Blog posts : "acne"

Clindoxyl Gel Dependency

Do you develop a dependency to Clindoxyl Gel? In short, no. (See bottom of entry for dependency info)

I seem to be getting a lot of traffic for the search term "clindoxyl gel dependency," so I thought I'd make a more-to-the-point post than my previous blog entries about it. Clindoxyl is a gel that usually comes in a tube and does not require refrigeration. It is a mixture of benzoyl peroxide and an antibiotic. It takes up to 6 weeks (6 full weeks!!) To see optimal results and, between weeks 0 and 6 of its use, it might seem like it's making things worse.

In my experience, Clindoxyl gel worked wonderfully. At about 4 weeks of use, my face must have been 1.5 times worse than before I started using it, but after 6 weeks of use, my skin was amazingly clear and I went on to use benzoyl peroxide for a year or two with perfect skin until it stopped working.

Do you develop a dependency to Clindoxyl Gel? In short, no. You are prescribed this gel when you have moderate acne... This acne is not generally something that can be "cured" through topical ointments or gels. However, it is something that can be maintained or controlled through topical medications. Clindoxyl works by fighting bacteria that lives deep in your skin while the benzoyl peroxide acts as an antiseptic deep in your pores to help the antibiotics reach further down and to help bring oxygen to where it's needed. Once you stop using clindoxyl, you will break out... This isn't due to a dependency of the gel, it is due to your pre-exiting acne condition which you had previously been controlling with the prescription cream.

If you are well controlled with your clindoxyl, you can try using pure benzoyl peroxide as it might be better for you financially. I used clindoxyl for about 3 months prior to switching to straight benzoyl. I purchased mine from acne.org.

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Tetracycline Course Completed

I finished two months of the Tetracycline paired with Benzamycin (a topical gel that lives in the fridge, containing erythromycin and benzoyl eroxide). They both worked pretty well up until the last week. During the last week, I broke out in about five nodules. It was working so well, too. Oh well...

I wasn't really using the tetracycline properly, anyway. I had to eat something with it or I would throw up as I always did whenever I tried taking it as ordered -- 1 hour before food or three hours after food, never within a close time-frame of diary/calcium-rich or iron-rich foods.

The benzamycin gel worked alright... I really hate that it creates a large dependency on consistent use. You skip a morning or a nightly application and you will break out, without a doubt. When you are on a flip-flop schedule like mine, you can't really work a product like that into your schedule very easily. Not to mention the severe drying it does to your skin, the fact that it bleaches all hair it comes into contact with (eyebrows, surrounding hair line) and it discolours most fabrics... Uhg. I don't want topical solutions anymore. I'm sick of them and how much they limit lifestyle... I won't even get into the time I tried camping and came home with a polka-dot face, ha.

So now... I'm getting myself back onto the health wagon. It's time to stop eating junk food and restart taking my main vitamins; vitamin E and vitamin B (complex). I'm on day three of this, so we'll see how it goes. I want to exhaust all methods, even though I've tried most of them before. Last, last resort will be acutane which I would really love to avoid.

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Tetracycline Update

I have been having motivation issues the past week and a half! Along with Tetracycline, I started another medication which made my energy levels plummet the first week. I seem to be adapting now :)

Tetracycline is a huge pain in the butt. For the best results, you should take it one hour before eating or two-three hours after eating. You are also expected to avoid dairy products within one hour of taking it, though the warning should really be to avoid calcium-rich foods which includes soy milks, fortified beverages, dark green vegetables, some fish, calcium suppliments and so forth. Tetracycline has a tendancy to bind to calcium, rendering the drug ineffective.

So far, I have managed to get one new nodule since I started taking tetracycline. I heard that it is supposed to take a few weeks to start working, but it seems to have held the current breakouts at bay while almost eliminating new ones.

Side effects... I've thrown up once and have learned that I should be trying to take the second dose of tetracycline before supper time so that my stomach has time to digest it and so that the nasuea that it causes me can subside enough. I get nausea after I eat, before I eat, and while I sleep... Unfortunately, this is a minor trade-off for how painful the breakouts can be. I'm hoping my body will adjust to it.

The biggest issue I have with it is timing the doses. I'm thinking I'm going to try setting a new alarm up to go off one hour before I'm to get out of bed, then taking it and going back to sleep. Then I can have my coffee and I should be able to take the second dose 2-3 hours after lunchtime.

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Nodular Acne - I Know, It's Exciting!

I've been batteling with nodular ance since I was 21. In fact, I started breaking out shortly after my 21st birthday. As I've mentioned in the past, nodules are a step down from cystic acne. They are essentially the same thing, though they are smaller than.

