Please help! I am desperate to fix these skin issues once and for all. I've had acne since I was 13, and I'm 21 now. I have recurring acne on my cheekbones and around my mouth and chin that pop up in the exact same spots, on and off for about two years. I have red marks on my cheekbones, mouth area, and forehead that will not go away no matter what. I tried proactive when I was younger and it set off some of the worst acne in my life. After that, I found out I was allergic to sodium laureth sulfate as well as tocopherol acetate (synthetic vitamin e) so I haven't been able to use any of the standard acne medications. I prefer holistic remedies anyway, and have seen some success with diet changes, but not enough to completely clear my skin.
I started a whole foods, plant based diet in February, and completely went off meat and dairy. About two weeks ago I stopped eating processed oils (as well as nuts and nut butters) and cut my intake of processed foods down drastically (bread only every so often). All of this was for personal reasons, but I did read that cutting these things out could help with acne.
I take Green Vibrance Powder, and drink 64-87 oz of water per day. (64 is the basic amount I need). I drink coffee, but I also drink ginger turmeric tea and skin detox tea intermittently. I do still have a good amount of sugar - it's the one thing I can't really kick. I often get coconut milk caramel frappuccinos when I'm working, and I still have jam occasionally and brown sugar quiet a lot. This could possibly be the source?
I am moderately active - I work online so I'm often sitting, but I do walk every day and I go hiking every week. I use an all-natural aloe vera gel on my skin and wash my face everyday, I don't sleep with my makeup on, and I follow pretty much every skin care rule I'm supposed to follow for my skin. Still, nothing helps.
I don't know what else I can do, and I am completely sick of dealing with this. I'm ready to throw out all of my heavy foundation and concealer (oil free and clean of ingredients I'm allergic to, but not organic or natural, unfortunately. I can't afford expensive makeup very often.) and never wear it again, but I can't. All I have wanted for the past 8 years is clear, healthy skin. I have had hormonal issues in the past (it runs in my family) and have seen my skin get better from using progesterone cream when I was younger. I do have some symptoms of low progesterone, but not a lot - almost every issue I had previously went away with the wfpb diet. Even my skin texture is better, but the acne and scarring will not budge.
Any advice or tips are appreciated! Thanks for reading 
Hello and thanks so much for your clear, detailed post. I hope you managed to enjoy the rest of your day/evening!
I have had severe acne from 14 to 21 as well. In fact, I was 21 when I was super fed up too, and 22 when I joined this site and changed my diet in a very similar way... you in fact beat me to the punch with that change. I was around 23 when I was 'completely clear', or aka stopped producing acne. I am 30 now.
With my diet change, I made a lot of mistakes, and have since learned to move beyond them. If you just started in February, then that is... I am sorry to say... probably way too soon to see any real effects. Even the acne.org regimen took me three months minimum, and it completely worked. Accutane took my older brother more than 6 months before he cleared completely too. Imagine all the stuff you have ever eaten for your entire life... more than 20 years of it, and then expecting your skin to change in just two months. I'm sorry, but that just can't be done, especially if you are still eating sugar and breads and exploring other foods.
Milk is a huge stimulant and I would encourage you to stay far, far away from it. Milk was about 90 percent acne to me, sugar was about 9 percent, and oils and processed food effected me maybe 1 percent or less, lol, but they still effected me. Congratulations on keeping dairy out of your diet, but make sure that whatever packaged and canned/frozen foods you buy that milk is not a part of the ingredients in any way. This includes chips, flavored side dishes, and even non-cow like products. I was surprised that when people said they were leaving dairy out, they really only meant cow's milk. For now, I would get rid of all animal milk products until your skin clears, then slowly reintroduce them back into your diet... if you fall into that category of course.
If you see the pictures in my gallery, I was juicing vegetables everyday and drinking a large, fresh glass every morning. It took my skin three months to stop producing the cysts, and 6 months to look more clear than it had ever been. About a year later, many of the red spots went away, then year after year the other ones began gradually going away too. All I have left are the pale colored scars which I honestly care nothing for.
Over the past few years I had a few break outs, and that was anytime I ate too much sugar, such as sweetening my coffee and having too many homemade deserts with almond flour and other non-wheat products (which are typically sweetened with sugar), and cashews and almonds themselves. Cashew Milk/Almond Milk, I had discovered, brought my cysts back, and it took me way longer than normal for me to have figured that out. Eating too many nuts is very, vary hard on the gut, and acne has a lot to do with the gut. If you are eating almonds or nuts, I would recommend actually dropping them until you are clear, unless you feel like soaking them and eating just a few at a time. This doesn't mean you can't eat them again, you're just giving your gut a break.
