My Acne-Eradicating Journey

I went to the real doc today and she gave me a blood test, said she’ll call by the end of the week with results, and if everything’s ok, I get spiro. It’s so nice to have someone listen to me instead of making assumptions. 

So I haven’t posted in a while, but about a month ago I was taken off Ziana. Also, I began to develop more chin zits & the occasional forehead zit.

My derm gave me epiduo but NO SPIRONOLACTONE because she only gives the to patients in her 30s because “the younger ones might get pregnant!”. So I have a doc appointment coming up with my GP to get spiro. The epiduo…I’ve been using it for 2.5 weeks. I have not had a cyst since using it and my chin is completely clear. However, my cheeks are not, but I think they are improving, much more drastically than with ziana. Epiduo makes my skin extremely dry due to the benzoyl peroxide in it, but I think that will dissipate with time. 

Ew, that chin cyst went dormant and is now growing again. Well at least the rest of my face looks nice enough that I can go without makeup. Go away you fucking chin cyst. 

Weird…the giant cyst bump is gone without a trace. I have never had that happen. My cheek marks are getting better, but that may be because I am icing my cheeks due to my wisdom tooth surgery yesterday and haven’t worn concealer.

Aww shit…not only does my cheek look horrible, I feel a cyst forming on my chin.

There is a cluster on my cheek that looks awful with tons of flat red spots and hyperpigmentation marks. My chin marks are fading, as are the rest of my marks. The pantothenic acid hasn’t changed the condition of my skin at all, and has if anything made it worse.

Aaaaargh woke up with more red dots on my left cheek. Very annoying. I seem to keep getting red dots, then they heal, and then I get more. Purging? Luckily no cysts and the tone of my skin looks nice, although it is very oily. I still haven’t gotten any peeling or excessive dryness, the ziana is very gentle on my skin. I have started Pantothenic acid today. A cause of excessively oily skin is Coenzyme A. This article explains the process quite well. 

http://www.drdach.com/Acne_B5.html

Red marks are starting to fade, no new zits. The Oxy was causing my skin to feel dry and rough, even with moisturizer, so I’m taking a break from it. I have a derm appointment April 16. I am so excited to go on spiro and no longer have extremely oily skin!

It sounds nasty, but everyone should take cod liver oil. Especially those suffering from acne. One of the causes of acne is a deficiency in Vitamin A & D, which work together. Taking too much of one can cause deficiencies in the other, but taking them in the correct ratio (5:1, with Vitamin A being the 5) will improve the look & feel of your skin. Taking fermented cod liver oil is essential, as most brands pasteurize the shit out of their cod liver oil and add back in synthetic vitamins, making taking them pointless.

I recommend the brand Green Pastures, they are the only one I know of that ferments theirs. And take the liquid and not the pills, as they are the most cost effective. Go for the cod liver oil/butter oil blend, as Vitamin A is fat soluble and will absorb better when taken with fat. (Or go for the regular and take it after eating something fatty) Get the flavor cinnamon tingle, the other ones are revolting. It doesn’t taste good, but it’s not absolutely appalling either. I have the straight cod liver oil and it comes with a syringe so you can shoot it down your throat. 

In December - January, I was taking 1 teaspoon a day of the chocolate cream cod liver/butter oil. I had no cysts in that time, even on my period. My skin was as oily as usual, but it glowed. I went out many times with no concealer and didn’t even think about it. Then….because the flavor of the chocolate was so revolting, I decided to order the pills. You have to take 16 pills to get the equivalent of one teaspoon, so I was taking half a teaspoon. I got cysts etc again. So I ordered the straight cod liver oil in the cinnamon flavor and am taking 2 teaspoons a day after eating something fatty to get back to where I was before. The dose you need varies. I definitely need at least a teaspoon for results, others can get by with 1/4 a teaspoon. In December, it took me about 2 weeks to see results.

AM:

Wash with Oxy face wash. I use it by rubbing it in a bit, wait about 2 minutes, then massaging it until my skin absorbs it. I then wash it out. Since it is rather drying, sometimes I use Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel instead.

I then massage my face with a bit of argan oil to give it back some moisture and soothe it.

