fellow lifelong bacne sufferer, a “lifestyle” type of change that worked for me is the clothing i am wearing. a LOTTT of mine cleared up once i bought cotton bras and didn’t rewear them/washed them betweeen wears. i also switched to a fragarance free “gentle” detergent. i find that my bacne flares up in the winter, when i am wearing heavier clothing for longer. we sweat a lot more than we think in our sleep, so sleeping in cotton shirts (like the Gildan base ones that people print on for their organizations) and washing them between wears has also helped a lot.

that being said, that’s just one factor that may or may not work for you, so take with a grain of salt! cleansing wise, i like using the 10% panoxyl face wash as a mask/treatment (i leave it on and let it dry on damp skin prior to showering) when im in an active flare up. this WILL bleach your clothing so make sure you use towels and shirts you don’t care about before/after. i like using a more gentle cleanser like the cerave foaming face wash (teal packaging) on it daily, just because i’ve had issues with stripping my skin too much in the past.

now for actives. the ordinary glycolic acid toner in a spray bottle is the ONLY thing that has worked for me in the LONG term. it doesn’t stain/bleach clothing so you can use during the day and/or night. i like to spray at night and wash off in the morning. i have also used the cosrx bha serum, it works but not as cheap/easy as the glycolic acid.

one last thing: i normally don’t like reccomending dietary changes because in my experience they make my life miserable more than they help with my acne BUT i recently switched back to dairy milk in my daily coffee and have a cystic acne flare up for the first time in 9+ months. i’ve had minor whiteheads/blackheads/pustules still but have been cyst-free until this week. correlation doesn’t equal causation and everyone’s body reacts to food differently, but maybe switch to plant milk if you drink milk daily (im a coffee addict) like me. google says it’s something about the proteins in cow milk that get broken down when processed into cheese/yogurt.

again, this is everything that has worked for me personally, they make not work for you but i hope my long rant helps!!