The dermatologist prescribed me epiduo gel, spironolactone (oral), and a face wash with sulfur. I think most people call it Sumadan. I think the bottle said sodium sulfacetamide. I used the face wash every morning, took two spironolactone tablets every night, washed my face with a gentle cleanser, and applied the epiduo before bed. 

The face wash never really affected anything. It smelled like rotten eggs. I thought that was cool. And I guess it cleaned my face well. 

The spironolactone lowers your blood pressure, so taking it before bed was to make sure it didn't make me drowsy during the day. Along with lowering blood pressure, it's a diuretic and an androgen blocker. Diuretics are supposed to make you pee a lot but I never experienced that. Androgens are male hormones. Spironolactone looks like these male hormones to the body so the body doesn't make so much of them. 

The epiduo made my skin burn at first. It made me start actually moisturizing my skin. I'm very grateful for that. I think I started off with some gel stuff from olay, then started using grape seed oil. You might think that's crazy, but providing your skin with moisture in the form of oil can actually help with acne. If you just dry your skin out it can freak out and overproduce oil to compensate. 

All of this together had my skin much better in a few months. I had occasional breakouts and always had a few spots because I picked at my skin. I got into natural medicine in a few years. I started eating better and using herbs and nutrition instead of normal medicine for all of my other problems and had great success. My skin got even better as I fixed the other problems. 

By then I figured the spironolactone wasn't doing that much. I felt that I had outgrown most of my troubles. So last summer I got off of it and started using apple cider vinegar and calcium bentonite clay facials. I took a blood purifying herb blend as I weaned myself off of it. I also have been lowering the amount of epiduo I use since then because I don't want to waste that crazy expensive stuff and I still have a lot in the bottle lmao. My skin was beautiful all summer. 

When school started up I had some hormone issues for about three months. That and school itself (the stress, leaning on my face in class, not eating well, etc.) made my skin break out pretty bad. When the hormones cleared up my skin didn't really get better. I was scared I'd have to go back to the spironolactone and epiduo. 

Then one day I was watching Organic Olivia's video on how she cleared up her acne. I had never watched the full thing before (even though I'd heard about it many times) because I figured I already knew all the stuff she'd talk about. I knew most of the first few things she talked about, then she started talking about L-Lysine. That sounded like one of those crazy bodybuilder supplements. But then she compared it to spironolactone. It's an androgen blocker just like it! I almost cried I was so excited. I went out and bought myself some the next day. It was very cheap even from a very good vitamin company. That was about three weeks ago. It didn't do anything to my acne for the first week, but I noticed that my skin itself looked good. Like I was glowing a bit under the pimples haha. 

I think it's kicked in in the past week. I've gone a few too many days without washing my hair (which usually breaks me out) and had the stress of going back to school after the holidays. But I haven't really broken out. I mean there's a spot where my bangs fall on my forehead but this is much better than usual. 

The first picture is the second day I took it and the second is today. The pictures don't do the difference much justice but I can sure feel it! I hope this helps someone out there!! I take four pills a day and I'm going to probably take two a day when it really clears up. Also as a bonus it strengthens the immune system and helps with cold sores!!