Hi! I'm Koda, and I'm brand new here! A bit of background about my journey: I developed acne at around age 11 or 12 and it continued to worsen until it became cystic all over my face, as well as on my chest and back. It was by no means the worst case out there, but it definitely turned heads. Over time, my skin has more or less begun to clear itself with age. I'm now 20 years old and after cycling through multiple treatments, I've found something that appears to work well and am also much more familiar with my skin. It's really sensitive, I cannot use benzoyl peroxide or even salicylic acid at all. Right now I'm on spironolactone which, after I waited it out, works beautifully (unfortunately, I missed about 2 weeks and am now waiting for it to clear back up. Lesson learned, won't let it run out again). I'm also testing out a clindamycin topical (using as a spot treatment on one spot to ensure it agrees with me before I put it all over) in the meantime. I adore the results I get from the spironolactone and have no complaints there!
My issue, however, lies with the fact that my skin appears to loathe moisturizer. I feel like this can't actually be the case and it has to be user error. I try to stick to bland, basic formulas. Examples of the most recent ones I've tried are brandless (tried out of curiosity, very bland and fragrance free), cerave, burt's bees sensitive, etc. I'm using a basic Cetaphil cleanser at the moment, and my skin doesn't appear to have any complaints though it is a bit dry. Without fail, however, it would appear that I break out every time I use a moisturizer consistently and I'm not sure why. I don't know if I'm just not giving it time to adjust or what. I've also tried in the past things like jojoba oil, coconut oil, raw shea butter, etc with similar results. I'm completely baffled. I'm hoping that some of y'all on here have any clues as to why this happens and what I can do. I also struggle with sunscreen which is a huge problem as I'm really fair (red hair and all). The only time I'm in the sun is to go from the car to a building and back, but still.
Any ideas are greatly appreciated as I'm very confused!
Thanks,
Koda
Hi Koda. I am sorry you're going through all this. While regular ol' Cera Ve works for me, I see it doesn't work for you. Ihave had greatluck with a super gentle, minimal ingredient moisturizer from Avene. It's Avene Tolerance Extreme Emulsion. It's pricey but it works very well for me. Read up on it. It's sterile, no preservatives, good for post laser treatments, etc. I also use Avene Thermal Spring Water. It comes in a spray can and feels AMAZING. That might be an option for your skin, as well. Hope this helps.
If your skin hates moisturiser you might have fungal acne caused by malasezzia, rathe than ordinary acne. Malasezzia fungus FEEDS on organic oils, including the organic oils in moisturisers.
Do you have dandruff (and/or flaking skin) , which is a sign of malasezzia? If so, I can provide some information to help control fungal acne.
Fungal acne is caused by taking antibiotics and/or by birth control pills.
Yeah like Aussie said, it sounds like it might be fungal acne. Do a little google search on fungal acne, see if your acne looks like that type of acne. Fungal acne typically looks like uniformed red bumps, instead of having huge cystic bumps and black heads and etc...But you can have both acne and fungal acne, it's just that thefungal acne will feed and thrive off moisturizer.Also you might have dandruff, white tongue, itchy face? Not that you defiantly have fungal acne, but when you say your acne gets much worse when using moisturizer, that's a big red flag. Just google search it, let us know what you think!
Thanks JasonCo4
If people's skin gets worse with moisturisers and they have dandruff and/or flaking skin than they most likely have malasezzia fungal acne (as distinct from candida fungal acne).
Fungal acne caused by malasezzia is relatively straightforward to get rid of (usually) by applying topical terbenafine cream (sold as Lamisil) and using an anti-fungal shampoo. The best antifungal shampoo for malaezzia contains climbazole (not to be confuse with clotrimazle)
Topical clotrimazole antifungal cream will control malasezzia to some extent, if you cannot get terbenafine cream (Lamisil) but terbenafine cream is better.
