Skin Care Review: Obagi Nu-Derm with Retin-A

Rating
Adverse Effects

Benefits
Two shades lighter skin (I never wanted), sunspots faded a bit

Drawbacks
It did not even out my skin, it left my face and neck with patchy areas of bleached skin.

Details
I have a brown skin tone and initially wanted a product to even out my skin and get rid of my freckles/sunspots, not to lighen my skin. I was initially recommended the Obagi from a medical spa. At the time I didn't know very much about the product and they only sold me the sunfader at the time. So I started using it for about 2-3 weeks and during that time my face started to peel really badly starting around my cheek and nose area. I called the place back to inquire and they said the peeling meant the product was working. so I continued to use it but then all of a sudden I noticed that the severe peeling stopped, yet the area that peeled off was dramatically lighter than the rest of my face which looked absolutly embarrasing. Its as if it just stopped working. Then I went to a dermatologist for them to look at my face and I was told that the Obagi Nu- derm only works together as a system and I would need to buy everything in the product line so I did. I had everything except the Retin-A at the time. So I began to use the line as directed for the first 4 weeks and my face and neck began to peel slightly so I assumed it was working until about the 5th week someone asked me if I had liver spots on my neck, when I really examined my neck I saw that the area that was peeling was left with dramatically lighter skin in patches while the rest of my neck has not changed. My face also has not changed since I started the entire line. Again in frustration I went back to the medical spa and I met with the owner who examined my skin and told me they should of never recommended obagi to me in the first place as it is way too aggressive on the skin. However she said that since I already spent so much on the products she recommended that I stop rubbing the product on my entire face and start by using the cleanser twice a day, the toner once a day at night, the clear twice a day only on the darker areas of skin on my face and neck, the exfoderm once a day, and also wrote me a prescription for retin-a to use with the blender only once every other night on the darker areas and also to stop using the sunfader as the spf 15 is not enough and I do not need to be using so much hydroquinone. And sold me the Obagi spf 35 sunscreen and told me to make sure to use it every day. So again I continued with it and now I'm at the end of the 8th week using the entire line and now the darker areas of my face has only changed a bit and my neck still looks the same. What I dont understand is why is Obagi pushing a line that promises porcelain skin yet all its done was ruin my skin. I think its a sham, they sell you a product that ruins ur skin so u have no choice but to continue using it in hopes that ur skin improves. I'm tossing the line in the garbage after the 12th week whether or not my skin improves.

Conclusions
As far as I'm concerned, brown skin tones and darker I would not recomend this line.

Price (paid by reviewer)

Where to find it
Dermatologist