I have been using epiduo for about 4 months now. Before my epiduo, my skin was not that oily except for my nose but now my skin has became incredibly oily and shiny. My skin has somewhat clear but my plastic looking skin is unbearable as it becomes oily within 10 minutes of just washing face with water and it also feels tight. Even then after washing my face, it is very shiny. The problem with this is my skin will not absorb anything, it wont absorb the moisturizer.
Now my question is regarding the epiduo, is the epiduo making my skin incredibly dehydrated which causes my skin to produces excessive oil?
Deciding if i should take a break from epiduo to let my skin repair a little bit or just use epiduo every two days..
Current routine
Morning:
Splash with water
CeraVe moisturizing lotion
Night:
CeraVe hydrating cleanser
CeraVe moisturizing lotion (I put moisturzer first to buffer the effects of epiduo, I used to put epiduo second step but my skin has just became so tight and unbearable and the moisturizer will not be absorbed, even as of now my skin wont absorb moisturizers)
Epiduo
If your skin is super dry, I would recommend taking a couple day break from the epiduo and using aloe Vera for a couple of days. To help moisturize and get rid of that tight feeling skin. If you give this a shot, once you start using the epiduo again make sure your not over using it. You should be using a pea sized amount or a bit more for your whole face. Anymore than that you will get overly dry.
Something I noticed when I was on Differin XP (which is just the adapalene by itself in 3x the concentration) was that my face got unbearably oily too, to the point where my finger would come away wet if I accidentally brushed my face. I was also on Epiduo and it wasn't as bad as Differin, but I did have to blot throughout the day. So maybe overuse of retinoids really does damage your skin so that it has problems naturally regulating oils?
Do you use a pea-sized amount like Moonlight said? If you want to stop using it as much, it'd be a good idea to use it every two days like you said. I've heard it's not good to stop it cold turkey if you eventually want to stop using it, which is what I had to do. The good news though is that my face isn't as oily since I stopped using it and made healthy lifestyle changes, so your skin should be able to repair itself after!