Has anyone else had bad acne since vaping? It's not "quit zits"

[Tiffany Smeggin Peak]

ok... so i have had issues with acne since i was 12.... so over a decade, i have tried numerous things and they seem to work for a little bit.
When i quit smoking, my skin flared up a little bit, now i have 4 cystic pimples ugh and i vape 50/50, i don't vape any other mix....
I am hoping that it is just my skin wigging out AGAIN, and not the vaping mix...

 

[jwark]

My and my girlfriend both started getting really bad acne only a couple of weeks after switching. I just compensated by eating much healthier. For me, buying fresh spinach and boiling it in water is like super acne medicine for me. I make sure to drink the water in the boiled spinach pot too. Cleared it up for both of us. Nothing like good old fresh vegetables.

 

[Roland3Fingers]

Pheisty posts this great info and of course I live in NY where some stupid law says I can't do a mail-in saliva test. I'll ask my chiropractor if he can assist. Unbelievable!

 

[Koman]

My and my girlfriend both started getting really bad acne only a couple of weeks after switching. I just compensated by eating much healthier. For me, buying fresh spinach and boiling it in water is like super acne medicine for me. I make sure to drink the water in the boiled spinach pot too. Cleared it up for both of us. Nothing like good old fresh vegetables.

Have you had acne problems before? Stuff like this can cause sudden burst.

 

[cherrycakes]

I have hormonal acne due to PCOS and while I normally have some acne, it seems like vaping is making it way worse.
I normally vape 100% vg so I don't know if that is causing it or what?
I'm also lactose intolerant so it's not milk....

benzoyl peroxide seems the only thing that helps when I have a really bad hormonal acne break out,
I'm going to my obgyn and hopefully she's going to get me on some high level birth control to help with the PCOS and acne

 

[Liquid_Drummer]

Anyone getting it on their scalp ? For me it is on my back, chest and scalp. Always had a little acne on my back but since quitting my scalp is a mess.

 

[brightshoes]

Am I the only one with em zits/boils mostly on my back/chest......i dont wanna see the Dr.......

Hi, I have been vaping regularly now for about 4 months. And I started getting the zits on my chest only. It's really strange. I have been trying to figure out why the zits started 2 months after I started vaping and not right away. I can remember drinking way more water when I initially started to vape.

For a week now, I've been drinking water. Lots of it. So far, I still had a couple zits pop up on my chest. I'm going to wait about a week or two to see if this makes a difference. Hopefully it does, because I don't want to see the doctor about this. But I am also attending a wedding, and going to Mexico, and of course summer is coming and I feel so self conscious about showing my chest now.

I'll keep you all posted.

I also know this is not quit zits. I've never had a problem with zits until now.

 

[catjoyy]

I am really noticing acne in places I don't normally get it - as in on areas of my face. I do think it is caused by vaping and I have tried both PG/VG blends and 100% VG. This bums me out.

 

[Odysseus]

I'm not satisfied with any of the answers here. There is likely a common thread we don't yet understand. It could involve the metabolism of VG or another ingredient other than PG.

 

[brightshoes]

I think I've finally resolved what has been causing acne to appear on my chest after 2-3 weeks. It appears I have a sensitivity to PG. I realized about a week ago that I switched to a 50/50 blend awhile back as part of a sample pack.

Anyway, I've gone back to a 70vg/30pg and my zits are clearing up.

Hopefully, this helps someone out there who's just starting out to really be mindful of the ratios of pg/vg.

 

[propagandax]

I have been dealing with a chronic skin problem for years, similar to acne, I would get sebaceous cysts in my grown, neck, legs, armpits, etc. Since I switched to ecigs a little over a year ago my skin problem seems to have subsided. Might be that I grew out of the problem but who knows.

 

[317Vapers]

I've noticed a huge difference in how "Oily" my skin is in general. Normally I had fairly dry skin. Now I have oily skin (hands, nose, forehead, chest, neck) I never had this problem before vaping but I wash my hands more frequently (cant stand oily hands specially using a touch screen) and use sea breeze on my face/neck, chest areas and its been helping.

 

[craighwk]

So I was reading Reddit today and someone made a comment about acne and e-cigs. It kind of struck me because I've been having problems myself. My face isn't bad (1 or two active at a time), but my back is pretty awful. It has a dozen or two and some form into very painful, large blisters. I have also noticed my face is way more oily than it used to be. Other than my back and face, I don't have them anywhere else.

