All things together.

I've had acne for a while now. Five years maybe? It's very annoying.

Now my acne is very weird. They're not those huge cyst/papule looking ones like volcanoes. They're not whiteheads either (ok I still have some too but sometimes) but I got blackheads.
My acne are lil red bumps around my face, especially around the mouth and chin area. Very hard to do makeup around there because my face is dry and often you can see cracks around the chin. So horrible and disgusting. "Omg makeup bad for your acne skin!" I know that, but I still to hide them when I get interviews for a job right? Or a special occasion dinner with the family? Don't want to look too horrible in front of relatives since they are very judgemental. "Omg what happened to your face!", etc etc.

Anyways, had to go to the doctor at some point because I've become very frustrated over this matter. He said that I have Perioral Dermatitis. It often occurs to young women and lil red bumps are present around the mouth and chin area, and that might affect the rest of your face (hurray, me!). On top of that I have mild case of Rosacea, since per.derm. is kind of derived from rosacea. My face looks like a tomato with disease sometimes.
The doctor prescribed me some topical cream: metronidazole cream 0.75%. He wanted me to try out Tetracycline!!! No thanks, don't want antibiotics screwing around with my system. Instead I took a Chinese approach (well I'm Chinese afterall).

I do believe in herbal medicine and I remember that once I had some badass rashes because I was allergic to some antibiotic given due to Urinary Tract Infection. Nasty, ichy, pain. So, to a Chinese medicine's point of view: you are intoxicated! They gave me some herbal flower that I had to drink out of. You basically boil all those flowers for a few hours. It comes out in a brownish color and tastes bitter. It wasn't too hard to drink anyways... But it worked effectively. All my rashes healed very quickly (the western med worked but it didn't help with the itchyness or the rash bumps, can't remember).

Why am I telling you this? It's because during that time my ACNE WAS GONE lol. Thinking about this I decided to drink the water out of those flowers again and woot, my acne calmed down I swear! The bumps faded, so now it's flat but not smooth since I have dry skin. I'm sure the topical cream helped somewhat too, but now I know that these two combo worked for me. Let's hope that this can help me during my period. I have hormonal acne too. HUGE crazy acnes just arise outta nowhere from their graves and murders my face for revenge.

For all of you acne people out there, try out the herbal approach. No harm can be done. When you are internally clean, toxic-free, your face can show some positive results. Antibiotics do not help clean your body, instead it forces your hormones to step down. It might hurt your body too... I'm sure you've heard of antibiotic side effects. Please stay away from Accutane, my hubby is suffering from the side effects.

Also, drink lotsa water :) Diet might help too! Try not to consume a lot of sugary/salty foods.

Good Luck.