When I first went to my doctor about it, I had already gotten to the point where I didn't want to leave the apartment for any reason. I was even embarassed to be around my family with the harsh looking break-outs. Not only are they an eye sore to look at, they are very painful and can sometimes be so deep that they cause numbness and facial swelling. Awesome stuff!

Anyway... For the first year and a bit, benzoy peroxide seemed to work pretty good, but I got the occasional breakout regardless of my religious face washing twice a day, application of benzoyl, and following that all up with a special formulated moisturizer. It left me absolutely paranoid of people touching my face at all and bleached each of my pillow-cases.

Then I tried going vegetarian, even went vegan for a while. I kept a great diet with no processed sugars in it for many months before I fell off the wagon and none of those changes to my diet helped at all. I tried supplements such as Vitamin E (helps complexion for sure), vitamin C, even the birth control pill all in an attempt to stop these constant break-outs.

I tried the oil cleansing method which helped reduce the number of breakouts, but didn't completely get rid of them and actually caused me to break out with pimples (white-topped comedomes) as well as blakc heads.

I tried quite a few other things. In the end, I had to come to the realization that these are not generic acne -- they can't be stopped alone. Off to the doctor I went for an Rx for Tetracycline. Finger's crossed!

There is ittle information out there on nodular acne and I look forward to sitting down and writing up a good informative article for those of you suffering from it, be it it through a friend, family member, or personally.

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OCM - The End

As I mentioned in previous posts, I stopped using the oil cleansing method. It stunted most nodules (cysts) from forming, however, it left my skin looking very unhealthy and it gave me a lot of white heads -- something I don't normally suffer from. In the end, I tried using a scant amount of oil, I tried steaming more, I tried washing my face with water afterwards, and so forth. It just wasn't working out. I hated how lackluster my skin was looking at the end of two weeks.

I usually stick with facial cleansing methods for 3 or more weeks before I throw in the towel or decide to keep going, but this was just getting to be too much. My face turned more red than it ever had from angry breakouts and it was just becoming painful... It was like trading the painful nodular acne for pustular acne. Nodules hurt like heck because they are so deep, but the pustular (white-heads) hurt because there were just so darn many of them.

On the brighter side, I found out that olive oil works incredibly well as an eye makeup remover. It takes waterproof mascara right off!

Right now, I've started the "Detox" kit I got from Beauti Control - it was actually a free gift for hosting a party. I was ridiculously relaxed lastnight after following the Detox kit steps -- make your tea, put on your mask, pour your bath with the bath oils, etc. I ended up in the bath  -- which smelled fantastic -- sipping on tea and drinking My Sister's Keeper, which I received from my mom on my birthday <3

In the end, the bathtub felt buttered up from the oils, but my skin felt amazing and so did my soul. I can't wait for tonight when I get to do it again :)   It also has a foot cream and a body cream, which also smell amazing.

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Oil Cleansing Method... Doing it Wrong?

I've been using the Oil Cleansing Method for nearly two weeks now... I have days that are just awesome, but I also have days that are just terrible. Today is one of those days. I woke up to a few painful spots on my face, whiteheads galore, and even a numb area on my chin. Yep. My acne will actually give me numb spots because of how deep it starts.

I had really, really high hopes for the oil cleansing method. I think I made a mistake by doing it every night. I'm now going to start doing it 2-3 times per week. On days that I don't clean it with the OCM, I'll use the cetaphil cleansing bar -- it's a non-soap that is non-comedomegenic.

On a brighter side of things, I actually haven't had a big issue with nodules since starting the OCM, sans the one that is cutting off sensation to a small area on my chin. There is a smaller-than-normal one starting on the side of my nosal bridge, which is pretty painful.

I still have high hopes for this one working. If this fails, the next step is oral antibiotics (nope, not acutane).... I'd like to avoid those as much as possible, since I'm a regular blood donor, but I will be selfish about this if I need to be! It's painful, darn it.

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Oil Cleansing Method

Yeash, how long have I been doing the oil cleansing method? I think it's been 11 days... Almost two weeks! Wow! It's going pretty good. I've learned that I started off using wash clothes that were WAY too hot for the steaming step. This created blotchy red skin, since I was burning myself without realizing it. Even though your skin won't tell you it's burning, you're still at risk for damaging it. Woopsies!

I've adjusted how I manage the cleansing method. I'll go into more details later, but I wanted to post something before I headed off to practicum just because I hadn't really mentioned anything about the OCM lately. I've had one single nodule break-out since I've started, which is pretty significant since I usually have one or two breakouts every other day. A few nodules were even surpressed and reverted back. I had one holy mother of all nodules on my chin that lasted three weeks which has finally gone into remission.