I had pretty bad acne when I was a teenager and used Accutane to cure it. It completely cleared my back and I'd only get the occasional pimple on my face. I've been wondering why all of a sudden, late into my 30s, my back is at pre-accutane badness. I've tried changing milk to almond milk, changing laundry detergent, using various products, but nothing has helped. I think it's sort of absurd that e-cigs could be to blame for this, but after finding this thread, I'm wondering if there isn't some sort of connection. Now that I've given it a lot of thought, I do believe my back started getting bad around the time I made the switch from analogues.

I use mostly 70/30 and 80/20 juice. Occasionally I'll get 50/50. About a year ago I had a period of two months where I Used 100% VG. 18mg nic.

Kinda puts me in a weird spot now as I have been trying various changes in my life to help the acne. Now the next step would be giving up the e-cigs. Ugh. Don't think I'm ready for that just yet. I was thinking about going for another round of Accutane, but I'd imagine quitting completely would be a better thing to do first.

 

[Liquid_Drummer]

Same here. Backne as I call it is very bad but if this is the price I have to pay to stay smoke free so be it. Don't know for sure that vaping is the cause but I don't really care. None on my face but my back and scalp have it bad. Scalp has gotten better with medicated shampoo and Dr.Bronners hemp oil soap.

 

[BostonVape]

Anyone getting it on their scalp ? For me it is on my back, chest and scalp. Always had a little acne on my back but since quitting my scalp is a mess.

yea I've noticed that myself every once and awhile. I actually noticed it more this weekend (when it was really cold? not sure if that matters) - using 70/30 blends ... think I might need to go down to 50/50 .. weird too because for first 2 months I never had a problem with PG.. now I'm starting to.

 

[donna_]

I am a former cosmetologist and heath writer who is also suffering with a severe flare of facial acne and I"m not acne-prone. The problem arose when I too switched to 100% VG. While I find the VG a potential culprit in whole or part (for me) I think vapers will find their cause is variable.

Acne is both an internal and external issue for some people. While I think a dermatologist is the optimal route, it is likely the cause won't be found unless one quits vaping or switches to another base. That won't be an option for many trying to quit smoking but some of these remedies can help.

1. Drink plenty of water -- to both flush out toxins and keep the body in balance.

2. Exfoliate your skin -- This can aggravate acne at first (do so with caution). But sudden cell regeneration from quitting smoking or "oil production" by sebaceous glands may be trapped by dead skin.

3. Read up on recommended treatments for conventional acne and see if you find relief. Treating acne is often a process of elimination for dermatologists as well.

4. Eat an acne-friendly diet.

5. Make one change at a time to help identify the cause(s)/treatment. If you start to use acne cream, wait 48-72 hours before trying something else.

6. See a dermatologist or even your GP if your case is serious -- esp. if it is "rashy looking" or heavily cystic.

7. Avoid touching your face. You may be doing this unconsciously and also wash your hands after vaping. Keep your products clean and be mindful of leaks.

Know that the acne could be related to vaping, quitting smoking, diet, hormones, environment and so on. We're all wired differently and it's impossible to know the cause(s) other than process of elimination and in some cases testing.

I'm stuck in a small town and am going to have to solve this mystery on my own. My GP hates ecigs, so he is a last resort.

ETA: And, of course, consider switching the PG or VG if you have a reason to suspect it.

 

[Rickajho]

Could be a reaction to either PG or VG. I know two people here who developed facial acne after they started vaping. They never made a connection until a year+ into vaping that vaping might be the cause of it. In both cases when they dropped PG from their liquids the acne problem cleared right up.

 

[CaliGrower]

im no expert on ache but i can tell you that when the wife and i went to 70vg/30pg mix, acne popped up BADLY almost instantaneously over night. went to a much lower 40/60 mix and it cleared up almost as fast. went back to the original mix just to see if it was the culprit, and virtually overnight it came back, changed back and it went away. ive noticed when using a high vg base that my skin is MUCH more oily. vg is made from vegetable oil, so if its not comming out of your skin, im almost certain that as you vape it is, over time leaving a microscopic layer of VG on your skin, which in turn clogs the pores and causes pimples.

just a guess...

 

[Deeo]

I switched to a higher pg and my acne clears up, but if I puff on my husbands ecig that is a 50/50 mix I get some more acne popping up. So far I believe it is the vg for me that is making me break out. I am at 75pg 25 vg and that seems to help clear the acne up.

 

[craighwk]

So I thought the e-cigs were causing my acne, as I posted above, but I had recently quit e-cigs for a few months and saw no difference in my breakouts. In fact, they might have gotten worse.

I started taking vitamins (D3, Zinc, and Omega-3) and washing my face differently, and recently my breakouts have been minimal. I picked up e-cigs again about three weeks ago and I am still doing good. I no longer think they are the reason for my acne.