I swear by my Duac!

All through my teens I suffered with my acne. I tried all the drugstore brands under the sun and eventually tried Proactiv. I found that some of those products I tried helped my skin for a little while and then the results decreased - I've chalked this up to my skin building a resistance against the basic cleansing ingredients in those products.

Eventually, I got so fed up and was very self conscious about my acne so I went to my doctor who prescribed me Duac. I don't know about internationally, but in Australia you need a prescription for this medication. It costs about $36 a tube, which lasts roughly a month.

I immediately noticed results (as in the first few days). Now, 3 years later, my skin is in a much better condition. I still get the odd bump and minor breakout - but they are manageable. I am so much more confident in my skin and don't feel the need for make-up every day like I used to.

I would highly recommend using this product in conjunction with washing your face of makeup every night and cleansing every night. I use Dove soap and water to clean my face, then a scrubbing gel (generic brand) and finally a toner and cleanser - then I apply the duac before I go to bed.

I was warned that this product may make my skin become irritated, but I have not had any problems at all. If you are suffering from acne then I recommend a trip to the doctor for a prescription.

In the UK this is only available from a doctor as its very strong and its very expensive to buy apparently. This is my ultimate gel, I use it, my two brothers and my boyfriend all use it and its just wonderful! I sing its praises constantly, it goes on very matte and seriously within a week all blemishes are gone, its just great. I got rid of a huge breakout on my forehead after trying everything, with the gel. The only downfall is that if you over use it, it can be very dry, also if you use it way too much your skin can 'get used to it' and it will stop doing its job other than that, amazing!

Not sure about it !!!!!
first of all breif history about my skin. i never had spot on my face until i got to year 10 although i had oily skin all the time but never had a spot just occastinally one. but after trough half the year 10 i started to breakdown on my two cheeks,my self estem gone, never went out with my mates :( ..i went to My GP and she prescribed me zeniyrit lotion which worked but not much..after using that product for 3 months my face didnt improve allot so i went to my GP again and this time she gived me this gel (duac). i have been using this for the last one month but still haven't seen a massive improvement in my skin. it does dry my skin lot and i kinda fell that im getting more spot when i use this ..i just want my acne to go and i hate it ittt!!!!! so my question is do i stop using this or carry it on for 3months to see the improvment ????

First of all, a brief history of my skin -

I never really had skin issues throughout my teens, when everyone else seemed to. Until I was 17 - 18 years old, that is, when it started to just get worse and worse. I was smoking at the time, and figured that was making it worse, so I quit. However my acne was still persistent despite me quitting. Between then and now (I'm almost 19), I've tried pretty much every over the counter topical treatment there is. So I finally got over my hatred for general practitioners (I always find GP's unhelpful and annoying, maybe I'm just going to the wrong medical centers?) and got some hormonal testing done.

After my blood tests returned back normal, I was prescribed Duac along with the contraceptive pill, however I can't take the pill because it contains lactose and I'm extremely lactose intolerant.

I'd already used a ton of benzoyl peroxide products and spot treatments, which were helping, but just extremely slowly. So my skin is already used to pretty harsh treatments.

I've only been using this for two weeks, only at night, twice a day is just too much.
So far, the improvement has been outstanding, far better than just benzoyl peroxide alone, the 1% clindamycin really makes a difference in the effectiveness of the product.
It really helps get rid of those tough cystic-feeling pimples that sit under the skin for weeks and never surface, or go away.
My only gripe with the product is that it has a two month shelf life, which is a little stupid given that there is 25 grams of product in the tube, there's no way I'd ever use up that much product in two months.
And for $37 a tube, it's terribly wasteful.
However, you can use the product after two months, it's just likely that it won't be as effective.

But apart from that, this is the most effective treatment I've ever used! For those of you who have tried everything and haven't found it very helpful, but don't want to go to radical measures like taking Accutane, this is definitely worth trying!

Plain and simple, this is the only acne treatment that my skin has ever been able to tolerate AND that works well on getting rid of acne. I have hypersensitive, combination, acne-prone skin, so this product is a godsend. I put a little bit on breakouts after I've cleansed and applied my 1% clindamycin lotion at night. I've found that I can only use this at night, as it creates a filmy layer on the skin which I can't apply makeup over. Usually when I wake up in the morning, the breakout is reduced or almost gone. Only con is that it dries my skin out really badly, but that's a sacrifice I always have to make for acne products. Have already gone through multiple tubes and will definitely continue to repurchase.

