*DISCLAIMER* I do NOT work for this company, nor am I associated with this company in any ways

*pictures are in second post because I can not add them to this one*

Some of you know that I have been battling with acne since grade 9, so 6 years. I have tried everything from the drug store, tried two different products from my doctor, tried a couple thing from the dermatologist, and tried going the natural route. Needless to say, I have spent hundreds of dollar trying to clear up my skin.

Most recently I tried LUSH. It did help prevent acne a bit, however it did nothing to get rid of the acne already there which was resulting me having many dark red marks left on my skin after they went away.

I kept hearing about the Mario Badescu line. Hearing that it is awesome and that it works wonders however I was nervous to try it because I figured it would not work like everything else I had tried. I finally decided to look the products up one day and realized that they cost about the same as the LUSH stuff I was using. After playing around on their website I came across this link here

www.mariobadescu.com . . .

I filled out my information and then proceeded and did the test to see which products it recommended I use.

I checked my e-mail 2-3 days after and looked in my junk mail to find an e-mail from them offering free samples of the products it suggested. I decided I had nothing to lose and ordered them. I finally got them and after using them for one night I was hooked! I then decided to drive to the big city and purchase the whole line of stuff I would need.

I got

The Acne Repair Kit
www.mariobadescu.com . . .

Enzyme Cleansing Gel
www.mariobadescu.com . . .

Cucumber Cleansing Lotion (toner)
www.mariobadescu.com . . .

Oil Free Moisturizer
www.mariobadescu.com . . .

Drying Mask
www.mariobadescu.com . . .

Healing Cream
www.mariobadescu.com . . .

Today is my third day using it (4th night) and my skin is almost completely clear! I had some cyst acne and it cleared up in only 3 nights and it was totally painless! I am totally in shock and I can not stop touching my face. I even made my mom feel my skin and she was in shock.

My personal routine is

Morning - Wash with Enzyme Cleansing Gel, tone with Cucumber Cleansing Lotion, use Oil Free Moisturizer, put on Drying Mask. The drying mask makes your face have a bit of a white tint so I like using it under my primer because it helps tone down my redness.

Night - Wash with Enzyme Cleaning Gel, Tone with Cucumber Cleansing Lotion, use Oil Free Moisturizer, use Healing Cream, then I dot on the Buffering Lotion on my deep pimples and dot on Drying Lotion on the spots that are smaller.

Overall it cost me about $150 however I am noticing you use next to nothing product wise. You use the smallest amount ever and you still get amazing results.

I am going to post pictures probably in 2 weeks with before and after. Right now you can't tell that my skin is clear because of all the scarring/marks left behind. The Healing Cream is starting to take care of that and I noticed the marks on my forehead that were much less severe are near gone already. Plus I can not find my camera.

I am just so excited about this line. Nothing had ever worked on my skin before and I am so happy that after 6 years I am on my way to clear skin. I had to share this will all you acne sufferers out there. This line is honestly amazing.

I lied I am uploading the crappy pictures because I am too excited!!

Picture 1 and 2 - Taken on Tuesday Morning
Picture 3 and 4 - Taken today on Thursday night

That area on my chin is totally smooth (the other side has small bumps still) but the redness makes it look much worse. I will post photos again in 2 weeks or so and hopefully the redness will go down a bunch

Love the spot drying lotion and the buffering lotion. I've used them for many years with my sporatic huge pimple that appears Looks like it's really helping you!

I did the little quiz thing, but decided not to order anything right now. Maybe I will get some free samples too! I can definitely see how your face is clearing up, so good luck! I really don't get pimples, just whiteheads. They have whitehead products but I don't want to waste the product I have right now and order something else.

Just be sure to check your e-mail, including your junk mail. I am pretty sure they send the sample offer to everyone who does the test

Have you been to an actual dermatologist? Because I swear, all these glowing things that you're saying about Mario Badescu now, I remember reading you say about Lush when you converted to them too...maybe an actual doctor would help get you situated, more than just throwing alot of money at skin care products would.

