Acne Magazine : Skin Care, Tips, Treatment Reviews

So I just got back from my mom’s for her annual birthday dinner (we had some wonderful Italian food, yum!), and she showed me a bunch of pictures she had dredged up from the depths of dressers and trunks that she had just cleaned out. I mean, these were the type of pictures that you forgot were even taken – that you may not have ever even seen, that’s how obscure and old they were.

And let me tell you, some of them reminded me of what a terrible struggle I went through with acne until I finally found the right herbal acne remedy for me to clear up my face, which was Zenmed.  I saw pictures where I had painful looking bumps on my chin.

They were red and huge, and they stood out so much even in photographs that I cringed just looking at them and remembering what kind of emotional pain they put me through when I was in my teens and just figuring out who I was and getting used to the new curves that were showing up on my body.

I was also going through a lot of body issues at that time, where I always felt fat and was constantly trying to diet and get unrealistically skinny for my body type. It brought back some rather painful memories, but there were also a lot of great, happy memories in there too.

I remember the painful trial and errors I used to go through to try to get clear skin. I thought that every one would work some how, and that eventually I would finally find that magic potion that would give me problem free skin forever. I did eventually find what was right for me, but what is right is not always the same for every person. Different people respond to different types of treatments for acne.

Many people respond better to herbal acne remedies than they do to traditional medical types of acne treatments, and for this reason, herbal and natural methods of treating acne have become hugely popular and successful in the realm of natural medicine.

That’s what worked for me,  but even though I rarely have problems with flare ups these days, I notice that when I’m eating right, taking my healthy supplements and exercising regularly, my skin seems to really looks it’s best. I think an all around healthy lifestyle and approach is vital to keeping your skin acne free in the end.

Hello everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving to my readers everywhere!  May you have an awesome, fulfilling, yummy, happy and safe Thanksgiving Day today!  Hopefully you find yourself surrounded with the warmth and comfort of close family and friends today. The hubby and I are getting ready to head to Pennsylvania for a Thanksgiving gathering with his family.

I can’t wait to feast on turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and all the other awesome side dishes that we find sitting out in display.  Of course, I always feel like my stomach is going to explode after this feast, but it is well worth it. Especially since after the holidays I know I wont’ be partaking in such fattening goodies in an effort to shed the couple of holiday pounds I pack on during this time of year.

But, I sure do have fun packing them on, I’ll tell you that!  I’m a born foodie – I just love food!

At any rate, have a great Thanksgiving, and I’ll see you back here with more great news, tips and product reviews on everything acne when we all return to our normal lives – at least until Christmas time!

My husband and I traveled last weekend, and one of the things I forgot to pack was my morning cleanser. Silly, I know, that I use a specific type of cleanser at night (usually more of a deep cleaner, not a light one like I use for morning), and in the morning, but this is how my skin behaves best.

I prefer a more gentle, moisturizing one in the morning because the heavy lifting was already done at night, taking off all my makeup and making sure my skin was a smooth, clean palette for the morning time.

So, we went to Target to pick up a few things, and I saw a Burt’s Bees product that I figured I would try for our morning facial cleanser. It was called Orange Essence, and it did say that it contained orange oil and olive oil, but I didn’t figure on it being overly greasy because I figured it would still have to “cleanse” the skin too, and excess oil in cleansers make it hard to the skin to actually be cleansed.

Well, boy was I wrong. This cleanser, while it is probably good for very mature skin, should probably not be used on those of us who still produce quite a bit of oil (sebum) naturally.  Not only did this cleanser not feel like it was cleansing my skin, but it actually felt so thick and oily that I thought it might be clogging my pores, and may aggravate my skin into a breakout.

It was the consistency of an oil-based ointment, and it did not feel like it was cleaning the surface of my skin at all. Instead, it felt like it was just sitting on the surface. Even after I rinsed my face several times, I could still feel a layer of greasy film on my skin. The scent of the product was amazing – smelled just like oranges, so I had high hopes that some of those orange enzymes would do a good cleansing job.

It did not lather at all. I know that not everything has to lather to cleanse your skin, but there was absolutely zero cleansing action. It was like rubbing a salve on my face. It felt more like a very intensive moisturizer that was meant for mature skin than it did a gentle cleanser. While I love a lot of Burt’s Bees product, this Orange Essence cleanser was not great at all.

Well, the link between suicide and suicidal thoughts and severe acne has popped up in the news again. The theory that has been brewing is that those who have gone on the severe acne drug Accutane, or isotretinoin as it’s known by its drug name, may be at a higher risk for suicidal thoughts in the time during and shortly after their treatment with the drug.

However, scientists are now thinking that the true relationship between the two may not be between the acne drug and the suicidal thoughts, but rather between the mere fact that one has severe acne and the suicidal thoughts.

It’s not a stretch to imagine it either way. After all, many drugs have been known to cause psychological side effects, and acne is in fact a hormonally charged skin disorder. And what do hormones do to people? Yes, they can make you a little crazy sometimes. I know that my face shows it when my mood has been bad for a while, and vice versa, so it’s not a huge stretch to imagine that people with severe acne also have wildly swinging or unstable hormones as well.

