A Little Over Four Weeks Ago I Started with Daniel “Dan” ...

A little over four weeks ago I started with Daniel “Dan” Kern’s the regimenagainst acne as explained on acne.org. It’s a three step programme that you have to follow twice a day. When you shower you wet your face by putting it under the shower and then you clean it with a soap-free, sodium lauryl sulphate-free (SLS), sodium laureth sulphate-free, scrub-free, perfume-free, isopropyl palmitate-free (IP), isopropyl myristate-free (IM), myristal myristate-free (MM) cleanser. When choosing a cleanser you should also look for something for (extremely) dry, sensitive skin and it should preferably contain glycerine. Since I don’t live in the U.S. I had to look for something like this for quite a while, but eventually I found a cleanser by Decubal that works for the regimen.

You should only wash your face very briefly (no more than 10 seconds) and carefully, without rubbing. Your hands and fingers should slide over your face. You should not rub your face dry, but carefully pat it dry and let it air-dry.

The next step is putting benzoyl peroxide (BP) on your face. Preferably this should be 2,5% benzoyl peroxide gel, but I couldn’t find anything less than 5%. BP makes sure your pores are filled with oxygen, which makes an ill-suited environment for acne-inducing bacteria. I use gel from one of the well-known drugstores here in the Netherlands. When you start using BP, you should start out with just a fingertip and gradually increase the amount to an entire finger during the first four weeks of the treatment. In the beginning your skin will probably feel like it’s on fire and will become extremely dry and it might start peeling (as did mine). You’ll look like you have sun burn. However, your skin will start to get used to it and the dryness and irritability will decrease. The application of the BP should also be done very gently, since rubbing your skin will irritate it more and this is what the acne bacteria like, so be gentle! And be sure to avoid the area around your eyes. Oh, and try to avoid rubbing it across your eyebrows or in your hair, because the stuff bleaches!

When the BP has been sufficiently absorbed by your skin, and your face is dry, you can start with the third and last step. For this step you need a moisturizer that is oil-free (except for jojoba oil, macademia nut oil and mineral oil), that’s not thick and greasy (because then it will clog your pores) and that doesn’t contain IP, IM and MM (see above). It might be a good idea to look for something which has SPF for during the day, since you’ll burn more easily because of the BP, but a lot of SPFs will clog your pores, so be careful with that. I started using Zarqa Hydra Face Cream to which I added two drops of jojoba oilmyself. I wasn’t really happy with that though, since my skin remained extremely dry and itchy. Now I’m using Puravita Hydro Flower Facecream which is also from Zarqa. You should use a good amount of moisturizer and again be sure to apply it very gently. Do not rub it towards or in your eye area, since it will also rub the remaining BP into that area and you won’t be a happy camper when this happens.

In the beginning this acne treatment isn’t very pleasant, I must tell you, but you just have to hang in there and wait for the side-effects to subside. This will happen, though, but the acne.org treatment does work.

• I bought the Decubal cleanser, the jojoba oil and the Puravita Hydro Flower Facecream atDe Tuinen.

• I bought the 5% benzoyl peroxide at Kruidvat.