I don't want to be a Sporner's delight

[Gingernaut]

Hello

I'm menopausal. As well as all the hot flushes, my skin's playing up.

My face isn't covered in cystic acne, but large (and obvious) lumps keep appearing.

Chin, hairline, the cheeks around my nose and around my mouth.

I've currently got four - forehead, nose, chin and jaw.

All of them big, red and shiny and all of them showing no signs of coming to a head.

It takes weeks for them to lie down flat and weeks more to go back to normal.

I am having problems with blackheads too.

What do I do?

Do you currently use any particular products for your skin or have you tried anything? (Just thinking in terms of what I say next may be useless if you’ve tried it already!)

In terms of products, I find salicylic acid effective for helping to calm or prevent breakouts. I prefer to use it alone (I use The Ordinary solution, as I find other skincare products containing salicylic also often have other ingredients which I find really drying or astringent.

I also use CeraVe cleanser and moisturiser as I find it is gentle and effective, and contains some good things for congested skin (like niacinamide, plus the hyaluronic acid is welcome).

For spot treatment, when it feels really sore, I out Sudocrem on the bumps/spots before bed and it helps a lot to calm them down before morning. May not be completely gone but certainly usually much improved.

The other thing I found really helpful, longer term, is a low sugar diet. I find I break out much more readily the more sugar I have - and it’s not that I was a big consumer of added sugars before, but things like fruit juice, dried fruit etc add up very quickly. I’m more sparing with all sugars now and that seems to have helped things calm down a lot in general, rather than just managing outbreaks/skin topically.

I hope that helps!

I forgot to add, niacinamide can also be very helpful for blackheads (The Ordinary also sell that as a solution, I don’t currently use it but did in the past and was happy with it). If you find you are getting marks/hyperpigmentation due to the spots, I recommend their alpha arbutin + HA solution, I’ve been using it for a little over a month now and it is really helping with long term marks/hyperpigmentation I have from bad breakouts in the past.

I promise I don’t work for them I just like my skincare to be sort of straightforward and non-aggravating, and the combination of CeraVe with picking a couple of specific solutions from The Ordinary has worked very well for me in this regard. I use these morning and evening, from CeraVe I use the SPF moisturiser during the day which is important if you’re using any acids on the skin.

And of course the Sudocrem! In fact if it’s feeling really sore, I’ve gone to bed before with a full face of Sudocrem - yes you will look ghosty (but who cares whilst you’re asleep?!), and it really calms things down.

FWIW I made a lot of these changes about a year ago, and the difference has been really noticeable. I rarely get breakouts and when I do, it might be a little blemish here or there that goes quickly and doesn’t usually come to a head and doesn’t usually hurt. Whereas before I was getting similar to you, painful red bumps that lingered for ages, as well as congested skin in general with lots of blackheads and such and I was getting oilier too.

Clean&Clear, Garnier and St Ive's apricot scrub.

Nip&Fab glycolic toner and an spf30 for moisturiser after putting some spot stuff on any blemishes.

I wonder if you've developed acne rosacea? You can get prescriptions to help treat it. You have to be careful though. I was once placed on antibiotics for years when it should have been months. It did some sort term damage to my digestive system. I now just keep a tube of a prescription cream in the fridge for those boils, hardly get maybe a few a year now.

Yes. I have had quite nasty flare ups with acne rosacea.

It even went up to my eyes.

However, I'm familiar with the accompanying rough skin and 'glue sniffer' rash and they aren't there.

Take evening primrose oil - it definitely helps with hormonal acne, and can (but doesn't always) reduce hot flushes and other menopause symptoms as well.

I find that Clean&Clear can be very drying, and St Ives scrub can irritate too - sometimes these are a bit too harsh and cause the problem to persist. It might be worth trying another routine in terms of cleansing - I’ve mentioned CeraVe and The Ordinary, I’ve used Cetaphil in the past which is similar to CeraVe but an even simpler formula in that it really is just a gentle cleanser, no added ‘benefits’; Eucerin is also popular, although they changed the formula for their blemished skin range last year and I personally found that this was less effective and more irritating.

Thanks

I'll look out for gentler products in future.

Is EPO still a 'thing'?

I'd step away from any scrubs. Have a google of Sam Bunting's YouTube videos on spots. Also - go to your GP! They don't think you should 'put up' with a few spots anymore - whether you're in your 30s/40s/50s or a teenager, apparently. I went recently (spots from Mirena coil/progesterone being put in) and was given a 2 month course of antibiotics which should be enough while my body gets used to the additional progesterone. And Epiduo to use topically. My skin was totally clear after 10 days. You need gentle cleansing though with that plus you must wear spf 50 (retinol in epiduo). I really wouldn't scrub at it with physical scrubs...

👍

I was wandering the shelves of Boots and found some Korean facial care products on clearance.

J. One with niacinamide.and adenosine.

I'll give that stuff a go....

How's your diet?

Trying to lose weight, so laying off a lot of the sugary stuff I crave.

I have mag sulphed my zits.

OMG! They've shrunk!

They're still an angry red colour, but they're less than half the size.

I'm doing that again soon.

I've got a job interview on Thursday.

It sounds like it might be plain old roseacea, I got a very specific cream from the dr, it was when I started to become peri I tried everything before but this was what worked

Good luck with your job interview

Thanks