Spotty chin making me miserable

[MrsTumbletap]

I am 37 and used to have great skin.

Over the last 2 years I have had a surge of spots on my chin and around my mouth and I don't know why, some have said its hormones nurse at my GP said changing contraception may help and it's made no difference.

What can I do? Cleansing and toning and clay masks make no difference. Cleaning and covering in sudocrem makes no difference. Blasting it with my laser hair remover makes no difference.

Op I struggled with this in my early 40s . Went back on doxycycline which is an antibiotic that sorts acne out and had worked for me in the past but didn’t touch the spots. Arbonne skin care products helped a bit but what really helped was cutting milk out of my diet. Can still have cheese and yoghurt, but milk seemed to be the culprit, perhaps the hormones or protein molecule size? Give it a go for a week and see if it makes a difference

I had acne on my chin for a solid 20 years. I tried different pills, the implant, various prescribed creams and expensive lotions but the only thing that worked for me was giving up dairy and cutting wheat down to once a week. If I do eat dairy, a couple of days later i get spots. It must be due to the hormones in the milk (it is the milk of a recently pregnant female mammal so probably teeming with hormones!) Soya also affects hormones so oat, almond or rice milk are better replacements.

Try to quit wheat and dairy for just one week and see if it makes a difference.

Struggled with acme & spots for decades.

The only thing that works for me now is La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo +. I think the combination set works really well.

I also have Duac gel from my GP which I use only for the odd difficult spot.

Try La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo + and use it regularly (twice daily) and you'll see good results.

I think you ladies are right seeing a dermatologist may be a good idea, I need them to see what is going on.

Whilst I wait for that I think I'm going to try the La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo + too.

I just hate my face at the moment, and the painful spots are the worst, they really hurt under the skin.

My GP said that annoying spots around the corner of my mouth was likely to be vitamin B12 deficiency. I started taking a multi vitamin including this and they went away. I also improved my diet and then stopped taking them, which was fine for a while but they came back eventually.

I bought a new jar of multi vitamins (ones that mention Skin, Hair and Nails for women) and 10 days later they've started to clear up again. Definitely worth a try IME.

I also regularly pluck hairs from all around this area (upper lip, chin and neck) and used to wonder if the spots were related to this. I think it probably doesn't help but I hate the dark hairs just as much as the spots, so I make sure to cleanse straight afterwards (Pixi Glow Tonic works for me). Moisturiser wise I find Lancôme Genifique serum and day cream are great but pricey. I've tried cheaper alternatives but not found them as effective.

NB before I mentioned it to my GP, I'd convinced myself that I had perioral dermatitis, but he said it definitely wasn't that, so self diagnosis can be unwise (as we all know really but it is so tempting with all this information available online).

Good luck, hope you find a solution one way or the other.

Sorry final suggestion - for anyone that has spots and can't work out why, try changing your pillow case every other day (and turning over to use the other side on the 2nd day). Some people find this brings an amazing skin clear up. I guess hair products / natural oils transfer and can affect sensitive skin. Bit of a drag but TBH a few extra pillowcases to wash each week is more convenient than some other cures we've probably tried.

Mine hurt a lot too & they ruin my confidence at work. Hate them..was hoping would be cured by 40 but no such respite.

You need all of these..
(Used to come as a pack but I can't find it)

La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo [+] 40ml + Effaclar Purifying Foaming Gel 50ml Free https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07NF2GTF9/ref=cmswwrcppapiii_zBBuEbTHMCW1D

And

La Roche Posay Effaclar Exfoliating lotion - 200 ml https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000P6W7C8/ref=cmswwrcppapiii_LCBuEb8QWNE39

@bemidjiminnesota, interesting re the wheat as I started keto a few weeks after cutting out milk and my skin is the best it has ever been. Went from chin being a moonscape of scars and cycstic acne to clear as a bell.

I would also add that depressingly I definitely get far worse spots when I’ve been drinking alcohol now, which I didn’t used to.

Just be careful cutting food groups out. I am still spotty but am lactose intolerant so I've had no dairy for years. Got to replace your calcium somehow.

So I have battled with this too - the hair and the spots. Went to GP and he tested for all sorts of things that might cause it e.g testosterone. Nothing showed in blood tests. He prescribed Vaniqa cream for chin hair. That was 6 months ago. Massive reduction in hair but also the spots. I suspect it's because I don't touch my face as much. I don't think there is anything in the Vaniqa that sorts out spots. With hairs I was constantly dealing with them which meant my hands were always on my face. Are you always touching your face and is the device you use stopping the chin hair?

Exactly the same age as you and same problem.

I use La Roche Posay too, salicylic acid for on-spot treatment and my Dr has recently prescribed me Lymecycline. She said it takes 3 months to work as it gets the skin just as the cells are initially forming. I'm about 2 months in and I just have the end of a few spots and touch wood, nothing that feels hot or painful on my chin like I've become so used to when they start to form.

I've also stopped using primer which I think may have been clogging my skin up quite a bit.

I read before that spots on the chin are from hormone issues. I will try to find the book for you.

I doubt there is anything you can do from the outside except cover them up. Good luck.

Definitely try to cut or reduce dairy, made a huge difference to my chin spots.

So been reading through all these comments and it appears there are a lot of suffering with the same thing, feel free anyone to post and share tips. I would rather us all try these recommendations and they help us.

I am going to show you all my chin as awful as it is.

I can cover them for work but they are awful and they hurt!

@jewel1968 no the Phillips Lumea doesn't really do much to the hair, waste of time really. We may ask about that cream though if you recommend it?

@@RiojaHaze does the on the spot treatment work though? If they are brewing under the skin does it make them go away?

I dont really have much dairy anyway so don't think it would be that.

Changing the pillowcase might be a good shout, and not touching it would definitely help but I'm conscious of the hairs and spots so it's a never ending circle!

Deffo recommend Vaniqa. Massive reduction. Not 100% but maybe 80% reduction.

@MrsTumbletap where are you in the country?

As well as the dermatologist I also found skin laundry carbon facials help, but they are only in Centra London.

You might benefit from taking lysine & B3, or just a good B Vit complex such as Solgar Complete High Strength B Vitamins. This & treating with colloidal silver & cleaning any that look infected with surgical spirit on a cotton bud first could help. I've had similar problems & after trying everything, this seems to be helping a lot.

I'm wondering if you have gastric trouble too? My GP is now looking at some sort of inflammatory bowel disease as apparently there's a type of herpes that's linked to it & causes this

Cut out all dairy for a month and see what happens. No adult needs another animals milk in the diet to be healthy. Cutting out all dairy products cleared my skin rapidly. I can tolerate small amounts so I now have cheese once or twice a week as I love it! At christmas I ate a largely cheese based diet and my chin was a cystic mess again.

Cutting out dairy hasn't just gotten rid of the nasty chin spots, my skin looks better overall and is not as oily and pores are less noticeable.

Duac ointment. Your doctor can prescribe it or you can buy it from online pharmacies. It's an antibiotic cream and benzoyl peroxide in one.

@Sunshinelollipops1 I'm near Bristol but I would travel if there was an amazing dermatologist that could sort it out

@MrsTumbletap I saw Dr Joey Lai-Cheong. He works in Reading and Maidenhead. (So a trip down the M4). Best £250 I ever spent. I am sure though you could find someone local.