Orange Peel Texture LINES DENTS on FACE. HELP!

[birdsing]

My skin is deteriorating rapidly and I don't know what to do for it anymore.
My skin is porous, has lines and dents forming on it (perhaps fissures if that makes sense), I feel pricking and slight pangs of pain at times, crawling as if something is running through hairs on my face, eyebrow hairs falling out constantly, tiny tiny bumps sometimes show up that itch (they are so tiny that barely noticeable), I have permanent pink patches of skin on my front cheek area and the sides of my face. The pinkness is not uniform and quite irregular. There used to be lots of small bumps all over my face which was not like any regular acne I've had before and the tiny bumps were only visible in good lighting and angles and more noticeable with make-up on, but now I don't have as many bumps any more or they have flattened out more. Whenever I try to use moisturizer, my skin gets worse and I see more lines and dents forming on my skin. My skin can get extremely oily and I had noticed before my skin problems began, that my skin was getting oilier. My skin appears to have an orange peel texture and the resiliency of cottage cheese in certain areas. I have noticed a slight increased hair growth on my face. I itch a lot under my chin and usually have bumps there. I am only 25 and don't understand what is going on. I have been dealing with facial problems for a full year now.

Here's my background story:
I started out with severely red patches on my skin on my front cheeks and temples. It was horrendous and bumpy inflamed texture in those areas. My forehead didn't have any problems yet but slowly eventually my forehead ended up with the strange texture as well but not the pink skin. And I had all the symptoms slowly arrive that I have described above.

The red skin all faded from dramatic red to pink to where I'm at now which is a light pink. I am not sure if anything I used faded it or it faded on it's own. I am not sure if it was from something I tried....the only thing I was trying at the time when I started seeing any improvement was ketoconazole shampoo on my face and neosorin ointment . When I look close in the mirror I see tons of tiny red dots on my skin or pink/red skin color. I don't know if it's damaged blood vessels or what. My skin has been permanently pink/red in these particular areas. It looks worse when I flush of course but then when my flushing goes down, the pink stains of skin remain. My skin also became very oily.
Dermatologist took a skin scraping because I thought I had a fungal problem but found demodex mites and said he found no evidence of fungus. He called it demodex folliculorum. I've had intense crawling sensations on my face at times and it has moved on to my scalp and body. I didn't think you could FEEL demodex.....can you?? I've had some blood tests done and I've tried to figure out what I could be allergic to and nothing makes sense.

I've moved on to feeling itchy on my legs, crawling sensations on my body, having strange red bumps sometimes show up on my body and itch and then disappear rather quickly, hive like pale bumps show up in the same spots usually on my body which also disappear quickly in untouched, and recently I have been itching on my foot and developed tiny pink patches in two spots where I scratched and some tiny bumps formed in the area. The derm said it looks like nummular eczema.

Anyway, two things seemed to help the redness on my face. Permethrin helped a little. Demodex Solutions Xin Fumangling helps a bit I think and the nightly Zhoungzhoung cream from Demodex Solutions helped with the texture of my skin but I am not sure I'm seeing any improvement with redness with this.

Things that made it worse:
Finacea
Metrogel

And then I tried sodium sulfecetamide and sulfur 5% wash which seemed to almost immediately help my skin and remove redness. It was a little surprising. I wasn't sure if it was just me. But when I continued using it for a few days, bumps and pinkness decreased a lot. I had to stop though because it was overdrying my skin and making it immensely tight and extremely oily perhaps because I was making my skin more dry so my skin was trying to make even more oil because of it. And I was starting to developing tiny itchy bumps.

Before all my facial problems started,

Had gotten sick and used a ZPack- antibiotic pills a month before facial problems began, had gone to get a spray tan three months before problems began and had spray tans before as well as went to tanning bed about 12 times within the last 3 years, used Bare Miinerals make-up for a couple months before problems began (which I noticed made my face itch and I had started noticing some bumps forming on the sides of my face when I was using it during the winter months along with dry skin), had not moisturized my face much in a year, had used steroid ointment on face a year before for abrasions, had used steroid ointment when i already started having pink/red skin forming on my face in the patches I have now and then stopped because it made my redness worse and irritated my skin, had acid reflux problems on and off the past 4 years, 5 years ago I started an all carb eating habit (mainly pasta) and no meat whatsoever and still do not eat meat but try to cut down on carbs now, and before my pink skin patches turned into a red havoc on my face, I tried sun tanning to get rid of it which didn't really help and also went and had my first and only facial with a glycolic acid component to it I'm not sure if it was a peel or what), and lastly, I had tried DUAC acne gel on my face in a few various spots and an hour after application, my skin was lighter in the areas I had applied the duac and it sort of spanned out a littler further than where I applied....it was the strangest thing and I thought it would go away but it never did and in fact a lightened area on the side of my face still is there between the pink on my cheeks and the pink on my temples....after that, I started noticing gradually that my skin seemed pinker around these lightened areas and then eventually my skin became full blown red and much worse, and I did a week or two of a lemon and sea salt scrub 2 months prior to skin problems showing up.

