Spotty, congested skin nightmare

[Moltisanti]

I'm not sure what to do anymore, I've had spots (whiteheads, blackheads, redness) ever since I was 14. I am now 32. I've tried specific acne skincare lines (everything from Oxy to benzoyl peroxide) and the gentle approach with Simple. I'm now using the Avene brand which seems ok, but its hardly giving me clear skin (which I would give my arm to have!).

To make matters worse I have one of the worst breakouts since I was pregnant. So many whiteheads I can't keep up. I feel rank.

Is it time I go to the dr? Has anyone tried anything that works for acne??

I have a tube upstairs that I got when I had a zit so big it needed it's own postcode and MNers rec'd it to nuke the fecker. I'll try this later then - once a day? At bedtime?

I do it once a day before bedtime - you really need to do the whole 'regimen' (check out www.acne.org for instructions) so cleanse, then the benzoyl peroxide, then moisturise.

If your acne is really bad, I think you would gradually increase it to twice a day (you need to start with very small amounts and increase it slightly as it is very strong stuff!) but I have found that once a day is enough for me (plus the whole thing takes about 15 minutes from start to end - there are gaps in between whilst you are waiting for it to dry etc) and I just don't have time in the mornings for that. I just do the cleansing step and then moisturising step in the mornings.

I know I sound a bit evangelical about this but really has worked miracles for me

My sister swears by Panoxyl 10 too, she has worse skin than me and reckons it works well.

I use panoxyl at night , just take off make up with johnson wipes, wait for face to dry then put on panoxyl cream,voila! But use it sparingly as I wanted to get it working asap and was rather heavy handed when I first got it and ended up with dry scaley skin - not attractive!

Panoxyl is good. I've had acne for twenty years and it does help.

The other thing you must do is choose your make-up carefully. I use a foundation with witch hazel in it and it's really made a difference.

Try not to fall into the trap of not moisturising in order to keep the spots down - if you don't moisturise you will scar.

I tried the acne website and one of the things they recommended was lemon juice. 42p for a bottle from Tesco and by golly it works! I put it on a cotton wool ball and use it in the morning followed by moisturiser (it's very drying) and in the evening I just leave it to dry. When new spots threaten, it keeps them at bay and they never get the chance to breakout. It has cleared scars and rapidly improved existing spots. My acne is all around my chin and always worse around my period (and my cycle is so short that they weren't getting a chance to improve before I started all over again!) but since I started using this a month ago it has made a HUGE difference and cost practically nothing. At the moment I'm not using it because I don't need it any more

I can imagine lemon juice would conribute to the ageing process though. The last thing you actually want to do is dry out skin with acne. Glad it worked for you, but I'd be wary of it myself!

Stuck, I'm nearly 44 and look about 35 so it's a risk I'll take!

Lucky you, I'm nearly 44 and look nearly 44!