Week 5: BHA & BP
It’s week 5. Here are my results! I did something a little different this week. I increased my use of BHA. I thought I would get better results. Unfortunately, I experienced the opposite. Turns out Paula’s Choice 2% BHA Liquid is not compatible with my skin. The BHA Liquid gave me awful cystic acne, and I’m way past the purging stage. You can read more about my experience here. I’m not using it anymore. It’s not the same anymore. It’s time to move on. So I’m currently only using benzoyl peroxide to treat my acne. It seems to be the best acne treatment for me out of everything I have tried. This includes retinoid, which people seem to praise. I’ve been on it for over a year with very little results for my acne. All it does is dry my skin out. I was only using it once a week too. Maybe I’ll try it again during the fall/winter when it’s less sunny. Back to BP, I tried to increase my use to 5 days, but my skin wouldn’t let me, so I’m only using it 3-4 times a week with rest days in between. Resting prevents my skin from looking parched and dry. Seems to be working. I’m seeing results. Well, I haven’t had an adverse reaction. The results are just really slow. In the meantime, I’m trying to find a foundation that is lightweight, doesn’t make my skin oily, and doesn’t break me out. No liquid foundations. They’re too heavy on my skin, which leads to clogged pores and acne in general. I’m pretty much free of makeup right now. I really don’t want to put anything on my face. Let’s see how this goes…
Follow me on my BHA & BP experience:
Review: Paula’s Choice 2% BHA Liquid
Here’s my review on Paula’s Choice 2% BHA Liquid. I’ve been using BHA for months, but I switched over to Paula’s Choice 2% BHA Liquid from another BHA product. I’ve used Paula’s Choice for about nearly 2 months. I thought it would work better since I’ve used it before with success. I thought my skin would benefit from it this time around. I was having issues with stubborn closed comedones that just wouldn’t budge after going through so many other acne treatments. Why not give it another chance?? I needed something to fight against closed comedones! So this product comes out as a liquid (like a toner). It can be used with a cotton pad or your hands. I’ve tried both methods. Each method gave me different results. Let’s start off with the cotton pad method.
Applying the liquid with a cotton pad (or ball):
I started off using the BHA liquid on a cotton pad. I thought it would help with oily skin and to remove excess dirt, debris, whatever is leftover on my skin. It did help with that. I noticed debris that my cleanser didn’t remove properly. Maybe it’s just cotton from my towel (lol). Either way, it cleansed my skin even better. I used this method more often than using my hands, since I prefer a very clean face. As someone with oily skin, it seems to be the best way to go. I did notice some skin purging in the beginning. I was ecstatic that I was using a product that’s unclogging my stubborn closed comedones (that I’ve never had before!!). It was an exciting moment. Finally, these darn closed comedones are getting pushed to the surface! Well, some of them. It didn’t unclog every single clogged pore. I also had to endure days of skin dryness, so I didn’t use it every day. Only a few times a week. But whenever it dried out my skin (not using it every day), I noticed pimples. New pimples that can be extracted. Hard sebum that were intact in my pore. Once I dialed down on the BHA even more, those pimples disappeared. I had an odd experience using the BHA with a cotton pad. It caused excessive dry skin with little results. And when I only used it 2-3 times a week, the results were very minimal. Is it doing anything besides drying out my skin??!!
So I tried using it with my hands…
Applying the liquid with my hands:
I tried another method of applying the BHA Liquid. Instead of using a cotton pad, I used my hands. With this method, less product is used. This product is not cheap. It’s quite spendy. It seemed like a good idea. I dispensed some liquid into my palm and gently pat it into my skin. It absorbed but left a little bit of residue behind. It didn’t feel heavy on the skin. Just a bit oily. I was able to do this method several days in a row, twice a day (if possible) without drying my skin out. Yep, it didn’t dry my skin out like the cotton pad method. But with this method, my skin started to erupt in awful cystic acne. I knew right away that this was not my skin purging. I’ve been on BHA for months. Purging should be over by now. I stopped immediately. Once I stopped using BHA and applied benzoyl peroxide on those swollen areas, my skin looked better. My acne cleared up.
My experience with Paula’s Choice 2% BHA Liquid was not good as it was before. Perhaps my skin changed. Or my skin just hates the formula. It could be anything. Honestly, I really wanted it to work. It would’ve been wonderful. This product has so many good reviews, and my past experience with it was awesome. But, I didn’t get to experience that awesomeness this time, so I decided to drop this product from my skin care routine. It hasn’t done much except for unclogging a few pimples here and there. My skin doesn’t look that much better with it. The residue that it leaves behind on my skin is annoying. It makes my skin feel greasy and oily. I’m not getting good results from it. I feel like I’m wasting my money and time. So far, after a few days off of this BHA product, my skin feels so much better. Less congested. I’ll keep everyone updated on my progress. Don’t forget to follow me on my acne journey! It’s been a long, tough battle!
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If you missed out on my acne journey: