I've had acne since I can remember.
Truly, apart from random memories of wearing Winnie the Pooh overalls while drawing Pokemon from the poster on my brother's door and chubby time jiggling on the trampoline with said brother and the sprinkler going underneath (ah, the good old days of awkward adolescence) pretty much every other memory from there on out involves a pimple or two. That may sound a bit extreme, but if you've had continuous blemishes (be it on face or body [or in my case: both]) for as long as you can stretch your memory, that constant self-consciousness sticks.
To go along with those memories are a myriad of acne products; from pills to scrubs to overnight creams, I've tried most things so long as they promised me blemish-free skin. Some products failed me (more face washes than I can count), some made me sick (the pills made me nauseous), and some have been a staple in my medicine cabinet since purchase (Acnefree's Terminator 10 Acne Spot Treatment, Neutrogena's Oil-Free Acne Stress Control Triple-Action Toner, and a slew of Origins face masks to name a few). A recent addition to said stash is the DDF Acne Control Treatment which, I must say, has surprised me in the most delightful of ways.
I received this sample in my
Birchbox last month and finally had the chance to try it out this past week because of a terrible case of facial acne. I'm talking the painful, all-over, I-can-feel-every-inch-of-my-face-even-though-I'm-not-touching-it kind of acne. I'm not sure what exactly caused it (I'm assuming a mixture of the climate, hormones, and back-to-school commercial inducing stress) but either way I needed a solution and
fast; face washes, masks, and gallons of water just weren't getting rid of it quick enough so I was happy to try out a treatment that I was able to (according to the package) apply up to 3x a day.
Salicylic acid based treatments tend to be hit-or-miss for me so I wasn't sure how this particular medication was going to fare on my skin. I was doubly skeptic because of the extremely watery consistency of the treatment (it really feels like you're rubbing water into your skin which is surprisingly soothing when pimples are aplenty) because I'm used to thick and creamy products being the most effective for me.
However, I think the results speak to the effectiveness of the DDF Acne Control Treatment better than my ramblings. Take a look:
Click the collage to get a better review of the results!
I'm thrilled!!!
You can see that even after just two days of use my skin is nearly back to normal (which, for me, is mostly clear with one or two active breakouts). The blemishes are (if not gone) less red, nearly-healed, and absolutely pain-free.
I am extremely pleased with the formula of the DDF Acne Control Treatment as a whole. Apart from the obvious effectiveness of the product on my skin, it has a multitude of other pluses that many acne treatments are lacking: it's lightweight, scentless, and doesn't dry out the skin excessively (if at all). I've always had to be careful with acne treatments in the sense that I have to concentrate it on the blemish(es) so as not to dry out 'normal' areas of the skin but this is completely safe to use across the skin as a whole. Huzzah! When you're used to treating a handful of pimples at once you know how much a tedious (albeit necessary) process spot treatments can be.
As much as I hate to add another acne treatment to my medicine cabinet (I feel like it just begs for breakouts) I'd much rather have medications ready for combat than have a face full of pimples staring at the cash register as he/she scans your acne products (it's about as embarrassing as buying a pint of Ben & Jerry's, a couple candy bars, and tampons all at the same time).
So thank you Birchbox for adding another staple into my bathroom wardrobe!
Have you tried the DDF Acne Control Treatment?
Love it? Hate it?
What are your favorite products for combating acne?
Do share!
xoxo - Cassie
