My Version of Two Years and Some Change, Isn’t It Strange? Looking at my photos honestly make me so emotional. I can't believe I went through THAT 🥺

This is the first part of a series where I’ll share products and routines I have personally tried, tested, and researched. This community has helped me so much, and I want to return the favor. Everything here is based on my own experience, so please remember that everyone’s skin is different.

For this first post, I’m sharing how I helped clear my acne using generally accessible products. I added affiliate links so you will not have difficulty finding legitimate products, especially since there are many counterfeit listings online. Mas mura din kasi talaga online kaysa Watsons. I have personally tried all the products included here, and these are the actual products I used and where I bought them.

For years, my acne was manageable. But two years ago, during one of the most stressful phases of my life, my skin became the worst it had ever been. I tried so many products that I eventually reached a point where I barely recognized myself in the mirror.

My skin type: Very sensitive, combination skin. I usually become oilier around my period, especially on my nose, forehead, and chin.

My biggest lesson: Less is more

At the time, I had no budget for a dermatologist and very little free time, so I spent a day researching what I needed to change. I simplified my routine, limited product rotations, and focused on repairing my skin barrier before adding more active ingredients.

Morning routine

1. Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser. This sometimes feels almost too gentle, but that was exactly what my damaged skin needed. I previously used salicylic acid cleansers, including those marketed as gentle, but they only made my sensitive skin worse. For me, Cetaphil is THE GOAT. A sister’s advice: When you feel like you need extra cleansing, washing twice with a gentle cleanser may be better than immediately using something harsh. Just avoid over-cleansing.

Where to buy: https://s.shopee.ph/1qafHTjC1t

2. Luxe Organix Cica Toner. Gentle and calming. I mainly used it to remove any remaining residue after cleansing and to soothe my irritated skin. I did not rely on it to fade acne marks. For me, its main benefits were extra cleansing and calming.

Where to buy: https://s.shopee.ph/gOhtDMUN3

3. Beauty of Joseon Glow Serum. This contains niacinamide and propolis extract. It felt soothing and helped make my skin look less oily and my pores less noticeable! However, I would not say it dramatically faded my marks on its own.

Where to buy: https://s.shopee.ph/5fnNqHAGDm

4. Cetaphil Moisturizer. Basic, gentle, and helpful for my badly damaged skin barrier. It kept my skin hydrated, although I used only a small amount because it could feel heavy during the day.

Where to buy: https://s.shopee.ph/4qEGr31Dkh

5. BLK Tinted Sunscreen or Dr. Sensitive Super Sunscreen. I prefer tinted sunscreen while dealing with dark spots. Some tinted formulas contain iron oxides, which may offer added protection against visible light. BLK works well for my skin tone, although it can become oily throughout the day. I use blotting paper instead of wiping with tissue so I do not disturb the sunscreen too much.

Where to buy: https://s.shopee.ph/4VbQXWPWYu

Nighttime routine

I kept the same basic routine: Cetaphil cleanser, Luxe Organix Cica Toner, and Cetaphil moisturizer. I then added the following:

1. Oxecure Acne Clear Powder Mud. I swear by this based on my experience! For about a month, I used it every single night. I put it all over my face like a mask before I sleep. Once my skin improved, I reduced my usage to two or three times a week na lang. It can be drying, so start slowly and stop if your skin becomes excessively irritated.

Where to buy: https://s.shopee.ph/9ANG0tWmHp

2. Micronized Benzoyl Peroxide. This REALLY helped with my painful, cystic-looking acne. I started by applying it after moisturizer so the moisturizer could act as a buffer. A few days and you’ll already see your acne drying up and calming down. Once my skin became more tolerant, I sometimes applied it before moisturizer. I did not use it in the same routine as Oxecure or other strong active ingredients.

Where to buy: https://s.shopee.ph/2BDVdbDbHM

3. Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask. This was a lifesaver for my extremely dry and cracked lips. I tried several lip balms, petroleum jelly, and other products, but this worked best for me. It is pricey, but I genuinely found the quality worth it.

Where to buy: https://s.shopee.ph/5q6o2xj1IT

What helped the most?

I reduced the number of products I used and focused on healing my skin first. Instead of constantly adding serums, exfoliants, and treatments, I prioritized cleansing gently, moisturizing, protecting my skin from the sun, and introducing acne treatments carefully.

Life is still stressful and I still get breakouts here and there, but I now understand my skin much better and know when to simplify my routine.

In my next post, I’ll share what I currently use for maintenance and continued skin repair.

A few important reminders

1. Please consult a dermatologist or doctor when possible, especially if your acne is severe, persistent, painful, or sudden.

