Being on Accutane changes so much in your skincare routine, including some changes which aren't too fun. Here are my favorite "issues" and hacks to solve them that hopefully help you too.
White Cast From Sunscreen
If you aren't used to wearing sunscreen so incredibly often as you now are, having a constant white cast from your sunscreen can be annoying. Usually, the higher in SPF you go and the more layers you have underneath the sunscreen, the more chances for a nice ghost face as I like to call it. Especially with such thick layers of moisturizers and serums, it's hard for an SPF to sink in your skin rather than sit on top of your skin and make the white shade we don't like. The trick to this is to add moisturizer to your sunscreen. When I do my morning routine on Accutane, I do my skincare, but rather than separate the moisturizer and sunscreen in two steps, I literally combine them in my hand, so I rub my fingertips together a bit to mix them, I then apply. It does cause quite a thick combo since I don't want to use any less moisturizer as I normally would, but it does do the trick! I usually close to no or absolutely no sunscreen residue.
Dry Look With Foundation
If you love makeup just as I do, I really didn't want to go 6 months without wearing foundation. It's just fun for me. On the days I did do my makeup, I used my beloved Colorpop Hylauronic Acid Foundation which is amazing because it's light yet with great coverage which means I found it perfect for sensitive skin like on Accutane. The problem is I still had a hint of dryness through it. What I found to be useful was to combine some more lotion in my foundation. The good news is, your skin is probably so dry that it loves you for that extra layer of moisturizer. I just want to emphasize on this point that if your skin is insanely dry or you aren't moisturizing your skin enough, this hack may not work or you may want to try even more foundation in your makeup. Check out my other posts on Accutane because I talk in-depth about my routines, side effects, and most loved products.
Itchiness on Body Spot Treatment
I started getting extremely itchy very early on with Accutane, in fact in week 2 my arms were already itchy. My mom then recommended I start using an anti-itch cream like Benadryl but we didn't want to go through a bazillion bottles since I had to apply them from wrist to shoulders every day if not multiple times a day. I realized what helped me greatly was applying some of the anti-itch creams with a pump of lotion and mixed the two together in my hand and applied it on my arms. The amount of anti-itch cream will depend on everyone but I recommend starting with a little and add more if you realize it doesn't go away. I could usually do this and not be itchy anymore for 5-6 hours.
Itchy Scalp (& More)
If you start having an itchy scalp, the only thing that relieved it for me was the T-Gel by Neutrogena. The reason I am mentioning this product under the hacks post is that when anti-itch cream didn't do the trick or for not long enough (I didn't always want to lather a load of cream on my arms), I would use the T-Gel as a body wash. I would use the T-Gel as shampoo, use my normal body wash, but then I'd use the T-Gel on the places that itched the most, aka my upper arms.
I didn't have too many other issues, but feel free to let me know what issues you all experience and I can see if I have any other tips for it!
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