Acne Magazine : Skin Care, Tips, Treatment Reviews

Isn’t it kind of weird to think that if the bacteria that normally lands on our skin on a daily basis, just from exposure to the elements alone, were to escape off the surface of our skin like it normally should if we didn’t have over active sebaceous glands that trapped it in oil that is on the surface of the skin, we wouldn’t have to worry about acne? That’s why acne and oily skin go hand in hand, one wouldn’t exist without the other, and vice versa. So, you have to attack acne one of two ways, or both together.

You have to either treat the underlying problem, if you would, which is the overproduction of oil on the surface of the skin by the oil glands, which is done by drugs such as accutane. You can also get hormone controlling natural supplements for acne, like Zenmed caplets which work wonders for me personally when I’m having a flare up, which help to control the production of sebum, which comes from the sebaceous glands. You can also attack the bacteria on the surface of the skin, so there is not any bacteria that escapes to the depths of your skin.

This type of approach is achieved with topical cleansers and gels that kill bacteria, but it can also be achieved by topical treatments such as blue light therapy, which helps to control surface bacteria.

Or you can take a two pronged approach, which is probably the best way, and attack acne two fold by addressing the bacterial problem by using only high quality products that are also gentle on the top of your skin (cleansers, gels, creams, lotions, etc.), and you can also use something internal like a natural supplement for acne control or a dermatologist prescribed medication, although I personally warn people away from antibiotics because of their potential long term effects on your body and your probiotics in your intestines.

For women, there has also been a suggested potential link between long term antibiotic use and breast cancer, and I personally believe there are better ways to internally treat acne anyways. Diet is important, yes, but there are also ways that you can help regulate your hormones through supplementation and lifestyle.

Well, I’ve really screwed up my skin in one spot on my chin, and just weeks before I’m getting married, no less! Of course, this is just my luck, but I’m hoping that it’s going to be fixed by then by applying a host of intensive moisturizers and natural healers for the next several days. Here’s what I did, the genius that I am. I had a pretty bad acne lesion about 3 weeks ago. It popped up thanks to stress about the wedding and a host of other issues that were causing me stress that I couldn’t seem to contain like I normally can now.

This large acne lesion not only was a sore sight on my face for a few days, but after it popped, it was a bright red spot that was very difficult to cover with any sort of cover up or concealer stick that I have, including my great technique of stippling it with a high coverage foundation that usually works. Like I said, this all transpired a few weeks ago, so I was actually left with a red spot that wouldn’t go away. Well, I figured, I’d give myself an acne scar treatment that usually works, every weekend until one week before the wedding.

Needless to say, I got too overzealous. I ended up scrubbing the you know what out of just that one spot. Well, I ended up literally rubbing the skin off, and then I combined that with my peel and now I have a blotch about the size of a dime on my chin where a tiny red scar used to be, so now it looks a world worse because I was so determined to get rid of it.

First off, I used way too much elbow grease, and second, I shouldn’t have then added the peel solution to it after I felt it burning, that should have been a sign to stop, but noooo, I thought I would be little miss smarty pants and outsmart my acne scar. Well, now I have a scaly, rubbed raw, red blotch on my face that hurt, and it feels like every time I smile, it’s going to crack, no matter how much I moisturize it.

It’s basically like a giant cold sore. It’s already peeling off in sheets, which is in turn making it look more red and raw. Arghhh! If only this could have happened even weeks ago, I would have assuredly gotten rid of it by the time we get married, which is 11/7, but now I’m not so sure. I’ll keep you posted on what works, just in case any of you inadvertently make this dunderhead mistake like I did

If you have had acne for a good part of your life, or you have suffered with the skin condition on and off since your teens, like myself, then you know how much of a Godsend a good concealer can be, and a great foundation for that matter too. A good concealer can really camouflage the redness, bumps, scabs and scars that are leftover from when an acne lesion goes away, or even when it’s still there, so that you don’t have a giant shiner standing out for all to see.

