Desperate for Skincare advice - trouble with steroid cream and I do not have eczema.
I have always had quite sensitive skin—neither oily nor dry—ever since my teenage years, and it reacts incredibly quickly to certain strong products, though surprisingly not to others you would expect it to. For as long as I can remember, I’ve had these persistent under-the-skin bumps that have no pus and cannot be popped. Some are red and some are skin-colored, but they aren't itchy at all, and even when I tried fungal acne treatments, they did absolutely nothing. Nothing worked for years until 2021 I stayed with a relative who recommended her face cream called ETIN, which she got from those Afro Asian hair stores. I was extremely reluctant because nothing ever worked and almost everything broke me out, but when I woke up the next morning, about 50 percent of my facial bumps were gone. Within a week or so, my skin was pretty much completely clear, and it continued like that for weeks. However, when I researched the cream, I discovered it actually contained betamethasone; it wasn't a large amount, but it is a topical steroid, and I'm honestly unsure how it's even licensed to be sold in a regular cream on the shelf in England it doesn’t warn you it’s in there as well !! . Eventually, I realized I didn't want to rely on this cream since steroids aren't good long-term, but when I tried new creams, most made my skin worse, and the ones that worked okay only lasted about two weeks before the bumps started breaking out again.
After that, I started looking into active ingredients and topicals. I tried using AHA and BHA actives, but they completely wrecked my skin, so I can't tolerate them and never use them now. I then tried Tretinoin, and at one point Adapalene, which worked great and gave me a similar clear effect. My routine for the past three years was to use a simple moisturizer like Cetaphil Sensitive on the days I used topicals, and then go back to my etin moisturizer on the other days, occasionally switching up the retinol. Last year, I tried regular Epiduo, and it made my skin look like glass—completely clear—but the results eventually mellowed out. I thought I’d give it another go this year, but I moved up to Epiduo Forte, which has been working okay but nothing exciting; if I use it more than twice a week, my skin really doesn't like it. What confuses me is that while some of these bumps are clearly clogged pores, most definitely are not, so I don't even know how Epiduo managed to clear them up in the first place.
On top of that, I am extremely sensitive to the sun and heat, breaking out into bumps if I'm in a lot of heat or out in the sun too long. When I have an extremely big sun allergy breakout, a 3-day course of steroid cream on my face is the only thing that gets rid of it. I used to use hydrocortisone, but that stopped working, so now I have a tube of betamethasone that I save strictly for extreme summer breakouts. This summer has been unbearably hot, so my plan is to use it for 3 days one week, wait maybe 10 days, and do it for a single day to maintain it until summer is over. Otherwise, there is no way I can even wear makeup or show my face without people constantly pointing it out and saying, "Oh, there’s a rash on your face," which feels like a typical heat rash looming mixed with bumps.
Lately, I’ve also been getting 15-minute laser resurfacing facials by Skin Laundry for the past two months. It’s worked nicely overall to get rid of congestion and give my skin a nice glow, but it’s expensive and not sustainable, so I'm just using a short course package I managed to get for a good deal. For my daily routine, I always try to avoid using my go-to ETIN moisturizer regularly because I’m not a fan of the ingredients. Right now, I'm using a simple base moisturizer like Adex Gel with Epiduo every now and then, and only going back to ETIN for a night or so.
Ultimately, my main point is: what the hell is up with my skin, and why can nothing tame it? Do I have some sort of inflammatory skin condition, because why else does it only calm down with the input of a steroid cream? I’ve tried looking into my diet and saw a post about a low-histamine diet, but the foods on there don't seem to trigger me, so it made no sense to completely change my diet for it. I even tried taking an antihistamine daily for two weeks straight to see if it would help, but absolutely nothing changed. I just feel completely trapped and don't know what's wrong with my skin, and I would love to finally get to the bottom of it. Yes I have good. Weeks but ultimately it’s the same issue. Also yes I’ve tried korean skin care. I’ve done everything under the sun hydrafacial you name it ! to heal my maybe broken skin barrier or whatever this is - 2 weeks of stripping down to basics or just Vaseline / water & nothing.
My current face wash is the blabs matcha