Hi all,

Bit of my story:

I'm a  30 year old male and have had moderate to severe acne since I was about 15 years old. I have never went to the derm for my acne until about 2 years ago which is where I was prescribed Epiduo with Doxycycline taken once a day. I used both medications for a year until my face was completely clear of acne except for maybe 1 or 2 bumps that would pop up and I had the usual dark spots left over from healed or picked acne.

My derm then told me to stop taking doxy and he prescribed me the tretinoin cream, which I tried for a couple of days, but then went cold turkey and stopped taking all medication. That was a bad idea, because about 2 months later, my acne returned and came back worse. I panicked and starting to use left over bottles of epiduo that I still had AND the tretinoin cream at night. This caused some of my acne to scab and then when i took the scabs off, it would look like a wound and then they turned into scars that are still present on my face (this was 6 months ago).

so now I am at a  different derm who intially put me on epiduo forte and minocycline for about 3 months and then i told him it wasnt working as quickly as I liked, so he then put me on Tretinoin microsphere gel 0.05% (with minocyline 100mg once a day) and about a month after that, i told him i am still getting new pimples almost daily, so he upped it to Tretinoin microsphere gel 0.1% with minocycline 100mg taken twice a day. 

I do not moisturize, or put sunscreen on my face or anything else anymore. I used to cleanse my face with cerave cleansing bar, but that made my face feel super dry and tingly, so i stopped it. I use to moisturize with cetaphil moisturizing cream, but that would cause me to be super oily sometimes and it would break me out a bit, as well. I even tried the moisturizer from cerave, but that would burn my skin as soon as I applied it and break me out a bit also. Now I just apply the tretinoin gel at night before sleep and after a shower and then in the morning i shower and go to work. I have oily skin type. Only time my skin is dry is when i get out the shower and for about a couple hours after that...then my face gets oily.

(Sorry for the long background story of me, lol)

Can anyone tell me what type of acne I have? And/or provide any advice for me? I would like to hear what has worked for other individuals who have had acne for many years of their lives (going on 15 for me) and also suggest products (moisturizer, sunscreens, etc for indivuals who break out from creams, cleansers and i even broke out a bit from dickinsons witch hazel which is a natural product?)

thanks in advance for any advice!