Acne Magazine : Skin Care, Tips, Treatment Reviews

One of the things that I do every week is treat my skin to a soothing acne mask. Not only does it help keep acne away by treating surface bacteria and infusing my skin with soothing ingredients that keep down inflammation and redness, but it also helps to keep my skin soft, supple, young looking (in case this is your first time reading this blog, I’m in my thirties, so I’m concerned about acne and aging as well), and smooth and even toned.

I’ve found that on the weeks that I forget to do it or didn’t have the time, my skin looks ruddier, more eneven and generally less vibrant, so it really does help to keep your skin in top shape.  A good acne treatment mask will soothe the skin, not dry it out and irritate it, but it will also have a deep cleansing action that helps to clear the pores of debris, excess oil and other complexion clogging problems.

I used to use those mud masks that you can get at some of the drug stores, but found that those dried my skin out too much.   Using a high quality mask is important since you are putting something on your skin that can really either benefit it by depositing nutrients and other soothing ingredients, or drying the heck out of it by sucking EVERYTHING out of it.

You don’t want that. Sure, you want the neutralizing benefit of antibacterials and things like that, but you don’t want an acne treatment mask that simply “helps” oily skin by drying the you know what out of it.

Even when you have very oil skin, you want to be careful not to use any skin care products that strictly work to reduce oiliness by simply stripping it of all moisture. Our skin must have a bit of oil on it naturally as a protective barrier against environmental pollutants and aging factors such as sun, wind, and pollution found in the air. Heck, even a lot of dust in the air can clog our pores!

Actually, I should say, to cover both men and women who struggle with acne, specifically body acne, which just about everyone has from time to time, even if you don’t suffer from acne on your face. Body acne is irritated and exacerbated by a few things. Those things are sweat, clothing that doesn’t breath, and dirty clothing.  For example, if you wear something over and over and over again (I’m going to use the example of a bra), without washing it, you may actually notice that you get a little bit of a breakout along your bra line.

The reason for this is that when you don’t wash your clothes that often, it collects bacteria, dirt and sometimes even a little bit of mold (especially if it gets moist from sweat, then dries, then gets moist again, and so on and so forth). Unfortunately, the cloth that makes our clothes is like a magnet for mold and bacterial collection because it absorbs things over and over again, so it’s important to get them cleaned in an antibacterial detergent (all of them are basically antibacterial because they contain surfactants).

I’ve noticed myself personally that when I wear a bra several days in a row (I have a few favorites, and it’s not always possible to wash them before I have to wear them again before working the next day), that I may get a light little breakout of irritation type postules where my bra line is. Not only that, I’ll even get little acne bumps underneath my bra line, more on my tummy.  That’s just from a few days, but think about how much you sweat every day and probably don’t even know it.

Every time you sweat, you put moisture in those clothes, and they then collect dirt and bacteria like a magnet. Your skin is easily irritated by dirt and bacteria. It clogs the pores, and it creates a perfect environment for bumps, irritation and body acne to flourish. So, try to have enough underclothes to make sure you don’t always have to do the laundry spot-on time to be able to ensure that you are wearing only fresh clean clothes to stay acne free.

Acne is definitely a skin condition that relies on even, stable hormone control (be sure to read here for hormonal acne treatments – natural of course!), since a lot of acne is hormonally driven. However, there are a number of other golden rules when it comes to maintaining clear, supple, ageless and flawless looking skin over time as well, and that includes the intake of a lot of antioxidants in your diet.

Not only are antioxidants excellent for your overall health and disease prevention regimen, but they contribute greatly to the beautiful skin that you see on celebrities and  models as well.

If you see someone with beautiful, glowing skin, chances are, they get a lot of antioxidant rich foods in their diet, it’s just a simple fact.  There are even acne remedies that are based on strong antioxidant dosage, like the popular one called Acnezine, which uses antioxidant (and anti free radical, which are cells that destroy healthy skin cells and help further acne) therapy as it’s primary weapon.

