Pregnancy acne - any and all suggestions!

[RLI1105]

Hi everyone,

I'm just looking for a bit of advice regarding the current state of my skin!
For background, I'm 25 and you'd say I had oily/combination skin. I'm 12+2 and pretty much the second I found out I was pregnant my skin has been horrendous. My chin is covered in painful cysts which just pop up one after another.
Prior to being pregnant my skin was actually pretty good! Some chin spots around the time of the month but manageable.
I am a bit of skincare buff and double cleanse, tone and moisturise morning and night. I also use salicylic acid and vitamin c in the morning and glycolic acid, nicinemide and retinoids at night.
I've stopped using retinoids as babies don't like vitamin a but nothing seems to work. Face masks (acid and clay) have zero effect.
I know it seems like a minor problem (which I know it is), it's making me extremely self conscious and down.

Has anyone else experienced this and if so what products, if any, worked for
you?
Also if anyone wants to chime in to tell me that my skin will be perfect again the second I enter the second trimester then that would also be appreciated! 😂

Thanks very much!

We're pretty much the same age, I'm 10 weeks and my skin is ridiculous atm!
Mind if I jump on the thread and wait for advice with you?

Aztec Secret Indian Healing clay worked a treat for me. And I also used organic rose water as a daily toner that helped with the redness. Now 25 weeks and my skin is almost clear - although it did start to clear up about 15 weeks so I wasn’t sure if it was just 1st trimester hormones making it go crazy!

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Realistically, only time will help. Time for the hormones to calm down. A few weeks of a new skin care routine will give you that time, but it'll be the time, not the products that help.

It does all calm down though. I get dreadful skin in the first trimester and again for a few weeks post birth but now I'm 4 months PP and it's normal again.

Nked Face do a great range of products there skin peels are safe during pregnancy as well I think these helped clear up my skin ;)

Second vote for time. Hopefully by 20 weeks it will be mostly better.

Honestly, nothing will touch hormonal acne. As you say, retinoids help but can't use in pregnancy. You're already doing all the sensible stuff.

It is horrible, I sympathise.

If it’s to do with hormonal imbalance then it will probably be fixed when you go on the pill after the birth. In the meantime I suggest you try simplifying your skincare regimine - cystic acne on oily skin often gets worse the more products you use. Just use a gentle foaming cleanser / face wash aimed at oily / combination skin (Simple’s foaming one works for me), and a light weight moisturiser aimed at oily skin (Kiehls has a few options, but Clinique is pretty good too). If you use it then Replace your foundation with a more lightweight / sheer coverage formula.

It will get better don't worry!
I had terrible breakouts until about wk16, about week 12 I went for a chemical peel (topical), I had a lactic peel and this really worked well. Dermaplaniing is also safe and a good way to deep clean.
I have been using the ordinary lactic acid serum since, the 10% one (its about £6) and I think its amazing.
I was told by lady that did my peel to avoid vitamin c! Not good for pregnant skin apparently!
I use lactic daytime, and rose hip oil overnight and nothing else.

I had this, I waited until 20 weeks as people told me it should just improve. For me it didnt so i went to the gp who prescribed a cream which has worked wonders!

Hi all, im having the same problem, baby no4 on the way and my skin is so bad, i didnt have this with my first 3 pregnancies, im getting small cyst like lumps under the skin all over my chin, very painful aswel. I have tried everything and even resorted to hemorrhoid cream, which did seem to do the trick for now lumps can still be felt under the skin but no longer painful. Im avoiding all make up and skin products as everything is irritating or burning it atm. I use the tropic skin care range supposed to be all natural but find it is leaving my skin very red and sensitive.

I had the same problem in the first trimester, my skin was awful. I’m now 21 weeks and it’s all cleared up. I didn’t do anything different, just gave it time.

Thanks for all the messages everyone, it's really appreciated.
I'm going to keep my head down and hope things clear up in a few weeks. It literally is just my chin which makes me think it is hormonal so fingers crossed when I'm into the second trimester things will settle....
In the meantime I'm going to use some gentler products and see if that helps!

My skin was really bad this time, I got some Coco calming face mist from the body shop a while ago and it has seemed to help. Now 33 weeks and still get a few spots but nothing like as bad as they were

I’m over 9 weeks and my skin has never been this clear. Usually I have a few pimples going on, but since I’ve been pregnant - nothing!

I’ve been on antibiotics for a sinus infection, so I thought it could be this.

I find it so weird - for the first time since I was a teenager I’m completely unblemished.

Sorry 😐

I thought you were supposed to avoid frequent use of salicylic acid in pregnancy.

You might need to be a little gentler with your skin, using both salicylic and glycolic acid every day might be too harsh for it.

It might be that you are reacting to a product that was fine before you were pregnant. Could you try going back to a simple routine and then adding products back in and see if you are reacting to something?

Hi All,
Great to have found this thread! I’m 19+3 and my skin seems to be getting worse 😢. I’ve got the cyst like lumps all around the chin and jawline and have even started getting spots on my neck. As well as being sore they are grossing me out!

It's very useful, all given thoughts and suggestion helps me a lot. I'll say thank to post creator who ask the issue...because some time in lack of good suggestion you diverted on some bad ideas.

Hi everyone - thought I'd give a bit of an update.

I've taken advice and got a couple of new cleansers which are more gentle which seem to be working. The existing spots on my chin are much better and I've had no new ones.

I saw a couple of people questioning me still using salicylic acid. The information out there seems to say two different things (doesn't it always in pregnancy?!) but generally if it is less than 2% concentration then it's okay to use 1-2 times a day so I'm personally going to keep using it in the morning.
That's my personal decision - please do your own research!

I'm really glad I made this thread. I've got a new toner and another gentle cleanser so I'll see how they do added to the mix

Thanks again

Hi ladies,

I used to suffer from terrible hormonal acne around my periods and as I am so scared of how it might look like during my pregnancy (trying to conceive), I thought I would dig for any solutions in order to get prepared. I realised that all the products which did wondered to my skin cannot be used on pregnant women, hence felt a bit desperate when realised how poor my options were.
Passionate about skincare, I thought I could create a solution myself, so I am now starting to work on a start-up project. How come nobody's thought of it? It's like now you're pregnant you just have to be patient and 'happy' with yourself. But I know how acne does impact my confidence and self-esteem.
In order to test my assumptions about symptoms, skincare routines etc it would really help if I could meet or just talk with some of you.
Would you mind?
I live in London, so if you do too I've be glad to have a chat over a smoothie or something ;)

All the best,

Caroline

I have always struggled with my skin and use a similar list of products as you! Usually this is enough but since getting pregnant it's got out of control again. Mine are mostly on my forehead between my eyebrows 🙈

I haven't read all the suggestions but you could try scaling back your routine a little and seeing if it helps to calm things? I read years ago that acne is really aggravated by irritation. I've cut back to double cleanse, 2% salicylic and moisturise and it does seem to be improving. I've also been using a simple exfoliating mask which uses fruit acids a couple of times a week.

Good luck - I hate it so really sympathise xx