Product Warning - OXY 'On The Spot'

*USE WITH CAUTION*

Oxy On the Spot is a cream with 2.5% Benzoyl Peroxide - apparently quite a high level for a 'non-over-the-counter' product. It is sold as a spot treatment and works by drying the skin in order to prevent the spot from coming to a head, or helping it heal quicker. I've used it before on the odd spot now and again and it's done a pretty good job of making them disappear.

A couple of weeks ago I broke out pretty badly on my right cheek and my chin. I'm pretty sure it was due to my Garnier Cleansing Lotion which I reviewed in my previous post (here).

Sunday (10th March) Evening

- I noticed my skin was starting to brake out. I was planning to see my boyfriend on Friday (15th), and didn't exactly fancy greeting him as a spotty mess, so i dug my oxy on the spot out of my bathroom and proceeded to apply it to my spotty areas.

Monday & Tuesday night

- I applied it again and noticed the spots were fading well as time progressed.

Wednesday morning 

- I was happy to see that my spots had gone. 

Wednesday afternoon

- I noticed that my skin was feeling particularly tight and looked a little dry under my make-up. I knew that this product worked by drying the skin so didn't think too much of it. 

Wednesday night 

- I used a thicker moisturizer than i normally would to combat the dryness. 

Thursday morning 

- My skin was worse - it was very dry and sore, and even though I moisturized really well it was flaky causing my foundation to cling to it. It got dryer as the morning progressed meaning that by the afternoon i had two large (very ugly) flaky patches on my cheek and chin. I was horrified. That night I applied a really thick coat of softening moisturizer and hoped for the best.

Friday morning 

- My skin was no better. I gently exfoliated and moisturized well, which eliminated the flakes for a short while but my skin was still very red and sore and even stung when I put foundation on it. As soon as i arrived at my boyfriend's, i took my make-up off because it was making my skin feel worse. I applied a large amount of moisturiser and kept on reapplying it throughout the afternoon which did seem to cause the flakiness to subside. 

Friday evening 

- Although not particularly dry, my skin was very sore and so red in places that it showed through two coats of a medium coverage foundation, which stung quite badly as i was applying it while getting ready to go out.

Saturday & Sunday 

- My skin was even worse over the weekend. I kept it make-up free, and was applying moisturiser morning, noon and night but my skin continued to be dry and flaky, and not just a little, i'm talking large visible flakes all over my cheek and chin. It was constantly sore and tight feeling and very red. You could even see a visible border between where i'd applied the cream and where I hadn't. To be honest it looked and felt like a burn. It was absolutely horrible. I even applied savlon on saturday night to try to speed up the healing process.

Luckily, my skin finally managed to heal itself. By Monday morning it was starting to get better, but it wasn't until Wednesday (20th) morning that my skin was fully healed and the redness had gone down.

Looking back I wish i'd left my skin spotty - they'd have probably come to a head and began to heal by friday and at least I could've covered them using make-up while they were healing. Instead i had to put up with horrifically sore, red and flaky skin which took a whole week to heal.

However, despite the problems it caused me, i would use this cream again, just with great caution! I would only use it on specific spots instead of large areas of broken out skin, and I wouldn't apply it more than 2 nights in a row. I would recommend any of you that are using it to do the same :)

Let me know if any of you guys have had trouble with this or any other products!