Help, Skin Is a Mess!!

A.,
I found that all those acne products made my complexion worse; especially salicylic acid! I use Ultra Calming Facial Cleanser by Aveeno and Clinique has a make up line for rosacea. I wash my face at night with the Aveeno to remove make up and in the morning I just use a white Dove bar (not the ice cream!). Sometimes less is more. I also was using an 'organic' make up brush that I was allergic to, so I use a synthetic one now. I RARELY ever use acne medicines. My skin has been 97% better by staying away from chemicals on my face.
Best of Luck to you!

The only thing that I am not seeing in your regimen that may help is to implement an oral antibiotic treatment-it's a tough road-but it is effective. My children had a lot of success with Neutrogena Skin ID-it is a system where everything is formulated to work together. Best of luck!

My heart is going out to you right now. The first thing I would suggest is to stop using everything and give your skin a break from the use of products. You say you try to drink a lot of water but just what is your definition of a lot of water? When I want to flush my system I drink over 1 gallon of water in a day. Trust me that is a lot of water but it gets the job done.

I tend to sway towards natural products. So I will do a bentonite clay mask (easy to make yourself). I have done avocado masks and oatmeal masks. To wash my face when I am having problems, I love black soap but generally stay away from using soap on my face. The bentonite clay does the trick nicely. As a moisturizer with astrigent properties I use raw coconut oil.

If I want to have flawless skin I try to drink 1-2 liters of water. I now add flavor to my water by diffusing fresh herbs and/or fresh fruit into the water. It's a very nice change.

I would also recommend perhaps trying some alternative treatments like acupuncture or acupressure.

You could also go to a dermatologist but be ready to loaded up with prescription drugs which usually deal with the topical but rarely the internal.

I say work on this problem from the inside out. Are there certain foods you are eating on a regular basis that cause you to break out? My main offender is peanut butter. I love it but it breaks me out.

Relax and give your skin a break. Lastly I would recommend a detoxing. I use Robin Anthony's Detox Trio. That seemed to help tremendously too. The products last a long time because you won't be detoxing every day but at least once a month of every other month or as needed. Success to you in trying something different and experiencing different results. Keep me posted.

There is an amazing product for wrinkles that is all natural. It can cause outbreaks initially because it is cleansing the skin of impurities, but check out the before and after pictures, amazing! Here is the link. http://nnazario.nerium.com/Default.aspx

Also, I have troublesome skin, and my husband has REALLY troublesome skin. My husband used to use Oxy Maximum Daily Face Wash, which contains 10% peroxide, and bleaches everything. But it worked for my husband, and I can't stress enough how horrible his face is, when it comes to outbreaks. He has extremely oily skin, and gets cystic acne. My skin isn't quite as bad, but oily in the T-Zone. I usually breakout during my cycles, and I get the cystic acne as well. I told my dermatologist about how tired I was of my husbands face wash bleaching everything. He told me that the best facial cleansers for my husband would be anything with peroxide, 5% or greater. He also told me that his wife has the same problem as my husband and that they buy white towels due to the bleaching power. He recommended Nourish All In One facial cleanser from Trader Joe's, and it has worked incredibly well, for both of us.

Now back to the Wrinkle cream. It's called Nerium. And both my husband and I are currently using it and after just 5 days we saw results. It was harder for me to notice immediately because my skin isn't terribly bad ugh wrinkles, but I took pictures daily, of every problem area, and when I put the pictures side by side, I noticed my smile lines had reduced significantly. My husband has forehead wrinkles and those were much more noticeably reduced after 5 days than my minor smile lines. My cousin is a rep for the company and I included her personal link above. If you want to try it, send me a personal message and I can let her know that I am sending you her way.

Best of luck to you.

I am thinking a few things:

Avoid fried foods and junky oil foods which is just about every junk food on the market (if you do eat them) ! A nutritionist told me this !

I have the video "Facercise" for the wrinkles. It has to be followed and cannot be used every so often.

Your face is on a pillowcase all night. Use the most hypo-allergenic laundry detergent possible. My face used to break out horribly when I used Tide yrs ago. Then, I researched and found out that the powder contains fiberglass in it.

