looking to good but besides that I am seeing improvements where I had previous breakouts or redmarks. My plan is to keep using the tretinoin for as long as I can and start seeing some lasting results in this 4th month. I will update when I remember.