Beauty Tips For Body Care
I've been struggling with closed comedones for the past couple of years. I used to have perfect skin until I quit birth control, even though I didn't have acne before BC. I tried every chemical exfoliant, benzoyl peroxide, physical exfoliation, every cleanser, moisturizing, not moisturizing, and finally went back on birth control (Yaz) about a year ago with the CC's chronically appearing on the lower half of my face. I read about fungal acne, so I tried the ketaconazole shampoo mask the other night, which made my lower face skin turn into a very dry bumpy rash. I had not been moisturizing for months (during which, incidentally, my skin had gotten worse..I didn't make the connection LOL) bc I was afraid of it clogging my pores, but after the shampoo caused this scabby dryness, I decided to moisturize and apply vaseline over it. I woke up the next morning with the rash almost gone and most of the closed comedones I had before using the shampoo gone, as well! So I vowed to cut back on my actives (I had been using AHA and BHA, benzoyl peroxide, AND urology with .09 Tretinoin at night), just cleanse and moisturize and seal it in with vaseline at night. Over the next couple of days, the rash and my closed comedones almost entirely cleared up and my skin was finally no longer flaky and covered in red blotches. I started incorporating The Ordinary Squalane Oil below my moisturizer and vaseline at night.This is my skin now. I don't have any before pics because I have body dysmorphic disorder and taking pics of my skin would only trigger me. But it was extremely bumpy and red. I haven't had skin like I do now since my initial CC break out years ago! I think that initial break out was hormonal, since it occurred 3 months after quitting BC, but that a some point my hormones must've improved and I was just irritating and dehydrating my skin with all these actives I thought I needed, causing further closed comedones (I never rly suffered from inflamed acne. The CC's would also never purge, I always had to manually extract them and they'd have a hard clog inside).My routine:Neutrogena gentle daily cleanser (used to be avene's dermo cleansing milk, but it was discontinued)TO Squalane oilAvene Skin Recovery CreamAdd vaseline over it all in the PM.Listen, I was so scared of cutting back on actives bc I was SO convinced that my face would only be worse. But if nothing has worked, see what happens when you cut out actives. Even if it doesn't clear your acne, your skin might be calmer and at least from there you can build a better routine and actually see what's affecting your skin instead of throwing everything on it. I definitely had to use skills from therapy (I'm in DBT therapy for BDD and BPD) to calm myself when I got anxious over potentially breaking out, but I'm so glad I saw it out. It's been over two weeks now that I'm off all actives. I tried BHA the other day just for exfoliation purposes and i woke up with bumpy skin/'closed comedones' (not sure if they were CC's at all?), which calmed down with oil/moisturizer/vaseline combo. I'm not gonna lie, it's only been a relatively short period of time so I'm very nervous if my skin is somehow still affected by the tretinoin i was using for years and that it's gonna explode at some point...but I'm trying to relearn faith in my skin, which I also feel is so important for anyone dealing with acne or recovering from it/emotional trauma caused by our skin.
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by sofiacarolina
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