Acne.org Products
Hey everyone! I've been on this site for years and I'm FINALLY starting the regimen. I started having acne when I was 13, and it got a lot worse after once I turned 15. In the spring of my sophomore year of high school after trying out multiple over the counter products that didn't work, I went to a dermatologist. My dermatologist gave me Aczone (a topical antbiotic) to use in the morning, and Epiduo (adapalene and 2.5% benzoyl peroxide) to use at night. The medications I used worked pretty well, and I was decently clear up until the beginning of my senior year. After that however, things went downhill. I started getting more and more acne out of nowhere despite using my medications the same way the whole time. I had no idea what was going wrong, and why my acne came back. In the beginning of summer 2012, right after finishing senior year of high school, I decided to stop using my prescriptions and try something else.
This is when I went on my failed holistic journey.
I looked into the connection between diet and acne, and I researched/watched tons of youtube videos on foods that cause acne and how the digestive system is related to acne. I learned a lot about what foods to avoid and why, and how some foods can help acne. This grew into an obsession. I tried many things from cutting out all dairy/wheat/soy/sugar from my diet, to drinking a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar every day (which made me throw up after about a week), to putting salt/vinegar on my face every day, to never drinking any liquids with meals because of the fear of the liquids interfering with digestion. It was horrible, because I would never want to go out and eat with my friends because they would always want to eat fast food and a lot of stuff that I didn't allow myself to eat. I wouldn't want to hang out with anybody, including seeing my relatives, because I didn't want them to see how bad my face got.
Worst of all, my skin was getting worse and worse every week, and in my job (part time karate instructor), some of the kids were saying things like "you look different...it's your face! there's something different about your face!" and "what HAPPENED to your FACE??" very loudly so that everyone could hear, which made me so embarrassed that I would sometimes avoid those specific students during class. And whenever a new student joined the karate school, I would see his/her face squirm in disgust the first time he/she saw me. This made me hate going to my job, and my self esteem and self-confidence got a lot worse.
College was approaching, and at the end of the summer I decided out of desperation to quit trying to cure my acne holistically and to use my medications that I still had at my house. I didn't want to go through another terrible acne relapse, so I decided that if the medications work as well as they did before, as soon as my freshman year is over I will try the acne.org regimen. My skin got a lot better throughout freshman year, and it got almost as good as it was before my acne came back at the end of senior year. But I still remembered how badly my acne came back, and I knew that the medications would eventually lose their effectiveness again (which I think happened because Aczone is a topical antibiotic, and antibiotics usually stop working after a while).
Now here I am fulfilling that promise I made to myself 9 months ago, to finally start the regimen. I bought the acne.org 2.5% benzoyl peroxide treatment and AHA+ which I will use in a month after my skin hopefully gets used to the BP. I am also using basis sensitive skin bar as my cleanser and cerave moisturizing lotion as my moisturizer. Since the directions say to apply BP once a day for the first week, I will still be using Aczone in the morning and doing the regimen at night. But when week 2 starts, I will be doing the regimen morning and night, and hopefully I can find a good sunscreen to use by then.
Hopefully this will be a successful log (I will be updating it every week), and I want to thank everyone who made their own logs and shared their progress. You guys have really inspired me to start my own journey on the regimen, and hopefully I can get clear skin as well!
My acne isn't so bad right now because Aczone and Epiduo are decently effective, but the main thing is if the regimen can make my acne even better and if it can be more effective than my previous medications.
If you want to see how bad my acne was last summer during when I was trying to be holistic, I have a picture of my forehead in my gallery... it's pretty bad, so I don't want to put it on this page because I don't want people to have to look at it whenever they click on this thread haha.
