Facial spf for acne

[PrincessOfPreschool]

My son has been prescribed a topical ointment and antibiotics for acne. He's been told to use an spf. A lot of them are quite greasy so I'm just wondering what a good one would be for a teenager with acne.

Also, any great acne cures you've come across. I'm not keen on 3 months of antibiotics and she said ro -accutane is the next step.

Ds uses La Roche Posay SPF for face but pricey.

He's currently on azaleic acid and was taken off antibiotics. He's not getting scars but still does have spots.

Dr thinks he's not at Roaccutane stage yet. He asked about side effects and wasn't keen.

Antibiotics not bad short to medium term but ds had been on them a while so they withdrew them.

Tropic Sun Day SPF feels good for my skin and their Pure Lagoon serum has also helped me, you can buy it and send it back within 30 days if it doesn’t suit you for a full refund

Thank you both. @HeimbachIt just really kicked off around Easter and I thought was exam stress but it's not improved since mid June. He already has some scarring.

This one is very good.

https://amzn.eu/d/dh6eOxa

I watched a TikTok just yesterday, an Irish girl who's a model with very fair skin and suffers with acne. She swears by P20 in factor 50 for the face this one I think she says it lasts 10 hours so doesn't need to be reapplied like other creams, doesn't leave a white cast and doesn't break her out like almost all others do. She's not on commission so I was impressed! (her handle on TikTok is "julianashiel" and you'll see the video she's holding it up to her face)

@PrincessOfPreschool poor lad. It was the same for my ds - exams made it worse and it's just taken off.

Skin is slow to improve too. Who'd be a teen!?

This one is nice because it’s fluid not cream, so feels easy and refreshing to apply. Often on offer for £8 or so:

GarnierAmbre Solaire Anti-Dark Spots & Anti-Pollution Super UV Protection Fluid SPF50+

My ds has exactly same issue, and yes GCSEs made it worse! He’s using Eucerin oil control spf 50 for sun protection. He has a prescription gel for his acne (adapalene) he had to stop antibiotics after 6 months. He has some scarring so he’s trying Cerave resurfacing serum for that (too soon to say). He won’t agree to roaccutane.

I’m in my 30s and still have to use acne treatment 😭 I really like the Nivea Shine Control sunscreen and it’s easy to find in shops.

La Roche posay athelios. And accurane is the only real answer.

I had acne ages 10-38.... Still have greasy skin.

Biore watery essence is one of the few truly non-greasy, yet non-drying SPFs out there.

It's necessary to avoid drying out oily, acne-prone skin, as that tends to encourage the skin to pump out more oil to compensate, leading to a vicious circle.

Make sure his cleanser isn't drying. Counter-intuitive as it might seem, after years of using gel cleansers I discovered the best solution to be oil cleansing. The larger oil particles of an oil cleanser (or even just plain grapeseed oil) act as magnets for the smaller sebum oil particles, and take them off the face without any hard cleansers, so the skin isn't left dry. All you do is massage the oil in and then use hot water and a muslin cloth to take it off.

For a treatment, I tried the lot bar Roaccutane, and found none of them very effective long-term, except for niacinamide, which worked best for me and cleared most of the spots.

Stress can really exacerbate acne, so helping him learn ways to keep stress lower could really be worthwhile. Also, some people find low carb diets help too. I'm not sure if it made much of a difference for me, but it might be worth trying.

Thanks so much everyone. Loads to choose from.

Yeah, I'm sure diet is a big thing. He went on a camp for a week and I thought he'd come back covered in spots due to lack of sleep, but he looked amazing when he came back. Trying to figure out what it was. He said he had a cooked breakfast everyday, probably less sugar and maybe quite a bit less dairy too.

Dairy and sugar are both thought to be a factor for some people, at least. I guess you just need to be careful about calcium intake if he was to cut down or eliminate dairy.

The Biore one in SPF 30. I find spf 30 is better as an spf. You can definitely buy it from Superdrug. They’ve just brought it out as a mist which I haven’t tried but he may prefer

Antibiotics should work so at least you’ve started on them instead of wasting time fannying about cutting out sugar and dairy to see what happens which is generally nothing

but yes a healthy diet always helps general well-being as does cutting down on junk carbs as that affects insulin etc and can affect skin for sure.

But generally antibiotics or Accutane is best for teen acne.

Also not to be rude but it’s irrelevant if you like the idea of antibiotics or not as it’s your DS thst has to look at his acne ridden face everyday and if it’s not dealt with head on then his confidence and MH could plummet at a rapid rate

Of course. I'm the one that's taken him to the doctor even though he didn't really want to go. We are constantly told how bad it is to take antibiotics frequently so it seems strange to be pumping them in him for months. I'm also convinced it is something other than just hormone causing it as his spots totally cleared up in one week he was away and out of his usual routine, food consumption. As soon as he spent one night at home, they were back - but in that night he had a fair bit of dairy, protein powder, creatine, who knows...

Also it's going to take a while to get the accutane if he has to wait 3 months then get referred then wait for that referral to materialise. I would like to help calm things down more quickly.

The problem with antibiotics, I found, is that even if they worked initially, the bugs soon got resistant to them and the spots just got worse again. They also led to years of digestive issues for me.

And then, there’s the importance of the gut microbiome, which we’re only at the beginning of being able to understand.

Has he tried niacinamide gel, OP? It damps down inflammation in the skin and gently helps the skin exfoliate (a driver of acne can be failure to slough off dead skin cells in the hair follicle and niacinamide gel helps with this).

La Roche Posay SPF is the ONLY one I have ever found not to make my acne worse.

Don’t forget a wide brimmed hat can also help.

Another fan of La Roche Posay. They have a few different spf products with a choice of textures and the La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo+ Cream SPF30 is great as a day cream. The whole Effaclar range is really good as a skincare range for acne prone skin. Frequently on offer in Boots.

I have rosacea, the one with pustules and like La Roche Posay. There is also another brand Altruist, from a dermatologist which is mean to be very good.
My rosacea has been cleared by using Dermatica, they have an acne treatment as well. 2 pumps of product on the face each evening and it really clears it up. Lots of real life photos online or on Instagram. I would really recommend taking a look.

Thanks all. He started the antibiotics yesterday and looking better already but he had 10 hours of sleep! Now need to get the gel and the spf today. Thanks so much for all your advice and thoughts.

Roaccutane is fantastic. I've had chemo induced severe acne and Roaccutane cleared it after a couple of weeks . I'm on the lowest dose 10mgs . Having acne is very demoralising so if he wants to try Roaccutane it could be very successful. I don't get side effects BTW.