For the longest time I was only peripherally conscious of the imperfections that plagued my face. Then, one day, I acquired a girlfriend who loved me for who I was on the inside, but found some of my outsides problematic; And so she set out to make me beautiful on the outside. First she took care of the obvious things, like my lack of interest in using deodourant. My technique of splashing on rubbing alcohol after a shower wasn’t satisfactory. Then there was the stubble and the superfluous hair growths. Lastly, the acne. She opened me up to a world of chemicals that I never bothered stepping foot in to on my own; Astringent, Benzoyl peroxide, specialized facial soaps, moisturizers, exfoliating creams… This was ridiculous to a guy who used rubbing alcohol as deodourant/antiperspirant and the same bar of soap on his face that he used to clean his ass with.

So what happened to my acne? It outlived my relationship and withstood the chemical warfare that my naturally beautiful lover waged on it.

If you want to put a more than human effort in to ridding yourself of the acne I found some website of this dude who applies a *ridiculous* amount of 10% Benzoyl Peroxide (an anti-bacterial and a pore unclogging agent) twice a day. But you have to let it sit for a while, then moisturize. It’s expensive and time consuming and the results come only after a couple months of treatment. Also, consistency is key, miss an application and you can count on a few of those little bastards showing up.

So, in the end I’ve managed to obtain a reasonable measure of success with a minimal amount of effort, but by no means a victory. I wash my face twice a day with Nutrogena facial bar-soap and apply astringent with a cotton pad after each washing. My face gets really dry after that, and that supposedly provokes outbreaks, but I have been too lazy to moisturize(using a proper facial moisturizer like Cetaphil, which I do have in my medicine cabinet). Just doing this, I notice an improvement in the condition. If I don’t follow this routine then I am almost guaranteed to suffer from an outbreak continuously for the next week (acne is very vengeful). Now, I’ve tried doing minimal washing, but in my own experience, it was worse than just using the regular bar soap. Some people *need* to wash their face to prevent really painful boils from developing (yes, I know exactly what those deep pimples are like).

If I only was motivated enough to moisturize, *NEVER* touch my face, gently pat-dry when I wash it, lance all my pimples properly, and not scratch them, I bet I could improve my odds even more.