Here are photos of my skin when it was somewhat at its worst but starting to die down.

http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/...t=IMG_0121.jpg
http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/...t=IMG_0122.jpg
http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/...t=IMG_0101.jpg

And here is what my skin looks like with make-up and you can see the strange texture and lines and fissures of my skin.
http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/...ent=photo5.jpg
http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/...ent=photo1.jpg
http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/...=photo6new.jpg
http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/...t=IMG_2704.jpg
http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/...t=IMG_2620.jpg
http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/...t=IMG_2619.jpg

And here is my skin now, without make-up on:
http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/...t=IMG_0908.jpg
http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/...t=IMG_0909.jpg
http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/...t=IMG_0912.jpg
http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/...t=IMG_0914.jpg
http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/...t=IMG_0916.jpg
http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/...t=IMG_0917.jpg
http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/...t=IMG_0919.jpg
http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/...t=IMG_0938.jpg

. My skin bothers me and hurts more when I wear make-up but I have to or I would frighten people. I am nervous this strange texture is spreading on my face and forehead and soon I will have more strange lines, fissures, and indents everywhere. Please help!

[Carrij]

Has anyone gotten a diagnosis? I am unable to open the pictures, but the description sounds very similar to the issue that I’m having. Nobody can give me any answers.

[lawlipop726]

I have had the same issues as the OP for 6 years now. There is no answer medically-speaking. I have been brushed aside by dermatologists for years -- everyone just says it's "caused by acne" or suggests I turn to laser and fillers. A quick Google search, though, finds a rare scarring disease known as AMVC (atrophia maculosa varioliformis cutis), which is hard to diagnose and not treatable due to lack of medical knowledge. Unfortunately, these symptoms match the described disease to a T, and some of the published medical reports on it have pictures that match what I (and many others) are experiencing.

[Inlthouse2]

Thanks for posting your story. Jut ordered the EMU from Montana Ranch due to this same problem. Hope others come across it as well.

[razzina]

did it work ?

[JJ_Hi]

