damaged skin barrier brought out smile lines : (
hello!!! In mid January, I used Paula's Choice Skin Perfecting 6% Mandelic Acid + 2% Lactic Acid Liquid Exfoliant on top of my prescription Tretinoin 0.25% above my mouth and it caused my skin to become extremely red, bumpy, and dry for about two weeks, and in the process brought out my smile lines which were previously very mild and only really visible when I was really dehydrated. For context I have used the tret for years but this was my first time using the Paula's choice.
At first I thought it was Perioral Dermatitis so I was using calendula and a sulfur wash, thinking it would clear in a few weeks. The redness, bumps, and flakiness did mostly clear, but my doctor gave me Tacrolimus Ointment 0.03% which didn't do much. Then my dermatologist gave me Pimecrolimus Cream 1% which also didn't do much. During this time I was not putting anything else on the area besides a gentle Cerave cleanser (but continued tret on sides of my face).
When I wasn't seeing improvement with the newly deep creases of my smile lines, I went back to the derm and she gave me Doxycycline 100 MG x2 a day which I took for over a month with little to no changes.
I now think I maybe had a broken skin barrier this whole time, and have been letting the wrinkles worsen by not treating them and exposing them to the sun? So now I am trying Avene Cicalfate and Cerave Healing Ointment, I'm only 8 days deep but wondering if I'm going down the right path and if there is hope for me! Certain times of day the wrinkles looks normal like how it used to look before this whole thing but throughout the day they tend to worsen. I'm 30 and tend towards oily skin (not dry or wrinkle prone, my mom is in her 70s and hardly has wrinkles) and the way these creases are making my face look has completely ruined my self esteem (marionette vibes).
ANY thoughts or advice would be so appreciated!!! Also - my skin in general is red and acne prone so that part of the photo is pretty normal, it's the creases I'm concerned about.
