Skincare | My experience with benzoylperoxide

As you know from my skin treatment posts, my skin isn’t the best. Before I went to the doctor my mom bought me a tube of benzoyl peroxide 50 mg. She just bought it at the drugstore from that same drugstore brand. I had no idea what it was and what it did. I googled it and red some reviews from other people. They said that it burns on your skin, it gets red and you get extremely irritated skin. But it does help with acne.  

 For people who have no idea what benzoyl peroxide is. It is a white gel substance. I have 50 mg, but you also have them with a higher concentrate. It peels your skin off, clears pores and reduces the acne bacteria. It can bleach you hair, clothes etc. So you have to be careful when you use it.

I started to use it and thought I would feel a burning feeling on my skin, but nothing happened. I thought well I don’t feel anything, maybe those people were wrong. Well I made a mistake by thinking that.

 The next day my blemishes were a little bit dried out, but they were still there. I also didn’t experienced any burning, redness or irritation. The third day I still didn’t had any of the symptoms, but ‘o boy’ when I washed my face I felt and saw it: parts of my chin were completely dried out, red, irritated and there was a very unpleasant burning feeling. You could see the dryness threw my foundation. It was not really flakey or anything, but it was very tight that you could see lines that my skin was very dry and tight. I didn’t feel comfortable about my skin at all. One day later some parts started to get really flakey.

I had the burning feeling for about two days and then it disappeared. The dryness however didn’t leave. I had a sample from La Roche-Possay Effacler H for oily skin that is dry because of treatments. I started to put that on those areas. Which made me break out even more on my chin, at least I think it was the cream. After about two days using that cream the tightness of my skin was gone. All I was left with was red and flakey skin.

I stopped using the benzoyl peroxide and three days later my skin was a bit red, but normal again. No pain, no flakiness and no irritation. That same week I started my other treatments which helped a lot.

They say that the longer you use it your skin doesn’t get as dry anymore and the burning feeling goes away. I haven’t used it for that amount of time. So I can’t say if that is true or not.

 I don’t think it is the best solution for acne. In the end it didn’t solve my problem. I still got blemishes while I was using the benzoyl peroxide. It dries them out, but I still got new ones. I don’t think the burning and the dry/tight-ness is good for you skin. However I didn’t use it for a long period of time, so maybe it does work in the end.

I am happy I didn’t go through with it. I feel much happier with the treatment I am doing right now.

I would love to know if you used benzoyl peroxide and your experience with it.