I had acne problems for a long time, tried everything otc and nothing worked. My pcp rx me Duac, My insurance only covered $45 of it and I paid aprox $85 for this topical cream. I did notice results almost immediately, I used it for about 2 months and all acne was gone! I stopped using the topical and my face remained clear for another 3 months or so. Afterwards I started noticing acne again. I suppose it works as you use it. I highly recommend this topical, I can't wait to get this topical cream in my hands again. I hope this helped :)

This is my first review of a product but I felt the need to comment on my experience of Duac.

My skin type is combination/oily. Depending on the weather my t zone can be oily or dry but my cheeks tend to always be dry.

I started using Duac last year after moving from Differin which I found was much more harsh on my skin than this. I do not suffer with major acne but every now and again I break out in cystic spots and white heads which are painful. Me being me, I canot help myself but to pop them and play around with them which of course makes them worse.

Duac was the best in combatting this. Now, im not saying Duac is a miracle product. There will be some times when you want to give up because it does make your skin very dry, peel and occasionally leaves red spots.

I learnt the hard way. I used Duac alone with no moisturiser thinking that the moisturiser would break me out even more and potentially stop Duac from doing it job.

I was very wrong. So I started to use moisturiser, The clean and clear oil free moisturiser, but I found when I applied this my skin would BURN to the point I dreaded putting it on and would rather have the peeling skin.

But I found my holy grail moisturiser which worker wonders and cleared up that scaly, peeling flesh that was taking over my face, in 1 day but more importantly didn't affect how Duac worked with my skin.

La Roche-Posay Hydraphase UV Intense Riche. This stuff is expensive, I wont lie. It cost me £16 from Boots but I found myself only using 1-2 pumps per day and overall this lasted me around 3 months.

I would apply the duac and wait for around 30 minutes for it to really sink in and dry then use 1-2 pumps of the moisturiser. After 2 continuous months of using it like this and also cutting out all other harsh medicated products like any face wash that contained salicylic acid, as I found this dried out my skin even more and was not actually helping my skin at all, my skin was clear and for the first time in years I felt confident going outside without a face full of foundation. I found Duac actually worked to fade some dark spots too from previous spots id played around with, which was my main concern really.

If used properly and continuously Duac can work wonders on your skin but you cant give up. There will be days when your face burns or feels tight or gets scaly but this is the process. By using the moisturiser above along with cutting out other harsh products and being patient and not quitting you can have clear skin.

Unfortunately I went to Turkey last year and so a month before I was due to leave had to stop taking it due to photosensitivity, and so now im starting to break out again but im back on it again but this time trying another moisturiser, Ponds hydro nourishing face cream. I'll update if this works as well as the La Roche-Posay Hydraphase otherwise its back to my holy grail.

Hope this helps any of you flakies out there :)

Dont give up.. it does work with a little patience..

PROS: * works wonders on mild acne!
* gets rid of little bumps
* makes skin look and feel smooth & flawless
CONS: *Cannot get it anymore as you can only get it through prescription and the GPs think i dont need this anymore as my skin's improved dramatically now, but without this i still get lots of whiteheads and blackheads!
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this is the ONLY thing has works for me!!

after having clear skin as a teenager (like 1 pimple a month was horrific for me), my first year in college i broke out horribly from stress and lack of sleep! my doctor put me on this, and within the first two weeks my skin had COMPLETELY cleared up! i used it for 3 months as she had instructed, because i guess otherwise you get used to it, and by then it had taken care of my skin.

fast forward a few years, and my crazy OBGYN pulled me off birth control pill and had me get on the Mirena. big, big, BIG mistake for someone who had to get on prescription for acne... because mirena literally inserts the male hormone that produces acne into your body! so of course, within a few months of the insertion i started breaking out uncontrollably. i hurried back to the doctor and got back on duac, which was by now like 4x the price i had originally paid of it (love that USA healthcare system!) but i was desperate, so got it and again it quickly healed my acne. i stayed on it for almost two years of daily use and was happy as a clam. then i started developing acne in weird places on my body, and nothing worked to fix it! dual was also staining all of my towels and sheets and night time tshirts pretty bad... so was not too happy about that. i had then moved overseas, and saw a foreign dermatologist about this. she threw away my duac and said it was way too harsh on my skin and put me on oral antibiotics and a lower level BP. the oral antibiotics did absolutely nothing, and i started breaking out like crazy over the next few months.

now, I've had my mirena removed and back on the pill, but my skin is going nuts from all the hormone transitions (from pumping testosterone into my body to estrogen again in the same day. yikes!) but going back on dual in the desperate hopes that this will, once again, save my skin.

Whilst this has cleared up my skin, my skin is still far from forehead. My forehead, nose and chin are completely clear currently after about a month of usage but my cheeks are just as broken out as usual. My skin is also extremely sensitive and Duac has made it very red, irritated and dry. Perhaps I just need to give it more time. My question is, will it cure my acne or does it only work whilst you're using it?