Hi All! Sorry this is so lengthy 😅I’ve been on .025% tretinoin cream since late November/early December 2025 for acne. For the first month it looked like it was going well (some of my acne was clearing up), but since early-mid January 2026 I started breaking out again quite a bit. I thought it was initial purging, but it has been already been 17 weeks. I went back to my derm the other day, and they upped me to .05%, but I’m starting to worry that tretinoin just isn’t going to work for me. For context, I’ve had pretty bad acne all my life (since I was 12), I previously was prescribed tretinoin when i was a teenager and it didn’t work (but teenage me didn’t really know how to use it correctly so I hold hope it was just user error 😅). I had been on a good amount of other creams since then that didn’t help either, and eventually took accutane. That seemed to be the only thing that worked. After awhile, though, after the accutane I started breaking back out again. I really don’t want to go back on that medicine, it wreaked havoc on my body with the side effects, and I really am hoping tretinoin will work out (see everyone’s before and after make me so excited!!😊) I’m wondering/hoping it may be my routine causing it to not work? I’m desperate so any advice welcomed!! Let me know:)!! Here’s my routine:
AM:
Cerave gentle foaming cleanser
Natrium milky bright toner
Tony Moly Wonder ceramide mochi toner
Cerave daily moisturizer
Skin Aqua Tone Up Uv Essence sunscreen
PM
Byoma Milky Oil Cleanser
Byoma Milky Moisture Cleanser
Tony Moly Wonder ceramide mochi toner
Dr Althea 345 relief cream
(wait 15 mins)
Tretinoin
(Wait 30 mins)
Peter Thomas Roth water drench moisturizer
Sometimes an additional moisturizer since it’s cold in my area (another layer of Dr Althea or Tatcha water cream)
I also sometimes used a serum in my sandwich method instead of a first layer moisturizer, the serum is eminence kombucha micro biome luminosity serum, but have cut back on that as my skin barrier was getting messed up. I do this routine almost every night, I skip usually once or twice a week bc my barrier will seem compromised. Let me know if there is any questions or anything! Thank you for reading this I know it was a lot:))