Help! Acne!

I know that I primarily started this blog to post pictures that I take with my camera, but after reading a post on Lauren Conrad's blog about when you should visit the dermatologist and saw in the comment section how many women are suffering with cystic acne I decided to write this post.

This is a very difficult thing for me to write because I have people reading this blog who have obviously seen that I suffer with cystic acne but never discussed it openly with them, but if my tips help even one person out there then it's worth it :)

When my acne began

I began to get blemishes on my forehead when I was about 13-14 years old, back then I had absolutely no idea how to apply makeup or how to apply a concealer correctly so that I would hide my blemishes but also not look like I have a ton of makeup on.  So the end result was me going to school with literally a ton of makeup on my face and having the boys in my class make fun of me, as if having a face full of blemishes wasn't enough...

Thankfully the cystic acne that I got was mainly on my forehead and I would also get a few spots on my chin but that was about it, so I went to the hairdresser's and got bangs to hide the blemishes I had.  I now know that that could be the cause of more breakouts but at the time I didn't know any better, the bangs did the job of hiding my blemishes and making look like I have flawless skin and that was all I needed at the time.

Moving on to my uni years, I remember that at the time I would only wear makeup on my forehead since that was my problem area and I would not put anything on the rest of my face, lucky me right? Wrong, because little did I know that my acne would later on start moving downwards to my cheeks, chin and jaw line!

The current state of my acne

My cystic acne seems to be hormonal, and believe it or not I actually very recently learnt what kind of acne I have and what cystic acne means since none of the dermatologists I ever went to explained it to me!

Now unfortunately I have breakouts all over my face, on my forehead, cheeks, chin, and jaw line but it's mostly on my cheeks.

On a good day I might have just a couple of spots on my cheeks (big ones of course), or there have even been days when I would have no blemishes at all and I would only have some acne scarring.

My skin from time to time (usually at least ones a month) decides to have a freak out session and I get big, red, inflamed, angry looking blemishes which are either going to be all over my cheeks or concentrated on a specific area one next to the other.  What usually happens is that I will get what I call a ''line'' of huge blemishes starting from my dimples and going down to my jaw line, and that is always pretty much a straight line of big, cystic, red blemishes!

Granted that this will normally happen during that time of the month or when I get extremely stressed over something, since when I am calm and stress free I am mostly blemish free!

My miracle product

As many of other acne sufferers, I have also spent A LOT of money on acne products!  At this point I can say which products work for me and which don't.

The product that HAS NOT worked for me is benzoyl peroxide; whenever I decide to use it (usually when I am so desperate that I don't know what else to do), my face turns red and the next day it starts peeling like crazy!

The products that HAVE worked for me are salicylic acid and wait for it...SUDOCREM, yes the nappy cream! I got some really bad breakouts just a few days ago and I have been applying a product that contains salicylic acid all over my face and then I apply just a bit of sudocrem on the blemish itself and it has honestly worked wonders. It reduces the size of the blemish; it will either bring it to a whitehead or make it completely disappear!

I have just realized that this post is already getting too long, therefore I will end it here but if you guys want me to write a post about my full skincare routine or products that I use that haven't broken me out or what kind of pill I am now on then please let me know in the comment section below :)

P.S: English is my second language so please excuses any mistakes :)