My skin is super annoying.  I have that horrendous oily and acne prone skin that, yes, I will love when I’m 60 and have no wrinkles so I look like I’m 45 (that would be my mother’s current life), but right now; it sucks.  And no, I don’t have any wrinkles yet.

I think I mentioned previously that I actually had to re-start using Retin-A about 6 weeks ago because my skin was getting so out of control, I couldn’t stand it.  I used Retin-A all throughout college (in conjunction with Acanya Gel which is another RX acne treatment) and a bit after and my skin looked great.  There was hardly ever a blemish and it just glowed.  At some point, my insurance didn’t want to cover Retin-A anymore and I decided that it was okay because my skin was fine.

And it was, for awhile.  It was still good for about two years.  Maybe a couple more breakouts than normal, but nothing horrendous.  About a year ago, my skin just felt like it exploded.  I was having almost constant breakouts so I tried everything because my insurance still wouldn’t cover the Retin-A because I was “too old”.

MY JOY OF MY NEW SCHOOL AND NEW INSURANCE IS THAT THEY COVER RETIN-A!! Yay!!!  So I was finally able to re-start it again, which is good because I tried a ton of stuff and none of it worked.

Of course, Retin-A being what it is, it makes your skin about ten times worse before it makes it better because it has to pull all the underlying stuff out, so my skin helplessly exploded around spring break.  It was so bad.  Not to mention, I use the strongest Retin-A because the timid stuff doesn’t work.

My face really loves Retin-A, it just doesn’t like it in it’s initial phase.  But Retin-A is doing it’s thing, pulling all the gunk out and by this happening, my face starts peeling a lot.  It’s acid I’m putting on my face, it can be really drying and painful if you don’t use a SPF moisturizer with it.

So, I needed to start exfoliating again, too.  BUT GENTLY!  My skin is having enough trauma with Retin-A, so an abrasive scrub isn’t going to work here.  It’s just going to aggravate my face more.

I wanted something gentle but would still remove the dead skin that was being released as a result of the Retin-A.  I was in Target (my second home) and saw these Exfoliating Facial Cleansing Towelettes.

Burt’s Bees is known for it’s gentle skin products, so I decided to try them.  I just took the wipe and did small circles all over my face when I woke up in the morning (because I use the Rein-A at night, so I don’t want to use them together and I want to get off the skin that’s flaked throughout the  night as a result) and let my skin dry and relax for about ten minutes after. My skin felt so soft and smooth afterwards.  I love how clean and fresh it made my skin feel.

I’m at the point now with the Retin-A that it’s gotten most of the gunk out and now is just preventing new blemishes, but it can still be a little drying and create flaky skin.  So I use these wipes probably every other day at this point to cleanse my face and keep the flaky skin from accumulating on my face (which isn’t pretty).  It’s making me more comfortable with the thought of trying other Burt’s Bees products since these work so well.  Besides their stuff smells really good, too. And you can beat yummy smelling face and body products.

*I was not compensated in any way for this post.  All opinions and views expressed are my own and were not facilitated in any way by a third party.