There’s definitely an art to applying it correctly, but once you learn that, you know how important the product itself that you choose is extremely important in the results you get in covering up your blemishes as well. I’m going to tell you why I think these duo cream concealers are really a good idea to have around. First off, they are great because our skin tone is usually not exactly the same all the time.

You usually will see a bit of a change in your facial skin tone from the winter time until the spring and summer time, especially if you get sun exposure on your face, which most of us do to some point, even if we religiously apply the sun screen every day. This can cause subtle or extreme changes in the tone of our complexion from season to season, and having a lighter and a darker shade of cream concealer really helps to bridge that gap.

Not only that, you can even blend the two together for a “custom” shade if your skin happens to be between skin tones at times. Shoot, I can tell you honestly, that even during those winter months where my skin literally doesn’t see a lick of sunshine, my skin can still vary subtly in shade from day to day, so having two different tones to work with is really great.

Especially since it looks so much more natural when it is more closely matched to your real skin tone. That makes all the difference in how well it camouflages your blemishes and other imperfections. A little tip though, if you must do anything, go a shade lighter with concealers, as darker is almost never a good idea and will actually make blemishes and imperfections stand out MORE than they usually do if you’re not careful.

I love the cream, thicker concealers, because I believe they are superior to the liquid ones, which I’ve always found offer inferior coverage and longevity to the cream types. I think everyone, not just acne sufferers, but especially acne prone skin should have these duo concealer kits.

Ahhh, sometimes I love these rare days when I can pamper my skin a little bit in this hectic world and hectic life we sometimes find ourselves muddling through without time for ourselves. I always have a lighter peel around that I like to use once in a while when my skin starts to look a bit dull and I’m not really using self tanner on my face since the rest of my body is pretty pale, and it just matches my neck better. Let’s face it, we all look a little better with some color, which is ironic because it’s really not “healthy” for your skin to have a tan.

The peel I keep around that is pretty mild is not the glycolic and lactic acid peel that I’ve spoken of before, which is actually a fairly deep facial peel, but rather this one is a green apple peel which is formulate with natural fruit acids. I’ve had it for a while now, as a little goes a long way, and the lid seals super tight on it, so it keeps for a while.

This peel is mild enough for me to do a little do-it-yourself microdermabrasion first, and then apply the liquid peel, without totally drying out my skin and making it too red and chafed looking. It does feel a bit tight afterwards, but after I slather on a ton of moisturizer, it has a nice glow to it and feels as smooth as a baby’s bottom. It truly does feel like my skin has been pampered when I’m done, and the results are fully visible within about 2-3 days after the peel.

I only leave on the peel for about 15 minutes, because I would normally leave it on longer if I was just doing the peel without any prior abrasion to the skin (the microderm), but since the skin is more bare and exposed after I perform the home microderm, I don’t want to over irritate it or rub it raw. The brand of peel I use is alternately the one by Zenmed, and then the one by Juicy organics (green apple). They are both mild enough to not cause severe irritation, and they are all natural, so you’re not putting additional irritating chemicals on your face.

I use a combination glycolic and lactic acid peel once every few weeks on my skin. It had been a while since I had done my initial 5 treatments five weeks back to back, so I figured my skin needed a little freshening. By the way, I would never recommend doing these fairly serious peels when you have large, open acne wounds on your face,as they will burn like a you know what, so make sure your face is relatively free of any large acne sores before you do any sort of peel.

I had a few little minor – very minor acne lesions on my face (I told you I’d been breaking out lately thanks to mega stress) when I did the peel last weekend. I noticed that the peel really BURNED a lot more than it usually does this time, and I chalked that up the fact that I hadn’t done it in a while. These peels are not mild, they are very serious, so you can only keep them on your face for a few minutes at most. They are uncomfortable almost from the outset, creating a tingling and burning sensation instantly, so it can be a challenge to keep it on even for a few minutes.

