What acne medicine do you use and do you like it?

The stuff you used as a kid sounds like benzyl peroxide which is an excellent product apart from the bleaching clothes thing.

Other stuff I’ve tried include lymecycline which is a once a day anti-biotic which was pretty effective while I was taking it but as soon as I stopped the problems returned. Adapalene cream which is a topical retinoid which was OK was even better when combined with benzyl peroxide at night followed by a gentle face scrub in the morning. I’ve also tried nicotinamide which is an anti inflammatory and supposed to make the redness go away however I think it was alcohol gel medium which dried my face out and caused a whole new set of problems. Never tried accutane but having seen the side effects in others I would have to have really really really bad acne before I even considered it (Doctor has offered it though).

What I find works well nowadays is cleansing toning and moisturizing day and night (I use Elemis products which I find work well with out leaving my pores blocked). I shave using a double edge safety razor and shave cream applied with a brush (goo in a can and multi blade razors cause a mess believe me switching was a real eye opener). I also use a face scrub and mask twice a weakish. The end result is my skin is in much better condition than ever before. Looking back a lot of the products I used were really harsh and probably caused as much problems as they solved. Most of the stuff aimed at oily spotty skin is about as subtle as a tactical nuke.

My number one piece of advice would be get into a daily routine. Doesn’t have to be complicated but stopping the spots ever develop is much more effective then trying to sort out the mess later. Oh and however oily your skin is you still need moisturizer preferably one with sun protection.

Acne free is a knock off of Proactive. When I use it consistantly, it works well. Can I ask what you use, because like you, I am always looking for a better product?

@ marissa – my wife uses Acne free to and it works well for her to. she also figured out that certain things she ate were trouble.

@ Bri L, I know that I should be more careful with some of the stuff I eat, but, well, I’m not…lol

I use PAC Perfect. I really like it—it generally keeps me acne free (I use it consistently the week or so after stressful events, but other than that it clears up stuff nicely and doesn’t bleach).

Oh! I think I used Acne free once! The packaging looks really familiar. It’s certainly cheaper, I’ll have to check it out.

Personally I always used Ivory soap – the bar, not the liquid. I’d make a thin paste of it and let it dry on the acne, then wash it off. It always dried the acne out pretty quickly. But that was probably very bad for my skin.

Go to your GP and ask to be referred to a Dermatologist. Its the only way to get the job done properly. A 3 month course of Roaccutane worked for me.

One warning about the Acutane if anyone uses it: I don’t know how many on this thread read the kidney answer I gave about my sister donating to her friend. Then the doctor mismanaged the meds and they lost the kidney.

Her brother used Acutane and committed suicide

http://www.mandjshow.com/videos/mj-investigates-accutane/

Obviously no one is saying us it and you will, but be aware of side effects.

i got something from the dermatologist once and i think it was called benzaclin. it was great. it’s a cream and you’re only supposed to use a very little bit. i would definitely say go with a prescription. don’t go for accutaine unless you have bad acne, because it has really bad side effects. i no longer use the benzaclin because it was only temporary.

I finally found a helpful dermatologist, and while she pushed lots of expensive crap (lotions and potions) that I didn’t need, she also put me on spironalactone for excess androgens. I finally have ok skin.

when i need a doctor i go to Bri L

Accutane was an option for me, but something about the “you have to be on two forms of birth control and sign this release form because the medicine causes birth defects” kinda turned me off. Now, I am on a suite of meds. I take Septra, Yaz (birth control), and I have two face creams: Duac and Differin. I have had wonderful results. And as people have mentioned above, the only real way to get rid of Acne is to go see a dermatologist.

the doctor is in

i use various products from the company Lush to combat acne. they’ve got several different face soaps for different skin types. i used to use proactiv, but once i tried out Lush, i completely stopped breaking out.

i was on the antibiotic minocycline for a couple months but then found out i was allergic and got pretty bad hives. that sucked. now I just put on some Differen stuff after washing my face with knock-off Differen soap. and then put moisturizer on.
I’ve done a thousand different things to my skin trying to rid it of acne, or spotty-ness but it seems like nothing really makes a noticable impact. ugh. i’m about 5 seconds away from giving up actually.

Oh, I’ve heard a lot of nice things about Lush, thanks joey!

I can’t believe this stuff is still around after about 20 years, but I used this:
link and it was the only thing that worked.

Oops…sorry, first time putting in a link. It’s called Acne-Statin