Thanks for sharing. You sound similar to me too. Chin area is always the worst spot, super oily and acne became 10x worse after stopping birth control pills. I'll be following your story! I'll probably be on a similar dosage as well. good luck!!

Thanks for sharing. You sound similar to me too. Chin area is always the worst spot, super oily and acne became 10x worse after stopping birth control pills. I'll be following your story! I'll probably be on a similar dosage as well. good luck!!

Thanks! That chin area sucks so bad-after BC my jaw and upper neck started breaking out, I was hoping the IUD would help with it but it didn't since the hormones are localized. I still prefer it over pills though any day When do you start taking yours? The waiting was the worst part, I couldn't wait to get started!

So at the end of month 1 today (YESSSS 5 MORE TO GO!!) ehem excuse me. I think I have a pretty good routine worked out and it just got worked out like last week so knowing me it might change again-le sigh.

Morning

I do not wash my face or shower in the morning. I was just so dried out by this and didn™t like it. So I use one of two moisturizers:

Embryolisse lait-cr¨me concentr©, which sinks in beautifully and my make-up goes on top of it perfectly. Bio Jouvance Rejuvenating Night Cream mature & sun damaged skin, I don™t have either of these things but both of those things need moisture like crazy so it works. Yes it™s a night cream but on dry skin it works well for the day-and it smells really good!

Makeup wise I stopped using primer all together, I just didn™t need it anymore. I started using bare minerals complexion rescue hydrating gel and use my dermablend to cover up any spots. If I start to get a bit dry during the day I™ll use Mario Badescue Rose water and aloe spray, helps a little with the tight feeling and smells great. I™m all about smells

Night-face

Innisfree Green Tea cleansing oil, I didn™t oil cleanse before absorica but my face got so tight after washing that I switched and now I don™t get that tight feeling after washing.

Mario Badescue Aloe Vera Toner, super gentle, no alcohol, no burn

.

I™ll either use Tarte Marcacuja Oil, love this-so moisturizing, natural, no sting or burn. Or I™ll use Fresh Seaberry Moisturizing Face oil, little less moisturizing but I can use it during the day. There™s still no string or burn.

Then I™ll use ceraVe on top of that. If it™s a really bad breakout day or I just feel dry I use Egyptian Magic. I LOVE this stuff. I use it on everything, it looks so gimmicky but it feels so good going on and takes forever to soak in completely so it kinda feels like a moisture mask.

Maybe once a week I™ll use my Clarisonic and use Egyptian Magic afterwards if my skin just feels gross. For a gentler exfoliate I™ll use a water peeling mask. It never dries and as you rub it on your skin and dead skin balls up and you can rinse it off-gross and oddly satisfying. For all these black heads being pushed out I™ll use an Aztec clay mask just where the black heads are. This mask turned my face super red before absorica so I™m not risking a full mask during treatment.

Day and Night body

Shea Moisture lotion. I use the Raw Shea and the Coconut & Hibiscus. They smell great and have awesome staying power. They™re also certified organic and cruelty free

When I wake up all these products have soaked in and my skin is perfectly moisturized so I just don™t wash it and let the products work.

I own tons of different chapsticks and right now Chapstick 8 hour moisture and Neosporin overnight renewal therapy is what I™m pretty much sticking too. I layer it on like crazy at night and I wake up with like the edges peelings a little so I use this little exfoliating lip balm thing and then they™re fine for the day. When I needed to heal them I used dr dans cortibalm, hydrocortisone, and the Neosporin again.

I also wear one contact so I picked up Systane eye drops and gel. I use them as needed.

From reading everything on here what works for one person doesn't work for everyone else, like aquaphor done nothing for my lips at all and I don't use it religiously like some do (but I have enough that's for sure). So who knows maybe this will help someone like the person who said Neosporin was the best at healing lips helped me

 

Thanks for sharing. You sound similar to me too. Chin area is always the worst spot, super oily and acne became 10x worse after stopping birth control pills. I'll be following your story! I'll probably be on a similar dosage as well. good luck!!

 

Thanks! That chin area sucks so bad-after BC my jaw and upper neck started breaking out, I was hoping the IUD would help with it but it didn't since the hormones are localized. I still prefer it over pills though any day When do you start taking yours? The waiting was the worst part, I couldn't wait to get started!

Nice to hear about the IUD. Does it make your periods heavier in any way? I heard that from some women but that sounds like basically the only down side to it.

I have an appointment with my derm in a month and I'm going to ask her about the tane. I don't know how she can say no after seeing the cystic acne I've been putting up with. How are side effects so far? When I tried going back on the pill last year for some crazy reason I got super dizzy and brain foggy that I couldn't even function. It was wayyy worse than any acne. I'm kind of paranoid accutane will give me something like that too. I'm hoping for just the dry skin and lips and joints.. all the normal side effects.

 

Thanks for sharing. You sound similar to me too. Chin area is always the worst spot, super oily and acne became 10x worse after stopping birth control pills. I'll be following your story! I'll probably be on a similar dosage as well. good luck!!

