Can Dairy Cause Cystic Acne? My Before-and-After Skin Journey

This post shares my personal experience from 2017–2018 and is not medical advice. Diet can influence acne for some people, but it isn’t the only cause. Persistent, painful or scarring acne deserves an assessment by a qualified healthcare professional.

Can dairy cause cystic acne? If you’ve ever dealt with painful breakouts that seem to appear out of nowhere, you may have wondered whether something in your diet could be contributing to your skin troubles. I certainly did! For most of my life, I was lucky enough to have relatively clear skin. Sure, I’d get the occasional pimple in high school, but nothing prepared me for the painful, deep breakouts I started experiencing as an adult. Suddenly, I was dealing with what appeared to be cystic acne along my cheeks, and no amount of skincare, makeup or wishful thinking seemed to help. After months of frustration, I decided to experiment with removing dairy from my diet, and over time, my skin began to improve. Today, I’m sharing my personal cystic acne before-and-after journey, including the dietary changes I made, what happened when I reintroduced cheese and what I wish I’d known about adult acne from the beginning.

What Is Cystic Acne?

Before sharing my story, I want to explain what people mean when they talk about cystic acne. Cystic acne is a severe form of inflammatory acne that can cause deep, painful lesions beneath the skin. Unlike an occasional surface pimple, these breakouts can feel tender, swollen and difficult to ignore. People sometimes use the term cystic acne to describe any deep breakout, although a dermatologist can distinguish between acne cysts, nodules and other skin conditions. When my skin was at its worst, my breakouts felt like little icebergs. Most of the pain and pressure seemed to be underneath my skin, and the bumps became increasingly inflamed. They were concentrated around my cheeks, particularly beneath my cheekbones. Eventually, my face became so tender that sleeping on my side was uncomfortable. I actually started sleeping on my back because I couldn’t stand the pressure of my cheeks against my pillow. It was unlike anything I’d experienced before.

My Adult Cystic Acne Journey: Before and After

I never expected to share these photos publicly. As a beauty and fashion blogger, I was used to posting polished photographs with flattering lighting and carefully applied makeup. What you didn’t see was what my skin looked like underneath. Full-coverage foundation, good lighting and a little photo editing can hide a lot. Looking back, I wish I’d been less embarrassed about my skin, but at the time, my confidence was at an all-time low. These photos were taken on my phone throughout 2017 and 2018. They’re not perfectly consistent in lighting or quality, but they document a very real and emotional period of my life.

January 20, 2017

Flashback to January 20, 2017. My cystic acne was the worst it’s ever been and my face hurt constantly, but it wasn’t just my face that was acting up. My stomach has always been tender to the touch, but it was more sensitive than usual and my sinuses were also angry. I suddenly noticed my whole body started swelling even my fingers and toes. I just figured I was gaining weight, but after trying nearly everything (changing my entire skincare routine, wearing no makeup, changing my laundry detergent, drinking more water etc.) I got my eyebrows micro-bladed. If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll remember I wrote a re-cap on my experience here. The photo on the left above shows the texture of my skin at its worst.

It was then I met Marina at Magda’s Skin Care Clinic, (my skin’s fairy Godmother) and she noticed the skin between my eyebrows was inflamed. Marina also performs facials, so her knowledge of skin is next level. I remember her saying typically people who have inflammation in that area have either a dairy or gluten intolerance and/or allergy. She suggested I cut out dairy (which was usually the culprit) for a week and see if it made a difference. If that didn’t work, she told me to cut out gluten. At first, I couldn’t fathom which was worse… no cheese or no…. basically anything (why is gluten in everything?!). But I was desperate to try anything to clear my skin. I figured it would be easier to cut out dairy – so I decided to eliminate it completely for 2 weeks and see if I noticed any difference in my skin.

Marina’s insights really hit home, especially since inflammation was a big part of my skin troubles. It wasn’t just the acne itself, but that angry redness and puffiness that made everything feel so much worse. Thinking about ways to calm that down became a priority for me, beyond just zapping individual pimples. Finding something gentle and effective for irritated skin can make a huge difference, like when you’re dealing with a sudden flare-up and need a good hive cream to soothe things quickly.

I kid you not, in 6 days I noticed my acne started to become less inflamed! It was then that I knew in my gut, it was dairy after all (pun intended). After 2 weeks, I noticed a difference in my stomach – I didn’t feel bloated all the time and I felt like I could breathe easier and the swelling in my fingers and toes shrunk! I wasn’t ready to accept the tragic news (I am a cheese FANATIC), so I decided to stay optimistic and assume it was a happy coincidence.

