I've always had the most uneven skin, I've had acne since I was 10, I'm now 25 and STILL have acne! I don't really get many white heads or black heads I just have these tiny skin colored bumps mainly on my forehead. I usually use a mild cleanser and that's pretty much it. I've tried so many things with no improvement, oddly enough my last pregnancy I had the best skin I have ever had, now it's back to crap it wasn't ever clear but better. Most of the time when I try new products my skin gets irritated and itchy so I give up. I've honestly stopped trying, I feel like it will never get better but if you have ANY advice on how to potentially make it better please send me a comment lol.
Sounds like hormones might be at the center of this for you since you experienced clearing during pregnancy.It's always a good idea to get your hormone levels checked and check for PCOS while you're at it. Although the fact that you could get pregnant makes it less likely you have PCOS. But still worth checking.
Other than that, the regimen is my best advice. It's annoying to be an adult and dealing with acne, but the regimen can at least keep your skin completely clear until mother nature decides to give you a break. Your skin will be red, dry, and itchy for the first few weeks, but that subsides. Everyone should add in AHA+ after 1 month too, but especially you should because it sounds like your skin could use some exfoliation.
Don't give up!
Thus far, dietary modifications and other facial cleansers are the primary ways to treat acne. I have a feeling that this disease won't progress until microbiota research itself does. And that may be a long, long time.
It's been my experience that no matter what products you use - while they may indeed help some - that acne comes from a place of internal inflammation. A question I've always had is: why does acne always "win"? It seems like no matter what you eat or do, acne resurfaces infinitely. If there is some microbe that causes this, how does it always seem to come out on "top"? How did it gain such a foothold that nothing can stop it? There's a phenomenon related to the microbiota known as competitive exclusion. I'm curious as to whether there has been a reduction is some species or another that can outnumber or otherwise prevent it.
It would seem that almost everyone experiences acne at one time or another. So does that mean that everyone carries the microbe that might cause it? Possibly. But when what prevents them from experiencing acne most of the time? Competitive exclusion by other microbes? It has been speculated that a microbe known as Ruminoccoccus gnavus may be a causative factor in Crohn's disease. That microbe secretes a glucorhamnan molecule that stimulates immune cells to over-produce TNF-alpha. There may be some similar thing going on with acne.
