Acne Update: Dermatologist Visit & Current Skincare Routine

When you have hormonal acne, it's like your skin is bi-polar. One week, your skin looks pretty fantastic other than some minor uneveness and some blackheads. The next, it's like your chin just decided to have a party and invite some of its cyst friends over for drinks....and instead of going home, those cysts pass out on the couch and the next morning, you're rubbing your eyes in a hazy fog wondering WHAT IS THAT ON MY FACE? and WHY HAS IT MIGRATED TO MY BACK!? (seriously, bacne in the summertime, so not ideal).

Hormonal acne is a whole new beast. That's why when I saw my dermatologist two weeks ago, I inquired about getting on a treatment plan for my acne. My dermatologist agreed and put me on some meds and topicals for my acne.

Here's a breakdown of my new skincare routine:

Medication:

• I am taking one pill a day of Minocycline, a broad-spectrum tetracycline antibiotic. Please consult your physician before starting any new medication, I am not suggesting or recommending that you use this medication, this is just what I'm on.

So far, this drug has helped with my facial/hormonal acne but my bacne has not improved whatsoever. I do not want to be on the drug longterm. I will probably be on it for another month.



For facial cleansing I am using:

• La Roche Posay Effaclar A.I. gel cleanser (buy it here)
• Neutrogena Acne Stress Control gel cleanser (buy it here)
• Clarisonic Mia face brush- on my chin area primarily, also on my nose for blackheads (buy it here, in PINK!)

I never thought I’d say this, but I’m giving my Clarisonic a second chance. I read my friend Meg’s post about how her Clarisonic helped her hormonal acne so I started to use mine again in hopes that it would help me too. As I mentioned earlier, my skin is bi-polar. I will sometimes have 2-3 weeks of skin that is incredibly clear. So much so that my jaw nearly dropped when someone told me I had “beautiful skin” when I was wearing just a tiny bit of powder to a workout class last weekend. It’s like I cannot believe that someone would say that to me because I know what’s coming…eruptions. Massive, painful, deep-rooted, large cysts. I have to say that the combination of using the Clarisonic (I focus on my chin, jaw and nose) and applying the topical cream to my chin and jaw area has made me seen a significant improvement in pore size and frequency of breakouts. I also notice they seem to heal faster. Obviously the antibiotics are also helping, but the topicals seem to yield good results as well.


For topical facial acne treatment I am using:

• 1% clindamycin phosphate gel on my chin and jaw area only- I only apply this in the area it is needed. I don't believe in treating unaffected areas of the skin.
• Proactiv refining mask overnight preventatively and layered over the gel (buy it here)
• Mario Badescu Healing Cream- on flaking/peeling/healing breakouts only, as needed (buy it here)



For back cleansing and treatment I am using:

• Panoxyl 10% Benzyol peroxide wash--- I use this in the shower on my back---it's the highest amount of BP you can get without a prescription and came highly recommended by my dermatologist. I have mixed feelings because my bacne is very persistant and new breakouts seem to crop up daily.  I'll just be honest and admit that I'm glad it's not my face. I hate having bacne but at least I can cover it up with clothing.
• Clindamycin phosphate 1% foam, applied to back, nightly



If anyone has better recommendations for acne on the back or acne in general, especially what worked for your hormonal or cystic acne, please share them in the comments below! Thank you for reading,