I am so unhappy right now with my oily skin. Actually, I have combination skin with acne so I usually get shiny oily skin with dry flakes I can't stand it! When I wash my face in the am and every time I shower I use Clean and Clear acne fighting face wash, then astringent, then Lancome oil free moisturiser (sp?) If I don't put on moisturiser before my powder my skin flakes and is too dry, but by the time I get to work my skin is shiny and I have to wipe it with a kleenex!!! Also, I get bad blemishes and I use those sopt treatments which really dry out those areas, but I will still break out around them so I have oily/flaky skin. What gives??? I have used Proactive before which worked pretty nicely on my skin, but it's so expensive. Does anyone else have these types of problems? What do you reccomend using? (PS, I know the humidity in the Chicago summer doesn't help, but I know something has to work better then what I have now!)
for moisturizer, I'd strongly recommend Cetaphil. I HATE the Cetaphil cleanser (I do not think it cleanses, but I'm just one girl), but the Cetaphil moisturizer is one of the best IMO. It's not fancy and it doesn't smell like heaven as some others do, but your still will be mositurized. I buy mine at Costco, so I get a mind-numbingly huge 16 pump bottle for under 10 bucks.
I also think astringent + acne-fighting cleanser is a bit much. I used to use combos like that and it would just make my skin more dry and irritated. I'd use a gentle cleanser with no acne fighting ingrdients (I currently use Purpose, but have used Philosophy Puirty and loved it) with some BP acen treatment (Neutrogena's On-The-Spot is my fave at the drugstore...I like Peter Thomas Roth if you want to splurge).
It sounds like you're stripping too much of the oil from your skin causing it over produce oil, does that make sense? I would opt for a gentler cleanser. And the astringent, does it sting, cause a proper astringent/toner shouldn't sting, just feel wet. If it stings, it probably is also stripping your skin's oils and I would switch that as well.
I think that if ProActive was working for you then you should go back, it isn't that expensive comparatively and I think skin care is one thing worth spending money on.