Also, I would emphasize salads and other raw foods into your overall diet. I am about 50/50 raw-cooked, and have been 80raw/20cooked and 20raw/80cooked in the past... it doesn't really matter, but I found a better quality of life with myself and my skin when I ate more raw vegetables. That's why the juicer came in so handy to me in the beginning. After a while, I starting eating the vegetables raw on my own and making several creative dishes with them, but the juicer was a great kick-starter to my new life and really helped super charge my body with all the nutrients it had been starving of for the past 20 years. If I did what you did without juicing, then I probably would have been waiting even longer to see results.
Bread is still sugar I am afraid. And today's wheat is pretty damn awful, even the pretty packaged whole grain, nutritious brands that you find in 'whole food' stores. If you feel like you have no choice then please keep it at the most minimum you can handle, but for me I took no chances and got rid of everything that was a suspect, and it worked. Afterwards I didn't even want bread back anyway, so... yeah. And white rice... if you are eating that, please be super cautious with it. I left it out for years. I replaced rice and bread with salad.
Finally, too much olive oil/cooking oil causes inflammation, or at least it does to me. It doesn't always cause acne, but it makes my face red, which is very susceptible to looking inflamed. Since I make a lot of stir-fry's, I became well aware of this and have since been careful.
I hope your diet change does not discourage you. When I changed my diet, I didn't care for all the crap I was getting rid of, I was just looking forward to better skin and health. I left a lot of things out that I considered 'safe' and 'normal' at that time, and let go of everything else. I didn't even have coconut milk until I was around 25 years old. After a long while, I started eating things like chips and and rice VERY few times... like once a month or not even. I did start eating wheat again too, and had very few breakouts from it, but in the end it just wasn't worth holding on to. The point of all this is to get your body to stabilize and normalize again. The more you hang onto sugar and bread, then the slower, more painful and less noticeable your results will be.
If you want to talk more, e-mail me/message me anytime and I will be happy to see if I can help you with some more advice :). If not, good luck!
Hi, sorry but the sugar is the key culprit! So many studies linking sugar to acne. It's super inflammatory (especially when mixed with caffeine, which doubles the affect on insulin!). I would throw out the brown sugar now - has no health benefit at all and only negative for acne.
If you have a week or so off work/on hol you could try to wean from foundation then. You will definitely find that your skin clears up a lot when not wearing it, then can use a gentle cover-up only on 'good' skin days (RMS 'un'-coverup is natural and doesn't irritate acne - seems expensive, but seems to last forever, so balances out over time!)
Mouth and forehead acnecan beindicative of digestive system issues (the intestines; mouth =hormones too), so might be worth focusing on the gut and supporting with good quality probiotics too.
Would double-check your green powder for iodine, as can cause forehead pimples (from any of the seaweeds).
The sugar has to go! Swtich to stevia or monk fruit, which is a non-glycemic sweetener and won't spike insulin
(blood-sugar) you want to make sure you're keeping your blood-sugar levels staple which is key for keeping androgen (male hormones) levels down which can stimulate oil production leading to painful acne.
you want to make sure you're eating a very clean anti-inflammatory diet, as acne is a inflammatory skin issue that is actually coming form within.
Choose hemp seeds, chia seeds, walnuts, leafy greens, like Kale and arugula, beets,avocados. these are great for skin health. as well as staying away from sugar, refined foods, gluten and dairy and vegetable oils, soy and peanuts.
You can also check on my webiste [link removed]. I am a Registered Holistic Nutritional Consultant where I specialize in skin health. By focusing on getting to the root cause. I struggled with my own skin
issues such as acne, eczema and hives for many many years! and it wasn't until I started to nourish myself properly as well address the real issues of what was going on from within .
Best of luck! and II wish you all of the best.
Amanda
Definitely get rid of the sugar. Sugar wreaks havoc on your hormones= leading to more acne. Switch to natural sugars like pure maple syrup, coconut palm sugar, and raw unfiltered honey.
I would also stop wearing foundation. Your skin needs to breathe in order to repair itself.
Can you please tell us what skin care products you use?