Your skin looks bad when you first do it, but you do notice an improvement a few days later in the clarity and tone. This time, I noticed that the peel seemed to literally “melt” some of my zits so that I was left with a tiny little speck of scab on my face, so I’m thinking I may have left it on too long this time. That, and the fact that my face was beet red when I was done and still significantly burned afterward sort of tipped me off to that fact.

If you’re looking to do a peel in your own home, you can ones that are almost identical to the ones you get in a professional’s office, you just have to use extreme caution and due care in how long you leave it on for. If you have sensitive skin, instead of going with glycolic acid, which is probably the most harsh and deeper penetrating option, you should go with something like lactic acid only or salicylic acid only to make sure you don’t inflame or irritate the skin too much. These peels are great for keeping clear pores and ensuring your skin cells turn over, for fresh, radiant skin allover your face.

I mentioned last time that I has been to my dermatologist to get my twice annual checkup for basal cell carcinomas (a cancerous growth that is not generally invasive, but it’s a good idea to get it removed), and she had noticed that my face happened to be breaking out.

I told her that I usually break out when under stress, but that I was going to begin taking a supplement which usually worked for me to clear my skin up – Dermacleanse.

By the way, it’s already clearing me up after about one week of use, more on that later, but she had told me that if I happened to continue to break out and get one of those large lesions that seems to have a life of its own and almost always results in a scar since it goes so deep and usually causes damage to the skin’s layers when it does finally pop, to come in and see her.

She said that she could give me an injection to make the zit go away within a matter of days. The injections she’s talking about is called a corticosteroid (interlesional, which just means that it’s going to be injected into the lesion to break it up). What it does it is actually breaks up the white blood cells and all the other junk and bacteria in there that are causing all the unsightly inflammation, and it basically “melts” it away within a period of 3-5 days.

That’s much better than the sometimes weeks it takes for a lesion like that to go away on it’s own, and it also saves your skin an almost certain scar, so it’s important to get these taken care of if you possibly can. Usually most dermatologists can get you in fairly fast for this service since it’s literally the push of a needle.

I haven’t gotten this done yet but have always been intensely curious about how it works, and I probably will go get one if I happen to break out in hideous large postules or one giant one before my wedding, which is coming up in one month.

I know myself, and I know that when I’m under a lot of stress or feel responsible for the fun of many people, I usually exhibit that fear and anxiety in my face, so we’ll see. I’m on Dermacleanse now, and that will definitely help me through the stress and the inevitable hormone fluctuations, since I’ve found it helps to balance the hormones.

Today’s discussion isn’t really so much about acne, per se, but more so it’s about protecting your skin from getting skin cancer, as I’ve just been to the dermatologist a week ago to get my bi-yearly checkup since I have melanoma skin cancer in my family (my grandfather on my dad’s side actually died from a melanoma skin cancer), and also since I’ve had a few basal cell carcinomas taken off already myself, no doubt due to my sunbathing habits years ago and poor sunscreen choices for my face, even when I wasn’t being directly exposed to the sunlight.

Now I know better, and I wear sunscreen every single day on my face, and not just the sunscreen that already comes included in my foundation and my glow lotion I use, but I also apply a 15 spf sunscreen on my face prior to even putting the foundation on, so I’m actually double protected. Since I’ve started doing that, I haven’t gotten any additional basal cell carcinonmas on my face, which is where all but one appeared.

The other appeared in between my breasts, probably because that skin was exposed to the sun when I was younger and would lay out with a triangle top bikini on and it would burn that particular area quite often. While skin cancer is definitely caused by a variety of reasons, including your genetic makeup and tendencies, it is definitely aggravated by exposure to damaging UV rays, which alter the cell’s genetic makeup and can make them spawn cancerous cell division, so sun exposure is a known factor, although it’s important to note that melanomas and basal cell carcinomas are also discovered in other areas where there is no sun exposure at all.

For example by dermatologist informed me that she has removed skin cancers from a woman’s and a man’s genitals before, and you know those areas typically do not get any sunlight. It’s important to know your genetic risks as well so that you can gauge what your likelihood is and modify your behavior accordingly. However, using sunscreen should never be overlooked, no matter what your skin tone is.

