As a ten year sufferer (and incorrigible picker) I have tried just about everything and finally found a regimine that works very well for me. It may not be for everyone, but I wanted to share anyway.

Every morning I put Neutrogena Body Clearning Body Wash on a pumice stone (intended for foot callouses) and use mild pressure to scrub my arms in circular motions. Don't push so hard it hurts, but give it a good scrubbing. Once out of the shower I use Neutrogena Bump Minimizer lotion on my arms to make them nice and soft and also to reduce redness. At night before bed I use a prescription 40% Urea lotion. The lotion seems to soften the top layer of skin overnight so that the next morning I can scrub it off in the shower.

This is not a complete solution, particularly if I'm not religious about doing all the steps. But my arms are softer than they have ever been and the significant reduction in bumps means way less picking too. I sometimes find myself touching my arms just to see if it's real!!

I hope this method is helpful to someone else. This forum is great for bouncing around ideas. Keep up the exchange!!

ps- I found the Neutrogena Body Wash is great everywhere for bumps and rough skin, just fyi

I've been doing something similar.


my skin is sensitive...so for those of you with sensitive skin, this may help!

I've had my bumps for a long time. Since I was a kid. At first just a few on the backs of my upper arms...and now its all the way down my forearms and starting to show on my legs.

I've tried using all the salicylic acid and all, but all it does is multiply the redness in my skin, making me more self conscious.

So I got to doing a ton of research.

The most common theme of healing regimes i found was exfoliation.

So, I went to Wal Mart. I found this foot scrub, it was a nice, pleasant smelling scrubby FREEMAN called Bare Foot. It's soothing iced teaberry and mint. I dont know if that formula is important or not. What it is is like a lotion and pumice stone mixed together. so it does major moisturizing, but its a thick, rough exfoliator. I rubbed the heck out of my forearms...testing there, rubbing that stuff in until my skin turned red. it didnt hurt, it was just a lot of rubbing. then I rinsed it off, and dried off with a towel, and went to bed. well, when i woke up in the morning my redness had decresed 50%, and my bumps were about 65% gone. it was amazing.

Now this is my new regime.

In the shower, I use a very mild soap. It had no special scent, nothing. Its called Pure & Natural. I read that strong soaps can increase the problem, and when I've used strong soaps like Irish Spring, my skins did get worse. So anyway.

I use Pure & Natural, and wash first with a rag, then I go over my arms with a loofah, as hard and long as i can take it. Nothing after that...jsut get dressed, go through my day. Then, at night, I use the Bare Foot scrub on my arms.

I'm going to do this for 2 weeks and see what happens. I'll let ya'll know.

I do the same thing irshgrl99. I use the Neutrogena Body Clearning Body Wash as well. Not sure which you use, as there are two types, but I used the one with the microbeads. They're gentle enough for sensative skin and I think works slightly better than the one without. However even with only light rubbing, the pumice stone is still too rough for me, so I actually use a natural (once living, out of the ocean type) sponge. It's a little rougher than either a regular sponge or a luffa.
The other thing I actually do, is to wash a second time with Dove bar soap right after. Again, I use the dove with the microbeads in it and love it, but more importantly, the moisterizing lotion in the dove soap helps to negate some of the drying effect from the salyasilic(sp?) acid in the body wash. That way, I don't have to use quite as heavy a body lotion after I get out of the shower/bath.

Just a note about the Dove soap. A lot of bar soaps use oils or lards in their moisturizers which can clog pores for people particularly prone to the "infected" looking bumps. I stay away from any soaps or lotions that don't say "noncomodogenic" on them for that reason.

Real quick, before I get into Dove, don't be mislead. Noncomedogenic does not mean a product doesn't contain oils or lards. The majority of plant oils are considered noncomedogenic, the most notable being sunflower oil. And what most people don't realize, is even Mineral oil is noncomedogenic.
Oil free and noncomedogenic are two totally different things. It is very uncommon to find "oil-free" moisturizers because of the simple fact that they tend to, as a whole, not work that well/long. Even water based moisturizers have oil in them. The saddest thing of all is that noncomedogenic, like hypoallergenic, is a marketing claim and carry 0 implied regulation. (Meaning that something can claim to be noncomedogenic whether or not it's been tested to be so.)

Dove uses 2 different types of plant oils if I remember correctly, palm and I think Coconut oil. Even so, it's still very mild and doesn't normally cause the clogging problems of a lot of the heavier soaps. Not only that, but even compared to the "noncomodogenic" lotions/soaps, moisterizing body washes, etc, Dove still comes out with one of the most gentle fomulas with one of the lowest Irin factors. (You can find the studies at most of the major journal websites; Dermatologic Therapy, International Journal of Cosmetic Science, and Skin Research and Technology just to name a couple)Some of their products go as far as even being Ph neutral. That's why a lot of dermatologists really do recommend Dove because /so/ much study has actually been devoted to a lot of their products and formulas. Not only that, but the majority of products out there for sensative skin and/or "moisturising" actually come out worse against Dove in areas like Irin factor, clogging, heaviness, etc. It's interesting to check out the research, but always make your own decisions. ^^


***EDIT***
Found it. Dove Exfoliating bar contains the following 3 different oils. All three of which have been labratory tested and proven noncomedogenic.
Sodium Tallowate
Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil
Sodium Palm Kernelate

On the oil-free note- does anyone know a good body moisturizer that is oil free? Non-comedogenic or not, I have found any product with oil in it to cause problems for my face, so I'm thinking I need to at least try getting away from body products with oil. Hey, anything is worth a shot.

I use Cetaphil, but it's kind of greasy and doesn't soak in well. If you have a Lush near you, they have some very light body lotion (one called "Dream Cream" I use) that doesn't seem to bother my skin.