Acne Magazine : Skin Care, Tips, Treatment Reviews

I read about this new item, and although I have not purchased or tried it yet because I’m honestly a little skeptical of something that doubles as a concealer and a blemish healer, I wanted to give you an overview.  This item costs about nine bucks, so it’s pretty reasonable if it sounds like something you may want to try or you’re in the market for a new concealer and thought you might try something along these lines.  It’s called Physicians Formula Blemish Rx blemish healing concealer.  It comes in three different shades depending on what your skin tone is, so you should be able to match your own skin tone fairly closely.

Remember, that when using concealer, you should go just a tad lighter than your skin shade because usually the lighter shades help conceal blemishes and under eye circles better when they are put against your darker skin tone.  Just a rule of thumb, although everyone’s skin is different.  The formula contains something they coined as CliniClear, which is a formula of time released salicylic acid (bonus, you know this is my favorite acne treatment option over benzoyl peroxide), and botanicals.  That alone sounds good, since the botanicals should soothe and salicylic acid is a great acne fighter that you can buy over the counter fairly easily in several products. It’s also one of my favorite additions to cleansers and lotions.

Because the formula uses a time released salicylic acid, it says that it works on your blemish all day, and progressively makes it heal quicker throughout your day, saying that the results should be noticeable within a 24 hour time period.  Pretty tall order, but hey I’ll take it!  It is also supposed to help calm the skin, so it helps with the redness and inflammation surrounding the zit, which as we all know,  helps improve the appearance of the pimple immediately.

Physicians Formula Blemish Rx concealer is also noncomedogenic (gee, I would hope so!), and it is hypoallergenic, so it’s pretty safe for use on all skin types, even sensitive skin.  You can buy it online or at Walgreens, I’m not sure where else you can get it.  I think I’ve seen the Physicians formula line at Target and Wal-Mart as well possibly, so you may be able to find it there as well if you wanna give it a try, and please report back with your opinion if you do!

I just wanted to take the time to thank all of the people who post their stories, questions and comments on the posts here at AcneMagazine.  I also wanted to encourage you to do so as this is what I love most, generating a conversation amongst those of us who know acne best.  If acne has to be a part of our lives, then we should embrace that and then go about finding the ways to lessen it’s impact on our self esteem and the beauty of our skin as much as we can, and being a community is what helps us share those experiences, tips and suggestions.

Looking over some of the past postings that have gotten the most feedback, I’d have to say the two that stand out the most are the one about baking soda and acne.  Boy, I think I might have been wrong about baking soda not working as a nice little home made acne treatment, because there were a lot of comments from people who said the exact opposite, that it worked great for them.  If we can talk about how something that costs less than a dollar may make a great acne remedy, then that’s the kind of conversations I want to hear more!

Another posting that got tons of comments was one about the Bare Mineral makeup and how some people love it that have acne and some people hate it that have acne.  Although there were probably more negative comments on this one than positive, Bare Minerals still continues to be a hot selling makeup, but it does appear that some people who are acne prone may not react well.  I tried it and liked it, although I don’t use it any more in the winter because it does not provide enough coverage to my liking.

Over the years, we’ve gotten so many shared stories, and it just really helps people who are in need of good skin advice for their acne prone skin.  I read some of your suggestions and try them myself, so I’m sure it impacts other readers as well who try it.  Another example is my posting on Vicodin and acne.  A lot of people commented on this and said that they never put two and two together, but that they also broke out while on this for severe pain.  You just never know until you create an open dialogue if others are experiencing the same thing as you!

Hey, we have a new, sort of fun and off the cuff page for your viewing pleasure. I decided it would be fun to talk about celebrities who either have acne, or who have had acne.  Of course, most of them just had it in the past and may only now have it periodically since they do have the best skin care at their disposal for acne prevention and treatment, but many of them are open about their past struggles with this aggravating skin condition, and it’s interesting to see who now, with gorgeous skin, used to not have that nice skin.

I guess it kind of opens your eyes also to the fact that having acne when you are young doesn’t always sentence you to a life full of acne scarring and of always having to battle it out with your acne prone skin.  It shows that you can overcome acne and bring it to manageable levels.  Heck, you can even come to appreciate how having oily, acne prone skin can actually help to keep you looking younger for a longer time versus having papery, dry skin.  Sure, you never get acne if you’re skin’s on the dry side, but you also are going to have to add a lot of outward moisturizers ot it for moisture maintenance and age prevention.

