I wish I did my research before putting it on my face! My derm prescribed me this and didn't really tell me much about it other than to use sunscreen. I have never had acne this bad before, I'm eating all the right things... I cut out everything like (dairy, meat, gluten, anything you can think of that causes acne) all I eat is vegetables and fruits with salads and salmon w beans. Still wonder why I get really bad cysts, and pimples in places I never had before such as my neck and forehead. My skin is so sensitive to the sun now! And it's super red. With summer around the corner I decided to stop using it. Hope this diet calms my active acne. Good luck to those who are using this. Not for me.

I used Retin A 0.05% cream for two weeks and got clear skin after one week. I didn't have harmful effects, except that my face got darker and red, even though I took every precaution (sunscreen/hat). I live in a very sunny place, so definitely not worth it. Advice: I've been using Glycolic Acid 10% Lotion. Its not abrasive, I dont wear sunscreen and my skin is amazing.

Hi everyone! I am writing on behalf of my 16 year old daughter who would never in a million years write a review herself! But I have to say that this product has been the bane of my existence for the last year+. But I have a very head strong daughter who somehow has it in her head that she should keep using it. The background is that like most teens, around 13, my beautiful fair skinned (blue eyes, blond hair) daughter started breaking out. We immediately started trying everything, first Proactive for a while but there was literally no change at all with that stuff. After about 2 months on Proactive, she stopped altogether and just started using bar soap. One day she asked me to go to the dermatologist - I think she had been talking to someone at school about it. So we went and they prescribed Retin A. I was 100% against a prescription of any type but I was better with a topical prescription than an oral antibiotic. she started with Tretinoin 0.025%. Again, there was no visible change in her acne but there was a visible change in her face. Her pores all over her face got much larger, so that I could see them from 5+ feet away and I started noticing scarring which, as a mom, I absolutely hate to see. Around that same time, my younger daughter, who was now 13, began to get acne as well but had heard of another product at her school called Ninja Skincare. As kids do, she wanted to do what her friends were doing so we bought it. It was very affordable and had incredible customer service so I was pretty impressed. Her acne went away in a heartbeat. Literally within a month it was entirely gone. Obviously, I was pressing my older daughter to try it too but she wasn't having it. She blindly believed that the doctors should know the best and wanted to go the route of the dermatologist. Sorry - long story short, we continued with Retin-A because that is what the dr told her to do. But the doctor didn't tell us about the side effects even after we asked about the pores and the scarring. I should have done more of my homework. The breaking point was when we went on a family trip to Mexico over Thanksgiving and even with sunscreen, her face turned BEET red to the point where strangers on the beach came up to me and pointed it out and suggested I get her out of the sun. I had no idea what was happening. We went home and iced her face, put aloe vera on it and her face remained burnt for over a week, sensitive to the touch. I felt so bad for her. Needless to say, the beach trip was completely ruined for her which sucked but at least she finally agreed that Retin-A was a bad choice for her. Now after about 4 months on Ninja, she is entirely clear and her scars from that period are starting to face with the help of Salicylic acid every day. I have read all of the reviews here and am happy that some people got relief from this product but I honestly don't understand why it worked for some people without these horrific side effects while for others it doesn't? I guess everyone has their own sky types. I am just glad we are finished with the prescriptions and dermatologists!

My dermatologist put me on Retin A for keritosis pilaris on my face and it wasn't too bad before. I had around 3 - 5 little bumps on my face that came and sometimes I even had none. Well I wanted to fix the bumps anyways so my dermatologist put me on Retin A. This broke me out so bad, but I kept using it because I was told it would get worse before it got better. Well, then my skin started peeling and it was red and inflamed and painful. And now my face is covered in the little bumps and cystic acne - and I NEVER had acne before using this medication! It looks terrifying - my face has never been this bad before! There's little to no smooth surface on my face, it's just tiny little bumps and giant red cystic pimples all over my face. I've been using it for almost 4 months now and I don't see it getting any better from here. I would rather deal with what I had before.

After a little over 2 months of use, retin a started causing my hair to shed abnormally. I have used retin a in the past, but never seriously, I'd use it here and there when I remembered but I was breaking out especially bad (I realized it was due to MAC waterproof foundation) so I was going back and forth between .5 and .25 every night. After a month or so my hair started shedding more than usual, and I tried contributing it to anything I could bc I had no idea retin a could cause hair loss. When I got close to 2 months of use I started reading around and realized hair loss was indeed a side effect of retin a, maybe rare but it exists. Retin a is essentially just Accutane you are applying to your skin, which afterall is your largest organ and main way you detox. Slathering it with Accutane would seem to lead to side of effects of regular Accutane. Since stopping I believe the shedding is slowing, but I am taking all sorts of supplements meant for hair and got special shampoos. If you start shedding while using this, don't dismiss that retin a may be the culprit. I have been using the Skin Cueticals acne kit with great results thus far (only a week). I have a derm apt soon and I might ask for Azeliac acid.

