This is for friends of mine who have acne and have had it professionally treated:
Should I go see about getting a prescription retinoid? If you use one, do you use it daily? Does it work? What products do you use with it? Cheers.
This cold weather is drying my skin, which in turn causes more oil production, etc etc. Is smooth clear skin too much to ask for?
I use one (a very low % that I can’t remember the name of) and I love it.
However, you really have to have patience to see results – you will go through a nasty scaly phase when you start it that will make you want to quit. The result is really nice smooth clear skin.
I use it only on my forehead, and only like 3 or 4 nights a week.
Awesome, now I just need to find a derm close to where I work…
TDO discovered that she breaks out whenever she eats anything with chemical food dye in it. I wonder if you have considered staying away from food dye, just to see? She still gets the occasional zit but it’s nothing compared to how it used to be.
Tons of things have chemical food dye in them, including vitamins. The worst thing that will happen is you will end up eating a lot of healthy food.
Hmm, I could check on that but I already eat pretty healthy I think, very few processed packaged foods, candy, etc. Any other examples?
…I am feeling totally assed today so I can’t think of anything right off but if you read labels closely, tons of stuff. Salmon! And Killian’s red beer. And they add color to most orange-y cheddar cheese (!?). Get white cheddar. Peppermint sticks. Some tomatoes are dyed (!!!?) and if the dye process occurs before it becomes an ingredient, they don’t have to list it — so Ragu Tomato sauce has red dye. And like I said, vitamins and over-the-counter medicines of all kinds.
Sodas. Chips, esp. Doritos, of course. The thing is, she just needs to eat a little something with dye and she will break out. Oh, like the nacho cheese dip at Baha Fresh. It’s all fresh! but the cheese dip has dye.
Wasabi mayonnaise. Wasabi, esp. if it is particularly green.
Some hoisin sauce — you have to check the labels, some have it, some don’t. Some ketchup. So when you go to a Chinese restaurant, you never know. Any kind of dip, especially cheese dip, is instantly suspect in my experience.
I’ve gotten so I notice anything with a not-in-nature color but I still have to check because — oh yeah, the ginger at sushi bars, if it is pinkish, avoid it.
Gorgeous Christmas cookies with blue icing. You can get natural dye for icing at Whole Foods but most of the time, people don’t use natural.
totally works but you should ask about rawness etc that you can expect so you don’t freak out.
I just made an appt with a Dr Michael Scott. Tee hee.