breakoutLabs Review: How Lindsay Cleared Her Skin Before Her Wedding

The short version: This breakoutLabs review comes from Lindsay P., who had acne for 15 years. A month before her wedding, after a stretch of stress and travel, her skin flared again. "I was honestly freaking out," she says. Instead of guessing again, she tested. Her results showed low iron and ferritin, plus vitamin D deficiency. After a results call with Brittany, our Chief Skin Specialist, and the breakoutLabs team, she made a few small changes. By her wedding day, she says, her skin was "CLEAR."

"I felt like I was right back where I started"

If you've dealt with acne for years, you know the feeling. You make progress. Then one stressful month and it's back.

Lindsay had already spent years putting the pieces together. Then, about a month before one of the biggest days of her life, her skin turned on her.

"About a month before my wedding, after a lot of stress and travel, my skin suddenly flared again, and I was honestly freaking out. After making so much progress, I felt like I was right back where I started, especially with such an important day approaching."

She had even had "actual nightmares" about waking up on her wedding day with terrible breakouts.

What her breakoutLabs results showed

Lindsay worked with Brittany, our Chief Skin Specialist, and the breakoutLabs team. They ordered the test kit, which she called "incredibly easy to use."

When her results came back, three things stood out:

• Low iron
• Low ferritin (your iron stores)
• Vitamin D deficiency

Iron and ferritin come from the Iron panel, which can be added to the same sample. Vitamin D is part of the main 19-biomarker test.

"After years of trying to figure things out through trial and error, it was such a relief to finally have actual results to work from rather than continuing to guess."

What changed after her results call

No dramatic overhaul. After her results came in, Lindsay and Brittany got on a call and talked through them.

• A results call. "We hopped on a call, talked through my results, and made a few thoughtful adjustments to support my skin and overall health."
• A couple of supplements, "including the very first iron supplement I've actually been able to tolerate."
• Small diet and routine changes. "Nothing drastic, just thoughtful, intentional changes based on what we had learned."
• A gentler approach. Brittany "encouraged me to trust a gentler approach while recommending products with ingredients I felt comfortable using."

Then came the part Lindsay still can't quite believe:

"And I kid you not, within two weeks of making those changes, my skin had completely cleared. I could hardly believe what I was seeing!"

Her wedding day

"By the time my wedding arrived, my skin was CLEAR. I did have a few tiny hormonal blemishes leading up to it because I literally got my period a day after my wedding (ha), but they were so minor compared to what I had lived with for years. They were flat, manageable, and hardly something I thought twice about."

"I used to have actual nightmares about waking up on my wedding day with terrible breakouts, and instead, I got to spend that day feeling beautiful, confident, and completely present."

"A new breath in my lungs"

Lindsay says her skin has kept improving. "Today, I can happily say it's about 99% clear, something I genuinely wasn't sure I'd ever be able to say."

What she describes next is the part many people with acne will recognize:

"It's waking up in the morning and not immediately feeling defeated when I look in the mirror. It's leaving the house without makeup and feeling pretty. It's being able to have a conversation without wondering if someone is looking at my acne. It's making plans without worrying about what my skin might look like that day. It's getting to feel like myself again."

"I genuinely feel like I have a new breath in my lungs."

She also describes the support behind it: "She never made me feel like I needed to do more and more, but instead helped me find what actually worked for my skin."

"I had already spent years putting so many pieces of the puzzle together, but Brittany helped me find those last few pieces that I just couldn't seem to figure out on my own. They may have only been the final two millimeters, but they were the hardest to find, and they made all the difference."

She is careful to add that her story is hers alone: "I know everyone's skin journey is different, and healing isn't always a straight line."

We're grateful to Lindsay for sharing it, and proud of Brittany and the whole breakoutLabs team.

Why iron and vitamin D can matter for skin

Lindsay's results aren't a recipe for everyone. Acne has different drivers in different people. But iron and vitamin D are common, easy to miss, and worth checking instead of guessing.

Iron

• Iron is the core of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen to every tissue, including skin (Pasricha et al., 2021).
• It supports tissue repair and wound healing (Wright et al., 2014).
• It's common to run low. In US data from 2003 to 2020, almost 40% of females aged 12 to 21 had iron deficiency (Weyand et al., 2023).
• Ferritin shows your stores. Problems can start before you're anemic, so a normal blood count can miss low iron (Pasricha et al., 2021).