I think you should give it a month to figure out if it really works for you. I know that when I start a new routine, I always see huge improvements at first, then it goes back to normal. ( Same with hair products too, weird)

Please keep us updated at least a few months into it.

I am glad it works for you but I agree with Teresa. I don't know your poste of battling with acne but I just wanted to add something for maybe other people struggling with acne. And I also because I am SO sceptical of these products mainly because of this:


I checked the ingredient list on their acne products and it is not really different from any drugstore brand. If I compare the ingredient list from say a clean and clear face wash, spectro-gel, neutrogena or pro-activ.

Badescu: Deionized Water,Glycerin,Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Aloe Vera Gel, Hyaluronic Acid, Thyme Extract, Chamomile Extract,Isopropyl Alcohol, Salicylic Acid,Triethanolamine,Propylene Glycol

The only active ingredient here is salicylic acid which can be found in most cleansers for acne-prone skin. Aloe vera and chamomile have no proved effect on acne. Most cosmetics companies add some ''natural plan extract'' to their product but it doesn't change much. I know cleand and clear has a citrus line, neutrogena has a pomegranate one with ''antioxydants''. In reality, when shopping for something anti-acne, you should just look at the percentage of salicylic acid or benzoyle peroxyde. I think the law says you can't sell products with more than 2% of salicylic acid and 5% of benzoyle peroxide over the counter (but dermatologists have more powerful treatments using the same ingredients). If you really struggle with acne you try to find a product (a gel prefarably) with the maximum percentage of that product and with the least of other products. You choose a basic cleanser with NO medicine in it to wash your face everyday without agressing it. If that doesn't work (try either benzoyle peroxide OR salicylic acid and switch if you see NO improvement after a couple of weeks), you need to treat the acne from the inside. That includes lots of different possibilities and combinations that only a dermatologist is qualified to do. You can't just try one or two treatments and say it doesn't work. They have tons. From creams, gels, antibiotics, contraceptive pills, accutane, etc. I personnaly tried at least 10 combinations of products, antibiotics, pills, etc. before finding the one that works. I have been struggling with acne since I am 11 years-old and found something that works at 18. Man was it worth it though. I just recently stopped using the pill and my acne came back. It just proves that it was really the medication that worked and not just the time.

I second the dermatologist suggestion. I struggled with acne for years, it was never as bad as yours, but it was still persistant, so I ended up going to a dermatologist, who had me try a few things, and I ended up doing 6 months of Roaccutane. It cleared me right up and I'm still good 2 years later.

The poster above is right, the main ingredients you want are benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid. The reduction in redness is probably due to some other ingredient calming down the inflammation, which is always good I know, but seeing a dermatologist and finding something more permanent is going to be better in the long run.

EDIT: I might also just add that some acne can be more bacterial in nature, and so you will have a lot more luck if you go the anti-bacterial route, such as an anti-bacterial face wash and a broad spectrum antibiotic. That was the one of the first things my dermatologist put me on, it didn't work for me, but he said in a lot of cases it can help a lot.

I wouldn't trust anyone who told me that it worked in three days or less. I'm sure your face feels really nice because of the products you are using but that doesn't mean that your acne is healing because of it.

I sympathetize with your battle though. I am nearly 23 and still struggle with acne. I haven't been to a dermatologist but have tried most things short of accutane through my regular physician. My acne isn't severe...but its persistent and nothing I have tried has worked long term (no way am I trying accutane....I don't think my acne is severe enough to deal with the side effects). I think products can only help to a certain extent. My mom had acne well into her 20's (and still gets hormonal pimples now sometimes) so I am not surprised I am struggling with it at the same age.

^ The side effects of accutane can actually not be that bad. I know plenty of people who have used it, and noone has has anything severe, it's mostly just dry skin issues. When I used it I got dry lips, and that was it.

My cousin had to do two courses, and the worst he had was really dry skin. Accutane wasn't so bad.

Fine fine I should not have posted something. I suppose it is pointless to say that the redness is down on my cheek when I woke up this morning.

I HAVE been to a dermatologist. I said this in my original post. I tried a bunch of different stuff from them and from my doctor. I had to try a bunch from my doctor before she would refer me to a dermatologist.