I HOPE you are still here. I know I found this two years too late, but I THINK I might be able to help you and none of it is chemically crazy or can hurt you. I began using a very well known and high end well researched skin care regimen.  Because I am ahhh, (well let's just say I can remember where I was when our beloved President Kennedy was killed) I wasn't looking as good as I wanted to look, so I began using this particular line's retinol program. Now you DO need to hear me out because I am kind of a "band wagon" person meaning I tend to jump on a band wagons "THINKING" I know this or that, because I am a nurse." And heaven knows we know it all! LOL. Just kidding; sort of. Anyway, I was just plain overdoing the skin regimen for one reason only and I fully admit it.VANITY! Heck if one dab was enough, then six dabs had to be better right? It's ok to laugh, I laugh at myself all the time. I find myself quite entertaining in my mind. ANYWAY, I began seeing this "orange peel" appearance here and there a couple days ago, and today, OMG!!!! Remember now, I have to be older than born in1963 in order to remember where I was when JFK died. SO, I hopped online because just a FEW minutes ago, I was horrified to see that my facial skin had gotten WORSE like IN 8 HOURS! And NO, I had NO idea what to do though once I settled down I realized I indeed DID know what to do. Should I call a dermatologist? HECK TO THE YES and I realize that, but I am just plain embarrassed! And I am embarrassed because this is the second time I've done this though this time WAY worse! So, when something much less aggressive than this round of orange peel skin had occurred previously, I strictly  adhered to a very sensible routine as outlined by a very smart, though much younger woman who told her story online. The only difference was in our ages, the rest was exactly the same! SO, absolutely, as a medical professional, I DO understand that this skin problem is often the result of using aggressive and abrasive products that basically DO cause INFLAMATION!!
and THAT IS the problem. So what is the solution?  Well, in MY case, I read what the young lady was so kind to share. I went to the Montana Emu Ranch website and ordered a bottle of pure emu oil. I know about emu oil. It VERY closely mimics that which is in our skin to begin with, so it absorbs well and is an amazing "carrier" oil meaning it will assist in taking other things deeper into the skin than some other carriers that are not as effective leaving products just sitting on the surface. The young lady said she did her homework and believe me she DID. She recommended using RAW honey (raw meaning not altered from the hive to the bottle) for gentle cleansing. That makes perfect sense to me. Feeding the skin and using an non processed product (which when I read I had that "DUH" moment you get when you realize something). So, every morning, I would very gently splash my face with tepid water, just to moisten my facial skin enough that the honey application didn't pull or tug on more sensitive areas we've all been taught NOT to tug or pull. (one nice side effect is if you get a bit on your lips, YUMMY!!!) After leaving the raw honey on my face for five or so minutes, I'd gently cleanse it by adding more tepid water and a soft wash cloth. You could probably do it without a cloth, but when I do the splash thing, EVERYONE within six miles of me gets wet too LOL! Oh, and I hate it when the water runs down my arms and gets the sleeves of my PJs all wet. I Will tell you now to prevent that for free and easily at the end of this post. Anyway, once ALL the honey is washed away with only water( women have used raw honey for centuries to cleanse) I patted my sin dry. This is where the emu oil comes in. It must be pure (hence the Montana Emu Ranch website, and no I do not work for them). I would put several drops in my clean hands and apply liberally to my face. If it didn't completely absorb, I just learned to use LESS! However during the learning curve, I just gently blotted off the excess. That was followed by a wonderful invisible zinc SUN SCREEN!!! YES, even on a cloudy day, you NEED SUN SCREEN! The invisible is best because it doesn't take six years to disappear on the face LOL, it goes on easily and quickly becomes completely undetectable. Then when all was done, I used the minimum of a gentle makeup or skip the makeup altogether  if staying in. I repeated this at night as well. Within a couple days, I could SEE the difference. OK, so why am I whining now, well dumb and dumber here decided since my face had been in good shape for a long time, I could go back to my old ways! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? NOPE, I went right back to the harsh chemicals like retinoid etc. Heck they burned like fire, but that just means they're working right? NO! It means you are damaging your skin and causing a chemical burn! duhhhh!  So here I am, about to order more emu oil and go back to what worked last time to rid myself of skin that looked like an orange peel to skin that looked like skin! Vanity made me look HORRIBLE. What are a few little lines and wrinkles here and there between friends anyway! Now I am NOT a doctor and there may be other reasons for the facial orange peel appearance and there is the possibility there is something else going on, like perhaps you have other problems, so please SEE a dermatologist first. If you try this routine (the emu oil thing) you won't be burning off your protective facial barrier and will not be causing yourself more inflammation that will possibly look just like an orange peel. I hope you have as good an outcome as I did the first time,(I am praying that it will work on this much worse damage I did this time) and I hope you won't be a brainiac like me and burn it AGAIN! Drink plenty of water, that hydrates you from the inside out. Use tepid (not hot or cold) water. Treat your facial skin like it was just the most precious hand painted porcelain delicate perfect thing EVER! Because it really IS! As for me, I don't want to look years and years younger, I just want to be the best ME I can be. AND, aging gracefully is NOT a bad thing especially if you remember that the little lines on your face and around your eyes and mouth are a diary of a life where you laughed hard, smiled at others, were concerned with others,  cried with friends and waited too long to get reading or prescription eye glasses (hence the 11's between your eyebrows). Lastly, protect your facial skin from the SUN!!! If you have to wear a doggone SKI mask in JULY then DO IT, but I do think it makes more sense to use a good sun screen and the key word here is "use"! Buying it is not enough and DO not get it in your eyes! Just because you OWN a good sun screen, it's worthless if you don't use it. OH, one more thing, do not neglect your hands and forearms. They will give away your age even before your face does. I mean when was the last time you took 20 minutes to make sure your HAND makeup looked good? LOL  Hope this helps you even though after so long, or helps someone else!  JJ  OH PS, I promised to tell you how to do the face splash without getting your sleeves wet and the cat and your significant others and your neighbors wet too. Take a pair of socks, nice thick crew socks that you were about to throw away because of holes and just cut off the feet. The remaining part is what goes up your calf when they were not old and holes. Using your hubby's old socks is best. Pull them up your forearms, double them over if you can, then splash away and you'll find that your sleeves are dry when you're done and everyone can move back into the neighborhood! God bless and have a great day!!!!!