Tretinoin

Well I used it for a while a long time ago, but I got lazy and stopped. Then recently, about a week ago my face started breaking out like crazy, so I needed to start using it. As of right now, I'm using Clindamycin and Retin-A 0.01%. I use them morning and night. I don't know if I'm using too much Retin-A or what, but it really burns when I put it on. It dries the skin a lot too. Apparently it's really effective, and I really need to get rid of this acne. I'm still waiting for the initial break out, (not sure if it happened yet or if it's just the dryness). Whatever happens, I'm going to use this product the recommended 6-8 weeks before I make a decision about stoping or anything. I also found out that without insurance, it's pretty expensive ($100), but luckily I got mine for $5. My advice is even though it's expensive, you should get it, because apparently it does work (if you're persistent) and one tube does have a lot. :)

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katieguru90

August 25, 2012

Pros:

Skin feels softer

Cons:

I'm on week 2 now...acne is worse
expensive

I've had acne since age 12 (6th grade) and have used several different products from Clean&clear to Acnefree to Ziana, differen, etc. But recent;y i've been breaking out on my cheeks and chin rather than my forehead and T-zones. The pimples are much larger now even though there are fewer of them! I've been on this product almost 2 weeks and i'm hoping this is the "purging" stage because my acne seems worse. I'm going to stick with it for atleast another month or so....

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Ashleigh

August 21, 2012

Pros:

Inexpensive

Cons:

Unbearable initial breakout
Redness
Peeling

I have had acne since the age of 12 (I am 25 now). I fought for spironolactone which up until the past few months had eliminated all of my face and body acne. However, I had several tiny bumps on my chin that did not go away. So I was given Retin A Micro gel by my dermatologist who swore up and down that it was a wonderful medication that would eliminate my persistent acne. Three days after applying the medication, I had two large cysts and three bright red painful bumps. I have been on the medication for a month and a half and every day my face grows increasingly worse. I now have 22 active acne bumps and at least five red marks where pimples used to be. I wish I could stick this medication out, but I have been in tears every morning for the past month and a half. Makeup won't cover this many pimples, and many of my bumps are very sore. I will not be using this medication again.

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Tay

August 20, 2012

Pros:

-makes skin smoother

Cons:

-HORRIBLE initial breakout
-drying
-sunburn easily
-face constantly red

I really tried to have high hopes for this product. After reading all these reviews, I was skeptic to use it. I decided to try it...it was the WORST decision i have ever made in my ENTIRE life. Seriously. I used it for 3 months and just stopped it last week because I couldn't handle the emotional and physical pain. It made me breakout, and the breakout never stoppped. For three months straight. I am left with acne in areas I never had before and deep purple marks all over my cheeks and chin. Every time I look in the mirror I want to cry. I'm trying the holistic approach now, and it's doinf much more then retin a micro has done in the past wasted months of my life. I don't know if I'll ever be able to heal mentally or physically from this. On some people this product might work, but for me and some others, it doesn't. Acne should be treated from the inside, not the outside. These chemicals are way too harsh. I wish i could reverse time :(

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Michelle

August 17, 2012

Pros:

Takes Blackheads away
Dries blemishes

Cons:

Can cause redness at first or can worsen for the beginning, but if you keep using it should be fine in couple of weeks or so.

I used this Gel in 2007 and my face got all red, my blemished worsened and I stopped using it. I am 27 years old female. Lived most of my life in Cold climate so blamed it on a hot weather of California. I workout every day, eat healthy, wash my face, wash my bed sheets once a week, sometimes twice, wash my towels and even iron them, I even tried not to use makeup and nothing helped! I went to the doctor and was proscribed doxycycline and Retin-A.I mentioned Retin-A gave me irritation last time I have tried so he offered to try light version of it Differin. I used his testers and when I was out of them looked up my meds and found my old REtin-A:)) I started using it and I should say I am impressed. Maybe it works better because I use it together with antibiotics, but even my blackheads went away. It works best if your face is well dried, so use it better after half an hour once you wash your face. Good luck everybody!

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TLC44

August 17, 2012

Pros:

Very inexpensive with my insurance
Supposedly helps with wrinkles!
Easy to apply
Great results!

Cons:

Sunburn easily!
REALLY bad initial breakout and takes a while to work
Skin gets dry (nothing not fixable with a moisterizer)

I've had acne since seventh grade, and Im going to be a freshman in college so its been a very long 6 years! I've tried a lot of different Clean & Clear and Neutrogena acne products but they didn't really do anything for my skin (I think part of that is I didn't use them consistently when I was younger ;) I think my soph year of high school I was prescribed clindamycin phosphate & BP gel, since my acne consisted of mostly hundreds of little bumps at that point. Again, I don't really think I used it super consistently but I also don't think it was enough for my skin. My doctor put me on an antibiotic, but I kept getting weird side effects so I went off it. The start of this summer my doctor put me on birth control (ortho tri cyclen), tretinoin 0.025%, and the clindamycin gel still. I couldn't start the BC until 3 weeks into the retina a, which I think gave me an initial break out on top of an initial break out from the retina a! My skin started to get pretty bad, and I had full blown pimples instead of little bumps. I was so frustrated with it, but eventually got to a point where I could start using the clindamycin gel again, and I switch off between that and retin a every night. I'm almost to week 10 and my skin is basically completely clear! My one piece of advice is don't give up! I wanted to so badly, and I know all of the reviews on here said not to, but it was really frustrating. It takes some peoples' skin a long time to work with the product :) Also, I used Garnier makeup removing wipes, then a quick swipe of witch hazel (buy it, its amazing and kept my skin from flaking! About $7 at Whole Foods), and then I wait to apply the retina a or clindamycin gel each night. I also use Aveeno calming moisturizer! Don't give up on this! Its probably going to be a long process, but play around a little with the products you use and you'll see good results eventually! Good luck :)

