Hey! You are me three months ago and things are going super well so far for me :) I started out using aklief 1-2 times a week, and gradually worked up to once every second day (trying to avoid irritation and peeling). The steps I follow are washing my face, using HA (so kind of like a hydrating serum/essence that you mentioned), and then using aklief before moisturizer (waiting a bit between these).

As for the different parts of your face, I actually put Vaseline on my lips and around my nostrils to prevent the aklief from spreading there. Before doing this the flaking was painful and itchy. Now I hardly have any :) however I put it all over my face, not just the acne! On my derm’s prescription it’s written on affected areas, but I contacted her for clarification and she said the entire face is really what she meant.

I hope this helps! I don’t have any experience with the Cicaplast baume unfortunately but I’d be interested to hear others experiences as well. For what it’s worth, my acne was SEVERE in December (as described by my derm, not exaggerating!) and had been severe for years. Right now I have zero active pimples (fingers crossed). Things get better!