Acne Magazine : Skin Care, Tips, Treatment Reviews

From AcneMagazine, we want to wish you a wonderful, safe and happy New Year. Whatever you’re doing tonight, be safe, and have fun. Whether you think those two are an oxymoron or not, we just want our readers to be safe and have a wonderful time this holiday season. I hope that this New Year will bring us lots to talk about in the world of acne and skin care. Who knows what new treatments will be developed in 2010.

There could be numerous effective remedies, treatments and dermatological advances in 2010, you just never know when that new breakthrough will come along, whether as an alternative acne treatment, or more conventional, but we will have our eyes peeled as usual to share this cutting edge information as soon as we have it, and will scour the news and other media outlets and word of mouth to bring you the latest and greatest in skin care for those with skin care issues.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I have reported to you my one-time experience with Retin-A, when I was only about 14 years old and struggling with pretty serious acne on my face. I had it the worst on my chin, which would erupt in painful, under the skin, explosive zits several times a week. It seems my hormones were totally out of control, and it seemed that nothing would work to clear my skin up consistently.

One of the products I was given to try which did not work for me was Retin-A. Let me explain though, as I’ve done more research recently and I have decided that Retin-A is really a good thing, I just think that my dermatologist at the time first of all gave me way too high a dosage of it, and they also prescribed it to me in a harsh gel form instead of as a cream, which I think may have helped me with the dryness that it caused.

Retin-A is used not only for acne and acne scarring today, but it is also used as an anti aging product. The reason is that it is a retinoid, which speeds the turnover of your topical skin cells, thereby helping to prevent acne from forming because it helps keep the pores clear, and also helping to shed the older skin layers to reveal fresh new ones, and help prevent and minimize the appearance of lines and wrinkles (it’s anti aging purpose, which is it still very popularly prescribed for).

When I was using this product, I not only was using this, which is a drying product if not used properly, but I was also using several very harsh, very drying products on my skin, thinking these were going to help my acne clear up. So I would use a harsh cleaner, and I would keep it lathered on my face way too long, then I would use an astringent, then I would apply the Retin-A.

All this while, I didn’t even think to use a moisturizer! In my youth, I was definitely ignorant of how to care for my skin, so the Retin-A just magnified the dryness and I ended up with flaking, dried, scabbed over skin that looked just awful and was very painful. Knowing what I know now, I think Retin-A is actually an excellent product when used correctly. I’ve read too many people that have had great experiences with it minimizing the pores and helping to keep acne at bay. I’m going to shortly add Retin-A overview page that gives you more information about this product!

I just wanted to take the time to say to all you readers out there, Merry Christmas! I say this, of course, presuming that you celebrate Christmas, because that is the holiday I celebrate. I don’t want to leave anyone out though, so I wanted to wish everyone a warm, happy, holiday season which I hope brings you all good luck for the new upcoming year, and great promise for a bright future. Everyone, enjoy being with your loved ones today, and let’s all be thankful for what we have, because there are still a lot of folks out there having a hard time in this trying economy.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays. Until next time, cheers to good skin, good times and great family and friends.

It seems like we all tend to have the same problem areas not only when it comes to more acne prone areas of the face, but also when it comes to the areas of the face that seem to be the most prone to drying out on most people. Especially women, it seems. It’s ironic too, because this actual part of your face – your nose, the appendage that sticks out the farthest on your face, is one of the more acne prone areas as well. We all know too well that those pesky blackheads are always apt to pop up on the bridge of your nose, and they’re hard to get rid of.

Why, then, is the dryest part of the face, on the sides of the nose? I’ve always wondered that. It seems like the more sun damaged your facial skin is, the more problems you have with this area of your face as well.

I thought initially that it might be because I wasn’t getting proper amounts of moisturizer on this tricky, hidden area, but even when I consciously made sure I was putting a ton of moisturizer in this area, it still tended toward dryness and flaking, and also toward redness, which was maddening to try to get rid of.

It’s important to always attempt to exfoliate this area of the face when it is wet and the dry, flaking skin that tend to accumulate there is swept away. This is really the reason that you notice the dryness more there – its’ a crevace where all of the dead, dry flakes can accumulate, but if you make sure you are getting rid of those flakes on a nightly basis when you wash them away either with a manual exfoliator, or with your hand, then it will be much less noticeable.

Heck, even the woman who helped me pick out a facial cleanser the other day at the store noticed that my skin was red around my nose. Although, let me add, I went to the store with not a trace of makeup on. I guess that makes me feel a little better about that comment, however, it always still stings a bit when someone critiques your facial skin!

I was shopping in a newer Giant Eagle store by us, a huge one that offers not only groceries, but also a wide range of natural and organic beauty products, cleansers, toners, acne products, anti aging creams, and more. Basically, it’s a product junkies heaven, and yes I happen to love this store because not only can I go grocery shopping, but I can also by some top notch skin care products while I’m there too. Oh, and they have this program, for those of you that don’t like in the Northeastern Ohio area and might not be familiar with this chain, called Fuel Perks. for every fifty bucks you spend there, you get ten cents off every gallon of gas you purchase at their fuel pumps.

