Pimple Problems: Effaclar Duo and Clean & Clear Advantage Acne Spot Treatment

After speaking with my work colleague this week and one of my close friends, I realized that pimples are still a problem for us even though we are well over our teenage years! I can't believe that I still have to deal with breakouts and still have yet to figure out how best to tame my skin.

I had pretty bad acne when I was a teen (who didn't). My mom was concerned enough that she tried repeatedly to convince me to go to the doctors to get it treated medically. Finally I went on a course of Accutane which helped clear everything up after more than a few months. Looking back, it's a little funny how I tried my best to not care how my skin looked and didn't want to go on any treatment because that would be admitting that I really did care. In the end, though Accutane seriously dried my skin out, I have to admit that it did work and I really enjoyed having clearer skin.

Fast forward more than a decade and I've still got pimples and breakouts. Granted, they are nowhere near as severe as they were in high school but, I'm sure the rest of you will agree that, it's no less as aggravating. To try and calm my skin woes, I picked up the Clean & Clear Advantage Acne Spot Treatment many many years ago and that has been my go-to spot treatment up until this time. This contains 2% salicylic acid and is suppose to penetrate pores reducing the size and redness of pimples. You are suppose to see visible result in 4 hours and it isn't suppose to dry out the skin.

Recently I've also picked up, the much hyped, La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo Double Action Acne Treatment Cream. I was looking for something that worked a bit better than the Clean and Clear since overtime, I think it had stopped working for me. Hearing the reviews for this made me cautious since everyone raved about how quickly their spots disappeared and how intense this treatment is. Surprisingly when I took at look at the ingredients this only contains 0.5% salicylic acid. When I looked on the ULTA website, their version contained 5.5% benzoyl peroxide. I wonder if they have different versions in different countries? This may be why this product was much more gentle on my skin than on the people's who wrote the reviews I read....

Either way, I've been using the Effclar Duo every morning and I'm not really sure it's doing anything for me. It is really gentle and does not dry out my skin but I'm still getting big pimples on my neck. It seemed to help reduce the pimples on my chin but it's hard to tell what the counterfactual would be. Though I still use the Clean & Clear Spot Treatment on specific areas, regardless of what it claims, it does over dry areas I apply it on and has seemed to lose effectiveness. Le sigh. The hunt continues I guess....

How do you deal with your pimple/acne issues? Any products you could suggest to me?

Daily Zen: If you're a Canadian, happy long weekend/thanksgiving!!! If not, hope your weekend is wonderful :)

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