When you think of antioxidants, you may think of fruits and veggies, and you are right, many of these precious system-scrubbing agents are found in these products of the earth. However, there are also antioxidants in certain meats, fish, and grains, just usually in a smaller concentration.  The added benefit of having a diet that is rich in fruits and vegetables is that they also contain a lot of fiber, as well as a host of other vitamins and minerals, which often work in unison in the body to help with maximum absorption and utilization of the antioxidant power they carry.

Antioxidants may also be supplemented in the diet by taking certain dietary supplements, or drinking them as well, such as getting them in a great organic green tea with lemon (lemon helps your body to absorb up to 6 times the antioxidants that green tea offers, isn’t that crazy!?).  Even though supplements and vitamins can help boost your antioxidant intake, it’s still highly recommended that you get the bulk of these nutrients through the foods you eat.

Foods, and I mean whole, natural and preferably organic, produce is one of the best ways to ensure your body properly absorbs all nutrients that these little organisms have to offer. Nature is sort of perfect in the way it designed certain things, and who are we to mess with nature and put it in a capsule for everything? Supplements for acne as well as for any other health regimen are great, I recommend them and take them, but they are always going to be secondary to a healthful, wholesome diet.

Apple cider vinegar, or as it is called in fan circles of the stuff, which is used as a folk remedy for nearly every malady imaginable, “ACV”, has long been thought to help some people with their acne problems. It has been used both topically and internally, as an acne supplement, to help clear the skin.  Topically, it has astringent and bacteria-killing qualities that may help to keep the skin clear of debris and bacteria which leads to acne lesions.

Internally, it has many different qualities that help balance the body’s acid/alkaline balance. If you are alkaline, the thought is that your skin looks better, stays clearer, and has less acne prone qualities. Organic, raw and unfiltered apple cider vinegar is the most popular kind used, as it has a sediment in it called the “mother”, which contains all sorts of enzymes and organic compounds that are great for cleansing your system out and providing sustainable nutrients to your body.

The only problem is, it sure does burn going down!  I have used ACV (the organic, raw and unfiltered kind) for different reasons other than acne. I used it once to help me cut down my appetite to help me lose weight since it is known to help people cut weight by decreasing the appetite and possibly digesting carbohydrates more effectively, cutting down their glycemic impact.  Which brings me to another reason that it’s probably a good thing to take internally for your skin.

Your skin will show it when your blood sugar is running at a constant high by looking red, ruddy and irritated, and being more prone to breakouts. When you have stable blood sugar (insulin) levels, your skin maintains more clarity and breaks out less because your hormones tend to be more stable as well, and inflammation is neutralized.

I’ve never used ACV externally, simply because I’ve just never had the chance to try it, nor the inclination due to it’s strong smell.  It is supposed to be a great natural astringent, albeit a stinky one. But the odor does fade. Some people dilute it with a little water since it can sting if it’s applied to open wounds (or acne lesions of course) or even to very dry or irritated skin.  However, it is an excellent astringent.

In order to really address hormonal acne though, you need a good hormonal acne remedy and the right face washes and lotions to go with it. I’ve always been a proponent of treating acne from the inside, because that is where it all starts. Using great topical products will only get your so far.

The other day, I was doing a workout show on Fit TV, and during the commercial breaks, I noticed that Burts Bees has quite a long commercial (not quite an infomercial, but an ad the company spent some bucks on for sure) for a new teen line directed at acne treatments and soothing acne prone skin with the big tagline that it won’t dry it out or irritate it. I was intrigued of course, because I love any acne treatment product that is natural, without all those harsh, drying chemicals that are in so many of the drugstore acne brands that we see on the shelves.

I must say, the commercial is quite good. It shows several young, pretty girls who are bathed in a very natural, ethereal light (no doubt to make their smooth, acne free skin look even better), who are praising the wonders of the Burts Bees acne product line.  You can’t take your eyes off the sunny commercial, it’s actually really beautiful!

Preservatives like parabens, surfactants like sodium laurel sulfate, and harsh chemicals that irritate skin further are more suited for laundry detergent, not our delicate faces, whose skin is thinner and thinner as we age. Not to mention, all the pollutants and environmental ravages our facial skin undergoes every day because it is uncovered and exposed to the elements. We don’t need to add any more to that heavy load of burden. So it’s nice to a see a mainstream company come out with a natural, gentle line of acne treatment products.

