Proactiv - a cure for acne? p.s. nerdy post ahead!

My sister usually suffers from acne, by that I don't mean ocassioanal breakouts. Her skin is usually covered with blemishes, acne and all sorts of spots all time of the year. I hardly ever see her skin clear.

Now there may be other products in the market which could have cured her acne but she never really bothered until she tried this Proactiv kit. It's been more than a month now, almost two since she has been using this kit continuously and it has actually made a huge difference in the appearance of her skin hence the post.

What I found different in this kit was that all the products contain Salicylic acid. Basically acne is formed when the skin cells beneath the hair follicles shed too quickly and cause acne to erupt. Salicylic acid is meant to slow down the shedding, prevent clogging and consequently reduce acne, blackheads and whiteheads. Simple?

I myself am prone to occasional breakouts, but I did not use this kit is because I have dry-sensitive skin and the contents of Proactiv did not really suit my skin type. It made my skin overtly dry to handle. What I understand is that its meant for people who suffer from spots and acne severely as compared to occasionally, get it?

She used 5 products in total. A cleanser, toner, day lotion, night lotion and a refining mask.

The first four products she used every single day and the mask, only occasionally.

Renewing Cleanser: This is one of its best products in my opinion. It is gentle, yet exfoliating and the tiny beads really do seem to result in a clean face after use. It of course removes makeup from the skin and leaves you with fresh baby soft skin after. This is one of the main products which she found the most helpful in improving her overall skin texture.

Revitalising Toner: This again is very gentle in formulation. What she found was it soothes her skin after using the cleanser and removes any traces of impurities and leaves skin feeling quite pleasant. You can opt this one out if you want, but I myself love using toners as they do actually work when used regularly.

Repairing Day Lotion: This is a light lotion which is meant to prevent breakouts throughout the day, keep the oil under control and help to dry blemishes. It does what it says of course but she found it slightly drying and there were times when it lead to dry patches being visible on the skin after use. This does slightly sting as well but the feeling fades away soon. I would recommend using another moisturiser alongside this.

Repairing Night Lotion: This is another of their best products from the kit. Its nicely moisturising yet contains Salicylic acid and Retinol that prevent the occurrence of breakouts and reduce the appearance of pore size. I would suggest using this in the day as well, as it works just as good as the day lotion but provides more hydration to the skin. She found this highly effective as it did prevent breakouts that she would otherwise wake up with in the morning

Refining Mask: This mask contains Sulphur that penetrates pores to prevent the root cause of blemishes and Kaolin which absorbs excess oils from the skin surface. This would be effective when your skin is behaving badly or when you have a spot that you want to treat overnight for a special occasion as it really does work at drying it out. I have to say she did find this slightly drying, so I would suggest using this in times of dire need or use it as a spot treatment sparingly.

To sum it up, Proactiv Solutions is quite a good kit to try if you have always been struggling with constant blemishes, spots and acne. It does really work, as I have seen quite a difference in my sisters skin condition in these few months. She does not suffer from acne now and her overall skin texture has improved. She does have those occasional spots and blemishes though. It has also not removed her whiteheads completely - I guess it only works for blemishes and acne, not quite so well for whiteheads.

Keep in mind, unless you use products for 25 days in a row, you wont be able to tell if its worked for you or not. Give it 25 days if you're in your 20's, 35 days if you're in your 30's and so on. Also I would not recommend this to those who have combination-dry or dry-sensitive skin types. Only try this if you have combination-oily or oily skin. Make sure you know what your skin type is before you try out skin care products.

The five products will last you 6 months or more and you can get all the 5 products for around £50 I believe. Pretty reasonable eh?

www.proactiv.co.uk

Disclaimer: The products in this post were provided by the company PR for consideration.