Is Proactiv All It Promises?

“I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Proactiv and received product samples to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

My oldest son has severe acne. I hate it - not because it's unattractive, but because it's so pervasive and affects his self esteem. As he's grown older, passing almost through his teen age years, it's grown incrementally more difficult to treat. He's been to the dermatologist. He's done antibiotics, creams, soaps, lotions - everything short of standing on his head and burning an ostrich feather while watching Oprah and eating spinach.

He's tried it all. Some of it was moderately successful, some of it minimally, and much of it - not at all.

When we were asked if he'd like to join the Proactiv campaign, he was cautiously excited to try it. He felt as if he'd tried every.single.thing.out.there. He even, at one point, gave up dairy in an attempt to clear up the acne - and that's a huge sacrifice for him, as the kid can drink a gallon of milk a day if unsupervised. He agreed to try it for a month.

One aspect of the Proactiv plan that I appreciated is the 24/7/365 support that the company offers. Trained by the founding dermatologists, Drs. Rodan and Fields, Skin Care Advisors are ready to answer your questions via toll-free phone, email or online chat, each and every day of the year. So any time that my son had a question, I felt confident in referring him to someone who actually knew the answers, rather than trusting "Dr. Google" or just making up my own answer. The advisors will answer the questions and customize the plan to fit the needs of your child.

The three step plan is easy to use if you are well versed in skin care - clean, repair and tone, with a once a week face mask. For teens, especially boys who might think of skin care as "girly", it can be difficult to get them to follow the directions, but in doing so, the results will be more striking and quicker than you may expect.

I felt that my son's acne was moderately improved in the month that he used the Proactiv plan. He was disappointed, in that he felt that the improvement should be immediate - but skin is a revolving, ongoing growth and it takes a long time for severe acne to clear up. I feel that the benzoyl peroxide was helpful, and feel that if he continues with the program - ultimately, he's going to be happy. (He flatly refused to let me snap a picture.)

We are going to keep using the program and I'll report back in two more months.

 

Comments

[mary]

we are all allergic to BP in this house so this is a no go for us. I do love mario badescu stuff; so far fab results on myself. $$ but best price? on amazon. shockingly.

[Karen]

Keep it up! It worked wonders for my sister who had similar issues and really helped her confidence. I can't wait to hear back in a few months and see how it's going!

[anton martinez]

Awesome blog. I enjoyed reading your articles. This is truly a great read for me. I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to read new articles. Keep up the good work!

[Megan]

I've got acne too, and it's gotten worse as I've gotten older. Benzoyl peroxide has worked really well for me. I used it for a horrible breakout 3 days before a wedding, and by the time the wedding rolled around it was mostly clear. But within a month of beginning the peroxide gel, I'd ruined all my towels and pillowcases.

So I went on a combination of antibiotics, prescription cream and prescription shampoo. That worked great too, but now that I'm off the antibiotics, the acne is coming back some. Frustrating! I don't want to be on antibiotics forever. I hope the Proactive continues to work for your son. I haven't heard very good things about it, but I might give it a try if he continues to improve.

[Maggie]

I do agree with all the ideas you have presented in your post. They are really convincing and will certainly work.