Need help with my hormonal skin at age 29?!

[whoevenknowsright]

In serious need of help with my skin... PLEASE!

Around a week before my period I get loads, and I mean loads of tiny little whiteheads all over my face and they are actually quite painful.. is there anything I can do to help this?! I'm so self conscious of it every single month...

My skin isn't the best any time.. usually I do get the odd breakout, pores are always blocked and have so much texture to my skin..
I've tried so much over the years and thought with age it would calm down?! But I genuinely don't know where I'm going wrong at this point.

Make up looks terrible on, and tbh my skin looks terrible without it and I'm so fed up! I'd love to have clear, smooth skin 😔

Anyone?!

could you afford to try dermatica/skin and me?
or have a read on the information on reddit/skincareaddiction. do you have a skincare routine? as it may be hormonal related does birth control have any affect on it?
i started retinol at 29, game changer, skin's not greaattttt but better. but also hormones play such a huge part, my skin changed drastically after children and generally aging

I've heard good things about those so perhaps I'll have to give it a go! I'm not on any birth control but even when I was I had rubbish skin too.
I've had a baby 2.5 years ago and not sure if skin has got worse or what since but it's just awful gets me down so much :(

I need to incorporate retinol into my routine I think! What retinol do you use please?

Tbh, my 'skin care' routine is wash my make up off with ceraVe cleanser for bump skin, repeat, use the dermalogica exfoliating powder, and moisturiser. That's only because that's the products I have at the moment so using them up, but I've tried oiled based cleansers, acne cleaners, foaming, bumpy skin cleansers, simple cleansers, different exfoliations, heavier moisturisers, oils, lighter moisturisers and nothing seems to work!!

My daughter has hormonal acne and the only thing that works is 47 skin (cleanser, mask and serum). It's expensive but it's magic in a bottle. She's gone from angry red spots to having some spots but the redness and inflammation has gone. I tried to switch her to a cheaper product recently, but it immediately flared up again. Most importantly - no picking and squeezing!

Spironolactone completely resolved my hormonal acne. It's available on prescription (though I'm not in the UK).

No side effects (for me), just lovely clear skin.

@whowhoevenknowsright Here's a link for skin + me, which has been spoken about up the thread.

I get a referral discount, and you get your 1st and 5th dose for £3.50. There is no minimum time. You can pause or/and cancel anytime

www.skinandme.com/?promocode=CAROLT5VTM

If you are sure it’s hormonal then the most effective things are likely to be:

Dianette (contraceptive pill, but quite different from others as far as acne is concerned - GP can prescribe)

Spironolactone (may need a dermatologist to prescribe as it’s not licensed for acne -although regularly used for it)

Roaccutane (serious stuff, needs a dermatologist to prescribe and they won’t till you’ve tried other things, also no TTC while on or 6 months after).

I am slightly querying if it’s hormonal simply because it’s on your cheeks more than jawline which is where classic hormonal acne appears. But it is monthly so that says hormonal. How was it during/just after pregnancy ?

PS Epiduo, available from GP, is the most effective topical cream I’ve found - it’s a mix of benzoyl peroxide and adapalene (a retinoid). Worth a go, probably won’t sort it completely but will help.

Cerave - which one are you using - suggest the Blemish control or the Foaming/Oily ones

This is a good point! I only think it's hormonal as I probably get one week of really quite clear skin (always a problem with blocked pores though) and then 2 weeks of pretty meh skin.. then a week before my period it's sore and as described so who knows! Unless it coincides with my diet.. maybe a week before my period I crave more sugary food? I'm so unsure :(

I did start drinking 'fs greens' and hormonal balancing shakes a while back and it helped a little but not a lot.. I got sick of them but perhaps I'll have to try again

I use either the foaming facial cleaner or the SA smoothing cleanser. Can't say I've noticed much difference but makes my skin feel cleaner compared to other cleaners!

Thank you for the advice I will look into that!

Thank you very much! X

I will look into this thank you!