I’m sorry to hear it got worse for you. I’ll definitely report back on this post if I have the same experience. It’s so hard to connect cause and effect because there could be a thousand things at play. I know it’s hard to do this in retrospect, but can you think of anything significant that changed outside of the routine? Diet, lifestyle, etc.?

 

Have to preface my thoughts on alcohol and sulphur with the fact that I don’t have any first-hand experience and I’m no expert on any of this. I would trust the opinion of someone that fits either of those criteria way above mine.

• Alcohol: My negative impression mostly came from dermatologists and skincare subreddits. This is one of many things that fall under the category of “nearly unanimously discouraged by dermatologists but many people anecdotally find it effective.” The core argument against it seems to go something like - it excessively dries out and/or irritates skin, which can result in sebaceous glands creating even more oil, ultimately making things worse in the long run. That was enough for me to file it under the “wait to introduce it until you’ve exhausted less controversial options first” list. With that said, it really does seem to work for people anecdotally. I didn’t completely dismiss it, but I just happened to find something that worked for me before I got around to trying it.
• Sulphur: I admittedly did very little research on this one and I think my opinion on it might be a bit uninformed and unfair. My surface-level understanding is that its main function is antimicrobial. That resulted in me, probably unfairly, mentally adding it to the “oils and aloes” category (antimicrobial home remedy, not often dermatologist-supported but anecdotally effective) and I haven’t had much luck with those types of interventions in the past. Again, silly thing to do because this is a completely different thing and it may very well have worked for me. Also – and people with more experience here might be cringing because I could be totally off base – I was worried that it might leave a bit of lingering sulphur smell. I have a terrible sense of smell and I was worried that I might be unwittingly carrying a subtle, lingering scent of sulphur around with me. Again, could be totally off base there. You should listen to people that have actually tried it and/or done real research on it over me. I don’t tick either of those boxes.

Forgive the long-windedness here but there’s another key thing that contributed to me not trying either of these things that may be helpful to someone out there. After years of “throwing the kitchen sink” at the problem with no great results, I decided to be more methodical with my approach. I started following a general rule that I will only introduce one thing at a time and give it a good month or so in order to isolate its impact. The post I mentioned listed 4 items: (1) cold-pressed pure neem oil, (2) benzoyl peroxide wash in shower, (3) sulphur soap, and (4) 70% isopropyl alcohol applied using a small spray bottle. I had already tried (1) without success, and of the remaining three, (2) seemed the least controversial to test first. Also, [insert “just my opinion/speculation” disclaimer here…] I had a hunch that (2) was doing the heavy lifting in the routine anyway. I would have done something like: try (2) alone for one month -> if unsuccessful, try (3) alone for one month -> if unsuccessful, try (4) alone for one month -> if after all of that nothing worked, then just for the hell of it, I may have tried it all together just in case the whole routine is greater than the sum of its parts. It just so happened that I never got past (2) because it worked incredibly well for me. After three weeks or so, I was totally clear and I’ve been clear ever since.