Fail or Holy Grail Review: AzClear Action

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be talking about my Holy Grail Acne treatment, AZ Clear Action! This medicated lotion is available over the counter in New Zealand and Australia, however most international shoppers won't be able to get this item to their country (which is how I feel like 85% of the time when I can't get things sent to NZ, welcome) but never fear, the main ingredient of this product is Azeliac Acid, so if you can't get this one there are a couple of others you can use.

Acne Update: 6 months Post Accutane

Hello Princesses!

Update: Doxy-50; Doxycycline (6 Months)

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be talking about my second three month session with the acne medication Doxy-50. After the first three months of Doxy-50, I was prescribed another three months worth of Doxy-50 and told to stop taking the medication after I felt that I had achieved "perfect skin". I reached my ideal skin after one and a half months into my second session and stopped taking the medication. I still had a lot of scarring which made my face seem imperfect, but I had zero acne!

This was my skin before I started taking Doxy-50

 And this is my skin after 4 and a half months taking Doxy-50 and 1 and a half month adjusting.

 Close ups of my beautiful face before, and 3 months into the acne medication.

 And this is my skin another three months down the line.

I still get the odd breakout along my forehead due to stress, and along my chin from hormones, but I'm largely acne free! I know my skin looks awful but a lot of the blemishes are just scarring, there are only 4 pimples present which is a massive improvement for me!

During the past 3 months I was still experiencing allergic reactions. These reactions were becoming more severe, and I seemed to be reacting to more and more products until the only skin care that wasn't triggering painful hivey whiteheads was my trilogy rose hip oil and cleanser.

Then one day, I had a brainwave. Maybe, just maybe, it wasn't skincare that was the problem. It turns out that I've developed an allergy to adhesive.

Here's the back store. 

I am currently studying towards my Master of Music, majoring in Performance Flute. I play in orchestras, operas and do a lot of teaching and performing. When you're performing on the flute, it can get very hot on stage, and you sweat from the heat and the pure terror of playing in front of crowds. This seems like TMI, but it's important to the story, trust me. When your face sweats (and it will) it makes it very difficult to keep the flute from sliding around on your face since wet metal is very slippery, especially when it's balanced precariously on your face. To increase surface area on the lip plate (section of the flute that rests on your chin) you can tape a small section of masking tape to the lip plate. This effectively stops the flute from accidentally sliding around if you have tricky passages, playing during the summer or when you're just a nervous sweaty performer. I don't always use the tape, but reserve it for important concerts, because you can get too dependent on the security of the tape and forget what it's like to play on a smooth metal head.  The tape also stops the flutes metal/silver/gold reacting with some types of skincare (Clearisil is notoriously bad) and makeup corroding your flute and leaving tarnish stains on your chin (also known as that gross flute chin thing).

I've been using masking tape on my flute for four years now with no problems, but during my last concert I noticed that the tape was making my chin feel super dry and itchy, so I did the only thing that would make my skin feel better, which was to remove the tape and keep playing. That evening my skin was absolutely on fire with itches, and the following morning was covered in itchy painful hives. I couldn't understand why, because I hadn't changed any skincare or makeup! Honestly, this allergy made me upset in ways you cannot imagine, (unless your also allergic to the things you love most), because I assumed I was allergic to skin care and makeup, and I though I would have to give up blogging for sure, and live out my days as a gross skinned makeup-less hermit.

Only then did it occur to me that it was only on my chin ... and my chin was itchy after playing the flute ... after using tape. It seems so obvious in retrospect, (especially considering both my boyfriend and younger sister are allergic to heavy duty adhesive), but at the time I was so confused and scared! I thought that I either had an allergy to silver (totally possible) or an allergy to the tape (almost as bad because I do rely on it for performance), so I stopped playing with the tape, and I stopped getting the allergies. I'm left with horribly scarred skin which is no fun, but it's miles better than the painful allergies.

So after 4 and a half months of Doxy-50, how has my skin fared?

I really liked being on Doxy-50! It cleared up my skin without having too many side effects. I experienced severely dry lips and minor photo sensitivity, but that was it! To combat the dry lips, my holy grail life saving product was the Clarins Moisture Replenishing Lip Balm, which was well worth the $40! I wore a high SPF sunscreen and sunglasses constantly to combat the photo sensitivity.

There is just a pre-warning and a mini disclaimer - even though Doxy-50 worked well for my skin, it does not guarantee the same results for your skin. Everyone has different skin, and between the severity of acne, hormones and eating habits that can contribute to acne, so you may have to try a couple of different acne medications before you find something that works for you, but I hope this update has helped some of you princesses out there that are suffering from acne (or extreme stupidity + adhesive allergies) like me!

If you have any questions about Doxy-50 leave me a comment down below and I'll try my best to help you out! ^.^

Review: Doxy-50, Doxycycline

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be talking about my experience with the Acne medication - Doxy-50, Doxycycline. This is my very own experience with Doxycycline, which may be different to other peoples. This antibiotic needs to be prescribed by your GP, so if you are interested in Acne medication please go and talk to your GP first! ^.^ If you guys haven't read My Skin Story, please do, because it will help you better understand this review. 

