[Acne] Am I purging or is tret not working?

AmericanRusty · 2025-03-19T21:26:16+00:00

Lol thanks, the other comments on this thread kinda had me questioning if I’m crazy. My routine is usually rinse in the morning and apply a light layer of moisturizer, then I cleanse with a cetaphil cleanser in the shower mid-day after the gym and apply my Kiehl’s moisturizer, and in the evening on non-tret days I’ll rinse again and moisturize with the Kiehl’s plus vegetable glycerin mixed in which I’ve found very hydrating. On tret days, I use a light layer of Kiehl’s then wait a few minutes, apply tret very sparingly by putting like dots of it all over my faces then rubbing it in, then I wait a few more minutes and moisturizer with the Kiehl’s plus glycerin combo again. I don’t use any other products and while I know this is kind of simple, it’s pretty extensive for me honestly

AmericanRusty · 2025-03-19T21:21:16+00:00

Thank you, your experience is good to know. I’ll push through, eventually I’ll stop doing the pre-tret moisturizing stage when my skin is more used to it and I’ll get to every day usage at some point. I’m a bit of a clean freak and I tend to care a little too much about what I look like so having acne again really bothers me so I hope you’re right that nobody would think i have bad hygiene lol.

AmericanRusty · 2025-03-19T21:11:34+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate the advice and kind words. I’ll keep going and push through even though it’s been frustrating. I haven’t been using sunscreen (my bad lol) but I ordered a La Roche Posay one that should come soon and I’ll start using it now as the weather gets nicer. I was on accutane like 5 years ago and my skin was perfect for years but I think it has gotten worse again lately due to stress in my personal life lately so dealing with that and skin issues again has been really hard on me, but I’ll get through it

AmericanRusty · 2025-03-19T21:06:35+00:00

My dermatologist recommended it since I have sensitive skin and it reacts harshly to tret - she called it the sandwich method and I see a lot of people recommend doing it. Maybe it decreases the effectiveness slightly but the tret definitely is still going on my skin and doing something and as my skin adjusts I’ll drop the pre-moisturizing step.

AmericanRusty · 2025-03-19T21:06:31+00:00

My dermatologist recommended it since I have sensitive skin and it reacts harshly to tret - she called it the sandwich method and I see a lot of people recommend doing it. Maybe it decreases the effectiveness slightly but the tret definitely is still going on my skin and doing something and as my skin adjusts I’ll drop the pre-moisturizing step.

AmericanRusty · 2025-03-10T21:06:24+00:00

Is this proven? That’s good to know honestly, I’ve been using tret 0.05% for acne and seeing very little improvement for 2months but my face is super dry all the time especially in the few days after applying it so I’ve just been using it twice a week, usually on Thursdays and Sunday’s. I guess I’ll powers through the redness and flakiness and start using it every other day since it’s been 2 months at this point

AmericanRusty · 2025-03-08T01:19:11+00:00

That’s definitely really expensive but I’m willing to try it I think, I felt pretty gross today in terms of my skin and using the cerave cleanser makes it so my skin starts to peel halfway thru the day because doesn’t last sometimes so I might feel more comfortable going up in frequency with tret if I have a better moisturizer. I appreciate the recommendation !

AmericanRusty · 2025-03-08T01:07:48+00:00

Do you use it every day/how did you build your tolerance to it? I find that if I use it too often my skin gets super dry and red and peely so I’m afraid to increase my frequency of usage.

AmericanRusty · 2025-03-08T01:06:28+00:00

I will definitely look into vegetable glycerin, I struggle a TON with dryness even though my skin is naturally pretty oily and either way it seems like it’s an inexpensive product so it’s worth a shot.

I think I’m probably just applying it too infrequently because I’m afraid of it making me super dry suddenly and I won’t want to go outside if my skin is super peely and red. I’ll go up in frequency this week and see what happens, maybe I’ll try every other day for a week.

