Okay, confession time. When I was in middle shook I used Proactiv. I had really bad acne and people made fun of me for it. It made me very self conscious and nothing was working. My mom ordered the three step system for me because she didn't know where else to turn. For me, it never worked. The cleanser was very abrasive and the toner stung my face to the point where I didn't want to use it anymore. The system made my skin feel tight and dry after using it. I didn't make it through a whole kit before I stopped using it.
As an esthetician, I don't think there is enough information out there on skin care unless you specifically go looking for it's even if you do find what you're looking for, there's no guarantee that the information is unbiased. I'm a huge supporter in educating people on what's in their skin care and what it's actually doing to the skin.
I decided to do a post on Proactiv because there marketing is pretty amazing. Everyone knows about Proactiv but do you actually know what it's doing?
Before I get into it, this is not the breakdown of the three step kit that I used. This is the new three step system. I found the ingredient information on the Proactiv website and cross referenced it on the Environmental Working Group Skin Deep data base.
Skin Smoothing Exfoliator
This product is supposed to be used as a daily cleanser/scrub. First off, let me just say that this is way too abrasive to be used on a daily basis. Because of how abrasive this product is, using it every day will strip the skin's protective barrier. This can lead to more acne along with dehydrated and irritated skin.
When looking at the ingredients, fragrance immediately puts up a red flag. Fragrance is one of the top ingredients that irritate the skin. Why put something so irritating in a product made for acne? You shouldn't.
Another red flag is phenoxyethanol. I've talked about this ingredient many time. This is another super irritating ingredient that is restricted in Japan. This ingredient is found in skin care quite often, unfortunately. So far, we aren't off to a very good start.
Pore Targeting Treatment
Again with the fragrance! It's highly irritating and super sensitizing. The ingredients, overall, are not that great ad will end up causing more harm than good.
Complexion Perfecting Hydrator
At first glance I see fragrance, again, along with phenoxyethanol. This also has quite the long list of other bad ingredients. I'm also not too sure where the actual moisturizing ingredients are, because with the amount of dryness the other two products are going to cause, you would an extremely intense moisturizer for you skin to be in remotely good shape.
With the amount of benzoyl peroxide, your face will be incredibly dehydrated. Once you stop using these products, you acne will produce excess amounts of oil because there is no protection. This excess oil production will also cause breakouts.
If you are suffering from acne, stop stressing. Acne is one of the most treatable skin conditions. I strongly urge you to visit an esthetician that will analyze your skin and talk with you about your main skin concerns. They will work with you on figuring out what is causing the acne and the best plan of action to help treat it. They will recommend products and treatments that will benefit YOUR unique skin type and lifestyle. They really are so knowledgeable and can really help you.
Instead of going through the trial and error process with products that won't work or will damage your skin, get to the bottom of the cause of your acne.