To be bloody depressed about adult acne?

[NTHEN]

Posting here for traffic as I'm desperate, apologies.

I'm 26 and until this past year have never suffered with acne but I now have it horribly. It seems to have coincided with me having a baby 18 months ago and is getting worse.

I wash my face daily, use a mild facial cleanser from clearasil and never sleep in make up. I use a light moisturiser.9

I've been using acnecide which has slightly reduced some of the bigger spots but I still have new ones popping up every other day.

I don't wear make up unless I'm going out somewhere where I'll need to make an effort (2-3 times per month) so I'm not clogging my pores on a regular basis.

I applied tanning lotion last night which has only made it look 10 x worse.

I feel unattractive, unclean and insecure. I don't mean to sound so vain but it's starting to impact my daily life and I'm not wanting to go out.

PLEASE could you suggest anything that will help me / has helped you or others you know?

I definitely don't want roaccutane if I can avoid it.

@Emeraldshamrock

Backstory is I’ve always had amazing skin. It’s something people would always comment on and I didn’t really appreciate how good my skin was until I hit 28.

All of a sudden my face was inflamed and I had breakouts everyday or other day. It was zits galore or cysts.

I was using drug store cream for my face and had no skin routine whatsoever.

Started watching one of the welch brothers on YouTube and noticed I should get my shit sorted with a skin routine so I found by Sarah London and earth to you.

Links below.

Sarah offers a free consultation over the phone and I spoke to her to get a really good idea of which product was best suited to me.

Yes they are pricey but the results were worth it. I got the cleansing balm, facial oil, mask and lip balm.

Literally within the first week most of the inflammation had gone down. The rest of it took a month to go away maybe a month and a half.

After the first week though I decided to bend the rules. I had a huge build up on oil in my face so cleansing twice a day really helped with no more breakouts. But after one week I decided to cleanse only once a day because cleansing twice was too drying. So whilst the breakouts stopped I now had to work on reducing the inflammation.

The facial oil is great however I did find it sat in the skin so I bought rose water from earth to you.

I spritz the rose water and then put facial oil on top.

2 months from using it, I still have enough product left for about 2-3 weeks from my first purchase.

I have got my beautiful skin back. No more spots no more skin bumps. My skin feels really happy.

I also recently started to take cod liver oil . I don’t know why , but I did notice it got rid of the eczema on my sons skins so I figured why not.

Yes these items are pricey. But I don’t spend money on nails, hair cuts, nights out etc so the money I save from being very boring helps to pay for these products.

Facial oil, cleanser and mask from here but do speak to her!
bysarahlondon.com/

Rose water from here:
www.earthtoyou.co/

Earth to you also have cleansers and oils that are natural but I found Sarah first which is why I stuck to it.

Something about plant based ingredients and your body being compatible with it. I don’t know how it works but it totally works!

sorry cross between the language I was using... first week the zits had gone and no longer appeared every day or other day (that’s what I meant by inflammation) , after that it was the inflammation I focused on getting rid of

Ffs

I found the facial oil sat on the skin . The rose water helped it to absorb into the skin

It's either hormonal or diet related.
I don't have acne but have spots all over my face. When I changed diet due to health issues I found my skin cleared. Basically excluding white bread and food made of flour made my skin so clear, for months. Now when I have odd sandwich or baguette I get spots again, they go away when I go back to stricter diet.

I agree with what @Teensandfuture is saying. It was a huge change and I knew it was a hormonal thing.

However I was unable to keep to a strict diet. Some days were good eating days and others were bad ones.

My face went up the shit creek from 28 and I lived with bad skin for a year. It was after my 29th birthday I decided to invest in my skin and two months on from 29 with still an unstable diet, I saw the huge change the Facial products made for me.

Most important thing is have you been to the GP? I did a 2 week course of tablets then topical antibiotic. Totally transformed my skin in a few months.

Go to the GP is you haven't already.

@Moltenpink

Acnecide 5% did clear my skin up, I use Clinique clarifying lotion twice a day after cleansing and it’s surprising how much dirt & make up is still there. I have to live with my skin being quite dry, any moisturiser seems to bring out spots.

Can I ask which one you use? 1,2 or 3? I'm just looking at it.

I was prescribed Differin cream/gel from the doctors. Took a couple of months to work but it really cleared up my skin and I had no side effects

Retinol is a game changer for acne. Have a look at Dermatica.

Right, you need to put aside thoughts of intermittent fasting and cutting dairy 🙄, being allergic never helped me with acne and I didn’t go to the dr soon enough and now I’ve scarred.

It doesn’t matter if it’s diet or hormonal. The cause doesn’t matter if you cleanse regularly.

You need to see your dr. If something’s going to work it works pretty quickly.

