If you had to choose between clear skin or wrinkles, which would you go for?

[Sunhorse]

Whilst I've never had acne, I struggled with my skin from my teens, in that I always had a handful of spots at any one time.

I tried everything over the years - changing my diet, drinking water, expensive skincare, simple skincare, supplements, you name it - but finally in my early thirties I hit upon the solution which was... absolutely nothing. If I wash my face with plain soap and water and put nothing else on it at all (no moisturiser, no cleanser etc) then my skin is mostly reliably clear.

Hooray! Except... when I hit my early forties, ageing began to announce itself. I was not happy with the frown lines and so forth, so embarked on a skincare programme. This has generally been great (have seen real results from retinol etc.) but it has meant that my spots issue has returned with a vengeance. I've tried switching products several times but no joy.

So it looks as though I've got to make a choice: clear skin or wrinkles.

I'm currently leaning towards the wrinkles as I just hate being conscious of my blemishes, it really impacts on my confidence, whereas the wrinkles I guess are more of a low level dissatisfaction.

WWYD?

Huge round of applause to @Fluffycloudland77 post. I agree with everything in the post. Acne is not cosmetic, it’s medical. No more or less than any medical condition. It can and often has lifelong effects with scarring and psychological issues. For the life of me I can never understand how the cosmetic industry managed to do such a one. Making billions surely helps I suppose.

Anyway OP, I think the answer depends on people’s skin-starting point. I had acne, I would forever choose wrinkles over acne. But someone who hasn’t been through the pain of acne might not quite understand the torture that is acne.

Save your money, see a derm. You can have clear skin and slow down wrinkles.

Have you tried Avene Triacneal? It fights spots and wrinkles.

I still have acne in my 40s.
Can I ask OP what retinol you use and how do you for it into your regime ? How much do you use etc. Thank You

I'm the snowflake that chooses wrinkles over blemishes

The reason is that all kinds of redness and inflammation look like some form of health issue (though acne is natural, this is what it looks and feels like) and sometimes painful too!

Wrinkles on the other end don't give off that vibe. IMO at least.

100% pure Jojoba oil is amazing for both acne and wrinkles: one of the only things that doesn’t make me break out.

Having suffered from adult cystic acne for which only Roaccutane worked, I would choose wrinkles. Every time.

Those deep cystic lumps are totally disfiguring (I had them on my wedding day) which I just don’t think even deep wrinkles are. They distort the skin from beneath so it looks like huge lumps and in my case they never came to a head, they just sat deep under the skin for weeks, slowly getting less lumpy and leaving red marks from all the distension. I was 25 and treated with accutane but it came back when I was 30. Accutane worked again.

I’m now 43 and my skin was totally blissfully clear for over 10 years. Now as I approach peri menopause some occasional cysts do emerge once a month; I am able to keep them at bay by sticking only to products I know don’t cause it and also by reducing dairy consumption.

The few wrinkles I am developing (though so far I’m fairly lucky on that front, no crows feet yet, mostly just deeper Number 11s than I would like) have caused me nowhere near the misery of cystic acne. It’s no contest.

Agree with the pp who said that acne is a medical condition and should be treated as such...