Proactive

[Victoria Tsoleridis]

Proactive is great because it contains benzoyl peroxide. This ingredient is 'bleaching' as Dee has mentioned, however it's mechanism of action is that it acts to increase oxygen to the acne bacteria. Acne HATES oxygen. thus, acne dies. It doesn't whiten the pimples, it just increases oxygen to the area. All the research I have read suggests that there's not much difference between 2.5%, 5% and 10% concentrations on the effects of acne. So I would suggest 2.5% is enough, and much milder on the skin. be sure to apply a good antioxidant cream (vitamin A&C) afterwards and keep up the antioxidants in your diet.

There's a wide variety of much cheaper products with 2.5% BP like proactive on the market. ...let me know if you need more help.

[sofia]

Its not recommended during pregnancy

I have queried this with my doc, and he advised me that it was okay to use in pregnancy. I guess to be safe, just use it every other day or not use it at all...it depends how comfortable you are with it.

I have used it pre-pregnancy and it worked wonders on me. I stopped using it until about 2 weeks ago (i"m 32 weeks pregnant now) and use it every other day.

[Jaycee]

When I was using it the booklet that you get with it said that it's actually not recommended to use whilst pregnant.
Not sure if it says so now though, it was a couple of years ago...

[Sair]

In the booklet it says it is safe, it does mention in the booklet that some pill is unsafe. I got confused when I read it at first and thought that the Proactive is unsafe.

I bought mine before I knew I was pregnant because I suddenly broke out in those cyst like acnes really bad (I wonder why ) It didn't do anything then so I stopped using it and now that I am in my second trimester my face has cleared up (glad I am not subscibed to receive it every 2 months now) It does bleach your towels and pillowcases. It is the repairing lotion (step 3) that has the bleaching agent so don't use it at night to avoid bleaching your pillowcases.

My sister suffers from really bad acne and swears by the stuff but I am not a long enough user of it to be able to give a definate opinion.

You could always try taking zinc tablets and using tea tree products provided you are not pregnant.

[Serendypyty]

I'm still using it and it seems to be doing the trick. I find that I just need to make sure that I'm following the routine strictly. The good thing is that you can use the moisturiser as a spot treatment if you want to during the day to help clear it all up faster!
It hasn't cleared up everything yet but I'm starting to wonder if perhaps I have some scars

Just make sure that you wash your hands and face thoroughly after use or you could end up with bleach marks on your towels