I have struggled with acne on/off for most of my life, but over the past few years as I got into my late 20s it’s gotten worse and worse. After spending thousands on naturopaths, dermatologists, and other skincare, Face Reality was my final attempt to heal “naturally” without resorting to prescriptions like spironolactone. I have sensitive combination skin, and I was nervous about Face Reality because I did a lot of research and it seemed like they contain a lot of alcohol. I’m not sure if that’s what did it, but I feel like I should’ve listened to my gut and known better because the results suck and I feel like my skin barrier is damaged. I am so disappointed it didn’t work because of all the success stories online that lured me in.
Pretty much immediately I felt like the products were too drying &stripping, but I thought my skin would adjust over time so I kept going. I started with/ the Mandelic serum at 5% every other AM until I could do it every day, and then their benzoyl peroxide “acne med” at 5% every night with their Hydra balance gel. Since my acne wasn’t improving fast enough after about a month or so of this, my esthetician told me to add the mandelic in the nights as well before applying BP (so using mandelic 2x a day with BP). While I already didn’t love the products, this is where things started to take a negative turn.
Doing that sensitized my skin so much - dryness, flakiness/peeling, redness, irritation, inflammation. I backed off, and when I went back for my next facial and told her what happened, she couldn’t offer me much except to keep trying and just change up toners. It was still bad, so I eventually decided to stop using the mandelic altogether and I was fine with that for a few weeks, but every time she recommended adding the mandelic back in and I did it even once, my skin reacted awfully. Makeup was becoming impossible to wear because of the flakiness from this routine and I was depressed because this is my only saving grace with acne.
Since my acne wasn’t improving enough without the mandelic, the last thing she recommended was to bump up my Benzoyl to 10% since I “need it” and to try the mandelic again and just “deal” with some dryness despite my concerns about barrier damage. I even sent her photos of my red, flaky skin to prove what was happening when I used it this last time (my face even felt like it was throbbing), and she had absolutely nothing to say or suggest differently.
I used a Clearstem mask a few times here and there to try to speed up my healing when I’d get flaky and she told me to stop using it because of some of the ingredients - thinking back now, this is such a joke considering I only used it twice for months and it helped me combat FR’s damage.
I’m so, so frustrated and angry. Are Face Reality estheticians not allowed to sell or recommend anything else, despite a client reacting poorly? It feels like a scam. I gave it the recommended 3 month commitment but I am throwing away all the products and never going back. My acne is not even improving very much - some of my main problem areas have flattened out but I am also getting a lot of new breakouts in areas I don’t normally break out in. I wanted this to work since it seems to work for everyone else.
I need to know, am I the only one who’s had an experience like this with Face Reality??? Or can any estheticians weigh in?