Acne Magazine : Skin Care, Tips, Treatment Reviews

I just wanted to direct you to a new page here at AcneMagazine.com, I’ve added it because I thought it had some much needed information about unique, alternative ways to fight acne and maintain an overall glowing complexion, even if you don’t suffer from acne. 

These suggestions range from reflexology to yoga, so they’re not your typical “herbal” or natural acne treatments for acne suggestions, but rather a holistic, lifestyle approach to maintaing clear, clean skin from within, reducing the toxins your skin battles on a daily basis, and even ridding our skin of toxins that have been there forever. 

Our skin is the biggest organ on our body, or toxins that have built up over years and years of caffeine, sugars, chemicals and other unhealthy toxins in the form of food and environment that our bodies have taken in over the years we’ve been on this earth. 

Your skin protects all of your major organs, so isn’t it time you show your skin some respect from years of abuse, of being on the front line to defending your body and protecting it from the environment, and many times from yourself?  Read the new page : Alternative Acne Treatments.

Acne rosacea is a combination of acne, that skin condition we all know and love (of course I say this with sarcasm), and rosacea, which is a skin condition that makes the skin look red and irritated quite often, and many times is accompanied by dryness and flaking, as well as inflamed capillaries. It sometimes can even extend to the eyes themselves, and make the eyes appear red, dry and inflamed, this is called ocular rosacea.

I’ve been using Strivectin SD, the “miracle” wrinkle fixer, and was wondering if it would have any effect on acne scarring, since one of the reviews I read on Amazon about the product actually mentioned a lady who use the product on her entire face and was pleased to see that it minimized not only her wrinkles but her acne scarring from when she was a teen. 

The only thing that concerns me about using Strivectin SD for acne scarring is that if you are still prone to acne breakouts, the ingredients in Strivectin are not exactly “acne” or “clear pore” friendly since it contains numerous oils and has a heavy feel to it that’s almost greasy (although this does fade fairly quickly). 

The bottom line on Strivectin SD and acne scarring?  It’s really up in the air, the product has gotten lots of good feedback in the anti aging realm, but not a whole lot of feedback on acne scarring assistance, and no studies have been done, so it may have been simply the fact that the woman who reported this simply rubbed her scar areas so well that she inadvertently “smoothed them out” with this motion (yes, rubbing these areas with your moisturizer may actually help to even and smooth them out). 

Dermacleanse capsules are one of my favorite natural acne remedies right now.  Of course, it’s been over four years since I used them, but I loved what they did for my face and still consider them one of the best natural acne treatments on the market today. 

I stayed on the natural acne pills for about four months, and while my skin did get worse at first, as is common from what I understand on many herbal and even medical pills used to treat acne, my face cleared beautifully while using the entire Dermacleanse system, and I never had to use the capsules again. 

I’ve had the occasional breakout since then of course, but not nearly the severity of what they used to be.  I usually just use spot treatments now when I have problem areas.  I would recommend you take a look at them for sure.  I wouldn’t have them on here if they didn’t work (at least they worked well for me!). 

Here are the active ingredients in the Dermacleanse Capsules by Zenmed :

I was talking to the practitioner that is doing my lypossage treatments and she said that she also struggled with acne growing up, and had many visits to the dermatologist, but I have a feeling she switched to a natural doctor (no, I did not ask, but I do not see a traditional dermatologist diagnosing and prescribing this way). 

She said her doctor finally figured out why she was suffering acne, and well into adulthood.  She had an estrogen imbalance.  The prescription this doctor offered was curious, because I can honestly say I never heard of this one before.  He prescribed a progesterone cream to be applied topically and absorbed into the skin. 

And the real kicker is, it was not even applied to her face, but she said the directions require the progesterone cream to be applied on the inner thighs, as it absorbs and is better utilized by the body more efficiently in this particular location.  She said that the prescription kind is actually more potent and less expensive than the kind she used to get in one of the natural food stores around here. 

Progesterone is a type of estrogen that you may recognize as being in many birth control pills nowadays, but it is known for balancing the estrogen in the body if you happen to have an imbalance (only of a certain kind though, it must be diagnosed to figure out where the imbalance lie that is causing you skin breakouts).  This is a new one to me. 

It’s amazing once you start talking to all these other men and women about acne, and find out about the wide array of treatments that worked for them.  Just goes to show, everyone has different body physiology and responds favorably to different types of treatments.  It’s always intriguing, to say the least…

I am currently undergoing a series of treatments on my face and body called lypossage.  It’s a massage technique that’s administered by certified practitioners and massotherapists who are certified to do this specific technique.  Since I was doing my lower body, I figured what the heck and threw the face in their too, as mostly an anti aging thing. 

But then, I thought to ask my practitioner if it might be able to help with acne scarring also, since it is essentially lifting the sagginess of the skin, and many of my pock marks have gotten worse with age, because my skin has begun to sag, and the pock marks are more pronounced when that happens. 

She said that it doesn’t typically help with acne scarring, but the lifting action may help to make it less noticeable.  The lypossage facial method is one where you facial muscles are manipulated, and it gives kind of a natural “facelift” by manipulating various areas and lymph nodes on the face, and detoxifying the skin essentially.