Please see the update that I posted under comments. This stuff has destroyed my skin. I am not sure if it will ever recover. Please note that I didn't have red, peeling, or irritated skin while using it every other day. I followed all of my derms instructions and followed up with them monthly. I can't believe that I am writing this, I really thought this would work for me. I am 36 years old, female and have sensitive, acne-prone, oily skin. I have been using Tretinoin 0.025% Gel for 6 months for moderate inflammatory acne caused by taking oral steroids for a medical condition. OK, so, the Initial Breakout was brutal and lasted much longer than I expected, started at about week 3 and lasted for months! My skin is not yet better than it was before treatment (getting there though, hopefully, I don't know, it seems like acne comes in waves, right?). My pores appear larger than before and I am getting indented scars frequently, my skin has always been acne-prone and I have never scarred before. My Dermatologist says that this does not promote scarring, but I am not so sure. These scars may have happened anyway, I don't know, my acne has never been this bad before. I tried to use this every day, but ended up with an irritated-orange-peely texture, this is much better after switching to every other day, though the texture still is not normal. It definitely peels a thin layer of skin off and reveals newer skin with every use, a very good thing. It also brings closed comedones to the surface quickly. This is definitely not a miracle cure, but it just doesn't seem like there is one when it comes to acne... I do see glimmers of hope with this, but I think that it takes a very long time and must be used in combination with other treatments, especially for people that have something internally driving their acne.

I will keep this brief. This did not work for me, and I gave it 8 months. I keep my washing regimen simple and I barely use makeup. I am 32 and have had moderately bad acne since I was a teen. Skipping forward, what ended up working beautifully for me was hormonal regulation by birth control and low dose spirolactone to block androgens. Perfect. I was on that from age 29-31 and it cured all my acne. Before that, I tried all sorts of topical and oral antibiotics with no success. I read and tried Retin-A. Gave it 4 months, then another 4 months after talking to a doc. My acne got worse, and worse, and worse. One guy mentioned chemical burns on this board. That was actually what I got!!!! At one point, my chin started pussing and scarring. That was at 7 months. I lessened my usage (every other day) and it never got better. Until I completely stopped. My face went back to baseline and I thought that looked wonderful compared to the horrible acne I had suffered while being "patient" on this. Point is, regardless of wonderful reviews from a majority, it does not work for everyone, even with a clean regimen and patience. Another point is, something else worked. I've stopped birth control / spirolactone because of future family planning. My acne is not ideal but manageable with $10 benzoic peroxide. That good old teenager stuff that works ehhh, but I guess I no longer care as much as I once did. Maybe not caring helped my face.

We have tried Tretinoin, Doxycyline, Onexton, and Epi-Duo. None have made a significant difference, thus the dermatologist prescribing all these products. During these trials, we cut out dairy and reduced sugar. Still no difference. Was told to use Cetaphyl and also CeraVe. I believe, if you have hormonal acne which my kid has... no external product is going to cure acne. It really didn't reduce it that much either.

im 16 i've been on this treatment for 2 year but I stopped using this after two day because I got a rash on my face it was red and it hurt really bad. DON'T GET RETIN-A!!!!!!

