CarpeMomentum

Hello my friends!! I know today may not be the best day that you are having, but I hope you can find some peace in the moment.  Meditation has had a huge impact on building up confidence, removing the PTSD that acne left me with and helps regulate my tendency to anxiety.  I wanted to share with you a youtube meditation that can help you especially when you are focused on your acne.  I am a Certified Meditation Teacher and can't begin to say how much it's made an impact on my life (outside of all of your support and GREAT acne treatments).  Happy FriYay 

Hey there! I read your treatment plan and I'm following something similar. I suffer from hormonal, cystic acne. I am on spiro 150mg/day, limiting meat; hardly any red meat; mostly turkey and organic chicken if any meat at all. Dairy-free and trying to limit sugar. Things seem to be heading in the right direction! 

I'm on the hunt for products..I have a face wash that I love but I am looking for foundation, powder, blush and sunscreen. I'd love to know more about your endocrinologist and hormone balance path...I'm reading a lot of books on it but the information is overwhelming. TIA!

Hello my lovely Acne.org friends.  I am back here, joining the fight once again.  I am on Spiro for the past 5 years and have had great success.  Winter months in New England have always been super harsh on my skin and this year was no exception.  I started noticing eczema spots off and on the past few years, elbow crease, arm, eye lid, nothing too extreme that wouldn't go away with moisturizer.  

This past September I experienced a bad reaction to the Acne.org Glycolic. I put it on way too soon after a hot sweaty workout, and bam red burning face all day that lasted another day or two. Note, at the time, I didn't realize this is what happened.  Instead I panicked thinking it was an allergic reaction.  I adjusted my routine, and started using a tula lotion on my redness.  FUN FACT only after months of trying to sooth the dry did realize the cream  ended up having retinol.  How did someone who was so so so on top of her routine, not know there was retinol in her product???  There is nothing wrong with retinol, but I thought I was treating already red/dry skin with something soothing and that was not the case. It has taken me months to realize this and beating myself up.

I had stopped doing my weekly chemical peels as I didn't know how I could stop the redness, I started using all kinds of masks that had oils in them.  So you can imagine what happened.  I had some red patches from the retinol around my mouth, and now dry skin was starting to clog due to the oils.  Me and oil are not friends haha 

So what does this mean.  Well, it has meant a few months of confusion, trying everything, feeling a bit of PTSD from the last time I was breaking out on Spiro, but now I know the darn cause.

I started the peels back-  2 1/2 weeks now, which is slooooowly clearing the clogs which remain on my chin.  Such a fun reminder of what it's like to experiment with products not good for my skin.  I have complete faith I will clear back up my complexion, balance out the dryness and have an even better glow and tone.  And as a back up, I plan to see a dermatologist to talk about potentially starting Retin A or Retin A micro to clear any remaining clogs and get me on the no wrinkle train.  My skin has 2 active spots (1 from a whitehead I attempted to clear, always a mistake) another one came up from the retinol.  I have a constellation of clogged pores on my chin that I plan to continue my peel and heal process the next month or so.

I wanted to return here to give everyone a reminder that you are perfect exactly as you are today, that we have each other, that getting clear is ABSOLUTELY possible.  If you were born clear, you can get back to it. It comes down to paying attention, to labels, to your skin, to what works for YOU.  

I am clearly changing my moisturizer to a new Tula Gel moisturizer, probiotic that is oil free and will be switching to a more gentle cleanser COSRx Ph morning gel.  I will give updates and send encouragement and all kinds of good vibes to your healing.