I've been on the ZZ cream about 2-3 weeks. My skin was pretty dry to begin with, I'm not a hardy, thick-skinned type. I've noticed more aging signs the past few years, anyway, (38 year old caucasian female), and now since using the cream, I'm noticing the creases around my mouth much more prominent, crows feet stretching down my cheeks, and just the skin on my cheeks looking a little like crepe paper if you look closely, with almost an orange peel quality, larger pores or something. I am hoping this is transient, but I'm concerned about how this will go in the coming months as we are moving into cold, dry weather. I sure wish I had started in the Spring. My skin gets so dry in the winter that it actualy cracks open, on my hands, anyway.
I want to avoid the cream with the metro, since I'm not comfortable with the ingredients.
I never did the Demodex test, though really didn't need to, I'm almost positive that's what was causing my symptoms. I think I caught it early, my skin was not near as bad as many people have described here, and the acne was on-again, off-again over the years. The rash around the nose is almost clear, and I do think the cream is helping, but I'm not excited about looking old before my time, that's for sure.
Wondering if anyone else with similar skin type experienced this, and what you did to help the dryness/wrinkling. Also whether that passed, or if your skin recovered later after the program was finished and you were able to use moisturizers liberally again? I do drink plenty of water and eat a natural, whole food diet.
Walter said it was OK to use some moisturizing lotion during the day if I felt like I needed it, but to try to use just the ZZ at night, which I've been doing. Most days I have used a little natural lotion, though I do suspect the oils in the lotion might be inhibiting the action of the ZZ cream. Any thoughts on that?
Thanks in advance for any comments/advice.
Very dry, crepe-y skin couple weeks on ZZ, suggestions?
Moderators: Julia, Walter, Administrator
Hello Anja
The dry skin is only the upper dead cells, don?t worry, it will not make your skin more aged, on the
contrary, this dead cells will come off and reveal new much more healthy skin.
Try to use as little as possible the first weeks till your skin can handle more.
if you wash your face before applying I don?t think the use of your moisturizing lotion during the day
has any influence on the action of the ointment during the night.
Walter
The dry skin is only the upper dead cells, don?t worry, it will not make your skin more aged, on the
contrary, this dead cells will come off and reveal new much more healthy skin.
Try to use as little as possible the first weeks till your skin can handle more.
if you wash your face before applying I don?t think the use of your moisturizing lotion during the day
has any influence on the action of the ointment during the night.
Walter
Hi Anja,
I've been using the zz since June this year. I too have quite dry skin (30 year old caucasian female) and suffered exactly like you. 5 months on, I have to say, my skin is still quite dry and can occasionally look crepey but I find if I ease off the zz for a couple of days and make sure I moisturise well, the rosacea is kept at bay and my skin returns to normal moisture levels. I'm not sure if this is still relevant to you but I hope it helps. I'm not worried about premature aging as I would say the couple of extra wrinkles that may have occured due to the drying effects are far far less troublesome than the rosacea. (Also, it's more than likely that they would have arrived anyway or I've just noticed them more because my skin is so much clearer!).
I can't speak highly enough of this product. It has worked wonderfully and my skin is just a zillion time better than it was only a few months ago.
CJ
I've been using the zz since June this year. I too have quite dry skin (30 year old caucasian female) and suffered exactly like you. 5 months on, I have to say, my skin is still quite dry and can occasionally look crepey but I find if I ease off the zz for a couple of days and make sure I moisturise well, the rosacea is kept at bay and my skin returns to normal moisture levels. I'm not sure if this is still relevant to you but I hope it helps. I'm not worried about premature aging as I would say the couple of extra wrinkles that may have occured due to the drying effects are far far less troublesome than the rosacea. (Also, it's more than likely that they would have arrived anyway or I've just noticed them more because my skin is so much clearer!).
I can't speak highly enough of this product. It has worked wonderfully and my skin is just a zillion time better than it was only a few months ago.
CJ
CJ, thanks for your reply. I did have to use my moisturizer typically in the mornings, but noticed I would often get a bit itchier when I did, not sure why. I also think the ZZ is a great product. I haven't been in the forums for awhile because I actually had to stop it about a month ago when I went on a homeopathic program and couldn't use anything with mint. (my skin looked great by that point - that first week after I stopped using it and it started to rehydrate, it was positively glowing, though I think that had something to do with all the exfoliation the ZZ cream caused). I didn't have a severe problem to begin with, and the redness around my nose had already cleared up, so even though a few zits returned when I stopped it, my skin still looks pretty good even though I was only on it for about a month. I think it's possible that the homeopathics I'm using to kick out some old infection are helping my immune system in the process, and that could be the reason I haven't had a major skin flare-up after stopping it, just a few zits. I still have one unopened jar, and I'll start using it again when this program is done if I think I still need it. I feel like the mites are still there - I get itchy at times, but there's really no redness or breakouts in those areas, just a little biting itch now and again, so I don't know what that's about. I'm really glad I found this stuff, though. The smell was an adjustment, for sure, but worth it.