The Burt’s Bees products I saw in the advertisement were a gentle cleansing liquid, a clarifying toner, a spot treatment cream, a refining facial scrub and a daily moisturizer. The only one thing I was a little disappointed in was that it looks like they might use benzoyl peroxide instead of my personal favorite, salicylic acid, as the main acne fighting ingredient, but that may not matter if  all the other ingredients make it work well.

Burt’s Bees has been a long time contender in the natural skin care market. They started off with their lip balms being popular, and have since launched a whole line of skin care, with everything from rosacea skin care products to anti aging and wrinkle skin care, to lipsticks and now acne products as well. I’ve tried many of their products, and some I’ve liked while others have left something to be desired.

So I’m anxious to try some of the products from their natural acne skin care product line. I’ll be sure to report back to you, my faithful readers, once I buy some of them and try them out for a good week. I’m about due for a new cleanser soon….

I thought it was time to add a new page about acne scarring, since this is one of the top concerns of those who have, or have had, acne at some point in their life. The good news is that there are great at-home remedies that can soften and help heal scars as well as help the color blend into the skin better, which work very well.
See our new page “The Best Way to Get Rid of Acne Scars“

I normally don’t write too much about skin issues other than acne, but this experience really made me think about how important it is to keep at least your face out of the direct sunlight as much as possible as you age.  My skin seems to be especially susceptible to photo damage (which is damage caused by the sun, such as age spots, liver spots, and fine lines and wrinkles and generally uneven pigmentation and tone). 

This is probably mostly due to my genetics. You see, I’m all European. I’m part Irish – fifty percent to be exact – and my father is German and Austrian and some other European stuff, but basically I”m pretty pale skinned, and the sun really doesn’t “tan” me very well, intead I get burnt easily.

I’ve recently learned that it’s important not to stay out of the sun entirely because you can make yourself vitamin D deficient, so I really don’t think it’s a good idea to avoid the sun like a vampire would. That’s just too extreme, and you are depriving yourself of the best way for your body to attain and absorb the most readily bio-available form of vitamin D there is.

Vitamin D is absolutely crucial to your well being, as it is being discovered. It is essential to help ward off cancer from forming and also essential for a properly functioning immune system, among other things.  However, your face is actually one of the worst areas of your body for vitamin D absorption from the sun.

For some reason, when you get sun on your face, it’s been discovered that this sun exposure does not provide very much vitamin D at all, so lather up the SPF on the face as much as you can, because it will get sun damaged if you don’t.  I was out in the real, full on sun for about two hours when I was visiting California recently. 

I actually had my SPF on, an SPF 15 lotion as well as a layer of foundation with an SPF of 8 in it, and I still emerged from the sun soaking with a ton of new freckles. I also noticed that two of the small age spots on the side of my face that I’m always trying to get rid of were noticeably darker, so there went all my efforts to get rid of them via at home microdermabrasion and chemical peels.

The bottom line is, keep your face as protected as you can from the sun. This experience demonstrated to me the extreme damage that the sun can do to the skin on your face if you’re not diligent in protecting it.

Stress is one of the MAJOR components of breakouts. For me at least. And I suspect and have been told by many readers that it is also the cause of many unfortunate breakouts for others as well. Stress causes hormonal changes and triggers a chain of events in the body that facilitates acne flareups.  It causes hormonal disruption by throwing off the balance between estrogens and androgens in your body. Androgens, which are male hormones, are actually the biggest hormonal culprit of hormonally based acne as a matter of fact.

Since stress is one of the major factors I’ve identified in my life that cause acne flareups (that and diet and caffeine), I’ve identified quite a few activities and practices that help me beat stressful times, or at the very least, keep the stress levels to a minimum in my life.  You can minimize stress, it’s just a matter of training yourself to do it, and making your environment one that is conducive to reducing stress levels.

