i was taking acnetame 2x/day for 2 months exactly, finished up both of the bottles that were sent. it just didn't work in the end. so acnetame is ruled out of my books. after that i didn't take anything or use anything on my skin at all for a couple weeks and then i started taking vitamins. the vitamins i purchased: b5, b-complex, biotin, coenzyme q10 and omega 3-6-9. i took those everyday for a month and a bit with no results at all... i'm scared to try new products now, my skin just reacts so badly to everything...
everycurve, those sound like really great suggestions, and i'm really surprised by the vinegar! sea salt from the dead sea is something that i haven't tried yet... but have been wanting to try, i've sampled it and it smells great and leaves my hands feeling super soft. the stuff that i sampled was really expensive though. do you have a favorite brand? i'm sure there is probably something more affordable out there, i'll take a look.
the birth control that i got was yasmin. my doctor mentioned the blood clots and stroke risks too but he still recommended it and said that it is definitely the best one for fighting acne. soooooooooo i'm crossing my fingers. it's been 8 days since i started now.
I haven't read this thread but a couple things...
I used to use some type of moor mud mask once a week...downside, the bottle was like $75. Crazy, right? But for probably a year and a half I've been using Dark Angels from Lush ($20ish, lasts me around a month). It's an exfoliant, which IMO, is a must because whats clogging your pores and causing likely isn't dirt. It's probably dead skin cells mixing with oil, then getting stuck in there. Exfoliating daily will help get rid of dead skin before that can happen.
The only thing is many face washes labeled as exfoliants are really too harsh to be used daily.
Dark Angels works awesome for me. After I use it, my face feels instantly a little smoother, and I read you had some allergies, but Lush uses all natural ingredients.
They also have a mask called Cupcake (smells delicious) and some mask called like Triple Oxygen something, neither of which I've used, but I've heard great things about that are meant to be used once-twice a week as a more intensive thing. They have a few different face washes for oily/combination skin and the awesome thing is they'll often give you a small little 1-2 day sample to see how you like it before you buy (they sell it by weight).
I used to use the grapefruit wash mentioned on the first page, but even with my oily skin, after I used it, my skin was
too dry. This is going to seem counterintuitive, but if you have over-productive oil glands, sometimes the worst thing you can do is let your skin become too dry. Reason being, if your skin is too dry after washing, like I said before, small pieces of skin are going to flake, mix with oil and clog your pores. If you're going to go the "I'm going to use a face wash that dries out my skin" route, you really need to also be using a small amount of a water-based moisturizer immediately after.
After you find a wash you're happy with, do you already use an astringent/toner? Funny enough, sometimes face washes do you no favors when you think you've washed it off, but it's still lingering deeper. If you use any face wash thats opaque, has a thick consistency or has any type of texture (beads, sugars, salts, anything scrubby/exfoliating), you really should throw some astringent on a cotton ball after washing and swipe around your entire face and neck (avoid eyes).