I never had a single acne until I was 16, then I turned into a pizza face. Nothing helped (mostly because i am so lazy I never used the treatments). I finally went on Accutane (the Nuclear Bomb of acne-solutions) and it solved everything for 5 years. Then it came back, but its cool because it made me learn about the Miraculous Retin-A (which has literally hundreds of clinical trials supporting its efficacy in reducing and preventing wrinkles, milia, blotchiness, stretch marks... seriously, Google Scholar "tretinoin + photoaging" and you will find dozens of trials showing that it drastically increases collagen production etc.
Also, super effective on acne.
This is how acne is made:
Your cells are constantly turning over and generating new ones. This means that the dead skin cells build up on the surface of your skin unless you slough them off by exfoliating (washcloth and soap is NOT SUFFICIENT).
Your skin has lots of pores and hair follicles, all of which secrete sebum (natural skin oils) to protect your skin. But when the skin flakes and the oil mix, they form a sticky cement that plasters your skin, clogs the pores and follicles, and causes oil to back up inside the pore and become infected.
Thence, pimple. Infection, body sends white blood cells to fight it, white cells then build up inside the pore and can't escape due to the cement, so the infection worsens and the skin SLOWLY re-absorbs the white cells (aka "puss" *shiver* gross).
The fastest way to defeat an acne is to simply lance (with a very thin, sterile sewing needle) open the blocked pore and allow the white cells to escape. Only do this once the spot has formed a white head. Go pretty deep into the pore, like 1/4th of a centimeter. If you are properly lancing, it should barely hurt. Otherwise, you are kind of missing the pore and just cutting your skin, not helpful. This is my biggest problem with this method. Lightly pressing the surrounding area will help in getting the white cells out, but if you push too hard, you will break a bunch of blood vessels and you will get a huge red blotch that will take FOREVER to go away (your skin sucks at reabsorbing stuff, like blood or puss *ew*). Put some alcohol or witch hazel on the spot to prevent re-infection, and some antibiotic ointment on it (like neosporin). Then put a bandaid (or, even better, waterproof tape) on the spot. This will pretty much give you miraculous results over night.
The antibiotic cream helps because it gets rid of the remaining infection in the pore.
To prevent acne, you can attack the pimple-creation process from any of 3 sides:
1) exfoliate the dead skin cells before they can mix with the oil
2) reduce the amount of oil your face secretes (only Accutane can do this)
3) Take antibiotics or apply antibiotic cream to prevent the infections
Easiest method is the exfoliation route. This is why you see all sorts of salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide scrubs (this is in all the acne products you can buy at the store). That's pretty much the only acne stuff stores sell. Not super effective because the acid content is soooo low. Most effective is benzoyl peroxide cream (10%, store brand) applied morning and night.
BE SURE TO MOISTURIZE A LOT because this helps heal everything ever (studies show!) and it will prevent you from getting all flaky and red and disgusting.
Coconut oil, glycerin, and petroleum jelly and the holy trinity of moisturizers. Put on a thin layers of coconut oil and then use your palms the rub the shit out of your face. This acts as a microexfoliator to remove tons of dead skin cells (mostly if you use a great acid peel/scrub beforehand). You will feel the cells ball up under your palms. It is disgusting and satisfying and prevents blackheads and acne.
I bought 20% salicylic acid peel and "glycolac" (glycolic acid and lactic acid) peels online from "skin solutions" or something (Amazing). $20 each, and by far the most effective way to exfoliate. PLUS tonnssss of clinical trials show that these acids stimulate collagen etc production. I use a little squeeze bottle, put a bunch of glycerin and vitamin e in it, then put a good squirt of each acid in it. Then I squeeze it on the miracle exfoliation cloth I told you about and wipe it on my face, leave it on while i shampoo my hair, then rinse well and rub/exfoliate for a while. Then 5 min after I get out of the shower I spend fucking forever rubbing my face with the coconut oil and my palms and I am amazed and grossed out by how much dead skin comes off. It feels really nice and gets a lot of blood flowing to the skin, which is very healthy for it.
Then lightly coat your face with a little vaseline to lock in the moisture and coconut oil (and glycerin, if you're not lazy) and you will get fantastic, glowing, soft skin in no time.