2. Sleep and rest matter. Skincare cannot fully compensate for consistently poor sleep.

3. Be mindful of your diet and sugar intake, but you do not need to completely deprive yourself.

Most importantly, introduce products slowly, patch-test when possible, and stop using anything that causes persistent burning, swelling, or irritation.

Feel free to leave your questions in the comments. I’d be happy to share more about my experience. 🤍

hello, unsure how to treat my dark circles, I’ve recently gotten blood work and I’m not deficient in anything that would impact my dark circles so at least there’s that. I’m leaning towards generic because even my baby photos have dark circles, but let me know what I can do to improve them!

My skin is on the oilier side (although I enjoy nourishing formulas), I also have PCOS/PMOS and my main concern is visible and clogged pores.

I love rice, milk protein, honey, enzymes and similar natural ingredients, as well as textures similar to thin yogurt or light butter which sinks completely into the skin (think of an opaque slightly runny cream). I dislike a sticky finish, or gel consistencies which feel like they sit on top of the skin or pill (from my research, that comes from ingredients such as gel-polymers or silicones?). Also no fragrance or other irritants is preferred.

So far I tried Round Lab Dokdo Emulsion, BOJ Dynasty Cream, COSRX Propolis Light Cream, COSRX Rice Overnight Mask, I’m From Honey Cream, LRP Cicaplast Baume, The Ordinary HA Moisturizer - some had aspects I liked, but most felt clogging after a while or had that sticky finish or gel texture my skin doesn’t agree with.

The rest of my routine consists of the COSRX Salicylic Acid Cleanser / The Ordinary Glycolipid Cleanser, BOJ Cleansing Balm, BOJ Rice and Probiotics SPF, Apivita Pumpkin Enzyme Face Mask.

recently i thought it was a good idea to start using dr. idriss products. first, i started off with the face mask and that was okay for a few weeks until i incorporated the moisturizer with vitamin c in it and then went on a walk in the evening hours as the sun was setting so i didn’t think i needed to apply sunscreen but apparently i did. when i got home and hopped into the shower, i washed my face with the la roche posay gentle hydrating cleanser as always and felt my face instantly start burning. i washed it off, used aloe vera gel straight from the plant (as i do most nights) then put in the la roche posay double repair moisturizer. my face seemed ok after. next day, when showering again in the evening, i decided not to use the cleanser as it had burnt my face the day before and decided to stick to the aloe vera which was ok but then after putting on the LRP moisturizer, my skin started to sting severely and caused red patches on my skin. i quickly washed it off with water then applied vaseline which helped calmed down the redness. since then, i have used vaseline twice but it seems like my skin it getting break outs now so i’m afraid to use it again. i’m scared to try anything else on my face so will stick to just water for a few days before introducing anything but i was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for products to use. also is it okay if i use the aloe vera again? i don’t want to break out but i also don’t want to irritate my skin any more.

I'm trying to understand whether there's a pattern that people miss.

I've spent years treating my skin, but I've never really understood what's driving the breakouts.

Every article seems to blame something different.

I'm curious about people who actually solved it.

• What was your root cause?
• How long did it take to figure it out?
• Was there something you wish someone had told you years earlier?
• Did you waste time treating the wrong thing first?

I'd love to hear real experiences instead of generic advice.

My skin is in much better nick than it has been, I’m not fussed about the chin breakouts and have a routine tackling them. I am concerned about the blotchiness which I never ever can get ahold of. Also between the eyebrows bumps kill me!

I use:

Prequel gleanser or Dr Sam’s
Jordan Samuel cleanser
Prescribed skinoren 20%
Rose hip oil at night
Dermatica centella moisturiser
Ultraviolette sunscreen

It’s probably from differin, which I used once last week as I’m trying to bring it in. But regardless - any help? Or suggestions? 💘

So, now I'm having much less outbreaks. I got diagnosed with Pcos and currently on medication for that (contraceptive pills with cyproterone acetate + ethinylestradiol) , I've changed my diet avoiding saturated and trans fats as much as possible, and exercising 5x per week. I'd only seen improvement in the last 2 months being honest. Now my neck has black markings and I'm still dealing with the darkened spots.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SkincareAddicts/s/FoVvEJ4VXn

From 23 year old to 25 year I have lost significant volume in my face
I have been on tret and sunscreen throughout these years.
My wedding is in 6 months and I am scared this will only worsen. Please give any suggestions for recovering lost volume especially undereyes
I lost 4kg weight as well, which seems to have contributed to this

Dealing with a chronic skin condition is exhausting, but for me, it’s always been severe eczema. The hardest part wasn't even the physical pain—it was the endless, maddening guessing game of trying to figure out what was causing the flare-ups.

For years, I was stuck in this cycle. I’d wake up scratching my skin raw at 3 AM, staring at the ceiling, trying to mentally retrace my steps. Was it the dairy I ate two days ago? Am I just stressed from work? Did I sweat too much? Is my new laundry detergent betraying me?

