Acne Adventures

About a month ago, I noticed that my dire skin situation was getting dire-rer. I had no idea why, I was being really good with the whole yoga breathing, eating lots of fruit, using my Shu Uemura balancing oil cleanser... but it was just getting worse. It really sort of died when Priscilla came for a visit - I'm guessing the extreme excitement just pushed it over the edge.

So I was ready to jump back on the whole oral + topical medication bandwagon - my drug of choice lately has been the pill Diane 35 and a combination of benzoyl peroxide and clindamycin.

But then Priscilla was all like - you should try Aesop products, it's awesome, it might work for you, it worked for me...

The thing is my dermatologist is of the opinion that no matter what cleanser/lotion you use, its all going to be the same because you're just the kind of person who gets acne. He doesn't exactly say all these things he just kind of isn't very helpful when I ask for suggestions about products I should be using. The most I've ever got out of him was, you can use Cetaphil if you like. It's a good product. Well thank you FOR NOTHING.

Anyway I decided to check out Kens Apothecary in Empire Subang and the SA there, Marznum was actually incredibly helpful.


She was not too excited about me wanting to get Aesop products because she was all like, it's not for acne! It's just for daily upkeep! You need acne fighting products. So she recommended Dr Brandt's Blemish Control products. Initially I wasn't sold because I mean, look at the guy, he doesn't exactly inspire confidence:

He looks CRAZY.

Anyway she was pretty convincing so I thought that I would try it so I bought the Blemishes No More To Go pack so I could try the whole system.

Since the pack comes with cleansing pads instead of an actual cleanser she suggested that I could try Eucerin's gentle cleanser because Neutrogena, what I was using, was way too "soapy" and that that was bad for acne. Okay... anyway I listened to her and got the Eucerin cleanser.

At this point she'd figured out that I would probably buy anything she recommended so she suggested the Aesop Chamomile Concentrate Mask. Which I also bought.

I started using the cleanser and Dr Brandt system immediately, along with Dalacin-T as a topical treatment. Within a week the intense cystic acne I had going on calmed down considerably. Now I can't say whether this was due to the Dr Brandt system or the Dalacin-T, but I'm willing to bet it's a combination of the two.

With that kind of success I went ahead and bought the full sized bottle of Dr Brandt's Blemishes No More Intensolution and the Oil Free Hydrator.

It's one month later and I'm happy that I made the decision to keep going on with the Dr Brandt products. Everything has really calmed down and its really clearing up. Still I am getting new, smaller spots so last week I also started on Mercilon as an oral treatment. Overall I'm glad that I'm using this stuff, even though it's definitely burning a hole in my pocket. The Aesop Mask is ok, I can't quite figure out if it's awesome or totally useless. It makes my face super matte for about an hour after I use it and then its kind of back to normal. It smells good though!

Dr Brandt stuff is super expensive in Kens Apothecary here so I've started buying the Intensolution from StrawberryNet since it's literally RM70 cheaper which is ridiculous. I haven't figured out where to get the hydrator cheaper but I'm working on it! I also splurged on the Dr Brandt sunscreen from Strawberry Net this week. I should get it next week so I'll do an update then.

Other than that I bought Laura Mercier Gentle Eye Makeup Remover from Kens Apothecary which was just useless - Lancome kicks its ass

and Marznum gave me this sample of Dr Brandt concealer which was also TERRIBLE. It was a terrible ashy gray color and could not conceal anything.

Oh yeah and Marznum told me to stop using Shu Uemura's Cleansing Oil because it clogs pores and guess what? It totally does. So sad. It cost me like RM99. Good thing I didn't buy the big bottle.