I used to have a very bad acne infection. When I came to Australia 4 years ago, for the first time in record, my skin started to become reddish with all the dots and yellowish acne. I let it be for months, thought it could be just a random breakouts, and in the end, acne virus just spread all over my face, and it looked exactly like my picture below. Imagine that on both sides of your face. HOW SAD WAS THAT ???? And the most sad part was, I didn't do anything to fix it except for changing my facial products cause I thought that was the initial problem that my face had.
I cried in the morning when I woke up to this face. I thought I looked fugly but I still did not go and see doctor. I waited for more than half a year, and went to see a dermatologist when I was back in my home country for the first time. I was encouraged by a friend's mother who know my skin specialist in Malaysia, he is a very very good skin doctor, perhaps I think he is the best dermatologist ever. He scolded me for not getting my face treated with a specialist ASAP when I noticed the seriousness. I was diagnosed with seasonal acne infection and this was my skin condition when I first started the treatment.
My doctor gave me a 4 months anti-biotics, called Doxyclycines, (as i could remember Doxycyclines are used to kill the bacteria or virus of the acne). He also gave me few tubes of Stieva-A 0.025% cream, which as far as I know it is the lowest percentage for a topical acne treatment. I took the anti-biotics, one capsule a day, and it must, MUST BE taken right after dinner. As in, your stomach must not be empty. and apparently, some people can't take the antibiotics as it has very strong negative effects and it is a prescribed medicine. My friend used to take it for a week and it upsets her stomach till she vomited the whole week. I had a few experience with vomiting as well cause I didn't take it right after my meal and stupidly thought that it was okay to take without meal once in a while but IT WASN'T OKAY. I PUKED. so take your instruction seriously when it comes to medicine. I also applied the Stieva-A cream every night without missed. But I started with applying it by once in two days, or skipping one day (if that makes more sense) cause it dries up my face really badly when I first started using it. And I think they stop selling this Stieva-A brands anymore, a more common one nowadays is Differin or Retin-A.
oh and another side reminder, always always always always apply sun block during the day time. regardless indoor or outdoor, sunblock is a must to protect your skin from aging and also dark spots that cause from the UV rays. I am using this Cetaphil everyday moisturizer with SPF50, cause I think this suits me best. I tried Clinique City Block SPF 40 before, it is also very good but because this Cetaphil also acts as a moisturizer and its much much cheaper than the Clinique one, so the asian in me choose to use Cetaphil haha!
After 12months treatment, TADDAAAAAA !!! My almost perfect skin !!!! and honestly, until today, I am still using the Stieva-A cream every night, basically that's my night cream. I still have my last tube and might need to hunt for an alternative cream as Stieva-A is not on the market anymore :( #SOBS
HEHEHEHHE see this is my confident selfie photo. I am really really thankful that I met my doctor, truly my life savor. Without him, I will still be the girl that has very very bad skin and spam inches of foundation and has very low confidence in herself . Not to say that now I am very confident la but having a good skin really really boosts one's confidence up. SO GIRLS AND BOYS, GO AND SEE A SPECIALIST if you have any skin problem before its too late !!! Don't wait !!!
Good Luck.
xx Jo xx
