Desperate for help with skincare!!!

[susannahmoodie]

Please help me.

Since I stopped bf ds2 7 months ago my skin has been getting worse and worse. I have dreadful spots on my jawline, chin and cheek. Skin is red and bumpy and spots don't shift. Read on here about Caroline Hirons and Sam Bunting and watched their video.

I started to follow Sam buntings advice:

Lrp physiological cleanser and effaclar duo am

Then same cleanser and avene triacneal pm.

I am a week into it and skin is so so sore, dry and flaky. Some stuff I've read says this is normal with a retinoid and others things say it isn't. But my skin is painful and uncomfortable as its peeling and I don't know what to g this? put on it to sooth it, I'm worried Oily stuff would make spots worse. I have e45 or baby's aqueous cream?? Getting desperate!!

But should I persevere with the retinoid even when it is doing this?

I've never ever had bad skin before. Sailed through teenage years without acne, but now I'm so embarrassed and ashamed of my awful awful face.

I read on here about

I really know how you feel as I am a supply teacher. I've been getting tearful about my face too. I would genuinely recommend going to your GP. You could spend all day listing all of the different tips people have. The problem is that if a product doesn't suit your skin it can cause irritation.

Keep it simple on the skincare front and get your GP to have a look.

Fishfingers is non-comedogenic the same as oil-free??

I had the same problem after my pregnancies, was prescribed a contraceptive pill (yasmin) to help, my skin cleared up completely within a month, I have since stopped taking it and the spots haven't returned (fingers crossed).

Have you looked on Caroline hirons blog? Her cheat sheet on acne helped me loads.

Low carbing has helped too.

Not necessarily the same thing, no. Non comedogenic means it's specially formulated not to clog the pores. Avene products are all non comedogenic and so are those by La Roche Posay. Some Vichy products are too. You need to look at the labels.

I tweeted Sam bunting and she says to persevere with triacneal but use every other day....sigh.

Should you be using the effaclar duo with a retinoid? That's a LOT of peeling going on.

Please read the hiron blog, I don't get spots anymore because of her advice.

I developed acne after having twins at 39 (bloody hormones). Chin was in a shocking state.

My skin is naturally oily but sensitive - I've used Estee Lauder's oily skin foaming cleanser for years so stuck with that, but used - sparingly! - quinoderm on the spots and starting taking agnus castus and flaxseed oil supplements. This worked really well. I also started using Avene's cleanance oil free moisturiser just on my chin. If you want a gentle (and oil free) moisturiser, Olay's Total Effects fragrance free is good imo.

I think you've hit your skin with too much strong stuff, and too many different products too soon. I sympathise though, crap skin really affects your confidence.

I hate to add something else into the mix, but I've had terrible skin since I had my children. Lumps on my jawline, under my earlobes and either side of my chin.

I have not had a period of time without them in the last 8 years until two weeks ago when I completely cut sugar out of my diet. I now eat no added sugar at all, only one piece of fruit per day. I have not had one spot at all in that time. I can't believe it!!!

In the book I read it says that sugar affects our hormones, which in turn cause hormonal acne. It has been true for me!

Sam I have had terrible cystic acne for 2 years. I used antibiotics which cleared it but it kept coming back. I've overhauled my diet and my skincare. I am using retin a as well 0.025% and building slowly. I had 1% but it burnt my face off. I had great advice on the quiche thread. Start slow and build up gradually!

Hello susannahmoodie

I'm sorry to hear your skin problems. It reminded me of the time when I had such a bad reaction to E45 3 days before my wedding. I didn't have the finances to buy more products to calm my skin down.

I find triacneal quite strong myself, I've used it for a while now (using my second tube). I can't tolerate Effaclar Duo at all.

Another thing, I found that when I was washing my face twice with LRP or Avene cleansers (both gentle ones formulated for sensitive skin) my skin really got sore and sensitive. I dropped the cleansing to once a day (night), dropped Effaclar Duo completely, and dropped Triacneal to once every other night.

I really wanted Effaclar Duo to work for me (how could not? It had niacin amide!), and I couldn't stop using it. Had to ask my husband to lock it away for a time :)

Good luck!

A few have mentioned seeing a gp and i would definitely recommend it before you spend anymore on over the counter products.

I had lovely skin until I had kids, eventually last year I asked my gp about it. She prescribed a gel called epiduo and for me it has worked really well. It has a website with loads of info. At first it made my skin very dry, and irritated so I just used it every other day until the spots all cleared. Now I just use it once a week/every 10 days and that's enough to keep my skin clear. I'm not very into skin care and I haven't bought anything specifically to treat acne. If it's suitable for you, it may be a cost effective way clearing your skin, as a single prescription has lasted months and months.

Boots do a good, basic moisturiser which is nice.

I love Dr Organics range from Holland and barret and their advice is ace x