Margarite Zinc Oxide Cream 1 oz - Soothing Diaper Rash & Skin Protection for Babies & Adults - Perfect for Eczema, Minor Cuts & Irritations

I have tried various sulfur products for acne in the past. My problem is that, although I have adult cystic acne (so do all my sisters to varying degrees), my skin is also extremely sensitive and generally dry unless I'm PMSing. So it's difficult to find a sulfur product that is effective yet not too harsh and drying on my skin. This and the odor of sulfur products is the only reason why I use benzoyl peroxide 2.5% on a daily or every-other-day basis. If I used the sulfur more than 3 times a week, my skin would be fried. With some sulfur products, it was fried from one application!In the past I have tried Clearasil Adult Treatment Cream Tinted, which has 8% sulfur and 2% resorcinol. I'm not sure why it needed resorcinol; 8% of sulfur is plenty by itself. At any rate, if I use the Clearasil Adult Tinted daily/more often than 2-3 x week, it dries my skin a lot and I can't moisturize enough to keep up with how it dries it.De La Cruz Pomada de Azufre Sulfur ointment has 10% sulfur and it is the product that fried my skin in one night -- by the next morning, my face was all red like I got windburn, and within a few days it had a sunburned texture and was flaking off. Way, way too strong for me. I'm not sure if it can be successfully watered down by mixing with another lotion or ointment. I guess that would lower the percentage of sulfur by volume.The Grisi Sulfur Soap with lanolin helps -- this is a bar soap. If I use it more often than every other day, it dries my skin out. But it also has a very calming effect on my skin.Now to the Margarite Zinc Cream. With only 4% sulfur and 10% zinc, it seems to be skewed in favor of skin protection rather than acne prevention. But maybe that's why it seems to help. I can't use it more than 3 x week. But it definitely does seem to help. It will not help a big cyst/zit that has already gotten to the peak or near-peak of being engorged and inflamed (but in my experience, pretty much NOTHING can help a zit at that stage except Gunilla of Sweden's Lerosett mask). But continued use of Margarite Zinc Cream over time seems to prevent new cysts/zits from forming.Then again, it could be the Lerosett I'm using, too. So this isn't a very scientific self-experiment, because I have no blinding (let alone double-blinding), no placebo, and I'm not controlling for effects of other products by using Margarite Zinc Cream all by itself. All of that having been said, I still think this product works to prevent and reduce new breakouts, even if it can't cure/shrink a currently inflamed cyst/zit at it's peak "ripeness" or peak engorgement/inflammation, much.I purchased mine for $11.99 with Amazon Prime, so the shipping was free. $11.99 per ounce? that would make it $191.84 per pound! But in searching on the 'net, I found two other places selling it for $6.99 /tube. However, those web sites that sold it for only $6.99 also charged either $4.99 or $4.95 for shipping. So Amazon's price without shipping -- which is what I paid as an Amazon Prime member -- was about the same when you do the math.Two caveats:1) the package and the tube of Margarite Zinc Cream say you can wear it under makeup. I wouldn't. It is a thick cream and goes on a bit chalky. It dries even chalkier. You can't (at least I can't) put on a stays-on-for-24-hour foundation with this underneath. You also can't even use it under plain liquid foundation; it changes the texture of the makeup and makes the make up application streak, which then streaks the Zinc Cream. So -- no, don't wear this under makeup... unless it's old super-thick pancake makeup, because that's about the only thing that might hide the chalky streaks.2. This product, and every other sulfur product I've used, will tarnish silver jewelry if it is in extended contact with the jewelry. This is true even of rhodium coated silver jewelry that is supposed to resist tarnishing. So be aware of that and take off any silver/sterling silver rings before using any sulfur products with your hands.On the other hand, if you like to make jewelry, the De La Cruz Pomada de Azufre is a very cheap antiquing solution for silver jewelry! Especially when you consider what you'll pay for Liver of Sulfur or for Silver Black in the tiny amounts sold by online jewelry-making supply sellers.I didn't buy the De La Cruz Pomada de Azufre Sulfur Ointment or Grisi Sulfur and Lanolin bar soap online when I bought it. I got both at a local drugstore (Walgreens), in the Mexican products/Mexican personal hygiene products section. It was like $3.50. I've seen it in local grocery stores that have a Mexican products section. That was also where I first bought Grisi Sulfur and Lanolin soap, a lot cheaper than you'll see it here or on other web sites.I think if you only buy these online, you're going to pay a lot more. But buying it from a store presumes that you live in a large (and diverse) enough urban or suburban area for drugstores and grocery stores to have a "Mexican products" section. If you don't, you probably will have to buy these online and pay more for them.Anyway, I'd buy the Margarite Zinc Cream again, but a little seems to go a long way for me, probably because of my sensitive/dry skin.