Another thing you’ll notice when reading the celebrity acne page is that there are a ton more men than women who have obvious acne scars on their face now, but it just tends to be more overlooked I suppose.  I’m not sure what the reason for men’s skin keeping the scars more would be, especially considering the fact that men’s skin tends to be thicker than womens, which would lead me to think they would not be as likely to scar, but what do I know, I’m not a skin care professional.

Anyways, enjoy our new page.  Hopefully you’ll learn something.  Although I don’t know if I could classify this fluff as learning

There is a new drug that may be very useful in eliminating scarring that has occurred from surgery or from some other trauma to the body where a significant scar has been left.  The name of the drug is Avotermin and it is used by injecting it under the skin at the site of the scar.  It can work when it is injected before surgery subdermally (under the skin), or it can also work on existing scars, although there is no news on whether it could be used cosmetically for patients with acne scars to help them fade and diminish old acne scars.

Acne scars, as we all know, come in several varieties.  There are the icepick types of scars and other pitting that occurs and this looks basically like there are little scoops out of the skin.  These are just depressions on where skin should be, and they usually occur because we pick too much at a zit or pop it way before it should be popped, which creates more trauma in the area and subsequently creates a depression where the acne lesion used to be.

The results sound like so far they are nothing short of amazing, with post surgical scars being treated with the drug and the scars being almost completely unseen in about twelve months.  I’m not sure how it works, but I’d imagine it goes to work right at the site of the trauma and somehow prevents the cells from collecting there and causing redness or marking that is perceivable to the naked eye.

The drug was effective on keloid type raised scars in helping to reduce the raised look of the skin, as well as reducing redness.  Some people who participated had their scars literally almost disappear, and others had great effects but not that great.  I don’t think, reading about this, that it would be approved for something like acne, because it sounds like it is more of a surgical use, but who knows, it could create cosmetic spinoffs that dermatologists can use in office to help you treat your acne scars and get rid of them.  More to come on this I’m sure…..

This is a question that often comes up when people are asking about proper diet in the fight against acne, and it’s a very good one because acne has a lot more to do with acne than (unfortunately) many dermatologists would have you believe.  I can comfortably say that diet makes all the difference in the way my skin looks personally, and I have a feeling that this is true for almost everyone else as well. It’s like that old saying goes “you are what you eat”.  Well, your skin “is what you eat”, and reacts well or not so well to the foods that you put in your mouth and the nutrients that are subsequently absorbed by the body.

I can tell you what makes me break out, what makes my skin look dull and bloated and not colored so well, and what foods seem to really boost my skin’s overall radiance, resilience, and overall beauty and clarity.  For me, there’s no question that my diet has everything to do with how I appear on the outside.  Your diet an be your best friend or your worst enemy when it comes to beauty and your skin.

Here are some of the foods on my good food list, that I swear tend to make my skin more breakout resistent, and much more well toned looking, as well as more defined.  I have a much better clarity and color when I eat these foods in abundance :

Lemon juice in my water

Limiting Caffeine

Lots of omega 3 rich nuts, fish and olive oil.  I even put a little olive oil in my I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter spray butter, to add a little extra omega 3 power to it since I use this on my veggies with dinner because it has no fat.

Broccoli, spinach, kale, onions, green beans, almonds, salads with dark leafy greens, tomatoes, cucumbers

Lots of berries.  My favorites are blackberries and blueberries, loaded with nutrients, brimming with antioxidants.

Low fat or fat free dairy, but not too much.  I love a good light yogurt and maybe some fat free cheese, and while I think high fat dairy is bad for the skin, I believe low fat dairy is fine.

Bad foods for acne and skin :

Sugar or anything with a lot of sugar in it.

Lots of refined carbs such as chips, pretzels, sugarys sodas and drinks

Alcohol

Coffee and caffeinated beverages.

Fatty meats.

Fatty dairy.

Too much mixing of food groups during meals.  I believe this causes a lot of acidity in the system, which lead to inflammation.  An example of bad food combining would be pizza with the works.  You’re combining meats, cheese, bread, and veggies.  A good example of good food combining is chicken breast with broccoli and a salad.

I figured I’d try a pHisoderm product for my skin since I literally have not used this brand since I was a teenager. I remember thinking their products were halfway decent, but I always preferred wither Purpose soap or Neutrogena, because they made me feel like I was getting my skin cleaner when I was younger. Yes, for some reason, I felt like my skin had to feel squeaky clean, which is not really a good thing, it usually means you dried your skin too much.