Sugary foods break down the skin and age it. I now use organic olive oil and Bragg's vinegar. I bagged the corn syrup in the bottled dressings...and so many other products !

Sometimes, I just sit down and start at my jaw and tap my face lightly (always upwards) to give it some more "life". I do this for a good 3 minutes or so. There are muscles in the face !!!

I do not avoid the sun. I expose my face a tad to the sun about 2x a week for about 15 minutes each time. I wear sunscreen every day, aside for those 2 x a week...It helps to clear my face.

Acupuncture and acupressure is always an option. Even Reiki is fabulous !

Colon hydrotherapy. If you have not tried this... you will be amazed. Your skin erruptions are probably an indication of internal issues. It is a tad unpleasant to be sure, but you will see absolutely instant results. The hydration to your colon will clear your skin, reduce wrinkles, reduce headaches, improve mood, reduce cellulite, and improve your overall health. It's expensive, but so worth it.

Awe! It does sound like you have done a lot to care for your skin. I feel silly asking, but have you been to a dermatologist? More than one? do you get regular facials?
My sister had a lot of success with her skin and brown spots and pore size (she really liked to pick at her skin as a teen) with lasers and professional grade (from the derm) products. It took her about 5 years of trying over the counter stuff and two dermatologists before she finally found a solution for her.
If you have been to a few derms and it didn't help, than this is pretty useless advice and I hope it didn't waste your time.,but I do wish you the best of luck!!

i struggled with my skin for a long time. i definitely agree with the "less is more" advice offered by others. i went on an antibiotic (minocyclin) for a few months to get my skin cleared up, then found a maintenance routine that works. for the last 10 years, i have relied on the regimen prescribed by acne.org -- gentle face wash (i use bliss clog-dissolving cleansing milk), followed up with a layer of benzoyl peroxide (neutrogena on-the-spot acne treatment is a good one), then a light moisturizer (l'oreal youth code doesn't irritate my skin), 2 times per day. honestly, i don't drink much water, and my diet isn't the best, but my skin looks great!

I was going to recommend the same thing as Kimberly, give your skin a break. I was noticing that the pores on my face looked bigger and clogged last winter/spring. I washed my face with Aveeno face wash and used a pressed powder to "cover up" my skin along with other different make-ups. Over the summer, I got so busy that I just stopped wearing makeup at all. I also ran out of my face wash and started just using Dove soap. My pores now are not even noticeable and there are NO clogged pores anymore. The only things I use now are a night and day cream and occasionally a light powder foundation by Clinique. I also drink a ton of water.

I make a scrub w/ mix of lemon and sugar. Not sure about the wrinkle cream but vitamin e cream seems to work for some ladies. I use essential oils for moisture and acne fighting. Ex. are coconut oil, avocado oil and almond oil. For clogged pores there is a tool you can buy @ drugstore and maybe places like Target to remove gunk - comedone extractor. You can experiment with oatmeal & coffee for cleansing/scrubbing too.

My skin is like that once a month, and I'm finally starting to get the hang of it. Look for a facial cleanser that GENTLY exfoliates, that will help clean your pores and get rid of dry dead skin. Avoid apricot scrubs, they can do more harm than good.

After you cleanse, use a liquid acne treatment while your skin is still damp. Witch Hazel or Salicylic Acid work great (and also help reduce scars). Then use the most mild, gentle moisturizer you can find. Aveeno is good, right now I am using the Botanical moisturizer from Mary Kay. I would avoid too much anti-aging product right now until you get the acne under control, give your skin a chance to recover.

You may want to switch to a powder foundation, which can help absorb oil. Mineral powder foundations are great for this. If you use a liquid foundation that you apply with your fingers, that can make breakouts worse. Get a good brush for the powder foundation and clean it once a week at least.

Have you gone to a dermatologist and tried prescription medication. Something as simple as clindamycin topical could do the trick for you. It comes in a gel or lotion.

Also, have you tried the pro-active series? They sell it in a lot of malls nowadays.