BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Beauty Basics Help me to be cured of blackheads.

Hi

My friend who started using proactive said it was like a bad drug. It worked when she used it, but when she would not use it, she would get breakouts. Is that how they get you? :-p

My son has been using Proactive for about 6 months now and is having much success. He had tried many different treatments including oral antibiotics and prescription creams and lotions. Proactive is the only thing that has worked. And yes it does bleach out his pillowcase and sheets.

It worked for me for a year, but I would watch it because after that you get a HUGE breakout. And I mean bad. The same thing happened to my friend and it was horrible. It only works for a short period of time.

OK - joining in at the tail-end of this discussion.

My 11 yr old daughter is going to be in a beauty pageant next saturday - so of course, now she has blackheads all over her nose.

We tried cleaning with Noxema, clean and clear, using a mask, and the biore strips. I even did a facial steam to open her pores up more - but we can not get rid of these things!

All the other suggestions - like facial peels, and extractions - those sound really "hard core" to me. Will doing these damage her skin since she is so young and the skin is still tender? She's in tears about these, and I don't know what to do!

I'd leave them alone, maybe put a little concealer on them for the pageant. You don't want to turn one into a huge zit/sore before then. Odds are nobody will see them anyway--I know hard to believe at her age.

The only other thing I would think of is using cleansing grains to maybe exfoliate them a bit.

Oh, and I love Neutrogena's "On the Spot". It is a very mild benzoyl (sp?) peroxide and costs about $5 and I use it for my second puberty acne (truly, it started at age 45!) It's more of a preventive measure, but it does dry up those already there, too.

Michelle,

Extractions, when done properly, will not damage the skin. It is quite contradictory to do something to help the skin by damaging it. I agree, peels are a little too much for her unless she has really active acne, not blackheads only.

LOL there is always an acne breakout about age 40-45 it seems in most of my clients. As the body degrades (ages) the skin, the pH, etc changes and therefore we can get acne we didn't have before

Oh, Jase, you said degrades. I need a lie-down now! LOL

Thanks Jase,

How far ahead of time should I do this? I've heard that facials can make the face quite red for a day or two, so you shouldn't do them right before a photo shoot or major event. What do you think?