I remember thinking that if I used a rich cream cleanser I wasn’t really cleaning my face, which explained why a lot of the things I did for my skincare routine really weren’t working in my favor to decrease the amount of acne breakouts I had. Now that I’m older, I’ve found that a lot of the products I used as a teen, when I had acne the worst, are way too drying and irritating for my skin today, and I can’t help but wonder if they were also the wrong choices for my age back then since my skin seemed to frequently dry out and crack, especially around my blemishes, which probably meant I was drying it out too much.

I ordere pHisoderm online, for a good price, they were not even $4 for a pump bottle of the cleanser. pHisoderm products are supposed to be gentle and help support a healthy skin pH, which is why they’re named the way they are of course. I have to say, I’m pleased with the pHisoderm anti blemish face wash, which is in a small green pump container, so far. It feels at first like it might dry your skin out because it is scented with a heavy medical scent.

While I’m not that crazy about the scent of the product, the outcome is great. Your skin is refreshed and clean, and yet it’s not dry or tight when you’re done washing and gently towel drying. The anti blemish face wash is a clear gel, which is what I prefer if I’m going to use a liquid cleanser, since I feel like they do a bit better of a job of getting down in the pores and getting the dirt and old makeup off your face.

I also feel like the salicylic acid in the product really helps keep pimples big and small at bay since I haven’t had a breakout since I started using it. I’ve talked many times about how I like salicylic acid as an acne treatment additive much more than benzoyl peroxide because I personally feel it is less irritating and drying and also provides a nice side benefit of sloughing off old skin cells, which are a part of the cause of acne vulgaris.

We’ve talked here several times about how diet pills, one of them being the very popular diet pill Hydroxycut (the one that is not caffeine free), being bad for the skin.  Unfortunately, if your skin is acne prone, there is a good chance that highly caffeinated or high stimulant content diet pills will aggravate your acne and trigger breakouts on any part of the body that is acne prone.

I’ve had many experiences myself with diet pills messing my skin up for a few days, and it took me a while to figure out that the common thread was that they all had a high amount of caffeine or some other comparable stimulant in them.  Guarana is another one that really made my skin flare up like no one’s business also.  Hydroxycut has been a best selling over the counter diet aid now for years.  I know a lot of people who have tried it over the years, so that’s a true sign that something is popular.

However, Hydroxycut has just been pulled from the shelves due to safety concerns and a recommendation from the FDA.  It is not clear if it is every Hydroxycut formula that has been pulled or not, but I do know you can get a refund if you have a receipt and had recently purchased a bottle by bringing it back to the store you purchased it from.  The company that makes the diet aid issued a statement that while they believe the number of incidents is very low compared to the amount of people who have used this diet pill, they are pulling it from the shelves as a precaution since consumer safety is above all importance to them.

Very good move I must say, that scores them a lot of brownie points in my mind, especially since this must be a huge moneymaker for them (I couldn’t help but wonder, now is the parent company going to go under in fact).  The problems that prompted the pull were related to liver damage and liver problems.  Although it is not clear what ingredient in the product is the cause, one person speculated that it may be an acid that originates from a tropical plant that is in this and other diet products, but there is nothing conclusive yet.

Also, a teenager died in what they believe was a Hydroxycut related death about two years ago, so that also was reported as suspiciously linked to the diet supplement.  If you have acne and you really want to try something that will suppress your appetite without the stimulants, try something like 5htp or hoodia gordonii, as these are natural and do not have any sort of stimulants in them, but rather help naturally lower the appetite levels.

I swear, sometimes when you have acne prone, super oily skin, as I have pretty much my whole life (I’m now 34 years old), you just can’t catch a break sometimes.  You’re told that you absolutely must wear sunblock because you don’t want to burn your skin.  Sun burned skin means that your oil glands go into overproduction and begin cranking out sebum (oil) through the pores, increasing your chances of breaking out with acne as a sort of protective mechanism, so you have to wear sunscreen.  Of course there is the ever present fact that wearing sunscreen, especially on your face, is just a prudent choice because of sun damage and cancer risk.

Your face is right out there in the sun, it is the first place the sun hits on your body, which is why it is also the most prone to getting scorched by the sun’s rays the worst of all.  I remember some of the doozies of sunburns I got when I was younger and it makes me cringe to think of how much long term damage I probably did to the skin on my face, which is why I try to mitigate that damage as much as I can by using home microdermabrasion systems as well as home chemical peels, to make sure I’m renewing those old dead skin cells as often as possible and peeling away old sun damaged skin.