Great deal, obviously, so it’s pretty cool that I can buy cosmetics and skin care products there and also get points toward filling up my small SUV (it’s just a Honda CRV, hardly a gas guzzler, but still). Anyways, a very zealous sales woman helped me out this time. Let me be honest. While I appreciate people trying to help, when I browse for cosmetics or beauty or skin care related products, I really like to be left alone.

For me, it’s an enjoyment to go through the process of reading the backs of the packages and seeing what they have in them, comparing prices and generally just kind of seeing what different lines have to offer. Besides, it’s my job to review different skin care products all the time, so it’s always fun to pick out the newest products with the latest “grail” skin care ingredients in them.

So I was none too pleased when she stopped me, but I went along with it because she offered me a $3 coupon off any purchase of ten bucks or more, which I thought was a pretty good deal. Between several different skin care lines, I ended up choosing the JASON vitamin C esther face wash. It costs $10.95, but with the coupon I paid about $7.95 for it, so it was a pretty good deal. It’s a vitamin C based cleanser, I have not used it yet, but I’ll let you know how it works when I’ve used it a few times.

We’ve FINALLY created a page where we’ve asked you, the readers and fellow skin care enthusiasts, to share your own experiences with product ranging from medical acne treatments and acne scarring treatments to at home cleansers, creams, makeup, toner, microdermabrasion and peel treatments, masks, serums, and you name it. Basically, any experiences you’ve had with your own products at home, the dermatologist’s office, or your local spa, please share them with us.

We feel passionately that the web was created to open dialogue about these things so that we could all share information that will help us make decisions about our skin that are more well informed. The new page is right here – submit your own product reviews, and we hope that you will all take advantage of it. Have a product that was awful for you and want to vent? Share it. Have a problem that worked wonders for your skin and made you feel like a prince or princess? Share it. Do you have a recommendation for certain types of skin? Share it!

We want to hear from you, please take the time to write us and let us know about your experiences. Thanks!

I recently purchased Clean & Clear (by Johnson and Johnson, I haven’t tried one of their Clean & Clear products in ages, so I figured why not), Advantage 3-in-1 Foaming Acne Wash to try out. As you probably know if you read this blog frequently, I purchase quite a few different acne face washes every time I run out, simply so I can try them out and report them back to you.

What I saw on the front packaging for this product sold me instantly. It has my favorite over the counter acne wash additive, salicylic acid, so I was sold when I saw that. I love that salicylic acid not only helps to clear away debris to keep your face clear, but it also has an anti drying effect because it helps to slough away dead skin cells that make the skin appear dull and dry.

Ok, ok, I have to admit, I also love to buy new products! I love the new smells, the new feel of a slippery wash for the first time, the way that a new product makes my face feel, whether it’s positive or negative, and the packaging.

I’m a sucker for scents though, as you may already know, and I hate anything that is strongly chemically perfumed. Natural scents are good, I think that strong scents that indicate a lot of chemicals are not good, as they make me think they added quite a few chemical cocktails to get them to smell that way. That’s just me though. And I notice that the older I get, the more sensitive my sniffer gets to any offensive or too-strong odors, so I’m also gettin’ old!

I bring this up because the first thing that hit me, quite literally, about this Clean & Clear face wash was the smell. It was very heavily perfumed with a somewhat flowery smell. That I did not like right away, however, please keep reading because I have more to say. I liked the way my face felt after using this face wash. It did not feel too dry or tight, and yet it felt totally cleansed. It really washed away my makeup, including my mascara and eyeliner well too.

You have to use a little more of this product than some other face washes to get it to suds up enough to cleanse, but I’m ok with that since that actually indicates it doesn’t have too many irritating surfactants like sodium laurel sulfate in it. Of course, it still contains them because it’s not an all natural facial cleanser (which is my preferred status quo), but it’s nice to know it doesn’t have so much that it’s going to instantly strip your skin of all oil and protection and moisture in a matter of seconds.

This product only cost me about five bucks at Target. A great deal, especially since it’s in a fairly generous 8 oz. bottle, so it should last a few weeks since I only use it once a day. By the way, that’s my routine, I usually use one product in the morning and one at night, usually a gentler product in the morning since I’ve already cleansed the previous day’s dirt, grime and makeup the previous night with a more serious cleanser.

Ok, I promised you guys (and girls) a follow up after I’d used the Grandpa’s Wonder Pine Tar Soap for more than a few washings. Here is how I’ve been using this soap, which I actually think is a pretty good deal and may help some people clear their skin because of it’s very astringent-like quality. I only use it once a day. Specifically, I use the pine tar soap in the shower at night when I wash my face, and I still use a more gentle face wash in the morning before I go to work/get started with my day.