I took roaccutane at 41 after refusing it at 31, by the time I took it I would have taken capsules of powdered dog shit if they’d said it work. It’s worked brilliantly.

cks.nice.org.uk/topics/acne-vulgaris/management/primary-care-management/. This is what your dr can do for you. It’s very treatable for the majority.

You cannot treat a bacterial infection with diets & supplements anymore than you can treat cancer by going vegan or a broken arm with homeopathy.

The cosmetic industry has completely hijacked acne and convinced people that it’s something your doing wrong but your not. It’s a very difficult infection to kill, when I get tonsillitis I’m on penicillin for 10 days, acne is 4 months & if it doesn’t work your off to dermatology for roaccutane which is nowhere as bad as journalists (who’ve never taken it) make out.

I haven't read TFT, so apologies if I'm repeating anything, but...are you on the pill? Or would consider going on it? I used to take a brand which was called Dianette at the time (may have changed the name since) which is prescribed for acne. It's absolutely wonderful! Others I know who have taken it have had the same results.

Dianettes fallen out of favour due to the risk of dvt. I took it for a few years but it gave me migraines and now I’m contraindicated on all combined contraception due to the increased risk of stokes.

I don’t think they leave you on it for years now.

Cutting out dairy helped me a great deal and I have now cleared my skin completely using a prescription cream from Skin and Me. I am on my third month and my skin is completely clear for the first time in years.

Apart from the above I use a gentle routine. La roche posay H cleanser and light moisturiser during the day followed by Biore watery sunscreen. In the evening I use Cerave foaming cleanser, my prescription treatment. Then 10 minutes after I use the light moisturiser and face oil. If I have worn a lot of makeup I will use a cream cleanser or micellar water first to remove it. Generally now I just use a light cc cream so skip the first cleanse . Spotty skin can be sensitive and you do need to treat it gently for best results.

Acnecide helped very minorly for my daughter, she used for about 10/12 weeks, tried both the wash and the gel. We went back to gp and was prescribed Duac. It has been amazing and really cleared her skin brilliantly in a couple of weeks.

Simple SOS clearing booster has worked for me after a year of acne. Not perfect but 100x better than before.

I can't see in your posts you have mentioned going to the GP? I would recommend going and see what they say if you're not happy with their suggestions perhaps then ask for a referral to a dermatologist (unless you have private health and can skip to this step straight away?). I think you'll be better getting some medical help for this rather than trying creams etc. I went to a dermatologist who diagnosed cystic acne and prescribed Erythromycin- it's worked brilliantly for me.

The trouble with cutting dairy is that you remove a very good way of getting vitamin d into your diet & low vitamin d is linked to ms in northern countries like this. You must supplement with vit d AND vitamin K if you take it orally to aid absorption.

Low vitamin d is far too common in this country & can really wipe out energy levels in adults.

Go to your GP I think you have tried enough over the counter products. I went to my GP after my first baby and got antibiotic topical treatment and differin for large spot treatment.

My dd sadly follows me and has acne, she has recently started tretonoin treatment under the GP and has seen immediate effects although still has a long way to go. Good luck acne is awful.

Thank you all for the continued replies, I appreciate all of the suggestions and advice.

To the few people who've asked, no I haven't been to my GP about this yet. I called a few weeks ago and asked for a telephone consultation (no f2f because of covid) and nobody called me back. I then felt a bit embarrassed to be wasting their time with everything else going on and didn't try again.

I'm also not on the Pill (of any sort)

I reacted badly to the injection some years ago and it put me off trying any other artificial hormones.

I'm one of the unlucky ones who seems to have strong negative side effects to most medications, from antibiotics to anything hormonal. I couldn't tell you why.

In an ideal world a topical cream would be perfect

I get that roaccutane can have some pretty nasty side effects for some people but for others these effects are quite mild.
The thing about roaccutane is that it actually bloody works. You will need a GP to refer you to a dermatologist as only they can prescribe it, and you are monitored very closely.
Don’t rule it out op just because you may have read some scary stories. It’s not this hideous drug that some people make it out to be and it could get rid of your problem for good in just a few months.
Just something to think about maybe

Going on Roaccutane was the best thing I ever done for my skin, and the only permanent solution for me. Anytime I came off antibiotics my acne just came back.

Roaccutane is the only thing that worked for me. From about 34-38 I had huge cystic spots all over my back. I was so humiliated I was single and basically didn’t go on any dates because of the state of it.

It worked and I may get the odd one but never anything as bad. I was on it six months.

I tried everything when I suddenly got adult acne at 22. Only thing that worked was roaccutane (after jumping through a lot of hoops with doctors)

I now have great skin. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I get it when I'm not on the pill. Going onto a combined pill with a low hormone dosage has made a huge difference. I noticed an immediate reduction, although I did have one spot appear every few weeks on my neck in the same place for a couple of cycles, but it's settled again. I'm on Millenette 20/75.

@Jokie I use no.2