Neutrogena Acne Oil Free Acne Wash Daily Scrub Review

I am still using this product every night because it is so effective against my blackheads on the nose. You can get this product in most drug stores, Target, Walmart or online sources. This is one of my favorite products from Neutrogena. My skin is ultra sensitive and oily at the same time, but most Neutrogena products tend to be good for my skin. Okay, here is the complete review.

Benefits: So effective against blackheads. The little bead gets rid of all the most stubborn blackheads you have in a very gentle way. You just have to gently message the beads around the area that you have lots of blackheads for less than a minute. You will notice afterwards that all the blackheads are gone. This product is better than Biore's blackhead strip in two ways. First, it gets rid of the most stubborn blackheads. Second, it won't cause irritation to the nose because Biore's strip needs to be removed after it sticks to the nose (for me, this caused slight irritation). This is also very good for exfoliating your skin because the beads are just so gentle and effective.

Side-affects: Slight irritation to cystic acne. The little beads that help with blackhead removal tend to irritate the cystic acne.

Best for: Blackheads, slight to moderate acne. I wouldn't recommend this product for someone with moderate severe or severe acne because it can cause injury to a deep cystic acne.
Overall recommendation (out of five stars): 5 stars. This is the best treatment for blackheads and slight acne. Gentle yet effective.

Acne coming back @ 26 years old

So, my acne was pretty much under control once I turned 25.  I had almost no acne except for the occasional breakout every month around that time.  However, this year October, I had some extra stress and my acne came back full force.  I had lots of small red pimples all over my forehead; they almost look like they are angry and screaming at me.  Why??  I was so frustrated that I almost wanted to end it all.  I am already 26 with acne for almost 8 years.  This is so unbelievable.  Why would I still have this problem when I am an adult?  I inherited my dad's bad oily acne-prone skin which makes me feel like I am a monster practically all the time.  I am sure all acne sufferers would relate to that.  I never felt beautiful in my life and I know it's because of acne.  My mom says so and so has acne but she is still happily married.  She doesn't know how I feel or how people with acne feel because she's never had acne in her life.  I am just so tired of hearing it will go away eventually.  OK, like when is it really going away??  Never.  Anyways instead of going on and on about how miserable I am.  Let me give you some update on the situation, I saw my doctor and he prescribed me bunch of medicine, Benzoyl Peroxide (5%) / Erythromycin Gel (1%), erythromycin tablets and retin-A.  The benzoyl peroxide / erythromycin gel is pretty effective however I am super allergic to it.  It made my face tomato red for several days plus I was itchy.  If your skin can tolerate the benzoyl peroxide, you should definitely get this mixture cream, works very well for my hundreds of forehead acne.  Erythromycin tablets was prescribed to me as well, but I couldn't take it because every time I took I felt really sick.  The retin-A just peels the skin and I didn't feel it had an effect at all.  So with that, I felt pretty hopeless.  My primary physician said that I should get my blood / urine tested so that I can get ready to take Accutane.  He gave me a referral to a dermatologist who can actually prescribe the medicine (as my primary physician cannot).  I will be seeing him on Dec, 14.  Don't know if he is willing to prescribe me that stuff as I imagine that he will say that my situation is not that bad. 
Oh, here is a little bit of background on my acne history.  I took Accutane before for just 1 month on 10mg per day.  It cleared up my skin beautifully.  It worked almost right away.  My skin was feeling normal and the acne never came back as severe as before.  Thinking back, I should have taken Accutane for at least 3 months 20mg per day for a longer lasting effect. 
OK, my fellow acne sufferers, I will update you on the situation once I see the dermatologist.

Daily acne skin care routine for oily, combination skin

I have oily, sensitive skin ever since puberty. In my opinion, this is the hardest skin type to care for because it is highly sensitive and prone to acne at the same time. It all started with very mild teenage acne that is small and non-inflammatory. However, it developed into moderate to severe acne over the years. There are times in my life where I had many pimples covering the majority of my face. Over the years, I did a lot of research and tried several dozen skin care products. Here is my daily acne skin care routine that I use right now which works well for me.

Wash my face twice a day, once in the morning right after I wake up and once at night before going to bed. The cleanser listed below is used both times for washing my face. The blackhead eliminating scrub is great at getting rid of blackheads on the nose; this is used only occasionally. The eye contour cream is used around the eye area in the morning. Neutrogena’s on-the-spot acne treatment is used once in the morning and once at night on active pimples only. I also drink a cup of the home made medicine for oily skin / acne control and take 1 pill of the Kirkland brand daily mulit-vitamins & minerals.

Here are some more details about each product:

1. Neutrogena Cleansing Bar for Acne-Prone Skin
Active ingredient: none
More information: This is good for people with oily / combination and sensitive skin. It has no active ingredient because salicylic acid seems to irritate my skin. Many other acne cleansers contain salicylic acid for acne control causes lots of redness on my cheeks.

2. Neutrogena Blackhead Eliminating Daily Scrub
Active ingredient: 2% salicylic acid and small beads
More information: Don’t use this everyday if you are sensitive to salicylic acid treatments like me. It is very effective at getting rid of blackheads. I usually only use it on the nose occasionally.

3. Shiseido Bio-Performance Super Eye Contour Cream
Active ingredient: none
More information: Even for people with active acne or have acne prone skin, anti-aging products should be used too. The eye contour cream is anti-aging eye cream for younger people.

4. Neutrogena On-the-Spot Acne Treatment
Active ingredient: 2.5% benzoyl peroxide
More information: This is one of my most favorite products of all time. It is so effective at healing acne and preventing acne scars. Benzoyl peroxide will kill bacteria which is part of inflammatory acne. Instead of the acne popping, it will gradually go down. This will decrease the trauma on the skin which usually leaves you with no visible scars. This product is highly recommended on my list because it is super effective. However, it will cause the skin to dry out so make sure you only use it on the active acne itself.

5. Natural home remedy for acne, will explain this in a future post in more details

6. Kirkland brand daily multi-vitamins & minerals
More information: contains lots of essential vitamins and minerals. I think it might help with some biochemical process in our body by getting rid of toxic things. It is also highly recommended because it seems to make me less prone to acne with everyday use. You can get it at your local Costco.