If you feel like AHAs/BHAs aren't working for you, you might be right!

Beauty Tips For Body Care
Hi everyone! Disclaimer: Everything I'm discussing here is 100% anecdotal. As with everything on this sub, YMMV.So, thanks to the advice and guidance of y'all at SCA, I started my skincare journey about two years ago. My skin had always been somewhat troubled: oily, red, prone to closed comedones and milia. When I started out, I was still relying on stuff like sugar scrubs to exfoliate my face, which obviously made matters worse. On the advice of this sub, I quickly eliminated that from my routine.I'd heard so much good about chemical exfoliation, that I almost immediately incorporated a BHA into my routine. I was still getting a lot of closed comedones, and if anything my oil production was getting worse. Concerned, I added in an AHA about a year later, alternating between the two.Matters quickly got worse: just a month before adding the AHA, I'd ended up with my first-ever outbreak of cystic acne (apparently, my skin doesn't get along well with CeraVe in the tub). I kept hoping and praying for the AHA and BHA to take care of it, but the issue persisted. And I seemingly had more closed comedones than ever before.Finally, about three months ago, I got frustrated with the arms race I'd gotten into with my skin and went back to a bare-bones routine - just cleanser and moisturizer. After that showed some improvement, I decided to try a Clarisonic instead of the acids, because wary of adding more products to the mix too soon.Guys, after two months with (gentle!) physical exfoliation twice a week, and no acids, my skin is better than it's been in years. I tried adding the BHA back, and broke out again literally overnight. I don't know if the problem is the acids themselves or something else in the solution, but whatever the case may be, my skin is so much happier without them.Anyway, all that to remind us all that if you think a popular product/technique isn't working for you, don't ignore that! Just because it works one way for most people doesn't mean that you're imagining things if it works another for you. Learn from my (year-long) mistakes :P
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by maeEast