About 4 months ago, I was getting tired with my struggles with moderate acne, so I decided to talk to my GP about Acne medication. My older brother had been prescribed Doxycycline for acne problems when he was 16, and now at 23, he's still acne free with baby smooth skin (super jealous), so I asked my GP if I could have the same medication as he did. My GP recommended that I use the oral antibiotic with a topical treatment, but after using ReTrieve Cream and having it strip my skin and leave me flaky and gross, I decided to try Doxycycline for a month by itself. 

Doxycycline took my skin from this;

To this!

(Both pictures are taken using the beauty function on my camera and different foundations.)

"Doxycycline is a tetracycline antibiotic which is commonly used to treat a variety of infections including acne, rosacea, Lyme disease, chronic prostatitis, sinusitis, pelvic inflammatory disease and ricketsial infections. Doxycycline is an option for people with moderate to severe inflammatory acne, or mild inflammatory acne that will not respond to other treatments.

Doxycycline works by hindering the growth of the bacteria - in this case, Propionibacterium acnes, which is responsible for inflamed acne breakouts. Oral antibiotics like doxycyline are especially useful in helping to clear back and body acne. Doxycycline is often used along with other with topical treatment, such as benzoyl peroxdide or Retin-A. Doxycycline is best for those with inflamed breakouts. It won’t clear up blackheads, whiteheads, or comedonal acne." (1)

The worst part of my acne was the cyctic acne, hormonal acne and allergic reactions.

 (Allergic reaction)

(Minor cystic acne) I'm sorry that this angle is so weird, not sure what's up with that one! 

I was constantly plagued by irritating acne, and I just couldn't seem to get rid of it! I know it doesn't seem like a major problem, but in daily life it's very frustrating. I felt like I needed to wear makeup to go to the supermarket, because once you get out of your teen years you shouldn't have acne right? I always felt embarrassed to show my face when my acne was bad, because I could never completely cover it with makeup, there would be redness, pores, weeping pimples and scabs where I had popped pimples (naughty, I know!) and it just made me feel so gross and unappealing. For blogging it was just as bad, if not worse. The photo's always showed my acne as worse than it really was, and even through a beauty filter on my camera, you could still see the redness, scars and acne that I couldn't cover with makeup. To keep myself sane, I Photoshopped my pictures to make my skin look nicer so nobody would want to vomit when they saw my photos or make fun of me. I've never tried to hide my Photoshopping, and I have absolutely no shame that I did Photoshop my photos.

I took Doxycycline for 3 months and these are the results that I have experienced so far! I started my Doxycycline almost straight after I finished my Omija Whitening Skincare, so the before photos are what used to be great skin for me! If you want to see how bad it used to be, check out the Omija Whitening Skincare review! Feel free to click and enlarge the photos for more detail, if that's what you want!

 Forehead: Before and After

 Side of face: Before and After

 Chin: Before and After

 (This was a great chin day, and a good lip day!)

 Full Face: Before and After

There is absolutely no Photoshop or retouching done on these photos, apart from minor exposure tweaking! I took the After photos one week after finishing my Doxycycline course, during my womanly time (coughcough) and subsequently gorging myself on sugary food. Before I stopped taking the Doxycycline, my skin looked so nice, soft and smooth!

There are a lot of side effects that you can experience while taking acne medication, and I was fortunate enough to have very minor side effects. I experienced minor photo-sensitivity, moderate de-hydration and extreme dryness of lips. The lip dryness is quite irritating, because it means that I can't wear half of my lipsticks, and my lips look like shriveled prunes with bits of skin flaking everywhere. Ick. But it could be worse, and I'm glad that it's not!

During my Doxycycline course I learnt a lot about my skin. I still had hormonal acne, but it was only the small whitehead pimples you can see in the After photos. I also still got the same whiteheads when I ate too much sugar, something that Doxycycline won't help with. I haven't had any cystic acne or large pimples since a month after starting my Doxycycline course! A lot of the blemishes still on my face are scars which have been majorly reduced by my strict Rosehip oil regime. I'm currently working my way through all my skincare testers, but I'm missing my Trilogy skincare so much! These are the products that I used during my 3 month course of Doxycycline.

My absolute favorite is the Trilogy Rosehip Oil! It kept my skin moisturized, helped to fade my scars and hyper pigmentation, reduced redness and made my skin feel super bouncy and soft! These products are absolutely amazing and I cannot recommend them enough!

What I Love

- Effectively reduced my acne

- Very minor side effects

- Inexpensive: $22 for 3 months

- Easy to take: small pill size

- Worked well without topical treatment

What I Don't Love

- Made my lips pretty disgusting

- Couldn't go outside for very long due to photo-sensitivity

Final Thoughts

I really like Doxycycline! I did a lot of research on Acne medication before choosing Doxycycline and there are quite a lot that can give you depression and a lot of nasty side effects, so I'm very fortunate that I had very minor side effects. Doxycycline helped me clear up my existing acne, but it doesn't help with hormonal acne, allergies or blackheads. I would recommend Doxycycline to people that have minor to moderate acne (even though it can be used for severe acne)! 

I've been prescribed another 3 months of Doxy-50, so in 3 months I will do an update post for you all! If you have any questions about my experience with Doxycycline, feel free to ask in the comment box down below and I will try to help you the best that I can! ^^