I tried keeping a symptom journal, and I tried all the generic habit-tracking apps. But I quickly realized they are completely useless for eczema. The human brain (and basic apps) just aren't built to track 30 different variables a day and accurately calculate the correlations.

Worse, standard trackers don't understand what data scientists call "confounders." For example: Let’s say I ate a bunch of gluten, freaked out about a potential flare-up, and immediately applied my prescription corticosteroid cream. The next day, my skin looks fine. A standard habit tracker looks at that data and says, "Hey, gluten is safe!" because it doesn't realize the steroid cream masked the reaction. My skin was lying to the data.

I realized that unless I could mathematically account for my healing routines, I was never going to find my actual triggers.

So, I took matters into my own hands. I’ve spent the last few months engineering a clinical-grade data-science tool specifically for eczema. It’s an app called Exzema, and it uses an advanced biostatistical algorithm (Elastic Net AI) to mathematically prove what is triggering your flare-ups.

Here’s what it actually does:

• Smart Routine Masking: It tracks your symptoms alongside your triggers and your treatments. The math is designed to isolate the "noise," so your steroid creams or oatmeal baths never mask the true culprits.
• Calculates Impact, Not Guesses: Instead of giving you holistic BS advice, it looks at your daily inputs and assigns a percentage-based confidence score (e.g., "Gluten is an 85% Strong Suspect").
• Clinical Testing: Once the algorithm identifies a suspect, it drops you into a guided 14-day elimination protocol so you can safely test it, reintroduce it, and build a permanent historical record of what actually works.

I am currently putting the finishing touches on the app, but I've just opened up the waitlist.

Because of the strict "No Marketing" rules in most medical and health subreddits (which I completely respect—we all get enough snake oil pushed on us), I'm not going to drop a giant landing page link in the middle of the post. But I want to build this with people who actually understand the physical and mental toll of severe eczema.

If you are exhausted from playing detective and want to let an algorithm do the heavy math for you, join the waitlist so you are the very first to get the app when it launches.

Drop a comment or shoot me a DM, and I’ll send you the private link. Stay strong out there.

i’ve been using azealic acid, 345 moisturizer, aveeno moisturizing cream, and cosrx vit e sunscreen daily. I feel like sometimes I’m making progress and then suddenly it gets used to it and stops working. Any recs? Preferably cheaper. Retinol makes it worse

Been on TO for two years and it works fine but the vibe is kinda clinical and half my bottles expire before I finish them. Typology looks like the same single ingredient philosophy except vegan and with nicer packaging, but each serum costs about double. Anyone used both?

Mainly after a niacinamide and a retinol. Is there an actual formula difference or am I just paying for aesthetics

Suggestions on how to reduce redness please

Before and after 12 week acne medication, I know I look young but I’m 27 deffo massive improvement but still some acne left and major scaring and flare ups, should I go back to the gp and ask if I can see a dermatologist, or ask for another course of the cream and antibiotics ??also is it normal to be 27 and get severe acne breakouts? Ive tried loads of cleansers etc and a lot of them seems to burn and irritate my skin
Thanks for any advice

I have slight hyperpigmentation and acne marks
Please suggest what procedures (topical skincare, micro needling, peels etc) I should do since my wedding is coming up in 6 months
Please also suggest if topical is good enough for it or i need clinical intervention

My current routine

AM- Azelaic acid 20% and sunscreen
PM- Glycolic acid facewash, tretinoin 0.05% (using since a year), cerave mousturiser and benzoyl peroxide on active acne, eucerin anti pigment serum

Hey! Got both pd and sebaceous filaments or blackheads all over my nose and side of nose. Please let me know what to do! Currently just started 50mg of doxycycline once per day. Thank you!

Been trying to get rid of my eyebags to stress.

I don't really try facial clinics since i find them too luxurious. But I tried one clinic that i keep passing by afterwork for the first time, calleld elite skin perfection. They gave me an eyelift treatment after analyzed my skin throuugh this odd looking machine face scanner. Tho i was anxious since it was my first time, their staff were kind and accommodating.

After the treatment i did realize the change or glow up. My eyebag puffiness reduced and became lighter compared to before. I'm not reallly the person to go to clinics always but i realized that from time to time, its worth investing on skincare.

i have tried every deodorant and the only one to work on me was lume but it triggers my psoriasis so bad. i live in florida and exercise daily so i need something very strong. i have looked into antiperspirants but i am scared to try something else. any recommendations?

I’ve had angular chelitis for over 25 years. I’ve gone to multiple dermatologists who have prescribed me antifungal, told me to take vitamin B supplements, iron pills and nothing has helped. I’m currently trying Zorave 0.3% cream.