ACNE

[lola02]

How do you deal with it?

[hollaatmegurl]

Honestly my acne cleared up when I started being really gentle to my skin. I never had really severe acne but the stuff I did get it was a mix of cystic under the skin stuff and regular pimples that came to a head.

I just completely stopped using anything that was made for acne-prone or oily skin and just focused on moisturizing and nourishing and using simple (simple as in plain, not the brand Simple lol) products and I rarely get a pimple anymore.

But like I said it wasn't severe acne. I would just cover them as best as I could with concealer and kinda gave up and thought "whatever just fuck it" because it was impossible to make it look invisible lol.

[justanotherhater]

Depending on how severe your acne is, you may want to consider accutane. My acne made a come back a couple of years back and it kept getting worse and worse. I wouldn't say it was really severe but it was moderate to severe. I had about 8-20 spots at once on my cheeks, jaw and chin area. My spots were deep, took a long time to go away and left red marks that took months to heal. My dermatologist suggested accutane, in a low dose at first then as I got adjusted to it, I was moved to a moderate dose. So, I had manageable side effects such as dryness. It took me 3 months to see a big different. By the 4th month, I was almost clear. The last three months I was 100% clear, I may have had 1 spot a month which was small and healed quickly. It's been almost a year since I have been off it and I have clear skin. It may seem dramatic to some to say this, but it has truly changed my life. I was so self conscious, and spent a lot of time just piling on make up every morning.

[mtbjp]

isotretinoin

[hollaatmegurl]

^^ I've seen so many success stories about Accutane, from people with very very severe acne and they have completely clear skin now. Congrats to you, that's awesome that it worked and made such a difference in your life!!

[usernamexhere]

Honestly my acne cleared up when I started being really gentle to my skin. I never had really severe acne but the stuff I did get it was a mix of cystic under the skin stuff and regular pimples that came to a head.

I just completely stopped using anything that was made for acne-prone or oily skin and just focused on moisturizing and nourishing and using simple (simple as in plain, not the brand Simple lol) products and I rarely get a pimple anymore.

^THIS. It turned out that that I don't have true acne. I have acne-like lesions which look and act exactly like acne which was caused by a medication I was on. It totally sucked that I was on it for almost 5 years and my face was suffering. Currently it's clearing up since I'm off of it now but I find (and have found in the past) that if I use anything harsh it causes a flare up. I don't use anything with acne-fighting medication in it anymore and the only facial tool I use is my konjac sponge. And I only wash my face at night if I'm wearing makeup that day.

[rensays]

I usually choose Accutane for patients, but it requires good patient education. There's a special program for it though due to the high number of of cases associated to depression.

[hollaatmegurl]

Honestly my acne cleared up when I started being really gentle to my skin. I never had really severe acne but the stuff I did get it was a mix of cystic under the skin stuff and regular pimples that came to a head.

I just completely stopped using anything that was made for acne-prone or oily skin and just focused on moisturizing and nourishing and using simple (simple as in plain, not the brand Simple lol) products and I rarely get a pimple anymore.

^THIS. It turned out that that I don't have true acne. I have acne-like lesions which look and act exactly like acne which was caused by a medication I was on. It totally sucked that I was on it for almost 5 years and my face was suffering. Currently it's clearing up since I'm off of it now but I find (and have found in the past) that if I use anything harsh it causes a flare up. I don't use anything with acne-fighting medication in it anymore and the only facial tool I use is my konjac sponge. And I only wash my face at night if I'm wearing makeup that day.

I'm glad your skin is clearing up now, god that sucks you had to deal with it for 5 years because of a medication.

I thought it was so weird because I always thought "MAYBE IF I KICK THE SHIT OUT OF MY FACE WITH HARSH ACNE INGREDIENTS IT WILL FINALLY CLEAR UP" but all that did was destroy my skin and maybe the pimples would subside a bit but they'd always be back eventually. Then I was having a breakout once and used an acne mask and got these huge raw rashes on my cheeks and that was when I completely switched over to using gentle stuff without the acne stuff in it and it's been smooth sailin' since then.

Different stuff works for different people I guess, a guy I know cleared up his face by just using Dove shea soap and nothing else and he hasn't had a pimple since. Skin is fuckin weird man.

[Queen Del Rey]

Cutting dairy out of my diet worked wonders for me. I didn't have severe acne, but it made a huge difference. I also got breakouts on my back and those disappeared too.

[JbMaun]

Im also going to put in a vote for accutane. Im currently on my 3rd month, and its worked wonders so far. Nothing else that Ive tried in the past 10 years or so has worked so dramatically in such a short time.

[daaayum]

salicyclic acid! i make sure all my cleansing stuff/facial items contain small doses (max 2%) of it and i compensate for the dryness with a really good moisturizer (currently using korres greek yoghurt sleeping facial as my nightcream) - i've struggled with acne since i was around 10 years old, with various stages of severity (i think the worst i had it was extremely painful, almost cystic acne during my first year of college due to stress) but a combination of mild acne treatments and good moisturizers have really cleared up my skin over the last few years! i only have some minor acne scars, and when they fade my skin will actually be very clear, better than it has been for the last 10+ years

[vegasazhure]

I don't have acne but I do get a couple of spots around that time of the month, and my recommendation is that if you are using a topical treatment to help dry up just one or two pimples, place a hot towel over the area for about 30-60 seconds before hand. Then while the skin is still warm, rub in a dot of salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide, or whatever you are using and then let it dry fully before applying any other face products. I've used this method since I was a teen and my pimples always clear up in 48 hours max with no discoloration.

[Goldn]

It took me one month of minocycline, one month of a less strong antibiotic, and two months of minocycline once again to actually clear up my skin. Finally my forehead is free
Let's hope it stays that way...

[starburst]

As cliche as it is, drinking water and eating better helped a TON. I had horrible, cystic acne. A lot of it was due to all the sugar i was eating. Now 90% of the time i only eat fruit for my sugar fix.
I went on the acne.org regimen too, just because if i slip up and eat something bad i wont have to worry about breaking out. That is the only thing that keeps my acne at bay.