Does Proactiv really work?

Yes. And no.

Like all other products, it works differently from person to person.

Any symptoms? If you mean side effects, then yes. But again, that differs from person to person. For some, it causes a lot of flaking and dryness, redness, an increase in acne, increase in oil production, a lot of irritation, etc. But for some, it does not cause any adverse effects on the skin.

Because of how drying it is, the drier or more sensitive your skin is, the worse it will likely be on your face. So if your skin is naturally quite sensitive, I'd say don't use it.

So try it out if you think that your skin is tough enough for it, and see how you like it.

Right now I'm just using the proactiv face wash, and using other products in place of the rest of the kit because its really expensive. So far I've noticed that its drying the crap out of my face, but also my face has been less red, and I havn't been getting many pimples, maybe one or two have popped up. I've only been using this for about a week now... I think I like it so far.

I think it's really on a case to case basis. My cousin had acne a few years ago and tried proactiv and had absolutely no progress with her skin, her sister a year or too later also tried it and had no luck. The older one eventually went on accutane and now is just fine, but the younger one's acne isn't severe enough to be prescribed accutane so she's tried just about everything. One of my guy friends though swears by it, he's 24 now and used it when he was still a teen but had great luck with it.

It probably has to do with how severe your acne is and the type of acne. Regardless it's probably worth a shot if you're having trouble with your skin.

Good luck!

I have heard that after using proactiv, your skin will become addicted. There is something in the wash that you face gets addicted to. After not using it for a while (or a week) your face will break out into millions of red pimples

Omg i used it and had to stop, it made my skin so irritated that i couldn't wear my glasses and without those i'm blind. Everyone i spoke to said that it gets worse before it gets better but i couldn't handle the worse the better couldn't be that great

yes no one i know has had any symptomys after using it

yeah i steal my sisters and after you use the wash, you put the lotion on,

and your face feels all clean and nice when you wake up.\

No it is horrible