I have tried every spot treatment out there and while it would help decrease the size a bit, it never actually got rid of the pimple. This is the first time in literally 6 years that I touch my face and there is not a simple bump on it.

So fine, I jumped the gun, but my face is acne free right now and I thought maybe the spot treatments would work for other people. I just like the face wash because it takes off my make up better then other stuff. The face wash, moisturizer and toner have nothing to do fighting acne. It is all in the acne treatment kit that I bought.

Keep going with it if you see a difference... really it doesn't matter what others say if you are happy.

Everyone reacts differently to different products.

I got a facial at work a month or so ago and they use Decleor... worst product ever for me, it has way too strong a smell for my liking, and actually caused me to break out and nearly scratch my face and eyes off after, BUT we have clients that swear by the crap... I would not spend $90 on a moisturizer ever.

Felsa wrote:

Fine fine I should not have posted something. I suppose it is pointless to say that the redness is down on my cheek when I woke up this morning.

I HAVE been to a dermatologist. I said this in my original post. I tried a bunch of different stuff from them and from my doctor. I had to try a bunch from my doctor before she would refer me to a dermatologist.

I have tried every spot treatment out there and while it would help decrease the size a bit, it never actually got rid of the pimple. This is the first time in literally 6 years that I touch my face and there is not a simple bump on it.

So fine, I jumped the gun, but my face is acne free right now and I thought maybe the spot treatments would work for other people. I just like the face wash because it takes off my make up better then other stuff. The face wash, moisturizer and toner have nothing to do fighting acne. It is all in the acne treatment kit that I bought.

Wow, I'm SUPER glad that you didn't overreact to my post or anything!

Just to prove that I'm not wrong, I searched your old posts. I found these;

www.dance.net . . .

and

www.dance.net . . .

Where you said all the glowing things about Lush that you're now saying about Mario Badescu, just like I said in my original post. Nothing is a miracle cure, it didn't revolutionize your face in three days. Even the worst dermatologist will tell you it's going to take at least six weeks to have your skin care be truly effective.

If this stuff was so good that it could work in three days, it'd be the only skin care program on the market. And since it isn't...

If I could take a guess at why you're experiencing "miracle" results in just 3 days, I'd say it probably has little to do with Mario Badescu, and more to do with the fact that you're not irritating your skin as much as you were before. Lush claims to use all sorts of "natural" extracts, which can be very irritating for skin. And also, cleansers in bar form can be very drying and pore-clogging due to the ingredients that give the bars their shape, so that can add a layer of issues as well. Once you stop subjecting your skin to that sort of irritation it takes only a couple of days for redness to go away and some of the bumps to clear up. As T said, six weeks is considered the MINIMUM of time that it takes to see true and consistent acne improvement, simply due to the way pimples form and mature within the pores. So, if your skin is liking Mario Badescu, by all means continue using it. Just be careful of billing it as a "miracle cure" loooong before you have any basis to make that claim.

Your acne can also get better or worse on it's own at different times during your menstrual cycle, so until you've been through at least one full cyle it's not entirely accurate to say you're cured.

I agree that you won't get "miracle" results and it will take a while to see what good it will do, but I've found that alternating products has helped me a lot. It keeps my face from getting overly dried, different soaps/products have different ingredients, etc and it just makes my face feel better than using the SAME soap every day.

While I think there is value to some face products, I think others are absolutely pointless to buy. For example, an exfoliating wash. You can make your own exfoliating stuff at home for significantly less or get a st. ive's scrub because all of those are pretty gritty and those are much more inexpensive than any "trendy" face care product will be.

What I don't like about this is that by using all these products, you won't know what product is actually working for you, if it's all of them or if it's just the face wash or what. You would save yourself a lot of money in the future if you know which products you don't need or that you can go cheaper on.

xBallet_babex wrote:



What I don't like about this is that by using all these products, you won't know what product is actually working for you, if it's all of them or if it's just the face wash or what. You would save yourself a lot of money in the future if you know which products you don't need or that you can go cheaper on.

