u/jujikp

I have very dry skin. I used to be oily and acne prone, but I used accutane twice in high school. Ten years later, for whatever reason, my skin has suddenly reacted negatively to every product.

First was Vanicream face wash and moisturizer after using it reliably for years. My skin would feel tight after face wash, and the moisturizer would make my skin tingle. Small red patches would appear after using it, but they would eventually go away after an hour or two. My face does this with EVERY moisturizer.

I can use Prequels gleansing balm with no reaction to wash, but their Urea moisturizer, barrier therapy cream, and half & half cause my skin to react the same way Vanicream did. I have tried:
- nuetrogena’s hyaluronic acid line
- cerave
- the ordinary’s jojoba/rose hip/hyaluronic acid oil
- byoma’s serums
- aveno’s calm line

I have even tried using straight up aquaphor just to moisturize, but my skin stays dry after using it. (Just to preface, I did not try all of these all at once, this has been an ongoing issue for 3 years now.)

Between wasting money on products that don’t work and my skin being so irritated… I’m genuinely at my wits end. Does anyone have any tips?? (Pic is my face immediately after using Prequels Urea and half & half)

Before we get into the rest of my post: I am confirmed to be NEGATIVE for herpes/HSV. I had my doctor swab the sores, and my test came back NEGATIVE.

Has anyone experienced canker sores like this before? A few weeks ago, I randomly had these pop up under my tongue. They were excruciatingly painful, so I went to my doctor. I was lucky in the sense that she reported she had suffered from the same thing: sores organized along the folds of the tongue. However, she said all the doctors she saw and she herself couldn’t figure out what caused them to appear. She was very intrigued as to why they were only along the folds of my tongue and nowhere else in my mouth. I hadn’t added anything new to my diet or changed any medicines. The only thing slightly new was toothpaste, but it was a brand I had used before with no issue. I was prescribed triamcinolone acetonide paste, and it worked wonders. They healed up and disappeared in about two days.

My doctor said hers eventually came back every so often even though she also tested negative for herpes. She also mentioned I was the only person she’s met in her 20 years as a doctor to have had the same problem she did when she was younger. I feel like my tongue is starting to get irritated again, so I’m a little worried. Has anyone in this group had this pattern of canker sores before? If you’ve had this, how did you manage to clear it up for good?