I've experienced just about the same thing. I went to the derm at 15 and got prescribed Aczone too, and I pretty much used it everyday for a year, but it eventually stopped working, and that's when I started the regimen. I think that the drying effect of Aczone and BP are similar, so if your face was used to the Aczone, you shouldn't have a huge problem with dry skin. That's what I've experienced, at least! Good luck, I think the Regimen will do wonders for you 
Week 1 Update:
It's been one week since I started the regimen, and it has been going a lot better than I expected! Since I used epiduo for almost a year, it took almost no time at all for my face to adjust to using Dan's BP. Some days my cheeks are a little red but only for like 30 minutes after putting on BP, it irritates for a little bit and then goes away. My face has improved pretty well, I had some pimples scattered around my face like on my forehead, chin, cheeks, and temples, but now my face is pretty smooth and I have pretty much no pimples except for my cheeks which still have 1-2 pimples on each side. I increased doing the regimen to twice a day on Sunday, and I am using about 1/3 finger's length of BP right now. Since my cheeks are the only areas that still get a few pimples, I'm going to keep on increasing the BP I use on my cheeks, but keep it the same everywhere else for now since I'm clear pretty much everywhere else. Yesterday I bought a sunscreen, Neutrogena Clear Face SPF 30 and it's pretty good. I haven't broken out from it all, and my face doesn't get itchy anymore from going outside which is good.
Since I feel like my skin adjusted well to the BP, I decided to try using AHA+ last night. I didn't feel any stinging sensation, which is weird because apparently when you put on AHA+ your skin is supposed to sting a little. This morning my red marks did not appear noticeably less red, but I will keep using it at night every 2-3 days and hopefully it'll help fade my red marks faster.
Thanks everyone for your replies, and I wish all of you well on your journey to clear skin!
Week 1 Update:
It's been one week since I started the regimen, and it has been going a lot better than I expected! Since I used epiduo for almost a year, it took almost no time at all for my face to adjust to using Dan's BP. Some days my cheeks are a little red but only for like 30 minutes after putting on BP, it irritates for a little bit and then goes away. My face has improved pretty well, I had some pimples scattered around my face like on my forehead, chin, cheeks, and temples, but now my face is pretty smooth and I have pretty much no pimples except for my cheeks which still have 1-2 pimples on each side. I increased doing the regimen to twice a day on Sunday, and I am using about 1/3 finger's length of BP right now. Since my cheeks are the only areas that still get a few pimples, I'm going to keep on increasing the BP I use on my cheeks, but keep it the same everywhere else for now since I'm clear pretty much everywhere else. Yesterday I bought a sunscreen, Neutrogena Clear Face SPF 30 and it's pretty good. I haven't broken out from it all, and my face doesn't get itchy anymore from going outside which is good.
Since I feel like my skin adjusted well to the BP, I decided to try using AHA+ last night. I didn't feel any stinging sensation, which is weird because apparently when you put on AHA+ your skin is supposed to sting a little. This morning my red marks did not appear noticeably less red, but I will keep using it at night every 2-3 days and hopefully it'll help fade my red marks faster.
Thanks everyone for your replies, and I wish all of you well on your journey to clear skin!
Great to hear your face is doing so well but don't move too fast cause before you know it you'll start getting dry, flaky skin!
Week 2.5 Update
Hey guys, sorry I took a while to update I just got back from a vacation. During week 2 I noticed my skin start to get more flaky and dry, and my face would sting after putting moisturizer over BP. So I switched it up (thanks to thereisalwayshope's advice), and I tried using moisturizer before BP. After trying it for a few days, my flakiness was gone and the stinging was gone! Best of all, the BP still worked just as effectively. I recommend anyone who is dealing with dryness to try this, it really works! I did get a few pimples between my eyebrows and above my lip this past week, but that's probably because I slacked off and didn't put enough BP on certain areas on my skin. I'm still trying to get the feel for how much BP I should be using, and I'm trying to increase it every week but it's kinda tough because I feel like I'm using so much already!
Thanks for everyone who is keeping up to date with my log, and I'll definitely be keeping up with all of your logs as well
Thanks haha, since I bought the 8 oz benzoyl peroxide I don't know exactly how much I'm using, but I'm using roughly 1/3-1/2 finger's length of BP. It's not a very thick finger's length either, so probably not as much as I should be using. I'm trying to increase it every week, but I feel like I don't need a FULL THICK finger's length. One pump and a half is better than having to use 2 pumps! How often do you have to buy new BP?