I bought them all for a couple of reasons. One being that the store is about 2 hours away and it is just not possible for me to get there very often. Another being that LUSH basically stopped working for me all together. It worked amazingly well (you can see my other posts) for about two years, but it had recently stopped working and I was getting very painful break outs.

Also like I mentioned before, my toner, face wash, and moisturizer are not meant to fight acne. That is what my drying cream and healing cream are for. I love the drying cream during the day because I find it helps to dry up my pimples as well as keep my oily skin under control. The healing cream is awesome at night because it is very moisturizing and my acne scars are slowly getting less red.

I am going to continue to post updated pictures. Myself and my mom have noticed improvements already. Others not so much because I was getting good at hiding the scarring before with make up so I look the same with make up. I did a compliment though on my skin the other day which was nice

It was last Monday that I started using this stuff, so a week ago. Here are pictures I just took after washing my face. My scars are always their reddest right after I wash my face.

I am thrilled with it so far. From my mouth up, I would be totally comfortable going in public with no make up on.

By no means is this a miracle product. I am now entering the time in my cycle where I break out like crazy! It is always painful too so I am interested to see what happens. I have gotten two pimples, however they are smaller then I normally get and they do not hurt at all. I woke up with one yesterday morning and now it is almost gone. The other one I woke up with this morning so we will see how it looks in the morning.

Honestly, I can live with a couple of pimples. It was the acne scarring that was driving me totally crazy! This stuff also keeps my skin super soft which is always a plus.

I am going to continue to post my progress here. I will also write if I have any issues with the products.

One that I am having is that the oil free moisturizer leaves my skin feeling ever so slightly dry in the morning. I go over any areas that feel a bit dry with my sample of Aloe Moisturizer that I got. I wanted to buy it but the store does not carry it. I think I will be ordering it off line when I run out of the stuff I have because I find it is a better balance for my combination skin.

I just wanted to pop in and say, I think that your pictures look amazing! The difference in pretty incredible. I'm happy you've found something that works for you, thanks for sharing!

There is a really big difference between the first and second set of photos. I'm glad you found something that is making you happy and helping your skin.

Wow! it is looking better! I bet wearing less face makeup will also help your skin. I hope it continues to work well for you, I have some samples coming my way. I'm interested to see what the products are like.

By the way I never got my samples that they were supposed to be sending me. Anyway my skin decided to have a MAJOR freak out last week and was just getting worse, not better. I am 26, I don't have acne and I rarely get pimples, I haven't had a breakout since high school. But for some reason I got a few pimples and far too many whiteheads/blackheads just suddenly last week. Most of my normal skin care regimen does nothing for my whitehead problem that comes and goes. I went to Ulta to try to find a good product and I spent far too much time looking at everything, when I saw it, the Mario Badescu counter. Having remembered this thread I went over and saw so many products that were geared towards eliminating whiteheads! I was pretty happy about that, because there aren't many products out there like that, and if there are there is a good chance that I have tried it.

So anyhow I bought silver powder and you are only supposed to use it 2 times per week. I have used it twice now and can say that it does what it says, it has already begun clearing out my pores and I hope it stays that way. I also got drying lotion and it isn't kidding about drying up a whitehead in no time. I don't know why it works better than other salicylic acid spot treatments I have tried in the past, it just does.

I still use my regular cheap tea tree oil foaming cleanser, St. Ives exfoliating scrub and what I have left of my body shop Vitamin E moisturizing lotion with it. Once those are gone I would be open to buying more of Mario Badescu. Not because I think it is some miracle product, I know better than that, but it is actually not expensive at all ya'll. The bottles are really big. That silver powder was $12 and it will take forever to use up, same with the drying lotion since you use just the tiniest of a drop of it.

I got free samples from Ulta of 2 different Mario moisturizers, which I will try out sometime soon. The lady at Ulta was nicer than anyone I have ever talked to there, she felt bad they didn't have any more samples of the cleanser (which you are supposed to get for buying a product) so she gave me a makeup bag filled with samples of other brands. Seriously, like 12 samples of different cleansers and moisturizers. I might get the Mario cleanser and toner too, the bottles are really big for the price. Here is to hoping my skin clears up soon.