Anyone Have Success with Proactive Acne Cream?

I tried it and had the worst reaction to it! It took ages for the rash to go away and they kept sending me the stuff even though I'd rung them to cancel it!! Apparently you can buy stuff from the chemist, with the same active ingredients, for way cheaper.

I have never used proactiv, but I do use Purpose. Which is similar to cetaphil but much much cheaper. My dermatologists recommended me use Purpose after consistent and severe breakouts.

My face is clear, with the exception of a few bumps during that "special" time of the month. But no complains here.

I would say give that a try before spending a lot of money on proactiv. But that's just my two cents.

Please, please, please do your research on Proactiv! I wasted so much money on that for my moderate/severe acne and it left me much worse than I had originally started. I recently purchased "The Regimen" from Acne.org and I am pleased (OK shocked) at the results I am getting. I read so many positive reviews for this stuff I had to try it. Price wise, you get SO much more product for the money and all of his products are top notch. The only problem I am encountering with it is dryness, but you have to give your skin time to get used to the BP. Good luck!

My nephew used it and although his acne cleared up, he went a really funny pale colour.
Which makes sense if it is a bleach. In my wedding photos he looks really washed out and not quite normal.

I've used a ton of chemical loaded products including Proactive. Now I swear by all natural products!

This page I found when doing some research- http://www.acnetreatmentsystem.org/salicylic-acid/ talks about the main ingredient in Proactive called Salicylic acid. Basically if Proactive is working for you you aren't meant to use more than one product containing the ingredient but Proactive sell a whole 4 step treatment where nearly all the products contain that Salicylic acid. That's why the skin gets so dry.

My son uses it with some success. Read the fine print carefully, though. I took what I thought was a $20 bonus offer only to find the charge was over $60! It did say the actual cost in the fine print once I examined the paperwork carefully.

I have moderate to severe acne for 15+ years now and I'm only 30 My acne is hormone based, not really effected by anything I eat and I didn't grow out of it like most of my friends did. I tried proactiv and it was a complete waste of money, I did accutane and it improved it a bit but I still had pretty bad breakouts. Oral antibiotics and Birth control didn't do much for me either. My goal isn't to eliminate it anymore because that isn't going to happen, but to keep it under control now.

What worked for me: Salicylic 20% chemical peel. Purchased on amazon and I use it at home, much cheaper than going to a beautician as often as I would need to. I researched it a ton before I did it, so I didn't walk into it blindly. Applied as needed, depending on how my skin is doing I can go from anywhere from 1x every 2 weeks to 2x a week. Its a little scary because you can do it too often and it will be like a bad sunburn and you skin will peel pretty badly, but after you learn how your skin reacts to it and moderate your routine, it works pretty well. It strips my skin of all the buildup and dead skin that doesnt' seem to shed as much as I need it to and eliminates clogged pores and eventually controls the bad breakouts. A bonus to this approach was that the texture and eveness of my skin has improved greatly. The scaring from really bad breakouts is fading.

Other Products in my routine: I use Neutragena's natural face wash (light green bottle) and the clarisonic brush in the morning and when I get home to remove my makeup. I used Clean and Clear toner as needed to remove any residual dirt/makeup that washing did not remove. Oil of Olay sensitive skin moisturizer with SPF is probably the gentlest moisturize I found that didn't make my skin greasy. I wash my face gently with the Neutragena wash (no clarisonic) before and after I work out, and if my face has gotten really greasy between when I get home and/or workout and bed time I might wash it again (again no clarisonic for extra washes). But only if its really bad, I try to avoid over washing my face as much as possible. I don't use super hot water, I use barely warm water or cold water (oh how I enjoy the cold weather mornings). Also, I use a mineral powder make up and I change my brushes every 3-6 months. It can be expensive but my skin is worth it. Change anything that touches your face when you sleep regularly. I change my sheets, pillow case, and wash my blankets 1-3 times a month.

This routine is what worked best for me. I tried everything under the sun and it took 14 years to find what worked for me. My face is clear most of the time, every now and then I will get a bad breakout but those are becoming increasingly rare as time goes on and I tweak my routine.

Pretty much the best advice I can give is you'll have to patiently find your own solution. Different things work on different people because the cause is differnet for everyone.

And one more thing: if you have oily skin, you'll have better success beating acne if you remove the ecess oil throughout the day (duh). Don't waste your money on the little blue oil wipe thingies from clean&clear or anything - just get some regular gift-wrap tissue paper! I bought a pack for $1.00 of just plain white tissue paper from the party section at the grocery store, cut it into little squares and put it in a plastic baggy to carry it in my purse. One pack will last you a LONG time! And they work even better than the blue oil wipes! Better for you, for the environment, for your wallet...


I think we all win here!

When I was a teen I used it and loved it. I felt that the only thing that really worked miracles was the the repair lotion though. I used my own face soap and never used the astringent because it dried my skin out. Luckily it's a non-issue now.

It didn't work for me either.. I ended up going and getting facials because my acne was really bad. I now use Dermalogica products (they are expensive but they last a really long time so it's not that bad). My skin is 1 million times better than it was a year after starting (been on Dermalogica now for over 3 yrs and it still works) whereas proactiv worked for awhile but my acne came back.