You can buy this in Boots, Superdrug and some other stores, it's a bit expensive but here's my story.
I started getting acne when I was 14. At first it was just the odd blackhead but then I got breakouts around my T-zone area. At some point I got beakouts on my cheeks, So I basically had patchy blotchy skin all the time.
I didn't care when I was 14, (I wish I did), so I did nothing, and by the time I was 17 (now) I had enarged pores, scarring and still got breakouts.
I went to my doctor who referred me to a dermatologist who wanted to put me on the pill but my mother was totally against it (breast cancer seens to run in my family and the pill increases the risk of breast cancer). So I was given differin for my blackheads and something else for my acne (I think it was called accutane or something like that). Anyway my acne cleared but the blackheads remained, and I was kind of angry that after 3 years I STILL had blackheads so I went back to my dermatologist.
She told me I was getting over paranoid and that she thought the blackheads were clearing up, but put me on a stronger dose of differen (1%) which wasn't really that high, and made no difference anyway.
I started combining all the acne treatments I could find, clearasil, oxy, freederm, I even over-used the clear skin biore strips. I ended up with cracked skin beside my nose, and when I wore make-up it just looked 10 times worse, the makeup cracked around my skin, making it look like I had huge craters down my nose. It was horrible.
I went back to the derm, and was told I had overused the products so much that I now had dermatitis around my nose which could turn into a fungal infection and would need to use a topical steriod before it spread. I was also told that the topical steriod could not be used in conjunction with the differin and that it would make my acne worse, but that I had no choice, since my skin was in really bad condition.
My mother was on my case a lot too, she's a bit of a health freak, and is obsessed with all the side effects medicines cause. She went online and found out that some of the treamtents I was using had long term effects like premature skin ageing and poor sunight tolerance. She basically blamed me for everything, which just made my depression worse.
I had a small part time job at my local restaurant, I got paid a rather good amount of ?6.50 an hour (before tax) but found myself spending all the moeny I earnt on acne treatments, vitamins that claim to help with acne, and alcohol (to drown my sorrows). If there's one thing the acne didn't do, it didn't affect my confidence. I don't know why, but I didn't care too much about acne, I was more concerned with my hair or shoes, I just saw the acne as another hurdle I would eventually jump over, and in the meanwhile I'd have to use all the treatment I could find to keep it under sontrol. I guess I expected it to clear up on it's own in time. It didn't.
3 months later, the dermatitis was improving. I read about Paulo Senzano Organic acne treatment in Cosmo magazine, it cost ?35 in Boots. The idea that it had no side effects seemed great. My firends also suffered from the odd spot, and one of them had already bought it and told me it was good, but I was probably the worst out of my entire class, so I didn't expect it to work on me. I thought ?35 was a lot of money too, and the size was small, in fact, in Boots, they had to leave the empty boxes on the shelves, and you had to bring the box to the counter (I guess because it's easily stolen). I figured out that an entire weekends work at the restaurant would make the money I needed to but it, so I just thought, what the hell, I'll only end up spending the moeny on alcohol anyway ... and I went and bought a tub.
When I started using it I saw little difference, my mum encouraged me to turn totally organic and use natural soap bars too. I started a tight regime of cleansing, treating and moisturising natrually. Whenever I start using acne treatment I always expect results stright away, so I was really devestated when after 3 days I didn't see a difference. But after a week, people started commenting on my skin, and later that month I cought a glimpse of myself in our school bathroom mirror (the one I usally avoid because the area is so well lit you can see EVERY flaw), and I realised that my skin was actually getting better! Now my acne is cleared, my blackheads are smaller and more at the surface of my skin, but I'm scared of squeezing them (even tho the instructions encourage exfoliation), I'm so worried that my skin will go back to the way it was if I'm too harsh on my skin.
All I can say to you people who are able to use harsh skin products without dry-skin type side effects: you are so lucky!