I’ve noticed, for me anyways, that whenever I put sunblock on my face, and no matter what kind it is, it seems, if I’m exposed for long periods of time and have to keep reapplying the block to my face, I end up having a minor breakout the next day and sometimes for a few days afterward.  I think, like I said, it’s because I have to reapply and put more over the old stuff, and this just irritates my already sensitive skin even more.

This got me interested in something I heard about from a disc jockey on the radio who was talking about loading up on the sunblock because we just had a really nice streak of weather here in northeast Ohio.  It’s a spray on sunblock.  I’m not sure how or if it really works that well, I’ll have to read some reviews online before I make the purchase, but I thought it would be a great concept if it did work, because it would almost certainly be a lighter, easier to apply formula that the goopier, more pore clogging formulas that you rub on.  I’m gonna keep trying to find a sunblock that doesn’t cause breakouts, even after multiple applications.

I got a common question from a reader, and wanted to share it with all of you.

Question :

Hello,
How to bring a zit to the surface?
Before I go ahead, is there any pointers you might have?
Please help me.
Thankyou.
Gratefully,

XXXXXX

Answer :

Hello XXXXX.  This is a common question, and one that is not easily answered, since this technique may work on some zits but not others, to bring them closer to the surface of the skin so that they may be easily (and safely) extracted, without much chance of a large scar forming as either a pitted or red acne scar, which is something that we all obviously want to avoid happening when we are coming to the last few days of a zit being on our face.

Lord knows there were many times I popped a zit way too early in my teen years, just because I thought that it would help me get rid of the postule earlier, but of course it never did, it usually drew it out longer, and made it red and irritated and more noticeable than ever.

What you can try is to use a warm compress, and make it pretty warm, not just lukwarm, it should border on hot, but you definitely do not want it to be uncomfortable to the touch, or you’re irritating the skin more than necessary and perhaps doing more harm than good to your precious skin.  I like to use a wash cloth for my compress.  I wet it thoroughly under very warm water, and then I appy gentle pressure to the immediate area where the zit is.

This supposedly helps to draw a zit to the surface faster so that you don’t have one of those painful, under the surface bumps for so long.  Typically, a zit that is ready to extract has a white head on it, and it does not hurt as much as when it’s under the surface.  The more it hurts, the more you know it’s not ready to “pop” it, because the thing that’s causing the pain is the pressure, and the more pressure their is, the more likely you are going to end up with a scar from popping the zit before it’s ready.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

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There is no doubt that this down economy is causing a lot of people, men and women alike, stress, heartache and frustration.  It’s sad when I tune into the news and find out that a family has died because of their financial problems, which seems to be a more and more common news story these days.  I think that I’ve read about two in just the past two weeks alone, where a father is so stressed out after losing a job, or not being able to sell a home, and is in desperate financial straits and ends up killing himself and his family.  I mean, obviously this is the worst of the worst news, but it nonetheless is a sign of the times when these stories become more and more plentiful in the mainstream media.

Another common theme I’ve been reading about is how this down economy and increased jobless rate may be affecting our waistlines.  I know for us, we have actually cut back on bad foods and now rely almost solely on things like brown rice and beans and cheap but healthy staples instead of going out to eat and getting fattening, salty and sugary foods, which by the way are also awful for acne, so it’s benefitted us as a couple.  However, many people are turning to cheaper, processed foods in an effort to save money, and some are turning to those venerable dollar menus which offer cheap meals, and this may add up to increasing waistlines for Americans – just what we need, right?

Of course, anything that affects the diet also affects the skin.  Think of your skin as an organ (which it is by the way).  Just as the way you eat and the level of exercise you get affects your waistline, it also affects your skin.  Eating badly, especially processed, fatty or sugary foods that are cheap replacements for healthy, whole, organic foods, will definitely have a large impact on your skin.  Just try eating a lot of sugar and salt for one week, you will see a noticeable worsening of your skin tone, your acne if you have acne, and the overall glow of your skin.

So, this downturn is most definitely affecting some people’s skin, especially those that have been directly affected by the downturn, such as losing a job or not being able to sell an expensive home, paying double mortgages and the like.  What you can do to minimize the affect of this economy on your skin’s appearance and health is to make sure you eat right, and get even more exercise than you did before, this helps relieve stress and takes away the domino effect of stress on the skin.  Try taking a look at a good acne skin vitamin that can help minimize the effects of stress and free radical damage on the skin as well.