 

Thanks! That chin area sucks so bad-after BC my jaw and upper neck started breaking out, I was hoping the IUD would help with it but it didn't since the hormones are localized. I still prefer it over pills though any day When do you start taking yours? The waiting was the worst part, I couldn't wait to get started!

 

Nice to hear about the IUD. Does it make your periods heavier in any way? I heard that from some women but that sounds like basically the only down side to it.

 

I have an appointment with my derm in a month and I'm going to ask her about the tane. I don't know how she can say no after seeing the cystic acne I've been putting up with. How are side effects so far? When I tried going back on the pill last year for some crazy reason I got super dizzy and brain foggy that I couldn't even function. It was wayyy worse than any acne. I'm kind of paranoid accutane will give me something like that too. I'm hoping for just the dry skin and lips and joints.. all the normal side effects.

My periods are actually super light now. They last a bit longer than they used to and I cramp a bit more before. My heaviest day requires a light tampon and that's it. I think the copper IUD makes them very heavy. My sister has Mirena and her period stopped all together, I have Skyla so it's just lighter.

I'd say my side effects are pretty mild. My lips got out of control at one point but I finally got them fixed back up. I get dry and flaky around any breakouts but the rest of my face is good if I moisturize. I do think I have some eczema spots coming up on my arms but they don't really bug me. I use hydrocortisone and they don't itch or anything. And I can go about 2 days between hair washing which is a great side effect I do have a few headaches but I don't know if that's tane or not. I'm on a migraine medication so it very well could just be the changing of seasons. Right now I have some lower back pain but I have a desk job so that could be normal too. I wouldn't worry about BC and acne having the same side effects. BC is hormonal and can really screw with your body I had a horrible time with it and stayed sick to my stomach for a few hours after taking it but I haven't had any of those issues with an IUD or with accutane. The pill made me super grumpy and pms-y and I would say I'm happier than normal on accutane.

Day 36 and the top part of my face is clear like nose up-no pimples wahoo! Below that is kinda yuck but I'll take what I can get. I'm thinking the lower part of my face breakout out is a mix between the doubling of dosage and my period just stopping. So hopefully next week things will be even better! And I noticed something so weird today-my chest used to break out as well and right now it's SO smooth and super soft! If my face feels like this at the end I'm going to touch it way too much and probably cause break outs all over again

Thanks for the reassurance. Hope side effects are not too bad now that your dose has been doubled. Hopefully the lower part of your face can clear soon. I almost feel like the pores on the lower part of my face (specifically chin) are different from like my forehead, cheeks, nose. They seem smaller, maybe that's why I get the worst acne there, easier to get plugged.

Thanks for the reassurance. Hope side effects are not too bad now that your dose has been doubled. Hopefully the lower part of your face can clear soon. I almost feel like the pores on the lower part of my face (specifically chin) are different from like my forehead, cheeks, nose. They seem smaller, maybe that's why I get the worst acne there, easier to get plugged.

Side effects seem to be just like they were on 30 mg so I'm super happy about that. The bottom half is finally healing I think pores are smaller there too, mine used to always be clogged no many how many masks, pore strips, etc I'd use. Even when I could get some to go away they'd be clogged again then next day but they were never black it was always like a white blackhead, so weird. Some are still clogged now but not nearly as bad as they were.

So It's Day 49 and I feel like I've just stopped progressing. The lower part of my face is still getting little breakouts and there are old breakouts that feel like they're refusing to heal. I have two deep spots on my chest now that hurt a bit to the touch and while my back was mostly clear last week, it's breaking out again this week. I know it's only a month and a half into my treatment but I guess I had started thinking it was all up hill after the initial breakout

Day 57. From my cheeks up everything is clear, my chest is completely clear again too. I feel like my breakouts are just moving down my face until they disappear. Right now it's mostly my jaw lie that's broken out and under my jaw so I'll take that over my whole face being covered. I've noticed around 11 am I'll start to feel really dry and tight in my face and my facial mist isn't helping much at all. Tapping aquaphor over it does and I look a bit shiny then but it works. The only bad side effects right now are some really bad eczema spots on my arms and I'm getting muscle pain in weird places. Like my heel hurts when I walk in the evenings and I had a knot in my butt that was shooting pain down my leg lol. My yoga is suffering a bit as well, poses that used to be so easy now can start to hurt. Especially any warrior pose or variation of it, my knees just can't take it. I've stayed away from any inversions since starting treatment just out of fear in general. I scheduled a hot stone massage for this weekend and I hope it'll take care of the stiffness and joint pain for a while. I go for blood work this Friday and my derm appointment is next Tuesday. I'll be starting Month 3 On Saturday!

Day 81 and my face is clear! I cannot believe it finally happened! I still have some darker red spots from old breakouts so I did scar a bit. I'm really hoping those will fade over the rest of the treatment. I have one little teeny divot above my eyebrow where I picked but I'm the only one that can notice it. My derm said my total dose is 8523 mg and I've taken 3960mg so far, I'm almost half way done!