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Sunday, February 22, 2015

My Acne Story...

...and I how I cleared it up.




How I went from acne to clear.


Hello everyone! I'm still living in a winter wonderland here in Kentucky. I've been stuck inside the house for a week and I finally get to go back to school tomorrow! With midterms coming up, I'll keep this brief.  I wanted to tell you guys about my years long struggle with acne and the things I've tried to do to make it better.  It's been a long journey, but I feel like I've finally got it under control.  Thanks for reading. I hope you find this helpful.

*Disclaimer: I am not a dermatologist or any kind of skin-care professional. What you're about to read is my personal experience and what has worked for me.

I started getting acne when I was about 12 years old.  It was several pimples, both small and the deep large ones, on my chin.  I tried just about everything available over the counter.  All of the systems available at the drug store and even the stuff from the infomercials didn't do anything for me but make my face red.  I tried them all for long periods of time and was very careful to follow a routine.  

A photo of me at 12 will be inserted here when I can find one. We did not have a digital camera in 2001.  

When I was 13, I went to a dermatologist.  I tried several prescriptions. Some that did nothing, some that made me break out, and some that made me throw up (gross, I know).  Finally, I was given Differin (adapalene) cream in 0.1%.  This was the first time that I noticed an improvement in my acne.  It was completely clear (like, I couldn't get a pimple) all the way through high school.  

Me at age 14. See how perfect my skin was!

When I was around 22, I started getting acne again.  It was on my chin and the Differin didn't seem to help, so I stopped using it.  That was a bad idea.  When I stopped using the Differin my acne got worse and using it again did nothing.  It got pretty bad after that.

 
Started with pimples on my chin.

I got frustrated and stopped doing my regular routine.  Sometimes I would go two days...maybe more once or twice three days...without washing my face.  That made things even worse.  While I had never had acne on my forehead, now it started.  The worst part was the fact that starting my routine again didn't help. Here's what happened after that:





This was during the time when I was being very unpredictable with my skin-care routine.

This was June 2013, when we bought our first house. No improvement and no change in routine.



In the three pictures above, I had started using the Differin and adding Kate Somerville EradiKate, a sulfur spot treatment.



Finally I decided to try benzoyl peroxide again. The photos above show what happened with that. I still use the EradiKate when I have a bad spot.  I started using Murad Acne Spot Treatment all over my problem areas (chin, nose, forehead).

Now that I have showed you every terrible picture of me in the past 3 years (and one from high school) I'll show you photos of me with and without makeup today.

The only photo with makeup.

No makeup

No makeup. Small spot on my cheek.

No makeup again. 

Thanks for reading. Be sure to leave comments with any questions and I'll do my best to answer them. Btw...I didn't think that my acne ever got bad enough to try isotretinoin (Accutane).  If it had gotten bad enough, I would have tried it, but since it can be dangerous, I decided to skip that treatment. I also almost decided to get microdermabrasion (to get rid of acne scarring and even out my skin's texture again), but read some terrifying stories about how it had left broken capillaries on people's faces and I cancelled my appointment. I think I'll stick with at-home scrubs.  








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