I see, well just keep logging at how your skin is doing and you can judge how much BP you will need like you are doing now. One BP lasts me aroundddddd¦¦3 months? I think three months at least haha. I but the big 16 oz one because it is a better deal than the tube one you are using
Week 3 Update
Skin is still doing well, except I got a few pimples on my chin and jawline last week. I guess I'm going to have to increase the BP I use there! The dryness has gotten a lot better, but I noticed that when I was on vacation last week I would skip moisturizer at night for a few nights when I felt my skin was not dry at all, but then a few days later my skin would get really dry. So from now on I'm going to be putting on moisturizer twice a day for sure, even if my skin is not dry. I slept over at my cousins' house a few days ago and missed an application of the regimen, but surprisingly I didn't really get any new breakouts during the day! Back then when I used to use aczone and epiduo, if I waited more 14 hours after putting on aczone, I would start to get more acne. But this time I was fine after almost 24 hours!
I'm going to try to find a good moisturizer that has 30 SPF in it, it's so time consuming to put on moisturizer, then BP, and then sunblock every day. Right now since it's summer it's not really a big deal, but during the school year when I usually don't have much time in the morning to get to my classes, having to spend an additional 15 minutes waiting and putting on sunblock will make things pretty tough for me. Other than that, everything is going well and I'm happy with the regimen! It's been almost a month since I've been on the regimen, so I'll probably start using AHA+ once it has been a month, and hopefully that'll help fade my red marks, which is my biggest problem about my skin right now.
Good luck to everyone, stay persistent and get clear!
I don't wait the full 15 minutes anymore haha. It sucked waiting so long. I think after I was clear i waited 5 minutes! And wow the difference it made is incredible. I did not like waking up so early just to use the regimen before school beganyuck.
Anyway continue to do what you are doing! We need updated pics!
I just started using AHA+ today, so I will definitely upload some pics once I've used AHA+ for a little while. My skin doesn't look too different from my first pics haha, since I didn't have many active zits to begin with the only difference is my red marks are a little better and I have 0-1 actives on my cheeks usually. I have a question about AHA+ though thereisalwayshope, I know that you use moisturizer before BP, but if you are still using AHA+ are you also using that before BP? And are you still doing glycolic acid peels?
Week 7 Update
Wow, it's been forever since I've made a post! I've been busy on vacation/other things so I haven't much time to update my progress. I tried AHA+ for a week and everything was going fine, but then over the course of a few days I got a painful pimple on my chin, on the side of my mouth (where I almost NEVER get pimples) and in between my eyebrows. I think it had to do with the AHA+, because I haven't had a breakout like that since before starting the regimen, and around the time of this breakout my diet was very clean. So I stopped AHA+ for now, and I'm wondering for all of you who use AHA+, did you break out in the beginning? And did that go away?
My acne overall is getting much better though, I use pretty much a full finger's length but it's not very thick, I may or may not increase the amount soon.
Also, I noticed my CeraVe moisturizer has parabens in it, are parabens all that bad for you? I REALLY like the moisturizer, but if it has harmful ingredients in it then I don't want to use it anymore. I'm thinking of switching over to the Cetaphil moisturizer because it doesn't have parabens, does anyone have experience with that one or both?
I'll probably post pictures sometime soon, my skin does look better than the first, but it's not that noticeable. AHA+ made a pretty good difference in my skin, I really want to start again but I'm unsure if my skin will like it or not haha.
Don't get discouraged with AHA. It broke me out at first and it may be bringing up acne that has been stubborn but I think we have to give it at least a month to see if it will work for our skin. How often are you using it and are you diluting it? I started using it every 2 days and I am now up to using it every other day mixed in with moisturizer.
I wouldn't worry too much about it. It broke me out on my forehead , an area that I was previously clear in but the BP is keeping it calm. Can't wait to see progress pictures
Good Luck
Congratulations on getting this far! Moisturizer before BP sounds really interesting... I've been reading a lot about it, and have been wanting to try it myself...
Also for some reason, the CeraVe Moisturizing Lotion made my face burn sooo bad after I put it on... my skin wasn't even reacting that badly to BP, but something about the moisturizer just set my face on fire 
My skin turned bright red, like I'd been sunburned. Four hours later, the burning sensation still remains on parts of my face... I reacted this way to Cetaphil as well. I'm really disappointed, because the CeraVe does a fantastic job of moisturizing...
3 month update