Day 1!

I got my prescription filled yesterday.  I am starting on 30mg for the first month and doubling after.  I took my pill around 5:30pm.  I took my makeup off around 8pm and moisturized and took the below photo around 11pm.

After 6 hours of taking it, it already seems to be drying my skin out.  Which I guess is a good thing!  You may not be able to tell, by there is some peeling and flaking around my mouth, and even more so when I was waking up this morning.

Since I started taking the meds on a Friday, I will do weekly follow up progress pictures and whats going on dryness-wise or any other side effects on Fridays.  If I'm bored, maybe more updates in between.

In the picture above, on my cheek I have 3 actives, that are all in the process of of going down.  Below that on my chin, there are 2 actives, one has been there for over a month.  Each morning it seems pretty flat, its even still leaking a little but in the afternoon, it has swollen back up!  ugh.  Then on the other side of my chin I've got 3 that have made a fairly recent appearance.  So that's that!

Lab Work and Prescription

Well, I had my blood work done Monday.  When my doctor's office called Tuesday, my white blood cell count is just a little low and my cholesterol and triglycerides were just a little high.  I know that this due to my ketogenic lifestyle.  For those that don't know, and don't feel like reading that long article, its a low carb, high fat, moderate protein diet.  I'm keeping this up until my vacation, then I will cycle back to my normal lean meat, healthy fats and very moderate amount of healthy carbs.  Right now, I have been trying extra hard to add fats into my diet.  So, until my vacation, and up until my next appointment, I'm going to finish off my fattier meats (no sense throwing away good food), still do low carb (less than 20 grams a day), and stop adding fat.  What fat I get will be from the normal foods that I eat.  To add fat, I was cooking my food in bacon fat or oils, adding butter to things, and dipping things in ranch.  Now, while I'm on Accutane, I will simply eat the fat that occurs naturally in whole foods.  Then, next month, much less fatty foods!

My prescription was called in yesterday afternoon and they have to order it.  No call yet that it's ready to be picked up.  The day that I start the medication, I will post the Day 1 starting picture, and follow up weekly with a progress picture.

That's all for today!

Derm appointment and make up coverage!

So I had my dermatologist appointment yesterday morning to re-go over all the side affects and what not of starting Accutane.  On Monday morning, I will go have my blood work done and the results should be back the next day where I can then fill my prescription.  I will be starting with the 30 mg dosage for the first month.  Apparently, in my area, the 30 mg pills are kind of hard to come by, which is crazy b/c since its a weight based dosage, there should be multiple available.  After you have the blood work done and and take the negative pregnancy test, you have 7 days to fill the prescription.  That's a pretty small window of time to possibly not have it in stock at multiple pharmacies.  We shall see how it goes but I'm excited to finally get it started.

So I took some pictures of myself without make up on (eek!), then the different stages of my make up to cover up my acne.  I am in no way a make up artist, so if anyone reads this and has suggestions, I'd love to hear them.  This is my everyday, just going to work make up.  Because I wear so much, I use regular drug store brands.  For going out or long days where I want to look extra cute, I break out the more expensive stuff.  I really like Makeup Forever Matte Velvet.

Also, I hate selfies.  I look horrible in them.  One, they are WAY too close for comfort when you're trying to hide stuff, but also I can't find a good angle!  My nose looks huge in selfies and I feel like its not THAT big in a regular, from a reasonable distance, picture.  And, I make stupid faces, don't judge.  So here we go!

 Here I am fresh out of the shower, where nothing has been applied:

 OUCH!  This cluster on my chin is almost blister-like.  The ones on the cheek are mostly flat now, but can still be felt a little under the skin.  They've been there for a month and a half.

 I realized in this picture my nose is crooked!  How have I gone 28 years and never noticed?!  haha

After I apply all my topicals (which I'm stopping when I start Accutane), I apply primer.  I accidentally bought this thinking it was a different brand and I fell in love!  I used to get very oily in the first 30 minutes after applying my makeup, now I go half the day without having to blot.  It says color correction, but I don't notice that at all.  It leaves a nice silky feeling on my skin, ready for my makeup to be applied.

I do 1 pump and it covers my entire face!

After I let the primer sit for a minute, I apply Neutrogena Healthy Skin in Light.  I would use Medium, but it has disappeared from everywhere.  I've used Neutrogena concealer and foundation for forever but recently changed foundations.  I hate that there are 3 colors of concealers, like fair, light and medium, but a thousand colors of foundation.  I can never get it to match.  I basically apply a thin layer of concealer with my fingers all over the red areas, which is the center of my face, and blend out.  I don't want it to be too thick in 1 area b/c then it makes the finished product looked thicker in that area.  Here I am with just the concealer on.  I'm extra white in it b/c its so light and I'm so tan right now!

