Hello,

Long time no see! I used to be a regular on the boards back in 2010 and 2011, as I cleared up the most severe acne (cystic on face, chest, and back) on DKR. It was wonderful to see my skin, which has long been bespeckled by acne (although not as severe as it was in this particular breakout; see my gallery for reference!), clear up to porcelain status. I soon retired my blog after realizing that my skin would probably stay the same if I kept doing what was doing: strict, diligent BP and moisturizer, twice a day. Soon after I thought that my skin would be fine, though, I noticed my skin started to get red, flakey, and irritated, and eventually broke out into a mild acne not dissimilar to the acne I always seemed to have before I started the regimen after my Breakout to End All Breakouts. I've been staving that off for the past five years now, with nothing really major returning except in times of major stress, when the regimen just doesn't seem to cut it anymore.

Indeed, that's what brings me here today. I've reached a point where I'm sick of having my face, and my self-esteem, dependent on rubbing a drying, bleaching agent all over my face, of worrying about sweat drying out my skin because it gets that BP going again (right?!?), and of timing my life around this routine. I've noticed a few things over the years, too, that further lead me to question if DKR is the end-all, be-all of acne treatments, particularly regarding the BP step:

- Some of my acne doesn't seem to respond to BP, but it does definitely respond to the gentle touch. In fact, my skin looks best when I touch it pretty much never, which I suspect is the most important step of the regimen: being gentle.

- In fact, heavy BP use seems to aggravate my skin MORE by drying it out and thus making it more acne-prone; after all, irritated skin is acne-prone skin. To this end, I've been experimenting with less BP use (a big pea size in the morning and night over my face and neck) and my skin has responded favorably (I still moisturize quite heavily).

- My experience with acne leads me to firmly believe that it's far easier to maintain clear skin than it is to clear up acne, so I'm wondering if there might be a different "maintenance" regimen -- a modified version of DKR -- that may work in place of the intensive BP-based plan.

To that end, I'm curious if any other long-term users out there have faced similar struggles or have similar questions, and what anyone might think in response to this more generally.

Many thanks, and clear skin ahoy for us all!