UGH. my acne is worse now than when i was a teenager. in fairness i had it pretty good as a teenager but shouldnt this battle be over by age 31? my pores are disgusting, basically all of them are clogged and i get deep cystic zits on my cheeks/jawline (for some reason mostly on the left side). my doctor gave me a special face cream which didnt work. she then put me on the lower strength retin A which did NOTHING. it didnt even make my face dry out or peel which is what most people complain about. at this point i want to just buy some stage makeup and walk around pancake faced.

suggestions?

honey, im 45 n have worse acne now than i did as a teen! when its that TOM its my tell tale sign, let me not get enuf fresh air n sunshine n good lord the mess! i was always under the assumption ance=teen n once i hit 20 gone... now 40s n NOT!

I am with you, it is worse now than when a teen.I have tried everything..so if you find the magic potion let me know ..the only thing I have found that helps a little is De La Cruz Sulfur Ointment 10% Acne Medication it does not prevent them on me but does take the puffiness and redness down considerably..i bought mine at wal greens

Dianette<3

Diane birth control has been a life saviour for me. I started getting acne when I was only 11 (!) and had acne up until I started Dianette at age 20.

Before Diane I had been on antibiotics for 1,5 years, gotten special creams prescribed and tried every drugstore product known to man.

unfortunately i cant take hormonal birth control. i have a copper IUD because the hormones make me NUTS

me TOO! how did we get so confused?

lmao! i have the copper IUD as well cuz the last 2 bc pills i was on made me psychotic! and i didnt want to forget to take a pill n wake up pregnant at 50 (all 3 of my babies will b grown by then)! ahhh the joys of being woman n to think we r considered the "weaker" sex!

I'm struggling with the same situation. I had beautiful skin until recently (just turned 40 this summer), and now I have adult acne along my jawline and neck. I hate it, and besides how it looks- it hurts! I've been trying all sorts of potions and lotions to help, but so far no success. It is definitely worse the days prior to and during my cycle, and I'm fairly certain it's all hormonal. I'd like to get to a dermatologist to check into things, but have to wait until I have insurance.

This chart is interesting- it explains possible causes of acne depending on the location on the face. http://www.skinacea.com/acne/acne-fa...l#.UFuVGo1lTa4

I had great skin while I was on the pill from age 18-29. But I had to get off due to having migraines with aura. A few weeks after I got off it, the acne started. Mine was relatively mild (lots of little zits along the jawline, hairline, and smile lines, and maybe one or two cystic zits at a time on my chin), but intractable.

I tried a few things, but the thing that worked for me was following "the regimen" from acne.org.
http://www.acne.org/regimen.html

I bought his large 2.5% benzoyl peroxide, but I don't use his other products. (I chose products off his drugstore products list instead-- the liquid Purpose Gentle Cleansing Wash, and the Olay Complete All Day UV Moisturizer - Sensitive Skin.) I don't use as much benzoyl peroxide as he recommends--my acne is not so bad that I need it, and my skin is very sensitive. It did take my skin about a month to adjust to the benzoyl peroxide; I got the redness and flaking for a while. His recommendation of some additional jojoba oil as moisturizer helped.

My skin is almost always clear now, just the occasional little spot that goes away quickly. If I stop doing the regimen, the acne comes back to haunt me. I've been doing it for about a year now.

es, acne absolutely sucks. I've tended to get nasty sebcaceous cysts since age 13 (I'm 30 now), but luckily Proactiv has made a big difference; using it twice a day, my face never gets that bad anymore. I don't use the toner, though - found it works better with just the renewing cleanser, and repairing lotion on the trouble spots. Have you been using noncomedogenic makeup, too?

Grab Chagrin Valley's neem and tea tree soap (prevents new acne, can cause current acne to decrease in size), physically exfoliate your face with a soft boar bristle brush while it is soaped up 3x week, chemically exfoliate your skin once a week with a 10% lactic acid peel. If you have dry skin after exfoliation, please us a non comedogenic oil such as Jojoba (closest to the skin's natural sebum, will never break you out) after washing the face. If your acne is inflammed (red) you need to put an anti-inflammatory on it such as Lavender (oil, cream, whatever) or even make an aspirin face mask by breaking an aspirin tablet and crushing it to mix with water and applying the paste onto your face.

I struggled with acne as well (I'm 21) ever since I was 14. I have combination skin, my t zone is oily (including chin) cheeks are dry. My regimen is relatively simple and keeps new pimples at bay. I haven't had a pimple in god knows when and when I do, they are relatively small, just one or two and it disappears fast.

I wish you the best of luck with your acne. The best thing you can ever do for it is exfoliate so the dead skin cells can never have the chance to plug the sebaceous glands, calm the pimples down with an anti-inflammatory and use a soap that is anti-bacterial in nature. Which is why the neem and tea tree are so good.

Just an off the wall thought, but, you might consider allergy testing.

I work for a veterinarian, I know, weird thoughts, but we see a lot of animal itchy, dripping, pimply, skin issues that are usually solved by low doses of prednisilone, which indicates an allergy issue, but the pred, suppresses the bodies response to the allergies.

So, it might be worth it to rule out allergies.

copper IUD is the best in my opinion.

ya i typically only have 1 or 2 deep/cystic ones at a time but my pores are disgusting and i get little ones around my mouth and chin. im so SICK of it!

my skin was good until like the past 3 or 4 years.

i think my pillowcase does have a little to do with it. if i dont change it enough the acne gets worse, but even that doesnt make it go away. its so frustrating and the bigger ones DO hurt! they are almost always on the left side of my face.... so weird!

also - thanks for all the face care regimens. i tried proactive once but it didnt really do enough to justify the price. ill look into the other ideas

Yes, I have the same issue. I've tried antibiotic ointment, benzoyle periozide, hydrogen peroxide, cortisone cream, clay (totally awesome for bug bites), clerasil and sulfer. The sulfer soap works the best and that is what my dermatolist gave me. I bought my own online and it was great. If I used it I had NO breakouts. I went on a trip and the housekeeper threw it away. So, I tried out some clearasil because I couldn't wait until vacation was over to order more. It worked pretty good for a year. Then all of a sudden last week I got two huge cystic blemishes again. My face had been so nice and clear, even my mom commented on how it looked better than it had in years. I attribute that to coconut oil. Seriously, it makes skin look great.

Anyway, I tried to get in with a new dermatalogist because I'm worried about scarring but none of them can see me until November. Unfortunately, my old doctor died so I have to find someone else.

Have you tried sulfer? It really seemed to work for me. It's harsh though, so I didn't use it everyday. Just every other day or every two days. I moisturize with the coconut oil and that was working out really well. I think my hormones just went nuts.

If you think your pillowcase might be an issue buy a bunch and change it every other day. I've done that for years. I never sleep more than once on each side of a pillow case. I have a bunch by my bed and change every other night. My husband makes fun of me but oh well. He just thinks I'm silly.

interesting. ill have to look into sulphur, ive never had that suggestion before. ya i might have to just start burning through pillowcases.