AubKabob

Hi all! Aczone Update: It's been 1 year exactly since I had my first visit to the derm. My regimen has changed a little bit. I no longer take Minocycline--no reason why, just felt like I was taking a pill that did nothing for my skin. Anyway, I apply aczone twice/day and tazorac once/day. I still have occasional breakouts when I get my period but that's it. Also, I've read the reviews above mine about the price of aczone, I get mine for $35 and it lasts me 6 months. Also, it has nothing to do with my insurance, ask your derm for the coupon or go onto the aczone website for the coupon and take it to your pharmacy! Also, answering the question, yes my skin is sensitive but tazorac and aczone don't irritate it, they dry it out occasionally but I have oily skin so that's good for me!

First off, I never post reviews; but people need to know... Background--I started seeing acne when I was 12, it was never a big deal, throughout middle school and high school it would only flareup when I was stressed or about to get my period. Fast forward to 22 years old, I thought (for some odd reason) that by 21 y/o my face would magically be clear as long as I live...WRONG! I started nursing school and it wasn't so bad (1st semester), then I got into my 2nd semester and wow, I had never ever been so stressed in my life, because I was having terrible flareups of acne on my chin, cheeks, and forehead. I went to the derm in May of this year, he prescribed me to Aczone (mornings), Tazorac (evenings), Minocycline (Twice/day), and Spironolactone (Once/day). Let me tell you, I've never been so self conscious of my appearance in my life. In two short months my skin had gotten worse...like A LOT WORSE. I'd never seen it this bad, I found myself canceling plans with friends, putting on so much makeup just to go to the gym, and crying for hours and hours. Acne breaks you down. It is the devil. I emailed my derm and asked if this was normal (you know, the terrible binge period everyone warns you about), and he said it was, so I stuck it out until our next appt. which was end of July. My derm asked what I thought about the meds and I said my skin is 10x worse than it was before I came in here. He suggested I get all my labs and testing done so I can go on 6months of accutane. I remember crying that day too because of what my skin had gotten to. I read the reviews and I was so scared, I didn't want all of those TERRIBLE side effects! But I understand the struggle of acne, so I considered it for a good month, I weighed the pros and cons, and I researched the heck out of it. During that month my derm told me to increase my dosage on aczone from just mornings, to mornings and nights, continue regularly with tazorac and Mino and stop Spiro altogether. In that month I saw incredible changes, my skin cleared up within 2 weeks at most, I was shocked to say the least. I saw that with just increasing my dose of aczone, my skin started to get dry and flaky--YAY! This is how I knew it was working because this is what accutane does for you, but with scarier side effects. All you have to do is wash your face with washcloth to exfoliate the dead skin. Okay, so two months of simply increasing my dose and dropping the Spiro, my skin is almost completely clear. I do have break outs when I'm about to get my period but it's nothing like it used to be, it's literally like one little tiny one. Last week, I went to ulta to get color matched and the girl asked what my skin regimen was because she wanted to know how my skin looked so clear and soft! That's how I knew I should write a review. So please, please don't just go to the harshest thing for your body. Ask your derm to increase your dosage to see if that works. Good luck!