I'm a major fan of Bliss products. They're not the cheapest, so if you're unsure about spending a lot of money on skin care products at once, you can totally get trial-size sampler packages.

I've never had any skin problems. :) An isolated pimple here or there, sometimes a little dry. I like Bliss stuff because it's pretty gentle.

Gentle is good.

I've never heard of Bliss. Where do you get the products?

You can get Bliss at Sephora, Saks, amazon.com, and on their website.

I'm also a huge fan of Kinerase--and met Courteney Cox at one of their events!--but it's not cheap.

I'm watching this thread because one of my sons is dealing with some serious breakouts. Of course, he believes that any skin care is "for girls" and refuses to use it, no matter the brand. There's got to be something out there for him, at least, I hope so.

You can tell him nice skin on a guy or a guy who takes care of his skin is always attractive to girls. Or is he not at THAT stage yet? lol

You could try showing him the acne.org site; it's maintained by a guy. There's pics and videos of him explaining how to wash your face properly, etc.

Oh, Nikki, he's DEFINITELY at that age. Just doesn't want to be considered girly by his friends if they see a bottle of face wash in his bathroom! LOL!

Thanks for the link, HotDamn.

AOIIalum -

Get him a bottle of Johnson & Johnson Purpose face wash. The packaging isn't "girlie" at all. (It's actually the same stuff as Johnson & Johnson Head to Toe Baby Wash, but I'm guessing he doesn't want to have that sitting in his bathroom either, LOL.) If he's washing his face w/ his body soap, it might be aggravating his skin & causing the breakouts. Purpose is very gentle.

Plus make sure it's not his shave cream or anything like that. (All the men in my life used electric razors, so I'm kind of dumb in this area.)

I second that motion. I've used Purpose and the packaging is very asexual. Businesslike, really.

If you go to Target it'll probably be on the bottom shelf.

I don't really have a regimen but I have to give thumbs up to accutane. I had terrible break outs/cystic acne and finally could afford accutane when I gradutaed from college-it worked very very well. I did have relapse about 3 years later (no cystic acne-that cleared up permanently, just general acne) and again it worked well for about 4 years. i went on it one more time about 2 years ago-again worked well but I noticed being in my mid 30's it accentuated some wrinkles. My brother also used it and it cleared up his acne as well. I had no problems and was (and still am) very pleased with the results. I was required to be on the pill and had to have my liver values checked every 4 weeks.

I also took Accutane and am extremely split on it. I was only on it for about four months in high school. My skin is now absolutely perfect -- I haven't had a single breakout in ten years and I get comments all the time on what nice skin I have. But I suffered some pretty harsh side effects while I was on it (hence why I only took it for four months). I lost about half of my hair and had big bald spots. I had major nosebleeds on a daily basis and my ears would often bleed as well. My skin and lips were so dry that I frequently had deep cracks across my face that would bleed. It got so terrible that there were rumors flying around my school that I was dying of cancer.

I'm certain that my situation was exacerbated by the fact that I was a swimmer and spent about 5 hours a day in chlorine, which is very drying. I'm also extremely grateful that it worked so well in such a short time and had such long lasting effects. But I still have very dry skin and lips and get nosebleeds very frequently, and a lot of my hair never grew back. I just feel it's necessary to warn people to do LOTS of research and talk through concerns with a dermatologist before starting to take Accutane.

Accutane can also cause very nasty side effects in a pregnant woman as well. Hence why they are always checking women for pregnancy each time they go in while they are on it (or should be checking).

I am experiencing some breakouts right now on my forehead. I'm assuming it is stress because I dont use hairspray that often and I dont have bangs. I think trying to get one's mom in a nursing home would cause anyone to break out :)

I've been using and sticking to my normal routine of products for day and night but I'm using Retin-A micro-gel more frequently. It seems to be clearing up now.

Not to take off the face skin care conversation, but I am a big fan of Bliss's fat girl slim, fat girl sleep, love handler, and thinny thin chin products!