Acne due to oily skin or overly dried skin?

Hello,
I recently changed my face care regimen and am getting breakouts. Is there a way to determine whether my breakouts are caused by overly dried skin and my skin is trying to compensate that, or if it is because my skin is still too oily?

Thanks a million!!

[Mia1983]

Hi,

I'm 25 years old and I used to suffered from the same problem as you ever since puberty. My skin was either too oily or overly dry, so I kept drying out my skin with different anti-acne products and ending up with oily skind and break-outs all the time, despite moisturising. I always envied those friends who seemed to have flawless skin, while I kept breaking out like a teenager...

Despite having been on birt-control for several years I kept having break-outs. I tried and endless amount of different products, cheap and expensive ones, anti-acne treatment and so on. About 6 months ago I found 'Clinique anti-blemish solutions' and it totally changed my skin! It's rather expensive but worth every penny. It's a cleansing foam, tonic and moisturiser that you use every morning & night. I was sceptical at first because usually I would break out even more when I used moisturiser at night. About 3 weeks after I started using it my skin changed. Now I rarely have any spots and my skin is neither oily nor dry, I only occasionally get a few spots when I have my period. So despite sounding like a commercial for Clinique: try it! I hope it will work for you too :)

[Daintyfairy83]

Thanks so much for the comments, that's so nice of you. I'll definitely check that out!

[loiloi]

Hi. Acne develops in the same fashion for most patients: Androgens (hormones) stimulate the sebacous glands which produce oil. If you have high levels of androgens or are particularly sensitive to their effects, too much oil may be produced. The glands then become blocked with excess oil and bacteria which feeds off this oil.
An effective product will therefore attack one of the components of acne; androgens, oil and bacteria.
If over-the-counter products are of limited benefit see your doctor for a course of oral antibiotics such as Oxytetracycline 250mg twice daily. It can take about 12 weeks of treatment to see an improvement, so your doctor may also prescibe a topical retinoid such as Differin (adapalene 0.1%) to use at the same time.
Female acne patients may also benefit from taking the combined oral contraceptive pill as the oestrogens they contains block the action of androgens.
Eloise.

[Daintyfairy83]

Thank you so much, that is really helpful!