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Kennedy

August 10, 2012

Pros:

- clears skin
- gives back self esteeme
- makes skin feel better overall

Cons:

- initial breakout
- requires patience
- once you start you cant stop

I stated breaking out in 7th grade and went straight to the dermo. got perscribed benzoyl peroxide , zania (spell check) then later diffren. skin stayed clear for years. Thinking that i didnt need it i stopped using retin a (diffren) for about 2 years . around march 2012 i noticed these small flesh colored bumps under my skin. long story short trying to get rid of tht not realizing tht i should just start retin a again.I dried my face out to the point of exema ! My derm perscibed me an exema cream and told me to use cereve cream ( which contains Cetearyl Alcohol and Polyglyceryl-3-Diisostearate both of these are very bad from acne) . Had i done my own research i never would have used this ! Needless to say my face broke out in the MOST HORRIBLE BIG PUS FILLED ACNE EVER. so what had started out as a few under the skin bumps had now turned into full blown acne ! To speed this story up i was then given solodyn pills , and pracasion clenser which helped later i was able to use retin a micro .04 , due to the fact tht i had used it years before my skin didnt really have a bad reaction to it , later they moved me up to .1 and i experinced breakouts im on week 3 and still purging but my pimples only last a week then they dry up and go away. my skin has really improved due to retin a ill never go off of it again! Also i want to encourage you all tht you will get through acne !! i was very depressed this whole summer , ive stayed in the house quit work and dropped out the last few months of school when i broke out i know how depressing it is !! But jus keep hope and despite what your doctors tell you do your own research make sure the products you use are really nocomendogenic despite what labels might say look up the ingredients yourself on [link removed], and DIET does affect acne cut out sugar,caffeine and dairy and watch your acne improve !! drink lots of water! prayer also helped me very much when i was depressed lol sorry this tured into more of an acne story than a re

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Meli

August 6, 2012

Pros:

None!

Cons:

This was too irritating for my skin. It looked like it burned my skin off.

I do not recommend it.

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Kate

August 3, 2012

Pros:

Got rid of most of my comedones.
Smoothed appearance of skin.
Helped with fine lines.

Cons:

Drying in the first month or two.
Expensive if you're uninsured (still worth it).
Takes a lot of time.

I will never stop using this product. I bought a 45g tube of %0.05 Tretinoin in March (5 months ago) and am still using the same tube. Here is my routine: AM: Cetaphil Daily Cleanser for oily skin, followed by 1-2 minutes of my Clarsonic. This is totally necessary because the Tretinoin is super drying, and especially around my chin, I flake a lot. The flaking has definitely decreased as my skin as gotten used to the tretinoin, but it still happens occasionally. I apply make up on any small pimples (at this point I get maybe 1 small zit per week), blush and eye makeup. PM: I use Neutrogena Make Up Removing Foaming Cleanser (in the blue bottle). It's pretty drying, which is good for my oilier skin. I put CeraVe PM lotion on my nose and around my eyes (really, just anywhere that feels dry), a pea sized amount of tretinoin on my cheeks and chin, go to sleep, repeat. Reading these reviews was the only thing that got me through the months of flaking, burning and breakouts. It is so hard at first to feel like this medication works. Some people reported success as early as 10 weeks, but it took my skin about 3-4 months until it responded the way I had hoped. I still get a couple of comedones every now and then... but nothing compared to the 15-20 I'd get every week previously. All the picking and poking was really hard on my skin and now that I'm using tretinoin, I not only have less things to pick and poke at, but the rapid skin layer turn over caused by the medication is helping with any hyper-pigmentation I had previously. Another bonus is that the medication turns soft white dormant comedones into blackheads pretty quickly, and those are so much easier to extract manually (as you may know). I wrote a review for this medication after 10 weeks, and it was very negative. My dermatologist insisted I continue on this routine and I did... and boy am I glad I did! I know how emotionally painful acne can be. Trust your doctor. I haven't had this much confidence in y

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glowgeek7

July 29, 2012

Pros:

Got rid of acne
Smooth skin
Easy to apply
Reduces oiliness

Cons:

Initial breakout
Dry skin
Must be patient (takes time to work)
Sensitive to sun
Redness and peeling (in the beginning)
Only effects some forms of acne

For several years, my skin had acquired hundreds of small whiteheads that were below the skin surface and never seemed to disappear. They were all over my cheeks, forehead, the sides of my face, and a few on my chin. Last october my skin had finally gotten bad enough that I went to the dermatologist and he put me on Retin A Micro. I started off by taking it every third day for two weeks, every other day for a week, and then began taking it daily. I apply it at night after I wash my face and apply my moisturizer. There was no immediate reaction to taking Retin A. However, after a couple weeks my skin became very red, very irritated, and VERY dry. My skin was constantly peeling and I began getting more whiteheads and more pimples (the initial breakout). In the next few months, my skin became used to Retin A and I began to notice an improvement in my acne. By the third month, the trapped whiteheads had nearly all disappeared. My skin was smooth and no longer oily (AT ALL - I had REALLY oily skin before using Retin A where my face would shine an hour after showering) but always a little dry (nothing a good moisturizer can't fix). The only problem with Retin A is that it was only able to get rid of those whiteheads. During the time that I was using Retin A, my skin began to develop hormonal inflamed acne (pastules and papules) which Retin A never took care of. Instead I began taking Diane 35 which got rid of this acne within a month. The bottom line is that Retin A did the job that it was supposed to do and eight months later I am still using it to keep the whiteheads away. There are some cons to this product - the initial breakout, sensitivity to the sun, waiting for the Retin A to finally work, and the dryness - but it is worth it in the end if you can stick through it! :)

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