Hey guys -

So, quick brief of how ive got myself into this situation -

Basically i took accutane 7 years ago and it cleared up my cystic acne. After about a year of being off it i switched to water only method for washing my face, after a while my skin became ridiculously dry but because it was now clear i just ignored it and let it build up. for about 3/4 years i was living with dry scales on my face from it, eventually after trying loads of supplements etc... blaming accutane for dry skin i concluded that it might be the water only method and because using that method i've just let dead skin build up on my face.

Basically i started to use a gentle oil free daily exfoliating wash and aquaphor. Scales and dry skin are completely gone after just over a week and my skin feels really smooth and normal for the first time in years, couldn't be happier with that side of things. The only problem now is my face is so red and doesn't seem to be getting better. It's as if where i let the dry skin build up it's just damaged now and won't heal to a normal pale colour. I fear this is permanent.

My cheeks, cheek bones and up my temples have a red glow, covers most of my face except around the eyes, forehead isn't too bad and my jaw is normal colour.

Can anyone help with this at all, is it a damaged lipid barrier ? It wasn't this red whilst on accutane or after it -

Really duno what to do or whether it's about giving the new face wash/aquaphor routine more time since i was doing water only for 5 years.