Also, spot treatments for stubborn spots (usually a combination of witch hazel and salicylic acid) are quite effective. Just remember to moisturize like crazy, and put on the antibiotic cream and cover it with tape (otherwise it rubs off on the pillow. There is legitimately a clinical study supporting how much more effective this is than without the tape. These dermatologists get away with murder, such simple studies!)
I have tons of dark red spots all over my face from "popping" my spots. This is because I suck at lancing. I hope you have better luck than me. But an alternative is to simply lance the white head and then put antibiotic ointment on the spot, cover with tape, and go to bed. This is pretty effective, and wont give you nasty eternal red spots or scars. I'm lazy as fuck and impatient though, so I don't always do this.
So: Exfoliate, peel to encourage collagen production and prevent wrinkles, and moisturize, and you will have amazing skin.
Holy grail secret, however, is Retin-A/tretinoin. All those beauty treatments you've heard about (Olay Regenerist, etc) use the non-prescription/less effective version of this stuff (called Retinol, because it is somehow different, and definitely farrr less effective). But these over-the-counter products have taken the beauty/anti-wrinkle world by storm, so you can only imagine how effective the Real stuff (tretinoin) is!
When you get a prescription from your doctor for Retin-A (they give it out pretty freely, just say you have acne) BE SURE TO ASK FOR THE GENERIC VERSION - CALLED TRETINOIN - it is SO MUCH CHEAPER, and just as effective. Retin-A's patent ran out years ago and the generic stole its invention and sells it for less. Yay!
This. shit. will make you beautiful forever. No blotchiness, no milia, NO WRINKLES, etc.
BUT BUT BUT BUT
It makes you much more susceptible to UV radiation so you MUST MUST MUST put a shit ton on sunscreen on WHENEVER you go out. Even 15 minutes in the sun is enough to fuck it up alot. Studies show that 80% of the aging we see on our faces is due not to AGE but to SUN DAMAGE! Never tan! It simply isn't worth it. If you must, avoid tanning your chest and face, which already get TONS of sun and look all gross and wrinkly when you get old.
Think about it this way - one tanning session will make you look marginally more attractive for about 6 months, but will fuck you up FOR.EVER. Till you die. Like 70 years of damage. Not worth it!!
NOOOOOO SUN DAMAGE. Luckily, big fat sunglasses are in. Get ones with wide sides that protect your crows feet area.
Seriously. You are going to be stuck with this skin for 80 more years. Take a little care of it now, and you'll be hot forever.
You say "I don't burn, I tan! That's ok, right?" It is better, but still very very bad. Your skin produces melanin (brown stuff, makes you look tan) as a DIRECT RESULT of UV damage. A tan is A BAD SIGN.
And that whole "base tan protects you from the sun" thing is kind of bullshit. It produces a natural sun protection factor (spf) of about 4. Worthless, not worth the wrinkles. Just use sunscreen, it sucks but it is the best thing you can do for your skin, even more than -dare i say it?- my beloved Retin-A.
Note:
I used to wonder why wrinkles persisted even though all your cells get replaced. Turns out that when UV radiation permeates into your skin it hits your dna strands and reacts with them by literally mutating them a tiny bit, so that dna forever programs your cells to regenerate all weird and wrinkly. That's why.
On sunscreen: zinc oxide is the most effective. It blocks both UVB AND UVA radiation, and UVA is most of what causes wrinkles. You can even buy at Walmart this little tub (store brand) of "transparent zinc oxide" and that stuff is cool, less unpleasant-feeling than the others, and you can mix it in with your moisturizer. Very effective.
Concentrate your sunscreen on your eyes, forehead, and nose. Dont worry about getting it in your eyes, it doesn't happen very often and its better than getting a fucking tan all around your eyes (like I did) like a fucking raccoon. I am now using fade-cream (hydroquinone, brand Nadinola, found in the ethnic beauty section of Walmart) to try to fix this but it takes forever.
Hey, also? Retin-a helps with dark circles. Nothing else does.
Except maybe Human Growth Factor, a new technology with some great clinical trials backing it up. I bought some. Very expensive, but I hate my dark circles and wrinkles. I bought mine on Amazon.
PERFECT SKIN FOREVER YAY!
Remember to use vaseline at night. It does NOT CAUSE PIMPLES, that's a myth, look it up, every study ever proves it.
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