Next, I exfoliate with Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant. This is my absolute favorite Dermalogica product. You use it by wetting your face, pouring the powder into your hands, rub it onto your face for about a minute, let it sit while brushing your teeth, then wash it it. I love this because it is gentle enough to use every day and it eliminates flakies.

I use Dermalogica Active Moist. I find it works better if I apply a thin coat, let it soak in, then apply another thin coat. This moisturizes without turning me into a greaseball and leaves my skin matte.

Then I’ll let the moisturizer settle a bit and apply Makeup Forever Full Coverage concealer on blemishes/marks. This is great since you only need a speck, and it is non comedogenic. It will somewhat impede the healing of acne, as all makeup does, but much less so than other concealers I’ve tried.

PM:

Wash with Oxy face wash. I let my face dry for 10-20 min. This is very important or the tretinoin in Ziana will sting and cause flaking when reacting with water remnants on your skin.

I apply a bit more than a pea size amount of Ziana, let it dry for a few min, then apply Active Moist with a drop of tea tree oil mixed in. The Oxy stings for a little while, I am eventually going to stop using it because BP is not good for long term use.

If I need to, I’ll apply Mario Badescu drying lotion on blemishes (although these days it’s those red clogged pores…) and I am not sure how to get rid of the hyperpigmentation marks any faster, hopefully with time Ziana will eliminate that…

Ugh…tons of small red marks and all of the pores on my nose are bulging with blackheads. Luckily no cysts or anything. Perhaps this is the purging?

I started using Oxy benzoyl peroxide face wash and I haven’t gotten any new zits, I just have 4 huge hyper pigmentation marks and a few smaller ones. I have decided to wean myself off face makeup and am just wearing a bit of concealer on the biggest marks. My skin doesn’t look as horrible overall. I am making a derm appointment Monday.

The chin pustule thing has stopped growing and I should be able to pop it in the next few days. Despite the red dots, my skin is glowing. I am going to talk to my derm about going on Spironolactone because my acne is hormonal and I hear that is extremely effective and makes skin less oily, which will be a godsend because I blot my face every hour.

Ugh…getting small dots on my forehead, getting a little flaky, still have Mt. Vesuvius on my chin. I hope this is the initial breakout.

This morning, I woke up with red marks significantly faded and smooth glowing skin. However….I felt a zit forming on my chin. I always get pustules in the same spot on my chin. I iced that bitch and applied Mario Badescu drying lotion (luckily I didn’t have to be anywhere today.) I’m not sure if it’s random, or from the ziana and/or the oil. I’ll see how it heals. So far I haven’t gotten much dryness or anything from it.

UPDATE: Sure enough, there is a monstrous under the skin lump forming on my chin and I have more red dots *sigh*

So it is the night of day 2. I started out day 1 with a bad skin day. I had 2 pustules on my cheek, a big hyper pigmentation mark on my chin from a recent pustule, a random red dot on the side of my nose, and a random red dot on my other cheek. On the night of day 2, my pustules have been flattened, but they are bright red, as are my other marks. The ziana seems to be intensifying the redness, although my skin otherwise feels smooth and looks radiant.

This morning I had some flakiness so I exfoliated using Dermalogica Microfoliant, which gently removed the flakes so that I looked good with just concealer on the red bits. I highly recommend Makeup Forever Full Coverage concealer.

This evening, I had read about oil cleansing, so I massaged my face with jojoba oil for about 5 min, wiped it off, then washed my face as usual. I wait 20 min before applying ziana. I applied moisturizer, then Mario Badescu drying lotion on the pustules and a whitehead I saw forming on my chin. My skin looked dewy after the oil massage, but I’ll see how it has responded in the morning.

I’ve been having acne issues for about 6 years now. My skin isn’t particularly horrible. It’s prone to dryness, yet extremely oily. I usually have a few small random red dots on the lower half of my face, with the occasional pustule. Usually they go away quickly. My nose & forehead are generally quite clear.

However….I have tried every OTC. Nothing clears my skin completely. I never feel confident enough to go out without at least a touch of concealer. I WANT PERFECT SKIN DAMMIT! I have just started using the topical Ziana, so I will log my progress with that.