February 24, 2017 

Unfortunately, it was no coincidence, my skin looked and felt better everyday without dairy. I decided to continue my dairy free diet for a month. When I went back to get my micro-blading touch up with Magda she agreed my skin looked much better, but warned me it would likely take a minimum of 3 months for my skin to clear. I didn’t know what was worse – a life without dairy or the thought of having my skin look atrocious for another 3 months. In full transparency, my cystic acne took a huge toll on my self esteem. I remember trying to hide my face as much as I could during conversations with everyone – including my closest friends. I felt like everyone was staring at my acne and it made me feel unattractive at best. It didn’t help I write a fashion and beauty blog – so I am always in photos! I ended up turning down a bunch of beauty collaborations as I didn’t want my skin photographed with a DSLR camera. The days seemed to drag on, but I was hopeful my skin would clear one day.

March 12, 2017

You might be thinking – you’re skin looks worse than before in these photos. It’s hard to tell from these photos (I never thought I’d be sharing them so I didn’t use a DSLR camera to document my progress), but my skin was healing. My acne started to become less and less inflamed and began to scab. While my skin still looked rough, little to no new acne began forming. It took everything in me to not pick at my skin, but my fear of acne scars kept my fingers from touching it. I used the more natural skincare and minimal makeup I could find. It was downright torture to not use the most high coverage foundation and concealer. I wanted my skin to breathe as much as possible so I used high coverage makeup. Let me know if you’d like me to write a post on what exact products I used while my skin was in remission!

April 5th, 2017

My skin continued to heal during months 2 and 3. For whatever reason, I stopped documenting my acne after 2 months… but believe me when it looked almost exactly the same from months 2-3. Around month 4, my skin was 90% better. I still had hyper pigmentation where my cystic acne once was, but no new acne was forming. Then something crazy happened, I ate a sandwich with cheese in it and one cystic acne pimple formed the very next day! This further re-assured me dairy was the ultimate culprit. Once my skin was completely healed (month 5) I wanted to confirm it was all dairy that was irritating my skin. I introduced milk to my diet…. nothing after a week. My stomach was a little upset, but no acne. Then I introduced butter….nothing. Then I tried cheese again…BOOM HI ACNE HOW ARE YOU. I was crushed, CRUSHED. It was cheese. CHEESE. One of my all time favorite foods. To this day, I can eat most dairy without my face breaking out, but the moment I eat cheese I will get acne the very next day. THE. WORST. It also makes my stomach extremely sick. So, that’s my tragic story of a life without cheese. But you know what, my skin is absolutely GLOWING. It’s never been better and for that I am so thankful.

June 28, 2018

Before & After Cutting Out Cheese: 

Everyone’s experience with acne is different, but I thought I’d share my story in case you’re feeling hopeless with acne, or anything that makes you feel less confident. In case you’re wondering why you didn’t see any photos with acne… it’s because I did everything in my power to conceal my imperfect face. Makeup, great lighting and retouching can mask our deepest insecurities and I wish I would have rocked my bumpy face with confidence, but I was ashamed. I don’t want you to feel the same way – I want you to feel empowered, imperfections and all. I know how frustrating it can feel to not know the culprit and do everything you can to help your face and it continues to get worse. I remember searching the web for stories on cystic acne in hopes of finding answers and feeling less alone. Not much came up – which is why I wanted to share my personal journey with you! If you have any specific questions on my cystic acne journey my inbox is always open (mashelle.blog@gmail.com).

In short, if you’re experiencing adult cystic acne, you may want to think about cutting out dairy! If that doesn’t work, try cutting gluten.

How to Tell Whether Your Diet Might Be Affecting Your Skin

If you think certain foods could be contributing to your breakouts, there are more useful approaches than cutting out several food groups at once.

Keep a Food and Skin Diary

Track what you eat, when breakouts appear, changes in your menstrual cycle, stress levels and skincare products. Acne can develop over time, so a pimple appearing the day after a particular meal doesn’t necessarily mean that food caused it.

Avoid Making Too Many Changes at Once

If you change your diet, skincare routine and supplements simultaneously, it becomes difficult to tell which changes may have helped. A clinician or registered dietitian can help you decide whether a structured dietary trial makes sense.

Don’t Automatically Eliminate Gluten

There’s no good evidence that going gluten-free treats acne in people who don’t have a gluten-related medical condition. If you suspect celiac disease, get appropriate medical testing before removing gluten, because eliminating it beforehand can interfere with accurate results.

Make Sure You’re Getting Enough Nutrients

If you choose to reduce dairy, make sure you’re still getting adequate calcium, vitamin D and protein from other foods or fortified alternatives. You shouldn’t have to compromise your overall nutrition in pursuit of clearer skin.

Give Changes Time

Acne treatments and skin changes often take weeks to become noticeable. Be cautious about attributing an immediate breakout or improvement to a single meal.

If you’re looking for more information on a dairy-free lifestyle – click on my post here