I’m only on my second session, but I swear I see a difference in my scarring.  This could be a variety of factors though, because in conjunction with this therapy I have also cleaned my diet up, so who knows!  I have 16 more sessions left, so I’ll be sure to report back on if it helped with my acne scarring or not. 

What is Dermacia?  I wondered this after I had seen their advertisements several times on yahoo and other high placed websites.  At first I thought the Dermacia products were a line of acne treatment products, but upon further examination, I realized they were actually a unique makeup which covers acne blemishes and other skin imperfections very well, almost as if the person has flawless skin. 

Dermacia actually also comes with a cleanser and toner, but it is primarily advertised as a makeup (at least that’s what I personally gathered from their marketing angle). 

So needless to say I was intrigued, and went on their website to discover a little more about this product.  The Dermacia products show several fairly impressive before and after pictures of clients that use their makeup and go from blotchy, blemished complexions, to seemingly flawless complexions after application.

The whole thing with Dermacia, and how it sells itself is that it is the only foundation makeup that actually increases oxygen delivery to the skin and is a truly “breathable” foundation, unlike any other foundation of its time.  I have to admit, this sounds pretty good to me, so I kept reading…

It does not come with any herbal acne remedies or anything, like the Acnezine product for example is (it’s an herbal acne remedy).  Rather, it is a cleanser and toner, and then a foundation kit in various skin tone colorations, which contains two types of foundations in liquid or heavy liquid form (I can’t tell by the bottle, but it may be a thicker “cream” type substance). 

Presumably there is a trick to the application and the thicker consistency makes for better coverage.  You may want to check it out if you’re in the market for some new makeup and you have blemish prone skin, or heck even if you don’t it probably works well to camouflage discolorations and other imperfections.  If you have perfect skin, forget about it!  For Dermacia products at a better price and additional customer reviews of the products, see the Dermacia pic below folks…

Cystic acne is a very severe, and often even deforming type of acne, which becomes so inflamed and painful that it can often swell up to the point of deforming the section of the face or body that it has “taken over”.  Cystic Acne treatments often are more serious in nature because they are so severe and so powerful that they make for a very noticeable, embarrassing and often life-altering change in a person’s facial features. 

I had a good friend who suffered from terrible cystic acne when we were teens together.  She was so embarrassed about the severity of her acne that she would cake cover up and foundation over the acne bumps, unfortunately making them even more obvious.  They would eventually come to a head, and unfortunately would leave terrible red and infected looking scars. 

These were the days before istotretinoin (accutane) and all the great natural acne treatements and herbal acne supplements that seem to dominate the natural remedy market today.  She was forced to use terribly drying topical treatments which only seemed to further the aggravation and irritation of the topical acne and further inflame and swell the acne lesions on her face, turning her pretty face into literally acne upon acne. 

This is why cystic acne requires not only externally applied medications like retin-a, erythromycin and the other topical acne treaments that abound on the pharmaceutical market today and are prescribed by dermatologists and physicians only, but this type of acne is so stubborn that it also always needs to be treated internally. 

This means the person with cystic acne needs to take an internally swallowed pill or product which helps to balance the body from within, and correct the imbalances and issues that affect the skin from their source -inside the body and the physiological body processes that cause cystic acne to start.  This can be done either with a natural acne treatment or with a medical acne treatment.  It’s your choice. 

Evening primrose oil, or as it is otherwise known, EPO, is an all natural flower plant that is used for it’s qualities of soothing and healing, internally.  It is supposedly very useful for some skin conditions, including eczema which is a dry, scaly and flaky skin condition that is pretty tought to treat. 

Evening primrose oil has a substance in it called gamma linolenic acid, which is actually a natural compound which is currently an approved natural medicine for the treatment of eczema over in Britain right now.  It is suggested that you just take whatever the recommended dosage of these oil caps when you purchase them. 

There isn’t really too much on whether GLA, or gamma linolenic acid, is useful in treating actual acne, but my guess would be since it is supposed to be beneficial for treating irritating skin conditions like eczema and dermatitis, it will also be of help if you have acne scarred skin, or skin irritations related to acne, as it may help speed the healing and “calming” process up so you have less redness, irritation and overal dry skin.

Evening primrose oil is actually quite a common natural remedy that is “prescribed” to women that are going through change of life, as it is supposed to help counteract many of the side effects and symptoms of menopause in women.  I actually took this supplement for a little while and did not have a good reaction to it, but that’s just me. 

I actually think I may have had an allergy to it, as it made my skin break out in almost a rash like state, and it was unlike any acne I ever had, it was just more like a red rash on my face.  Like I said, that was just my experience though, and I do have some known allergies to things, so this is most likely the explanation.

A lot of acne sufferers (including myself at one time), wonder whether they should change up their routine at all in the winter time, when the dry heat of the indoors and the blustery cold of the outside tend to dry out the skin and make it flaky, red and irritated.I remember when I was in my early teens and started to really break out badly my philosophy, which was sorely wrong, was to just keep using extremely drying products, matte makeup and other no no’s that you probably shouldn’t even do in the summer months.