Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Reliable Reinforcements for Days When I'm on Roaccutane

Hi guys!

In this entry I am going to share you my current favorite body care and lip care. If you’ve been following my blog for some times now, you’ve probably already known my current struggle with acne. As I stated earlier, I am currently taking Isotretionin.

If you are not familiar with the name, Isotretionin, you’re probably familiar with names like Accutane or Roaccutane, it is an oral medication for severe acne. If you’ve been dealing with acne and no treatments seem to work, Isotretionin would be the last desperate reinforcement. In short, it works by modifying the oil production on your whole body into minimum and also kills bacteria. Which is why this is the last medication to choose because it’s pretty aggressive. It affects the whole body in order to treat just your face.

Even before I was on Roaccutane (in this post, I’m just going to call it with the name you’re already familiar with) my skin is already really dry and sensitive. Imagine how dry it gets when I’m on Roaccutane. My skin now is really dry, scaly and so darn itchy. Not to mention my problems with chapped lips. Those conditions are so uncomfortable so it’s essential pick the right body and lip care, while I’ll leave the whole deal with my face to my dermatologist.

So these are the products I’m relying on lately.

The Body Shop Shea Body Butter


I wear this on daily basis. Yes, you got that right. Since my skin has gotten really dry, I needed to ascend from lotion to body butter. Speaking about consistency, body butter is a lot thicker, stickier and it gets even stickier when you’re sweating. Definitely feels uncomfortable for daily basis. I usually wear body butter at night, before bed. But my skin is horribly dry and desperately long for high level of moisturizer, that body butter even feels comfortable on daily basis (so imagine how dry is it now).

Shea Body Butter is perfect for very dry skin. Then again she butter is famous for moisturizer. The texture is a little bit thick and doesn’t spread as much as other body butters for different skin type. But I love the long lasting moisturizing effect. My skin feels very comfortable wearing this. There are two variants for very dry skin from Body Shop. The other, I believe, is Mango Body Butter. But scent wise, I prefer Shea Butter. I love the delicious milky scent as it relaxes me. Also makes me wanna lick it sometimes. Thank God for self control.

Nivea Med Protection Lip Balm SPF 15


This lip balm, hands down, is a winner. With or without Roaccutane, I can't live without it. I’ve been using this lip balm since I was still in school. There are even times when I have two or three of this lip balms at once just so I can keep it in different purses of mine. And I never ran out of this simply because I lost it most of time, and without even bother trying to find it, I just repurchased.

So it’s a no-brainer that I turned to this lip balm when I’m on Roaccutane. My lips were not only dry, but really dry, cracked, peeling and bleed. It was like a evil party on my lips! But I kid you not, this lip balm fixed them all in just a night. Not the bleeding part, but at least it dried the next day and the pain was gone. I love the highly moisturizing effect this lip balm gives me. On days where the dryness were severe, I consistently wore this every single day. But the moisturizing effect lingers even if I forgot to wear this for a day or two. This lip balm is very affordable and easily found in drugstores and supermarkets.


Water

Okay last but not least is water, even though it's not really a "product". Do I really need to explain? Since Roaccutane aggravates dryness, adequate water intake is crucial. Remember that water is the only liquid that provides hydration. And I personally believe that it does not count as a drink unless it's water. Other colored beverages are basically just foods in liquid form.

The picture above is my daily tumbler. It might look huge, but I always run out even before noon. My water intake is usually about three or four times the volume of the bottle. Speaking about tumbler, anyone has any recommendation of a good tumbler that shuts really tight? Mine might called 'Lock & Lock" but really what it does is just 'Spill & Spill'.

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So yeah, those are the things I rely on lately. Keep in mind that I am just sharing with you what I use on daily basis while I'm on Roaccutane. I am not going to advice you whether or not you should take it. But if you're thinking about taking one, you must consult with your dermatologist first.

3 comments:

Tom W said...

Hey, just started roaccutane myself.. little bit worried about the side effects but reading your blog has got me a little bit more prepared! Have you seen signs of improvement?

M said...

Hi Tom! I've been on accutane for almost two months and I am already tapering off. I'm taking it once every other day now. I've seen huge improvements, really. All my acne have gone, I have only scars left.

Just make sure to use a lot of moisturizer, as your body will get really really dry. Gut luck with the treatment! :)

Tom W said...

Yeah I've been on it for just over a month now and I have started to see improvements.. but yeah I have had to stock up on the moisturiser because the dryness is insane.. especially my lips! Hate it!!!