Here are the ways I help to keep my stress levels managed, and therefore, how I help to keep my skin clear and radiant:

1.)  Listening to classical music. Classical or relaxation music, such as the kind that is used in yoga practice or when you’re getting a massage, can be a great mind relaxer. It helps carry your mind away to peaceful places and events. Music, or sound, is one of the greatest tools we have to fuel a mood that we’re going for. Why else would people listen to fast, loud music when they want to get pumped for something, or sad music at a funeral?  Play music that lifts your mood and calms your mind, it really does help.

2.)  Practice yoga or some sort of exercise. Yoga helps calm the mind, but so do a lot of other exercises. In fact, if I really have a lot of pent up aggression or anger about something, I like to really take it out by using a punching bag or doing some really intense cardio and muscle workout. It helps get the frustration out and bring the hormones back into balance, and helps to “quiet the mind”.

3.)  Keep “stressful people” at a distance. This can be tough, but you know the type of people I’m talking about, we all have them in our lives. Even if they are family, you still owe it to yourself to minimize contact with people that drive you nuts or stress you out. Let them stress themselves, don’t be brought into their circle of drama. Minimize contact, your sanity will thank you.

4.)  Drink a relaxing, caffeine free herbal tea.  There are some great herbal teas out there with ingredients in them like passion flower, chamomile and other relaxing herbs that calm the mind and soothe stress.  Not to mention, it’s great to feel a hot cup of tea in your hand. That alone helps calm me…..

5.)  Take a nervous system soothing supplement.  Actually, the one that I find helps soothe my hormones and my nervous system is the Zenmed Dermacleanse one.

I found out the hard way, as a contacts wearer myself (I’ve either worn glasses or contacts for the better part of my life), that the soap you use to wash your face in the morning or that you use to wash your hands can actually irritate the heck out of your eyes when you wash your contacts after washing your hands or coming in contact with certain ingredients in soap. In fact, most acne soaps have irritants in them that when they enter the eye, will make them burn.

Such ingredients may be tea tree oil and other astringents in soaps for acne, salicylic acid, benzoyl peroxide and other ingredients that help to control acne – especially antibacterials. And scents are the worst offender. If a soap or face wash is scented or has essential oils in them as a natural scent, then you will find that washing your contacts or putting them on your fingers after washing with these types of soaps will really burn your eyes.

In fact, it seems there is really only one soap that will not burn and irritate, at least per mine and my husband’s eye doctor. He says that the only soap you should use to wash your hands when you are planning on handling or washing your contacts is good old fashioned, regular Ivory soap. It’s actually very hard to find. We tried to find it in the grocery store and could only find one with Aloe!

When you think of the applicators that you use to put your makeup on, you probably don’t give much thought to keeping them clean, unless they are a makeup pad that you use every day to apply foundation to your face, or a brush that you use to do the same. These are extremely important to keep clean and bacteria-free for the simple fact that bacteria causes acne, and if you are adding more bacteria to your face when you apply your foundation, well then you are just begging for a breakout my friend.

I remember when I was ignorant of doing things like this, and did not know that not washing my makeup pad that I applied my foundation with every day was wrecking my skin – even more so than it was already wrecked when I was in my full fledged acne breakouts stage.

When I figured out that I was literally adding bacteria to my face, especially since I wet my sponge before I apply the foundation to make a more dewy and sheer appearance, I immediately started washing them out routinely.

It’s really simple to wash most makeup pads, brushes and other types of applicators. It usually just required warm water and a mild soap, and that’s it. Any more, and you may be doing damage to the brush or pad, so make sure it is just a mild soap. And also make sure you lay it to dry in an open area so that it doesn’t get moldy or build more bacteria if it’s laying in a dark, dank place where the fresh air can’t reach it to properly dry out.

You don’t realize how much stuff can collect on these applicators. Imagine, they are being used every day. They are being dipped in makeup, liquid or solid, every day, and there are particles of stuff getting added all the time. This makes for a great environment for bacteria and other nasty stuff to flourish, so it’s important to make it part of your routine to clean these items regularly and keep your skin free and clear.