Acne advice

[Whereareallthejellyfish]

Hi everyone,

My 13 year old has terrible acne on her face, chest and back. Spots and blackheads. She loves to wear makeup, including foundation, which I've told her just makes it worse.

Can anyone recommend something to put on it to help please?

I've googled but I would really like some tried and tested recommendations ☺️

Thank you

Poor thing 😞

There are acne lamps and face lamps on amazon and online.

I think what we do with / put on our skin has alot less impact than whats going on internally. Its usually hormonal which is really hard to deal with sometimes. Some contraceptive pills target acne but again its hormonal and shes young to start on that in her system. Maybe take her to the doctor as there are some medicines like accutane aswell. Failing that Id see what a dermatologist says. Xx

Stop telling her the makeup makes it worse. Makeup is a godsend for teens with acne. But do encourage her to wash it off fully at night.

My top tips after 30+ years with acne:

1. Cerave face wash for normal/oily skin. Religiously morning and evening.
2. Epiduo cream on prescription from the GP. Or Duac if they won’t give Epiduo (not sure whether it’s allowed for under 18s as it has a retinoid).
3. If it’s hormonal then Dianette pill or alternatively Spironolactone (not a contraceptive pill but also has anti androgen effects).
4. Do Not Touch.
5. Some make up is better/worse than others. Suggest she keeps track of what seems to make her skin react.

Roaccutane (via dermatologist) as a very last resort.

Duac on prescription from GP worked absolute miracles for both my sons.
My daughter uses La Roche Posay stuff for acne, it's in blue and white packaging.

Brilliant advice from @minipie please don't tell her not to wear makeup. My dd has been through this and it restricted her choice of clothes and she really lost her confidence.After trying all of the medical options which failed for her, she started roaccutaine which was amazing.

Yes, read up about the side effects of Roaccutane if considering that route.

Thanks everyone! Just to clarify, I understand she wants to cover it and I haven't told her not to wear foundation, it's just she's not very good at taking it off which obviously doesn't help.

Some really helpful advice, thank you again ☺️

@Whereareallthejellyfish Take your daughter to the Gp. There are NICE guidelines for treating acne (easy to find online) with a step wise approach. Epiduo, as mentioned above, is often started first as it contains benzoyl peroxide and a retinoid, which is a very effective combination. The Gp can add in an antibiotic to that as a next step, if required. Roaccutane is only prescribed by a dermatologist (as there are potential significant side effects)and only after progressing through the NICE guidance treatment. If acne isn’t treated early it can lead to scarring.
Any makeup she wears should be non comedogenic (i.e won’t block pores) and removed thoroughly at the end of the day. Any treatments do take a few months to take effect.

Here are some good suggestions for face wash (will also work for girls):
https://hugateen.com/articles/health/best-face-wash-for-teen-boys/

Long time acne sufferer from teen until about 5 year ago. First thing is to repair skin barrier. Skin and Tonics has a brilliant blog with morning/evening guides with links to products but also great explanations why those products work. You definitely don't need to buy all of them (she has a Korean routine so 10-11 steps) but focus on a few products that will help. Secondly I have taken estro-block which is a supplement and really helped my hormonal acne. Take it with a liver supplement. I have used all sorts in the past including ro-accutane but this has fully cleared up my acne and I no longer take anything.

I had awful acne as a teen and into my early twenties. It still has it flare ups now even in my 30s. Take her to the doctors to see what they say, I didn’t go on roaccutane but something else that was similar to a zinc bar. It helped massively! The gp talked me to starting the pill to balance out my hormones which was a huge mistake so please don’t let them talk you into it.

I always worse make up to cover it but what my mum did that made a big difference was take me to get the right shade and formula of foundation so it didn’t dry out my skin or sit too cakey on the surface. She then helped me set up a nightly routine of washing face, moisturising and cleansing. It took a while to get into but actually became a nice part of my nighttime routine. Every week I would do a face mask too it would help with really bad break outs.
I regularly changed my pillow slip, more so than the weekly bedding change. I also made sure when showering, the water was not too hot and making my skin even more red.

My DD suffered terribly. Nothing worked until we took her to a dermatologist.

Her GP has prescribed the pill but the dermatologist said it was the wrong one for acne and wrote to our a GP to get it changed and put her on dretin (sp?) instead.

He also put her on 6 months of Lymecycline and prescribed treclyn gel - her skin cleared up really quickly.

We had to go private as the wait for a dermatologist appt on the NHS was 18 months in our area. She was referred last August and the appt came through for Jan 2024! Even the wait for a private one was three months.

It was so worth paying for a private appt as her mental health was suffering and she was refusing to go out because her skin was so bad.

Agree start with GP. I finally did this for myself when I was 18. I was referred to a dermatologist, and eventually the pill sorted it out (mostly).

Take her to the GP ASAP. There is a protocol they work through of lotions and 3 types of antibiotics. Now, 18 months down the line, DS is on isotretinoin ( serious shit) as none of the antibiotics worked for him.

I asked his NHS dermatologist for recommendations for non-prescription products and she said Cetaphil Gentle Cleanser and Cetaphil Moisturising lotion and Acnecide.