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Adult Acne Blog - 2002
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, nurse, nutritionist, herbalist, or otherwise medically trained person.
I am an ordinary person who has suffered from adult acne since 1995 and have found no solution to my acne through conventional medicine.
August 17, 2002
posted by Colleen Shirazi at
12:43 PM (Pacific)
Well I've settled into Yasmin...it is still improving my skin, after 3 months worth. It works more slowly than Ortho Tricyclen. I would still recommend O.T. over Yasmin, but hell if you belong to an HMO that doesn't carry O.T., then Yasmin would be your next best bet.
Now I've tried Azelex 20% cream...a nice individual gave some to me. It's a good thing...my HMO (it's Kaiser btw) doesn't carry Azelex either! Or retin-A micro. Anyhow the Azelex is not as strong as Differin. It does work...but if I used only Azelex, I don't think it would be strong enough.
My plan is to use 3 or 4 products...Differin, Azelex, tea tree oil and clindamycin phosphate. I know you're not supposed to do that, you're supposed to stick with 1 set routine in order for it to work. But, nothing really works in the long run...if you continuously use something like Differin or even Azelex, it "burns" your skin and makes it itchy and red.
I haven't written about tea tree oil...you can get it at health food stores. A woman at my local store told me how to use it. You get some cotton pads or cotton balls...I went with the pads...she recommended the organic cotton ones (cotton is heavily sprayed with pesticides normally). You take a pad, wet it with water, fold it into quarters, squeeze out the excess water and open up the pad. You then carefully drop 2 drops of pure tea tree oil into the center of the pad and mush the pad slightly to distribute and dilute the oil. Then you use it like a Stridex pad on your face.
The brand is Thursday Plantation...because it comes in a dropper-top bottle. Buy the smallest one. Then, after it's empty, you can pop the top out and refill it with a cheaper brand.
Tea tree oil is an antiseptic...it helps the blemishes to heal faster. But that's all it does. If you had super mild acne, it might control it enough for you. Of course for me it's not enough...I like to use it in the morning after I wash my face. I let it dry before putting on makeup. Imo it's better than the clindamycin phosphate...it works as well, without making your face red or irritated.
It does smell strongly though, be forewarned. After it dries, it doesn't smell anymore.
So far...I've been fiddling around with these same products for a couple of weeks...my skin looks as good as, I feel, it's gonna get. Alternating Azelex with Differin has eliminated the lovely "shredded skin" look you get with Differin...and using tea tree oil whenever the Azelex gets to be too much, keeps my skin from getting itchy and "burned." But only Differin does anything with my forehead. *sigh*
The derm btw told me adult acne was genetically caused. I'm not sure if I buy that, but unfortunately it sounds right...it explains why you can't cure it. He said he does *not* recommend oral antibiotics except in extreme cases, where the side effects are outweighed by the benefits. He said there are two basic kinds of "mild to moderate" acne...the inflammatory kind (mine--pimples) and the kind where you get lots of blackheads and whiteheads, rather than pimples. Apparently the blackhead/whitehead kind, responds to stuff like clindamycin phosphate, erythromycin, etc. The pimple kind, that's where you use Differin, retin-A, etc. He said you could put cold cream on your face in the morning if you were using the Differin or retin-A routine, to get rid of the scaliness.
But I see it, as a tradeoff...I'd rather have somewhat more pimples, and no shredded skin (i.e. use Azelex as well as Differin). Overall the skin looks better. If you have all those flakes on your skin, you can't see the skin anyway, so it's immaterial if you have less zits!
Well that's my cheery adult acne thought for the day ;) I hope someone figures out something better soon but in any case, I think this new routine will be OK.
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