I'm not in love with my skin, but it's starting to look a lot better so I'm pretty darn happy!

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OCM Day 7?! Wow!

Alright... So tonight will be the seventh time I've cleaned my skin with oil. So far... No new nodules forming under my skin, and a few of them actually reverted. The bad side is that my skin doesn't look terribly healthy. It's not that it's greasy looking or anything, it's just missing a certain luster about it. Maybe it's just the terrible diet I've been eating lately - nothing but junk!

I have had a few small white heads pop up, likely because I'm not spending enough time steaming and removing the excess oil.

All in all... I'm not really sold on the oil cleansing method. I said I'd do it for 3 weeks, so I will continue to do it for 3 weeks. It's pretty good and it's cheap to do, but it's definitely not perfect!

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Oil Cleansing Method Day... 2?

So today is the third day since I've cleaned my face with anything other than soap paired with harsh chemicals. I'm really apprehensive about posting anything terribly positive... Because I don't want to jinx anything. I have 3 current nodule break-outs on my skin, which are from last week. I had two forming on Sunday when I started this and today, one is completely gone, and the other is small and not red. The pores on my nose look amazing.

I found out that oil is great at removing water-proof mascara! Fabulous :D

So far, I'm pretty content with it. I feel as though my skin is less oily during the day. Usually come afternoon, my skin is incredibly greasy and oily looking. Yesterday, it wasn't too bad at all. It was still kind of oily, but not nearly as bad as normal.

I'm trying to take daily pictures so that I can put together a neat little collage when my 3 weeks is up. I missed last night's photo because I crashed pretty hard after my daughter was in bed. I had only received 2 hours of sleep the night before and was back on my feet for most of the day in light of practicum.

I'm pretty happy with the OCM so far... I just hope that my skin continues to adjust to it like it has been.

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The Oil Cleansing Method

Today marks the first day of the oil cleansing method. What is the Oil Cleansing Method? It's not to be confused with "Oil Pulling," which is a very strange act I've come across today while researching the OCM.  The OCM is a method of cleaning your face without using harsh chemicals, soaps, or other things of such.

I'll give you a little background on myself. I had relatively clear skin all through high school. I'd have a single break-out each month for obvious reasons (hi. I'm a woman, have you met my endocrine system?) But other than that, flawless skin. Fast forward to my 22nd birthday, I'm greeted with a nodule. The next day, two more nodules. The next day, a few more. It got to the point where my entire jaw line and down my neck were filled with incredibly painful nodules.

Nodules are kind of like pimples/white-heads, but they never make it to the surface. They stay under the surface and are very painful. If you accidentally bump one, it will continue to give you a sharp, stabbing pain for a few minutes after the impact. This kind of acne is either rare or is understood. It took me a while to find the name nodular acne on Google. It is ranked underneath cystic acne and is considered mild-moderate acne. Some websites show it as a mild cystic acne form.

This is a self diagnosis, if you couldn't tell.

I ended up getting a prescription for Clindoxyl gel, which dried the heck out of my face and made me break out intensely for the first few weeks, but I stuck with it. I told my doctor I would use it for the full 3 months before I gave it up. As luck would have it, I started seeing noticeable improvement 2.5 months into it. I weaned myself off of that prescription and started using Benzoyl Peroxide from Acne.org. I should mention that I use Cetaphil cleansing face bars with this.

A year or so later, after enjoying clear skin, my face slowly started breaking out again. For the past 4 months, I've been using Clearasil's pads with salicylic acid in them. This didn't seem to improve my skin at all. I'm fed up with harsh chemicals that bleach my EYEBROWS and my pillow cases. Enough is enough.

I've spent the past week research the Oil Cleansing Method and today... Today we dine in glory *evil cackle* Not really. Today, I start the "OCM". Here's what I do:

  1. Have a blend of 30% castor oil, 70% olive oil (or any other oil you may want to try... Google it first!)
  2. Massage the oil into your dry skin for a few minutes
  3. Take a STEAMING hot cloth (don't burn yourself) and place it on your face.
  4. Relax. Let it sit there for a while. Let the cloth cool down to room temperature.
  5. Rinse the cloth like heck, massage your face again.
  6. Make the cloth hot again and put it back onto your face and relax.
  7. Gently wipe the oils off of your face with the cloth.
  8. Repeat steps 6 and 7.
  9. Splash your face with cool water.
  10. Pat dry
Tada! I'll post before and after pictures in about 3 weeks... If the results are positive. Ha!

 

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