Caroline, 29, is a school assistant from London

 Caroline says;

“I've also been prone to getting a few spots, but about three years ago my skin started developing bumps under the surface that wouldn't go away. They were red and really painful and would takes days to emerge.

What started with a few painful bumps over a period of months developed into something worse. It felt like my skin just blew up and it came out of nowhere. Often people can identify a reason why their skin erupts such as a period of high stress or something else to do with their health but there was nothing in my life to indicate why it happened. The only thing I can identify as perhaps being the cause was that I came off the contraceptive pill.

 I went and saw my doctor and he referred me to a dermatologist who prescribed me two gels, both which made my acne worse.

I put the first gel on at night and by the morning I felt like ripping my skin off. The other one made my face really red and dry and people asked me if I was sunburned. 

I tried both for about 4-5 months but the side effects continued and the spots actually got worse.

It got the point whereby I stopped going out. I stopped meeting up with friends. I didn’t even like commuting into work on the train. I even had members of the public coming up to me to recommend products to me.

One time I was on tube on the way home. Two young boys kept calling me names under their breath and the kids at school were always starring at my skin. Some of the other teachers at work even asked me if everything was alright. It felt very humiliating.

I became really self-conscious about my skin and honesty began to get a bit depressed.

I was in a relationship and it began to affect that too. Luckily, we had been together for a long time but I felt really unattractive all the time and so I simply didn’t want to go out. It caused friction but my partner was really understanding. 

After about eight months of continuous painful red bumps under my skin, and extreme rawness because of the dermatologist’s prescription gels, I decided enough was enough.

I went back to the dermatologist and he told me to stop taking the gels and suggested I took a stronger acne medication. I was terrified as I knew all the side effects of this medication, and I had read that it can cause depression, which really worried me.

I was in the middle of a really difficult dilemma about whether to begin on a course of medication that I needed to take for months and all the possible problems and side effects that might come with it when my mum reminded me of an article she had sent me about this Silver Serum that had worked miracles for a women with adult acne who was about my age. At the time I had dismissed it as rubbish as I believed the dermatologist’s suggestions were the best route for me.

My mum was very insistent so eventually I dug out the article and read it. I thought maybe I should try one last-ditch attempt before I went down the medication route but to be honest I mostly wanted to appease my mum who was very against me taking strong medication for my skin. I ordered some of the Silver Serum and I told my mum I’d give it one month and if I didn’t see any improvements I was going to begin on the course of medication.

It was the best decision I could have made. The first thing I noticed about Silver Serum was that it didn’t hurt when I put it on, which was a big deal as at the time almost everything I put on my skin hurt.

Within a week I started seeing my skin calming down. The underlying redness and soreness were the first things that started to disappear. Within four weeks the red and painful bumps under my skin had begin to subside. Within approximately two months my skin was more or less clear. It was the first time it had been clear for almost two years. I felt elated and hugely relieved. It was like a dark cloud had passed.

I now use silver serum every day without fail and thank goodness I never had to resort to taking the acne medication. I'd recommend anyone considering acne medication to try this serum first. If you're in the same position I was in then you have nothing to loose. 

My skin has remained more or less free of acne for a year now and is also softer and smoother. The serum has also completely cured the dryness that I had on the skin between my acne. 

I recently went to a make-up course and I was asked if I could be the model as my skin was so good. It was ironic because a year before I think they would have tried everything they could to avoid using me. Actually I would probably never have gone to a make up turorial with my skin looking as it did.

Of course, I still get the occasional spot here and there as therre is no such thing as a compete acne cure, but during the day and especially in the evenings when I can feel a spot forming under the skin, I do my evening routine and apply silver serum before I go to sleep and by morning the emerging spot has calmed right down and is less painful and less red and it usually goes within a few days without actually breaking out.

Althougth I hate to admit it I wish I'd listened to my mum sooner!"