Vitamin D

• The cells that make skin oil carry vitamin D receptors, and vitamin D acts on them directly (Krämer et al., 2009).
• In a meta-analysis of 13 studies, people with acne had lower vitamin D than people without it, and lower levels went with more severe acne (Hasamoh et al., 2022).
• Low vitamin D is common and rarely causes obvious symptoms. In US survey data from 2005 to 2006, 41.6% of adults had levels of 20 ng/mL or below (Forrest and Stuhldreher, 2011).

The catch: don't supplement blind. Taking iron without knowing your levels can backfire. A meta-analysis of 43 trials found ferrous sulfate more than doubled the odds of gut side effects compared with placebo (Tolkien et al., 2015), and your body can't easily get rid of extra iron (Kowdley et al., 2019). Vitamin D builds up in the body too, and too much over time can cause toxicity (Marcinowska-Suchowierska et al., 2018). Without a starting number, you can't tell what you needed, whether it's working, or when to stop.

Want to go deeper? See can low iron cause acne and vitamin D and acne.

Why test with breakoutLabs

Lindsay's turning point was getting real numbers instead of trial and error. Here is how it works:

• At home, with a painless device on your upper arm. No lab visit, no appointment, no needle draw.
• 19 biomarkers across hormones, blood sugar, metabolism and nutrients: Free and Total Testosterone, SHBG, DHEA-S, Free Androgen Index and Albumin; HbA1c, average glucose and a full cholesterol and triglyceride panel; ALT, Creatinine and eGFR; and Vitamin D.
• Iron panel on the same sample: ferritin, iron, UIBC, TIBC and transferrin saturation.
• Results in 5 business days after a CLIA-certified lab receives your sample.
• A personalized Clear Skin Blueprint that reads your results through the lens of acne.
• HSA/FSA eligible, and backed by our 30-day money-back guarantee.

Collect in the morning after an 8 to 10 hour fast, Monday to Thursday, and on days 3 to 7 of your cycle if you menstruate. For ages 14 and up (14 to 17 with a parent or guardian).

More breakoutLabs reviews

Lindsay isn't the only one who stopped guessing. Here are more 5-star breakoutLabs reviews, in customers' own words.

Frequently asked questions

Did low iron and vitamin D cause Lindsay's acne?

We can't say that for any one person, and Lindsay doesn't claim it. Her results showed low iron, low ferritin and vitamin D deficiency, and she made changes based on them. In her words, they were "the final two millimeters."

Does the main test measure iron and ferritin?

Iron, ferritin, UIBC, TIBC and transferrin saturation come from the Iron panel, which you add to the same sample. Vitamin D is part of the main 19-biomarker test.

Should I take iron or vitamin D if my acne is flaring?

Test first. Both can build up, and iron often causes stomach trouble, so knowing your levels comes before taking more. Talk to your healthcare provider about what fits your results.

Sources

• Pasricha SR, Tye-Din J, Muckenthaler MU, Swinkels DW. Iron deficiency. The Lancet. 2021.
• Wright JA, Richards T, Srai SK. The role of iron in the skin and cutaneous wound healing. Frontiers in Pharmacology. 2014.
• Weyand AC, Chaitoff A, Freed GL, et al. Prevalence of iron deficiency and iron-deficiency anemia in US females aged 12-21 years, 2003-2020. JAMA. 2023.
• Tolkien Z, Stecher L, Mander AP, Pereira DI, Powell JJ. Ferrous sulfate supplementation causes significant gastrointestinal side-effects in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One. 2015.
• Kowdley KV, Brown KE, Ahn J, Sundaram V. ACG clinical guideline: hereditary hemochromatosis. American Journal of Gastroenterology. 2019.
• Hasamoh Y, Thadanipon K, Juntongjin P. Association between vitamin D level and acne, and correlation with disease severity: a meta-analysis. Dermatology. 2022.
• Krämer C, Seltmann H, Seifert M, et al. Characterization of the vitamin D endocrine system in human sebocytes in vitro. Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. 2009.
• Forrest KY, Stuhldreher WL. Prevalence and correlates of vitamin D deficiency in US adults. Nutrition Research. 2011.
• Marcinowska-Suchowierska E, Kupisz-Urbańska M, Łukaszkiewicz J, Płudowski P, Jones G. Vitamin D toxicity: a clinical perspective. Frontiers in Endocrinology. 2018.

Lindsay's story reflects her own experience and her own words, shared with her permission. Reviews are individual experiences. Results vary: acne has different drivers in different people, and clear skin is not guaranteed. This article is for educational purposes and is not medical advice. Talk to your healthcare provider about testing and treatment.