An Acne Treatment to End All Treatments

What is one of the hardest parts about being a teenager and going through puberty? Acne. When you reach a certain age, you’d think that it would go away. You hope and pray that it’s only a phase and that you won’t have it forever. The lucky ones have it for a few years and maybe once in a while get a break out with stress of weather changes. Some of us, like me, aren’t so lucky.

I have had acne now for most of my life. I am writing this article and I am currently 27 years old. I should be over my phase with acne as it started when I was probably around 11 or 12 years old. It’s ridiculous. I have tried every single acne product known to man, or so it feels. I will tell you how this journey started.

I started trying Neutrogena products. I know this is supposed to be a wonderful brand and that everything they make from their acne cleansing products to their make-up is supposed to help free and clear the skin. It’s supposed to help the pores breath and keep them from getting clogged. I tried Neutrogena’s grapefruit cleanser, their pore wipes, even some acne cleansing make-up of sorts. Nothing helped. In fact, Neutrogena only make things worse for me. I continued to break out, and my zits were even worse than before, popping up in places they never were before. Some zits would be right in the middle of my forehead and I felt like some sort of freak with a third eye or like a horn was growing out of my head.

I then moved on to Clearsil. Some of their medications worked for a period of time. There was a cleanser I liked and for a while I was using their pads. But in the long run, it didn’t help me with my major issues. It would take care of some of my smaller every day acne but when I would have a change of seasons outbreak or stress outbreak, Clearsil products for whatever reason slid off my face like jelly.

I have used Biore charcoal strips for my nose to help with my black heads but all other Biore scrubs never worked longer than a couple of weeks for me. I’ve tried Clean & Clear which worked for a couple of years when I was just starting with my acne. But stopped shortly after I entered high school and I’ve went around with their products for a while.

Oxy Deep Pore Acne medicated pads worked well but they also stung so much to the point where I felt like I was going to rip my skin off from the dryness and burning after effects.

Then I tried Proactive. My mom and I had seen enough commercials and ads for Proactive over the years to give it a go. She bought me a subscription and for a little more than a year, my first year of college to be exact so between 2008-2010 Proactive worked great. And then the break outs started again. I stopped using it because no matter how much I washed my face with proactive nothing worked.

I went back to trying Clean & Clear, Clearsil, St. Ivs, Biore, every over the counter acne medication I could find. Products that said sensitive skin, oily skin, combination skin. I even tried just plain soap and water. Nothing worked, at least nothing worked longer than a six month period. I can’t go on like that trying to find acne products that worked. I was getting older and I wasn’t getting the acting auditions or jobs I deserve and I think part of that was the acne.

Finally, I saw a commercial a couple of years ago for Differen Gel and it worked. It was one of the medications that worked the longest for me. It’s been working for years, but I was still getting the occasional break out. And while I love Differen Gel, I started to get desperate because I wasn’t always able to find the gel at my local Target or anywhere else for that matter.

I decided to give Proactive one last go when they released proactive MD. Two weeks of using it and not only was my acne not healing, it was getting worse. I called them, and they were true to their policy, the refunded my money but they insisted I try their strongest acne cleanser medication system. It didn’t work. I tried it for about a week and I was still having issues.

Finally, after trying just about everything on the market, facial scrubs, micellar water, pore pads, charcoal masks, I got fed up. I was getting ready for one of the biggest troop events I have had the privilege to be a part of since joining Rebel Legion and I didn’t want to go in with a face full of zits. I decided I was going to walk into a store I have never been in before in my life and ask the people who know the products of their store for help. This store is Sephora. I spoke to a lovely young woman who suggested Murad. I had been looking at it before she came over to help me and I was a little skeptical because of the price for just one bottle. It too has a system like Proactive and if I am going to really take care of my skin properly, I wasn’t going to play around. But mostly, I was concerned about paying a lot of money for something that might not work.

She understood my concerns and showed me what appeared to be like a starter or travel size version of the Murad process for only $30. Thirty Dollars? HELL YES I WILL TRY THAT! If you get Proactive it can be anyway from $20-$30 and that’s only if you get a subscription with them! Murad I could buy on my own time, when I wanted it and when I needed it. If it worked that is.

And guess what it did! In less than 24 hours, I could feel my pores start to close up. In 48 hours, the redness started fading. By Friday (I bought this on the 18th and started Murad the same day), most of my bigger acne bumps were miniscule and could be hidden much easier with my make-up. The picture from today makes me feel as if I can walk outside with only a little blush and mascara and not feel like I have to hide my face with concealer to look beautiful.

For people who feel like they have tried every acne medication, who have trouble keeping their skin clear, I highly recommend Murad. I know I will be continuing to use it and will try and give monthly updates as to how well it is working for me. I can say this much, I washed my face with it at 9:00AM this morning and now it almost 5:00PM my time and my face doesn’t feel oily, or dirty. I feel clean and pretty. Thank you Murad!