Hi there! I've been browsing acne.org for years and it's about time i started posting, i think.
i've been battling acne since probably around 12 years old.
There have been times when it's been terrible, and times when it's been tolerable.
I tried proactiv which worked for me for a bit, but i got lazy over a spring break in high school and it has never worked for me again.
Around 18/19 years old, i tried murad acne complex.
it was the worst thing i've ever done.
my skin is now littered with ice pick scars, which i've never had this bad till i used murad. i don't think i had ice pick scars at all till then. that stuff did not like my face, and i regret ever using it. awful.
i've been on and off a million different things, and, well into 26 years old now, i'm absolutely sick of having such bad skin.
my self esteem is shot, i'm chronically depressed, and it's causing me to not even want to live, nowadays.
I'm hanging on by a thread, really.
over the past couple of months i've been desperately trying to get off of chemicals. I prefer a more natural 'lifestyle' and i don't like some of the long term effects that they seem to have.
They've honestly never helped me before, and i've been using benzoyl for most of my acne timeline. maybe it won't work for me, maybe my dream is impossible... who knows!
I recently came across a blog post on how someone "naturally healed their skin" and i was very intrigued, cuz it's exactly what i wanted!. She had very similar skin to mine (acne prone mostly around the chin/mouth (hormonal), and very oily skin)
So i decided to try it.
now i'm one of those silly people who likes to give out/knows advice but doesn't like to follow it, but i guess i'm just sort of in panic mode and my depression is getting the best of me lately.
EDIT: I'm almost positive the coconut oil did break me out, bad. I have two large (and painful!!) cysts on my chin now so i have stopped coconut oil immediately. In order to get my face back into shape a bit, i'm going to be using benzoyl again, at least for now, till i can get rid of the cysts and get all of the little bumps around my chin in order.
I am however still sticking to grapeseed oil at night, for the moisturizing and help to fade any existing scars.
over this i use tea tree oil on bad spots, as well. hopefully this new routine works for me and stops the cysts 
(
This is my routine:
Morning:
- Wash face with african black soap (this stuff is amazing!! absolutely love it)
[side note: i only recently started using this. i'm hoping it clears me up again, but for a while i was using herbalism from lush, and that didn't help me at all, sadly :\ ] - Use toner all over face (i use thayers witch hazel toner, no added anything, but next time i'll be getting the rose one again!)
- Spot treat with benzoyl
- Moisturize
After that, i'll either sit around all day or if i go out, i'll put on makeup.
Night:
- Use Makeup remover
- use toner all over face (sometimes twice if i see makeup coming off still)
- Smooth grapeseed oil all over skin
- use tea tree oil over any problem areas
Like i said, its only been about a week. my skin seems nicer, generally. like my complexion? Looks a little nicer. but my problem area (around my mouth/chin) is starting to get pretty bad. Even before i started this regime it was. blackheads galore, which i've never had around that area till recently (i assume it's because i took myself off of BP), and constant breakouts.
it seems like i've gotten a new pimple each day this week, and now i have a really bad cyst on my jawline which really hurts, even just sitting here :\
here are a few pictures of how my skin looks, after the first week.
(note that some of those dark spots are actually freckles!)
My forehead isn't really bad at all, i don't really break out around there and haven't gotten any new breakouts in any areas i hadn't previously had acne.
So, any experts, is this me just purging? Or is this regimen just making my skin worse? Do i just keep sticking with it for the month and see?
I plan to update every sunday, keeping a log of any changes to the regimen or anything like that.
Lastly, would this be considered severe, or moderate acne?
thank you in advance, sorry this is such a long winded post, but i wanted to fill in every detail i could think of.
As much as i take comfort in having a community who 'feels my pain' (if you will) i'm so very sorry that any of you have had to suffer through this condition. none of us deserve this. :c
Ok ,my daughter has been doing something similar to what you are doing ,I thought that she was still using peroxide but she went and tried something like this .
I don't really know how she uses what and in what order .
Soap dove beauty bar soap(soap makes my face itch ),she claims this removes make-up ,she uses some healthy skin powder from Neutrogena.
To remove her mascara that blue liquid container oil free remover from Neutrogena too.
She doesn't use toner ,but she exfoliates with Neutrogena deep clean cream cleanser oil free,in the shower leaving it on for a couple of minutes,since salicylic acid has to stay on the skin in order to work,again I don't know how often she uses this ,I mean , exfoliation every 3 days or every week,I guess can be acceptable without causing problems or damaging the skin with over exfoliation.
To treat her acne she uses now grapeseed oil mixed with 2 drops of now lavender oil( lavender oil is not supposed to be used by people who have bladder ,kidney or brain disorders).
And that is what she told me ,she was using,she doesn't like to apply treatments that take her time,she is in college(almost done ,l hope).
So when I saw her face ,I was really surprised that she has been using all of these for about 5 to 6 weeks .
She said the first week was the worst purging .
I looked at your pics, your skin looks good,maybe the coconut oil could be clogging the pores ,it makes some people breakout ,but again I don't know, I'm just guessing.
Take care.
Thank you for the response!
I'm glad your daughter has been having success with her routine! 
)
I'm glad she gave you input on the purging.. maybe this was my worst week and it could start getting better from here? I can hope!
And yeah i've been thinking about that with coconut oil too. I was worried about it but then i hear good things about it... I didn't know if it was actually causing me breakouts since i'm so early into my routine and i don't let it really seep into my skin, and i go over my skin usually twice with toner to make sure i get that oil off... is that not enough maybe?
What i'm thinking of doing is sticking with this routine for at least another week, and, while i do have two cysts now (ughhh) if it clears up (or gets worse) i'll either stop it or continue it from that point on.
I am only using coconut oil as a makeup remover though so replacing that with a different makeup remover won't be too big of a hassle at least. (and i can always use the oil for hair masks and cooking!)
Firstly you can use Tea tree oil soap for cleaning your face . May be coconut oil is causing you breakouts so stop using oils & for spot treatment you can use Alpha Arbutin 1% + Mulbery Extract 1% + Licorice Extract 0.5% + Cosmoperine 0.1% Cream , and use a moisturizer with aloe vera gel 90% , for acne whiteheads treatment Differin cream daily for 1-2 hours at night
Firstly you can use Tea tree oil soap for cleaning your face . May be coconut oil is causing you breakouts so stop using oils & for spot treatment you can use Alpha Arbutin 1% + Mulbery Extract 1% + Licorice Extract 0.5% + Cosmoperine 0.1% Cream , and use a moisturizer with aloe vera gel 90% , for acne whiteheads treatment Differin cream daily for 1-2 hours at night
Don't you need a prescription for differin? because i don't have insurance. :I it's the main reason i haven't already tried accutane. can't afford it. i'm very poor
i also would prefer not to change my routine immediately because i JUST started this one, though i read coconut oil isn't too great so i might stop using that as well.
yeah i stopped coconut oil as of last night
i can't afford a derm right now, and have never been able to (parents never bothered to help me with this and i've been on my own for about 10 years now)
but hopefully after i move i'll be able to... just can't right now
if i can though i'm going to look straight into accutane. i'm developing very large and painful cysts on my chin now... hopefully they will go away soon since i stopped using coconut oil....