Not only will sun exposure accelerate aging signs, but it can mean the difference between life and death for you.

Well, I’m at an ultra stressful juncture of my life, planning a wedding with very little time to do so to my boyfriend of seven and a half years, and my skin is definitely showing the stress in the way of new acne lesions, as it always does and always has for the past twenty or so years. But I know something that always works for me in that arena, and since I have a little over one month until we get married in Las Vegas, I can use the Dermacleanse capsules to ensure that my skin is pristine once again in time for our nuptials.

After all, a girl dreams about her wedding day for a long time, and she definitely doesn’t want to be all broken out, red and patchy for her special day and not to mention for all those photographs that will live on in infamy for years and years in the family photo albums. I know you’re thinking jeez, this is just a Vegas wedding, but we booked a full on chapel with flowers, and photography and the whole shbang, with a lot of people in attendance who are flying out there to witness our marriage, so I really want to put my best face forward, so to speak.

I will be sure to report my results with the acne cleansing supplement Dermacleanse by Zenmed as soon as I’ve been using it for at least a week, so be sure to check back and look for my results using this great supplement for the third time. Coming from someone who’s tried everything for their acne, it’s really a compliment that I would use this product for a third time, trust me!

I was at the Aveda salon where I always go to get my hair cut and highlighted today when I overheard the chatterbox customer behind me talking about how much she loved Aveda skin care products, and she was specifically talking about a product that Aveda makes for acne prone skin.

The Aveda acne product line is called Outer Peace, which is aptly named since acne is a combination of inner and outer stress on the skin, and requires hormonal balance to be clear again, which is part of what is achieved by taking internal medications or supplements like ZenMed’s to help balance the hormones, but also requires using natural, gentle products on the outside as well so as not to aggravate the skin and cause further flareups and redness.

The Outer Peace line has a few products that I’ve read about for acne, most of which have been reviewed favorably, but in my opinion are fairly pricey for the amount of product you get. Aveda hair care products are somewhat pricey, but they last forever, whereas a face wash or cream acne treatment isnt’ going to last you as long. You may need to have a bit more of a disposable income to enjoy the full line of products unfortunately, but sometimes paying extra is more than worth it for clear, calm skin.

If you’ve had any experience with this Aveda line of acne skin care products, please comment here and we’d love to hear your stories. I’d also love to try it for myself, which I probably will as I’m a huge fan of their other products.

Since there were so many comments on my baking soda for acne post, I figured I’d follow up on it and say that I think I may have jumped a rush judgment, or at least I think I may have left it on my skin to long, which resulted in the red, irritated mess of a patch of skin that I ended up with after trying it. So many others have said that using baking soda here and there as an occasional acne clearing remedy has really worked for them, that I wanted to get more comments from readers who have tried it and loved it or tried it and found that it really just didn’t work for them.

There is also another staple that everyone usually has around their house that can also come in handy as part of your natural skincare routine, and that is sugar. My best friend since high school has used a sugar scrub on her face now for years, and her skin looks great. She uses sugar simply to exfoliate her skin since it’s granular in nature, and it’s not irritating or drying like table salt or other granular substances would be to the skin, and she loves it. Not to mention, the roughly twenty cent price tag on a good scrub down with table sugar is definitely appealing as well.

Baking soda is supposed to work well on acne lesions and also to help exfoliate and de-bacterialize the immediate area. It acts as sort of an antibacterial agent because of it’s ability to kill small organisms due to it’s volatile properties, and yet it is natural, so it is gentle on the skin as long as it’s not left on the skin for too long (as what I probably did). It can also be used as a paste to put over one single zit, but not a zit that has been popped already since this may just cause additional irritation.

Some people say that baking soda actually helps redness go away, but that was not my personal experience. Baking soda is definitely worth a try though, especially since you have so little to use by putting it on your face since it’s so cheap.