My reasons for doing this is that I do think this soap, because it is so astringent and you can feel it stripping oil and grit right off your face for a squeaky clean feeling, could dry your face out should you use it twice a day all the time. Now, if it were a really hot day or my face was going through an extremely oily phase for whatever reason, I would probably consider using it twice a day, however, it’s the beginning of winter here in Ohio, and that wouldn’t be such a great idea combined with the dry air and cold winds blowing on my face.

I really like the way my face feels when I wash it with this, however, the smell is nauseating. I think I mentioned it before, I don’t know how I could NOT mention it as it is one of the most pungent smells in a toiletry/beauty product I’ve ever laid my sniffer on. It smells like a combination of a campfire (more like a dirty blanket left out by a campfire), and burnt tires or burnt rubber of some sort.

The rubber smell I think is what gets me, but if you really try hard, you might imagine that it’s a rustic, “earthy” smell of some sort. It probably has a slightly different smell to different people, but to me personally it’s not appealing. I suppose I had the idea it might smell like pine, and it doesn’t at all.

I like to also use this soap on my back and chest, which are both other areas beside my face that break out from time to time. I feel it instantly suck all the oil off the surface of my skin, and it does seem to help keep them drier, so it may be useful for those with body acne or some other form of skin irritation like eczema or psoriasis, which some people swear by this unique product for. I think it’s good for some people with acne, however, not gentle enough to use all the time, I would still combine it with something gentler and less drying.

My first experience with using tea tree oil for anything was with an acne product combo I had purchased that included a small bottle of tea tree oil toner. That was absolutely my favorite part of the kit, and I decided from that time that I would buy more tea tree oil toner (astringent basically) whenever I was out of that. Since I love to try new brands quite a bit, I ended up with a tea tree toner made by the Body Shop. Sure enough, it had that same strong, slightly medicinal smell that the first tea tree oil product I used had.

Believe it or not, I really like that smell. It almost smelled a little bit like eucalyptus if I had to compare it to something that is readily recognizable to the sense of smell. Tea tree oil is recommended for oil and acne prone skin because it has an astringent and antibacterial quality that helps us acne sufferers maintain clear pores so that we don’t have as many problems with the bacteria seeping into our pores and infecting it, making it into a whitehead of blackhead zit.

I just had an appointment with my hairdresser today and he advised me that since I have a very dry scalp and it looks like it is irritated and flaky, that he would also recommend a tee tree oil scalp treatment for my head as well, to help with the flaking and irritation. He said that the astringent quality would help with any itching I was experiencing, and an extra emollient that is usually added to most scalp treatments, like aloe vera or maybe vitamin E, would attack the problem of dryness.

So, if you have problems with an oily or irritated scalp, or dry scalp, apparently tea tree oil can help with all of the above, just make sure you don’t get it on your hair, and try to keep it on the scalp itself as much as you can. He advised that most scalp treatments are good for the scalp but not necessarily the most flattering thing to put in your hair since they are made specifically for the delicate skin of the scalp.

If anyone tries it, let us know how it goes. Just because we have oily skin, doesn’t mean our scalps aren’t falling apart too. Heck, often times skin irritations like acne go hand in hand with scalp issues, so it’s quite common if you can believe that.

I really wish they’d come up with a decent decongestant that actually worked on me that did not contain pseudo ephedrine, which as you may or may not know, is a stimulant. And, you guessed it, it can cause breakouts in those of us that are prone to breakouts from anything that causes the stimulation of the nervous system. This includes things like caffeine, ma huang, which is an herb but also a very powerful stimulant that will make your heart race and disrupt your hormonal harmony, and ephedrine, or pseudo ephedrine, which is present in many nasal decongestants like Sudafed and the like.

You know, those ones that you now have to take a tag up to the pharmacy to purchase, because so many meth labs were purchasing products that contained this pseudo ephedrine in bulk to make crystal meth, a lethal street drug that is highly addictive and a huge scourge now in many communities. It’s no wonder that this stuff is used to make a serious street drug, it is definitely quite a powerful stimulant, as both my body and my acne will tell you.

I had to use Sudafed for a few days, and at first I thought I might be ok and actually not break out this time from using the decongestant (the only one that really works for me, but I can also use Mucinex with no side effects). However, after the fourth day, lo and behold, my chine and my nose sprouted those tell tale zits that told me that I hadn’t somehow miraculously gotten over my sensitivity to these products, but I just had a few days before it caught up to my skin for whatever reason this time.

If you have a cold, and you are sensitive to stimulants, then you may want to talk to your doctor about good alternatives that will help decongest you and clear the excess phlegm in your lungs and nose and nasal passages. The other one I use, as I mentioned, which is stimulant free and does not appear to have any negative effects on my complexion, is Mucinex, which is basically a product that you take once a day with a full glass of water.

It is supposed to help break up heavy mucus in the lungs and help to expel it from you via coughing much more easily. It advertises that it makes your coughs “more productive” and I have found that it does indeed do that for me. And no breakouts. However, I still liked to use the Sudafed for during the day when my congestion got really bad also, hence I paid the price with a few nice little new zits. They’re on their way to clearing already though.