Ok, I've been a follower of Acne.org since my acne got really bad, and I decided to make an account just to review Retin A, which has been devastating to me face. First, a little background. I'm a 27 year old Mexican male. When I started college I broke out really bad with cystic acne but got it quickly under control with minocycline and occasional facials from my dermatologist. Once the acne was under control, I washed with Cetaphyl, applied clindamycin foam (I got free little samples from my derm), and moisturized with Eucerin's SPF moisturizer. I got a facial from my derm about once a semester. My skin was perfect and after a little while, my complexion was even. This lasted for about three years. At some point I stopped using the clindamycin foam and solely did the Cetaphyl/Eucerin moisturizer combo, along with a facial twice a year, and my face was fine. I was also partying a lot, staying up late, and eating more or less unhealthily, but not acne! Eventually I moved abroad, was faced with very little money, and decided to try honey as a face wash. Same thing: clear face, in fact, it felt even better. It was bright. I was still getting facials twice a year and this seemed most crucial. This lasted two years (and between two countries) and then I got my last facial and moved abroad, to another country, again. I was using honey as a face wash still. At some point at the 9 month mark I started to break out around my mouth. Summer was coming and I hadn't gotten my typical facial in march because I hadn't returned to my derm in the states. I moved countries again and started taking Minocycline, since I remembered how it worked. It cleared me up fairly quickly and I stayed on it for a whole 9 months in fear of breaking out. Once those same summer months came around again, I started breaking out in the same areas. I also let go of the Mino because I felt that it wasn't working, maybe I had developed a resistance, and I had started to read horrible stories about liver damage, etc... I started trying treatments like the Oil Cleansing Method, homemade zinc-mint facemasks, etc, but maybe it was to hot where I was living (no AC) and I kept breaking out around my mouth. Since I'm brown, I had pretty noticeable PIH. For the summer, I moved countries again (where the derms were cheap) and decided to see someone about my face. She prescribed a really rough soap that I immediately abandoned, Bioderma Sebium Pore Refiner, which I also abandoned pretty quickly, a Clindamycin/Benzoyl Peroxide cream (like Duac) and Retin A. She claimed that my face was producing too much oil'"and I wonder if it had to do with the oil cleansing? I was to use the Clindamycin/BP one day and Retin A the other. I was pretty excited to use Retin A. I had only heard good things and hadn't read the reviews here. I thought, "Acne free and younger looking? Great!" I was prescribed .25% in gel and I started using it at night. My face immediately reacted and I started to feel red, tight, and irritated. My pimples would pop in disgusting ways and I noticed that I was starting to develop more on my face. I read about purging and thought I would keep with the procedure but I wish I would have abandoned the product instantly. Around month 2 my face started to develop cysts. I also got a bad sunburn because I was at the beach (even though I slathered on sunblock continuously) and at around month 4, while I was still breaking out, I had the stupid idea to switch to a .1% Retin A cream. I was living in another country again, this time where medicine was cheap and available without prescription. I had read somewhere on this forum that the 1% works faster, and that any purging would happen more quickly. I was also reading that it would take even up to 6 months for all purging to subside. Well, I went through months 5 and 6 with the worst acne of my life. I have never had some many cysts and pus filled pimples ever. I was using honey as a wash and doing everything to calm my face down. It was horrible and many of my friends, upon looking at me return from the summer, would do double takes. Some of the closer ones asked me what was wrong, what I was doing different, and my self-confidence drastically diminished. In fact, it vanished. I stopped going out. I stayed in all the time and made excuses. Once the 6th month came around, I finally let go of using Retin A but this was too late. My cheeks have PIH almost everywhere. Once I stopped using Retin A, I kept up with the BP, and while my face drastically calmed down, I was still irritated and breaking out, though they weren't heavy cysts. I continued researching and began a very healthy diet. I had actually been eating healthy and exercising for quite a while, 3 years or so, ever since I finished college. I was practicing yoga 3 times a week, running, eating mainly salads, quinoa, fish, and slowly trying to get my life back. I took a probiotic supplement, milk thistle, dandelion root, and tried to get my liver back in order from a whole year of Minocycline. I was thinking that that was the culprit. I started taking 15000 grams of Vitamin A a day too. While I was traveling, I found some argan oil and introduced it to my regimen. At this point I was washing my face with Sebamed Antibacterial Cleansing Foam and applying a few drops of argan oil and then a squirt or two of Cetaphyl Dermacontrol SPF 30 moisturizer during the day and washing with Sebamed and applying the Clindamycin/BP cream at night. I was still breaking out but not as much, and it looked like their were still residual clogged pores from the Retin A that were surfacing. This December I moved countries again and decided to let go of the Clindamycin/BP cream because I decided it was irritating me. Well, I bought a glycolic acid 30% peel, as well as Tepezcohuite serum, and for the past three weeks I've given myself a peel weekly, which is drastically helping with my PIH. I was washing with Cetaphyl cleanser again, applying the Tepezcohuite serum, and finishing off with some argan oil drops. During the day, I'd add the same Cetaphyl sunblock I've been using the the past 6 months so I can avoid darkening my spots. I just moved countries again and I found a really good natural product for washing my face that's called Aloevida facial champú. It's made of 70% aloe vera, and I've now switched out my Cetaphyl cleanser for this. This same brand also has an SPF cream that's 60& aloe vera and I've switched out the Cetaphyl moisturizer for this too. Currently, I apply an organic honey mask to my face in the mornings for 30 minutes, then shower and apply the Tepezcohuite serum and argan oil, following up with the aloe spf. In the evenings I wash with the aloe facial champú and apply the Tepez serum and a little more argan oil than the mornings, since I don't apply the aloe spf. My face is starting to clear up and while the glyoclic acid peels have brought some white heads to surface, I'm only breaking out maybe once a week in comparison to the horror of Retin A. I really recommend that only people who are very desperate and who have sever acne, try it. Before I started Retin A, I was breaking out as often as I do now. But because of my idiocy and misplaced desperation (once on Retin A I finally KNEW what desperation is), my face is completely changed. I have a few scars but thankfully I mostly have PIH, some of which is is close to purple/black. Now I'm just waiting things out. I'm going to finish 6 treatments and then break for a month. My goal is to hopefully let go of the Tepezcohuite serum. While it's nice, it has a lot of ingredients (good ones nonetheless), and I'm trying to have as minimal a regimen as possible.