After to concealer, I apply Cover Girl 3 in 1 foundation in Golden Tan.  I use my fingers for this as well.  The picture looks kind of yellow, but I can assure you I don't go around looking like a lemon.

No redness showing but gotta set it with powder.  I like using loose powder with the fluffy thing it comes with.  When I try a powder brush, it seems to leave bristle marks in the foundation.  I use Cover Girl translucent loose powder in medium.

Again, looking a little yellow, but its just the lighting in my bathroom I guess.  Not much of a difference between the foundation and setting with powder but its a nice matte finish now.  Pay no attention to my nakey-ness!

From here, I do my blush, contouring and eye makeup, nothing to do with coverage, just tying the picture together!

Again, I make dumb faces, I didn't like any of the ones of me smiling any better so here we are with this face!

So these are my makeup techniques.  And while you can unfortunately of course still see bumps, they're not as noticeable when covered. 

My products used:

Revlon Primer

Neutrogena Concealer

Cover Girl Foundation

Cover Girl Powder

Breakout Background

Hello internet world!


You've probably stumbled upon this b/c you're looking for information on acne and Accutane.  That's the reason I've decided to blog my experience.  I have googled so many before/after/during pictures, experiences, side effects, etc. etc., I thought I would add to the masses and maybe help some others out with what I am about to experience.


Now, I'm new to all this blog stuff, not sure what all I need to link, what it takes to make this look pretty and whatnots, but I guess it will all come along!


For a little back ground on me:  I'm a 28 year old female, who has had cystic acne for as long as I can remember.  It's not awful, I get it mostly on my chin, but no acne is good!  I can remember being in the 4th grade and having this giant thing on my face.  That's NINE YEARS OLD! 


Early middle school my parents took me to the dermatologist for the first time and I got put on tetracycline and Retin-A.  Well, being a middle schooler, I probably forgot to take and use my stuff as directed, but one way or another, it didn't really work for me.  Fast forward through high school.  I had perfected my makeup routine and didn't want to go back to the dermatologists for some weird reason.


Mid-college I started using Proactiv and got on birth control.  Now, I don't know if this actually helped with my cystic acne or if it was just a time in my life when my hormones were working in my favor, but I stopped getting the huge underground pimples that lasted for a month.  I used it for years and still had a lot of breakouts, but they weren't huge and painful, and could easily be drained once it came to a whitehead.  But sometime after college, while still using Proactiv and being on the same pill, the cystic came back slowly.  One a month turned into 3, turned into 8, all lasting for long periods of time.  OUCH!


I decided it was time to see the dermatologist again, why I waited so long, I have no idea.  My first doctor I saw twice.  She barely looked at me, asked what I had been on before, I told her it didn't work, and she prescribed me the exact same thing.  Three months later for a follow up, nothing had changed so she changed me to minocycline and a stronger Retin-A.  Still didn't work so I gave up for a while.


I found a new dermatologist a year and a half ago who really seems to care.  She has tried everything on me (doxycycline (several dosage changes), Oracea, Spirolactone for the oral stuff, and Benzacline, Tazorac and Aczone as topicals.  Sometimes different meds seemed like they were semi-working, but it wasn't what either of us were hoping for.  I also had some bad experiences with yeast infections from the medication, so that was just awful.  I can honestly say I think I'd rather had acne than get regular yeast infections.  UGH, they're awful!  Anyway...


That leads us to this week.  On Friday, I go to take my second pregnancy test and get my prescription for Accutane.  I'm nervous about it, especially the "it gets worse before it gets better" phase, but to (fingers-crossed) be done with this adult acne in a measly 6 months would be amazing.  I do hate that I will be in Vegas in 1 month with what seems to be the worst time for the initial breakout, when I'm trying to look my hottest, but oh well, I have mastered the covered up makeup!


So in this blog, I plan to take weekly updated pictures, talk about pain, changes in moods, what I'm doing to help with dryness, make up coverage, blood work etc etc etc., in hopes that it will help some people also going through/planning to go through this crazy little drug called Accutane the way other blogs, Youtubes, and websites have helped to guide me.


I will take some "before" pictures this week, as well as my cover up make up routine, and then an update Friday of what happens at my doctor's appointment.


Until next time!