St. Ives : Blemish Control Green Tea Gel Cleanser

This product was the only thing that cleared up my severe cystic acne caused by a PDT treatment. I use the green tea scrub morning and night and most of my acne has gone away. My skin is extremely oily with some dry patches and this helped exfoliate my dry skin and keep it less oily. I absolutely love it.

I have had issues with hormone-driven acne for many years. St. Ives Blemish Control Green Tea Gel Cleanser applied at night followed by Clean & Clear Continuous Control Benzoyl Peroxide wash in the morning kept me clear 90 percent of the time until early last year when I began experiencing "breakthrough" cystic acne. When my OTC methods began to fail, I consulted a dermatologist for the problem for the first time since my 20s, when I went on Accutane and largely eliminated the problem until I hit my 40s. The dermatologist placed me on Differen gel to no apparent benefit whatsoever. When that didn't work, she proposed a stronger dose of Differen and added a daily, prolonged regimen of antibiotics. All the while, she told me not to use Salicylic acid products so I switched over to a non-medicated facial cleaner. I began breaking out worse after I began to use a "gentle" cleaner and it didn't quit. Nonetheless, I was unable to tolerate a stronger dose of Differen and the antibiotics were leaving me with other "problems" that women can get from antibiotic overuse. This product was the intermediate solution for me between too-strong Differen and too-weak Differen. As luck would have it, I stocked up on a bunch of these blemish control green tea facial cleaners prior to use of the Differen and so in lieu of embarking on the antibiotic over-use route I added this cleanser back in to my thus-far ineffectual Differen routine. Between the re-introduction of this OTC cleanser and the Rx, I have acne control without antibiotic over-reliance. Unfortunately, my stash of St. Ives Blemish Control Green Tea Gel Cleanser is about to run out and I know of no other comparable product to stand in for the fact that THE MANUFACTURER HAS DISCONTINUED THIS FACIAL CLEANER :-(. I do believe the synergistic aspects of this formula, which includes green tea, olive extracts and Salcylic acid, will be difficult to duplicate. If anybody knows of a substitute for this facial cleaner, I'd like to hear about it. With the sole exception of Clean & Clear's Continuous Control facial wash, I've never had such good success with an OTC blemish-control product. It's too bad St. Ives didn't consider running a proper advertising campaign before they discontinued it. Without this product, I will be left with antibiotic use and the unpleasant side effects of being on too much Doxycycline for too long.

Bought it once and saw great improvement, but it ran out....Then I started breaking out again. Recently decided to buy it again, and my skin looks better!

This cleanser is my favourite it works perfectly on my skin and has controlled my pimples perfectly. I have been using it just over a year and i won't be changing!

I used this product for about a year. Before I had very light acne on my face which helped control that problem. Then I moved to max clarity which was a BIG MISTAKE! bc it worsened my acne causing it to be persistent and took awhile to clear up due to the benzoyl peroxide being so dry on my skin...I am now using the st Ives naturally clear again and its actually starting to work on my skin like it use to. I've always loved st Ives products....one of the best OTC I highly recommend.