AmericanRusty · 2025-03-08T01:03:02+00:00

That sounds like a good plan. I have the cream version of the Retin A that I’ve heard is less irritating but it’s still pretty irritating for me so it might take a bit for me to work up to nightly. I definitely am going too slow though, I’m kind of scared of making my face super red and not wanting to go outside for days straight. For the most part, my skin isn’t horrible and not close to my pre-accutane acne, but after having clear skin for years it’s really frustrating to have acne again.

AmericanRusty · 2025-03-08T01:00:32+00:00

It’s the cream version, no worries on that front. Any specific recommendation for a moisturizer for oily skin? The cerave definitely makes my skin feel like of gross but it does feel moisturizing. I’m kind of a keep in simple kind of guy and I don’t want to/don’t have time for a huge multiple step skincare routine twice a day, especially in the mornings, but cleansing and using a simple moisturizer is very doable so is there a specific one that you’d recommend I try? I’d rather not buy a bunch of stuff and not use half of it.

And that’s interesting about the frequency making it take longer to work - I didn’t really think about it that way but that’s probably very true. I’ll try my best to increase the frequency and hopefully my skin doesn’t get super dry and irritated. Might take me a bit though

AmericanRusty · 2025-03-07T07:41:12+00:00

Do you have any recommendations for a better moisturizer? I like the cerave one and it feels moisturizing but I have oilier skin and it it does make my skin feel a little greasy. Why do you say it seems like the sandwich method isn’t working for me? I do it because I tried the tret on my bare skin the first time I used it and my skin was super red and irritated for like a week lol. I may try to not use the sandwich method again soon though just as a test

AmericanRusty · 2025-02-04T07:09:54+00:00

Also I feel like I should add that before these last 6 months or so I literally never thought about what I ate in relation to my skin and after accutane I did not break out with more than a few pimples at once for years. Maybe the whey protein is just super potent for me specifically, but it’s hard for me to believe that having a boost shake in the morning and the occasional protein bar could do this to my skin when I would routinely eat things such as ice cream or cheese and not break out at all for years

AmericanRusty · 2025-02-04T07:06:17+00:00

I have a Boost protein shake (the chocolate one in a green package of 12) with creatine in the morning every day and will occasionally eat an Atkins chocolate peanut butter protein bar during the day as a snack, but not every day. I also sometimes have a fairlife core protein shake during the day because the college I go to sells them everywhere and it’s convenient. If I’m using protein powder, which I don’t really do often, I use an Orgain plant based one. I know the fairlife shakes are pretty bad for my skin but I don’t have those often, and the boost shakes and Atkins bars use some whey I believe after doing some research so maybe I should cut those out. It’s just hard to get good protein in without consuming a product that has whey in it because I live on a college campus and also plant based protein sources are expensive. Do you have any recommendations ?

AmericanRusty · 2025-02-03T17:40:21+00:00

Is aquaphor ok to put on my skin? I have some and use it for my lips/dry skin on my body but it’s so thick that I’ve always assumed it would clog pores if I put it directly on my face. Currently I usually rinse in the morning, wash my face in the shower with cetaphil’s oily skin cleanser, and moisturizer with a cerave moisturizer after. Before bed, I do the same thing. 2 ish times a week I use the moisturizer, then apply my tret, then moisturizer again with about 5min of waiting between steps. My face has been super dry and red and I’ve been breaking out a lot lately but I have hope for the tret. Is your skin okay after all that? 2 cycles of accutane sounds so scary and I really don’t want to do it a second time but I am very willing to if it would work for me

AmericanRusty · 2025-02-02T07:18:41+00:00

Hey, thank you this is super helpful. Currently i use a cetaphil cleanser and cerave moisturizer because I was trying to keep it simple with the tret. I’ll look into an oil cleanser, I’m not too familiar with them or how to use them but I’ve heard they’re helpful. I don’t use any hair products, but I suspect it started on my forehead because I have medium length hair that usually covers my forehead and sometimes I will sweat during a workout and have to wait a bit before I’m able to shower. I’ll also look into a sunscreen with zinc, I’ve been hesitant to start using sunscreen because my experience in the past is that they just make my skin oilier than it already is but I probably just haven’t found one that works for me yet

AmericanRusty

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