Didn’t think skincare would work on me?
I’m 23 and never cared about skincare before because I thoughtt it was mostly a girls thing and that acne was just something I had to deal with. My skin was always breaking out around my cheeks and jaw and I mostly just used random face wash whenever things got bad. My girlfriend kept telling me my skin looked irritated and that throwing random acne products on my face was making it worse. She told me to at least try one of those skincare apps to figure out what my skin actually needed instead of guessing, so I gave Thea a shot mostly out of curiosity and so she can prove a point whatever. It scanned my face, pointed out that my skin barrier looked irritated, suggested keeping things simple instead of layering strong acne products. It recommended a gentle cleanser, moisturizer, sunscreen, adapalene a few nights a week. It also helped me keep track of what products were making my skin worse because I realized a lot of things I used didn’t work well together and were triggering my skin more.
Took a few months but the second picture is the first time my skin has looked calm in years. Still get breakouts sometimes but nowhere near as painful or inflamed as before.
EDIT: routine for the people asking:
AM: Vanicream Gentle Cleanser, CeraVe Daily Moisturizing Lotion, Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen SPF 40PM: Vanicream Gentle Cleanser, Tretinoin 0.025% cream (every other night), CeraVe Moisturizing Cream, Aquaphor on dry nights
Started on adapalene/Differin first then moved to tret when my skin could handle it. Did a low dose round of Accutane (20mg) after my derm saw how much my skin had already improved from the routine changes + tret. The Accutane wasn't the whole story though , simplifying first and getting on tret was what made the biggest difference. Accutane just cleared up what was left. Whole routine costs maybe $40to50 not counting the prescriptions