The calm after the purge: My four product routine that finally worked

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 Fungal Acne Series | Post 3

After weeks of trial, error, honestly, a few tears, I decided to drop everything and start over. I went and brought down my skincare routine to four essential products.

And guess what?

For the first time in weeks, my skin started breathing again.


Why I Simplified My Skincare Routine

I realised that less was not only more, it was everything. My skin barrier was weak, overwhelmed, and too inflamed to heal properly. So I switched to just treat, soothe, protect, and hydrate.


My four-step fungal acne-safe routine

1. Cleanser: CeraVe Foaming Cleanser (or any gentle, non-stripping cleanser). This removed excess oil without feeding the yeast or drying my skin. Buy it here on Amazon:

2. Treatment: Selsun shampoo mask (selenium sulfide) every other day and ketoconazole cream at night. These two became my heroes. They directly attacked the yeast and calmed the bumps.

3. Moisturizer: Vanicream moisturizing cream. It has no esters, no trigger oils, and soothed my skin. It restored hydration without clogging pores or feeding the fungus. 

4. Sunscreen: A simple, alcohol and oil-free sunscreen. Sun damage leads to inflammation, which in turn slows down the healing process. 


What I Noticed After Two to Three Weeks

  • Less itching.
  • No new clusters forming.
  • Bumps faded faster.
  • My skin was slowly evening out.
  • My confidence started crawling back.

Lessons I Wish I Knew Earlier
  • Sometimes, one great antifungal cream is better than 5 luxury serums.
  • Not every glow product is your friend.
  • A calm skin barrier is everything.
  • Healing is slow, but steady wins the race.

What's next?

In the next post, I'll break down the most common ingredients that secretly make fungal acne worse (even the ones labeled "non-comedogenic")

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