By sloughing dead skin cells, adapalene helps clear pore blockage and prevent future breakouts. “I have used duac for 2 months. Hi. If not, what else do I need to change?Thanks for being such an amazing sub, thanks for trudging through this long post, and thanks in advance for the help!are your primers and foundations both water or silicone based? I actually stopped wearing makeup for a long time because of it. I've noticed that some of my fading acne will become red before it turns into a darker brown, indicating PIH. I was wondering, would you have to continue using duac/epiduo to keep your skin clear?At the moment, definitely. Within two weeks I started seeing positive results. this happened to me and i wasn't moisturizing enough beforehand.I've been on Epiduo a year and a half and I still have this problem, especially during the summer, and the only makeup I use is bare minerals primer, foundation and mineral veils; though I've always thought this had more to do with my VERY oily skin. I have previously used epiduo and experienced bad burning but that was not the case for duac! You may prefer to use a product which contains just adapalene called Differin. My acne got much worse on epiduo for a couple of months (worse than ever before), but I stuck with it and now five months into treatment, my acne has completely gone. He asked me to use E45 along with Duac. But now that I'm using the salicylic peel from MUAC, it accelerates the process, and it's less than 2 weeks from this red stage to being completely gone. Right now the best I can do is keep makeup wipes and a light moisturizer in my purse, and whenever I notice it doing this (usually around noon) I hide away in the bathroom and reapply everything. That one had petroleum, so it's a little thicker, but I found it helped a ton.I'm on differin (allergic/sensitive to Epiduo/BP) and switched to that one after I got the beginning of flakies, a regular occurrence since i have dry skin, and I hoped to prevent worse flaking from the differin. :(I'm also on some acne medication that can be drying, tretinion. Your progress is amazing and I think I will have very similar PIH to work on once I get the breakouts under control.What other products were you using? “Epiduo has honestly been the only product which has had a significant impact on my skin. Would definitely recommend.I'll definitely try that when I'm done with Epiduo. Once it had dried up a bit, I slathered Duac all over my face. Since you're using EltaMD already, I'll suggest switching to the EltaMD Broad Spectrum SPF30 moisturizing. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts My routine was to clean my face with a gentle face wash and then apply the E45 evenly. When I was using Duac, I had a moisturizer by Sebamed which was sufficient (and cheaper) but the Epiduo is much more drying so I had to switch to Trixera. I do still have a few pimples. I'm happy you've found this and you're skin is looking great!Wow congratulations on the progress! I think the red marks probably are PIH, which seems unfair to have to deal with after the breakout has cleared up, but even with PIH your skin has greatly improved.Obviously I'm not claiming to know better than your doctor, I'm just curious, why would you still need to go on Accutane when your skin looks virtually flawless now?Well I'm not sure if I'm actually going to need it after all EpiDuo already did, but the initial plan was Accutane. I had a brief thought that the sunscreen was my problem, but unless it definitely is, I would prefer not to give it up. I actually bought the smashbox hydrating and redness reducing (idk the actual name, but it's green) primers, the hydrating version got me through the coldest, driest winter ever (the green primer didn't do anything really, just...existed on my face.) The products I've been using have changed over these five months, but at the moment what I do is OCM using neem oil, Epiduo, Avène TriXéra emollient balm and vaseline. and OMG. It only gets worse throughout the day, too, until it looks like this, and this. I'm on Epiduo for my acne, and even though I started slow, and my skin seems to have acclimated, every time I put on makeup, it cakes/dries like crazy. Seems to be working this far and my skin feels the most moisturized it's been in a while.Awww man I feel your pain, for the first 6 weeks I was on epiduo my skin was dry city. Do you think the Stridex pads will produce siilar results?New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be castPress J to jump to the feed.