Benzoyl Peroxide + Adapalene for wide pores?

I went to a dermatologist, and she seemed to be updated with her knowledge. My main complaint was of large pores, with blackheads/sebaceous filaments/plugs/whatever you wanna call those gross sebum worms that hide in the gigantic pores in my nose and cheeks. I rarely, if ever, get pimples and acne.

She mentioned that Accutane may be the best thing for my pores (as it will actually reduce my sebaceous glands size), but that she would fisrt like me to try a gel of 1mg benzoyl peroxide + 25mg of adapalene. That cream, however, is VERY expensive. As much as accutane.

I have a long history of spending good money in products that promised to close my pores and did nothing at all for my skin. I’m very suspicious of any products like that, especially because I have used benzoyl peroxide alone in the past, and saw no results at all. Accutane, however, has cured my skin of severe acne in the past, so I know it works.

What I wanna know is: is there any actual evidence that benzoyl peroxide + adapalene is good for, specifically, wide pores? Not acne, not pimples, just wide pores.

I’ve heard adapalene and retinoids in general are good for smoothing out texture but I have not heard about BP offering those benefits

Adapalene/BP in this combination is… great for active acne. For skin that doesn’t have that, I’d be very careful. I’m not a derm or doctor, but I have experience with this exact combo which I used for half a year while doing a systemic antibiotics cure for my problematic acne. Normal to combination skin, and when I used this cream it did help with my active acne, but it also dried out my skin and made it annoyed and painful for up to a week after.

Be very careful. When it says to apply a thin layer of cream, they aren’t joking.

I don’t see the point in using benzoyl peroxide for you. It’s not that effective for blackheads (it’s like very mildly keratolytic but not enough to be worth adding for that purpose). And Adapalene 0.1% by itself is cheap, like $10. Starting with that and just tweaking your routine as needed after would make more sense to me.

Hello there,

It appears that you could be searching for information on sebaceous filaments or blackheads. Have you read our wiki about sebaceous filaments and blackheads?
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