[Skin Concerns] How I deal with irritation, dryness, and enlarged pores from Retin A (x-post r/tretinoin)

Beauty Tips For Body Care
I started tretinoin gel .01% last August, right after a big breakup and right before I moved to Russia for a year. Needless to say, I was stressed out, which is an acne trigger for me, and my face looked pretty bad. For the next 5 months, I used the tretinoin every single night, with little to no side effects, and only a slight improvement in the acne. So, I felt that I was ready to step it up. I ended up getting my hands on tretinoin cream .1% around January, and although I knew that it was a big jump from .01 to .1%, I felt that I had primed my skin enough since I had been using tret for 5 months.FATAL MISTAKE. I used the tret every night for 3 weeks--and I was finally seeing the flakiness that everyone talked about, and was actually excited about this because it spoke to the product's efficacy. I heaped on moisturizer and thought that would be enough. Then ,about three weeks in, I was out with some friends in St. Petersburg (about -15 Celsius in January, with crazy wind), and when I looked at my face in the mirror, I saw enlarged pores EVERYWHERE. I've always had them on my cheeks, but never on my forehead and chin. This was pretty devastating, and I read a lot online about people who say they never recover from this.So, I stopped applying tret for two weeks, and started applying more and more moisturizer and argan oil--which always stung upon application. However, after a while, it would sting less and less, and I could tell that my moisture barrier was getting stronger. I started applying honey masks every day for 30 mins or so, and found that this had the best effect of all, and that some of the enlarged/irritated pores were starting to get less noticeable. Eventually, I reintroduced tretinoin to my routine, and now use it MAX twice a week. Maybe in a couple months I'll get to three times a week. With the combination of .1% tretinoin and actually being properly moisturized, I'm finally seeing my skin's texture improve, and the acne is fading fast. So, learn from my story: introduce things SLOWLY, MOISTURIZE, and use an occlusive like vaseline or honey to lock in the moisture. Hope this helps some of you :~)
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by pseudo_sidekick