Hey guys!

So I'm getting a bit disheartened by all these success stories on the forum, everyone seems to be getting results after a few weeks and a max. of about 4 months. And me? Well, I've been on this seemingly hopeless regimen for a total of 4 years.

If I'm totally honest here, I can admit to not following the regimen religiously for the first year, probably the second too. I first found out about it when I was 16 (I'm 20 now), I was younger and much less patient and interested in getting long-term results, and much more interested in a fast solution. I was using a lot of make-up every day to hide all my acne. I wasn't gentle with my skin, didn't pay attention to what I ate, and so on. So granted, of course the regimen wasn't going to work for me.

But for the past 2 years, and especially the last year and a half, I've been a 100% invested with the regimen. I follow it step-by-step everyday, I rarely touch my face (and let alone allow others to touch it, I'm very adamant about keeping as hands-free as possible), I don't skip a day; I might be drunk as hell, or as tired as I can be, and I'll still do everything accordingly. I wear makeup only on occasion, and mineral make-up as well, so as to prevent clogging of pores and everything.

But in these 2 years, I have seen little improvement on my acne. Admittedly, I can say I have less acne than I had 2 years before, but my face is a long shot from being even remotely close to "clear". And these past few weeks, my acne even seems to have gotten worse. I can't pinpoint why that is, my life has actually greatly improved since I started university last year, made new friends, became more active both physically and socially, passed all my exams without an ounce of stress. I'm used the breakouts though, so this is not the part that irks me the most. What I can't get used to, is not being able to see improvement of my face after 2 years of closely following all the steps on this site, and on top of that spending a lot of money on the products.

Speaking of which, I've never used the products of acne.org, simply because to me it's not that affordable, shipping costs and additional costs from the dutch security border make the products even more expensive. So for me, it's just a no-go. So here's what I'm using currently:

- Coconut oil applied with a soft cotton pad to get rid of make-up or just cleaning any dirt off my face (I've been doing this for about a month now, my skin feels smoother, fresher, and glows more since I've started using coconut oil).

- Vichy's Normaderm cleansing gel, it lathers really nicely, is velvety and gentle on the skin.

- Pharmacy bought benzoylperoxide 5% (couldn't find 2,5%, but the 5% one works just as well as the 2,5% one I guess)

- My daytime and nighttime moisturizers are both from Vichy's Aqualia Thermal series (rich cream & night spa respectively), they're really soothing, don't let my skin get oily no matter the dosage (whereas others I've tried have, or didn't even stick well to my skin leaving white traces on my face), they have a bit of a clinical perfume at first, but you can't smell it after it's dried. And they don't make me break out any more than usual.

- Omega 3 supplements (according to advised dosage)

- Contraception pills (because of irregular menstruation; has helped with acne a bit too)

All in all, this combination of products is what has worked best for me within my budget per month. And I find it very hard to believe it's what's been causing my acne to persevere for so long, even after such diligent use.

So in short, my main problems are:
- Puss-filled acne that sometimes pop up alone, or sometimes (like today...) on my chin, both cheeks and t-zone.
- Cystic type acne, but it's not quite a cyst, because after a couple a days it fills up with puss too.
- Blackheads on my cheeks, chin, nose, between my eyebrows and t-zone.
- Red patches along my jawline that are basically a clumped up group of acne just beneath the skin, waiting to pop up (sometimes one at a time, sometimes 2-4 small puss-filled spots really close to each other).

I'm getting kinda hopeless actually, 2 years is a long time to hardly get any results. I'm not saying I'm doing every step of the way perfectly, I'm sure I've slipped a few times, popped a zit when it was too big to brave going outside with it, touched my face a bit too much on one particular day, eaten unhealthy food a bit too much on some days, etc, etc. But it's hardly any reason for me to still be covered in acne the way I am. (My back is now getting worse too, but I won't get into that, since I've never used the regimen to treat my back, because benzoylperoxide bleaches clothes like crazy, it's not worth the risk of ruining clothes tbh...).

So I guess I'm trying to ask, has anyone here had trouble getting the regimen to work for them even after +1 year?

And does anyone have any tips or ideas on what might be the cause of this?

Please though, don't shower me with things you just got from acne.org, I've been coming back here every half year, searching every page for things I might be doing wrong, changed things I was indeed doing wrong as much as I could. So what I'm saying is, I know the regimen like the back of my hand, as well as the site....