Hey all,
Pretty much every couple of years it's becoming a bit of a tradition for the regimen to stop working for me, huge pimples to start appearing on my face, and for me to freak out until I figure out the cause. Last time, it was the Chinese-brand BP cream I was using suddenly not working any more (I live in China). I switched back to the British 'PanOxyl' brand and my problems immediately went away.
This time, I'm still on PanOxyl (10% -- due to supply issues it was all I could get when I was last back in September of last year) and it worked fine for me up until around February, at which point pimples have slowly crept back in, getting slowly but surely worse.
I should add that at the start of the New Year my friend, who is Canadian, brought me back a supply of 5% 'Benzagel' brand gel from Canada (I take it where I can, living in China) and my skin started getting worse a few weeks after using PanOxyl morning and the Benzagel at night. I stopped using the BenzaGel 2-3 weeks ago and went back on PanOxyl twice a day. There was an initial slight improvement, but my skin was never completely clear like it was before New Year (and usually is since I started using BP). I've had a couple of absolutely HUGE T-zone pimples (which seems to be my 'thing' -- cheeks are almost always completely clear), spots are taking longer to heal/are coming to a head again and again, and I'm still getting the lovely dry-skin side effect of the BP with absolutely no benefits.
This is driving me absolutely crazy. I'm 32 and have had terrible skin since the age of 15. That's more than half my life now and, whilst I've accepted that this will never stop (I think it would have stopped already if it was going to) I found it manageable with the regimen. It's been around three months now of the BP simply not goddamn working any more and I'm at my wit's end. I feel as if my life is going to fall apart if this is the new status quo -- I'm a teacher, I'm in a new relationship (which I got into just before this relapse started -- oh, sweet irony) and all I want to do is hide in my apartment when this happens. It truly, deeply sucks and I have to find out what's caused the sudden change.
(PS I am fairly sure it has nothing to do with not following the regimen correctly -- when it's gone awry in the past it's tended to be the fact that the BP cream/gel itself wasn't working)
Does anyone have any idea what could be causing it? Any UK users who've noticed PanOxyl problems (I noticed that they were apparently affected by the same supply issues that QuinoDerm were)?
Hi Leopold,
I think I'm experiencing a similar thing, although I'm using Dan's BP. Similar to you, I've had a number of run ins with thinking the regimen has stopped working, but it's always corrected itself before now.
Similarly, I've had a good few months of the regimen really not being effective. I've been on Mino for years as well (leading me to about 7 years of Mino + regimen not perfect but contollable skin).
But lately, it's been going in one direction, and that's been downwards.
I also have a fairly public facing job where I have to see people and be looked at every day (marketing where I have to speak to people about our products etc on an exhibition stand).
I also want to stay in my house some days. But work means I can't.
Out of curiosity, have you ever considered accutane? What's stopped you previously? I'm 27 and I can't deal with the fear of what I'll see in the morning forever.
Also, yes I'm in the UK. long term quinoderm 5 user before it became impossible to get hold of and I moved to Dan's. Really want to know what the hell's going on.