While the studies on Accutane have been conflicting and have had a gray area on whether they really directly impact one’s mood and suicidal thoughts, there are some studies that show it may have up to a doubling effect on suicidal thoughts.  That is obviously quite troubling, and has prompted doctors to warn patients about the possibility and to also give them an awareness to look for this in their patients who are on this drug.

On the flip side, some studies have also shown that merely having severe acne seemed to affect one’s rate of depression and their occurrence of suicidal thoughts, suggesting that the link is indeed only to acne and not the drug that causes the thoughts.  Doctors should closely watch the patients they put on this drug, even if there is a possibility that the drug adds to one’s likelihood for suicidal thoughts.

The acne drug isotretinoin has been known to be highly effective against severe acne, and is therefore still commonly prescribed for very severe acne.  However, due to the risks associated with birth defects and now this possible suicidal thoughts link, it’s a good thing that there are also natural acne treatments and hormonal acne treatments and external products that help treat acne without the harsh drugs and interfering chemicals.

As you probably well know if you’ve been reading my blog for any amount of time, or even at first glance, I’m a big proponent of treating acne naturally, without chemicals and without drugs.  I love natural skin care products, because they don’t over dry or irritate my skin, and I know I’m putting something on my skin that I wouldn’t mind if it soaked into my blood stream – which by the way, all skin care products do, especially the ones you use on a daily basis.

Chemical preservatives, dyes and surfactants that are added to many of the drugstore brand products all will eventually end up in your blood stream in one way or another, and while I do occasionally use products that contain these types of ingredients out of necessity and out of experimentation to share with my readers, they certainly are not my preference.

Which brings me to the Aveda line of products. Aveda is still mostly known for their naturally-derived hair care line with the heavily woodsy and floral scents, which most of it’s fans adore (including me).  Aveda slowly branched out into numerous other personal care items that follow the same principles as their hair care line, which is naturally, plant derived extracts and essential oils to make you look better and nourish the hair and skin.

Their Outer Peace acne skin care line consists of five products.  They have a foam cleanser, acne relief pads, which help to exfoliate the skin, Acne Spot Relief, which is a spot treatment cream for blemishes, acne relief lotion, which sounds like it’s used allover the face, and a cooling mask, which sounds like it’s just an intermittent acne deep treatment mask.

I have not tried any of these products yet, but do plan to try them some time. I thought if any of our readers has tried them yet they can share their experiences.  Aveda products aren’t cheap, but if they work, then you know how much clear skin can be worth – priceless!  I only wish they had a supplement in their regimen as well.

I thought it would be appropriate to write up a few of the things that I like to make for myself which both taste good, and are also like skin beauty cocktails, quite literally. If you eat these types of foods often, your skin almost can’t help but glow from the inside, and be virtually perfect, with very little complexion problems, way less acne, and be extremely age and damage resistant.

One of my favorite things for lunch, which is both filling, satisfying for hours, and very tasty, is a skin-health salad that I make. I make it with organic baby spinach leaves as the lettuce. Baby spinach offers an abundance of skin friendly vitamins and minerals, including iron, lots of chlorophyll, bet carotene, and ton of antioxidants, including many from a family called the caretenoid family, which is excellent for everything from skin health and beauty to cancer prevention.

Spinach leaves are the best thing to make a salad with, in my opinion, and I only buy them as organic because the pesticides used in non organic are sprayed right on the leaves, so it’s best to buy veggies like this that have no protective barrier against chemicals in an organic form to lessen the chemicals you come into contact with.

I also add red onion, and quite a bit of it. Red onion is a great skin food because it contains compounds called sulfides. These are just great for all around health.  And they have very few calories. Red onions are among the milder tasting of the onion family, and they add a wonderful flavor to most foods, and more importantly, taste great raw, which is how you reap the most benefits.

I then take a 3 oz. pack of tuna fish, in the vacuum packed foil packets, not canned, since you don’t have to drain it. I like the Bumble Bee or Starfish brand best.  Tuna is excellent for your skin, nails and hair because it is rich in omega 3 fatty acids, which are excellent for the health of the skin since they act as a sort of internal moisture retention aid for your skin. They literally make your skin glow when you eat them a lot, because your skin maintains hydration very well.

They are also excellent for acne prevention because they help your body to stabilize blood sugar levels, which is vital to maintaining hormonal balance in the body, remember that acne is most often cause by hormonal imbalance, and hormonal acne treatments help to balance this discrepancy in hormones, and omega 3′s help you do that naturally.

I top off this healthy salad with a few diced black olives, another rich source of omega 3′s, and a healthy natural dressing made with extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice (an excellent tonic for clear, clean skin in itself), raw crushed garlic cloves and a little bit of sea salt.  This is one of the healthiest things you can eat for your skin. If you eat this for lunch every day, I’d be shocked if you didn’t see a huge improvement in your skin.

It’s pretty much a well established understanding the tanning in indoor tanning beds can be very hazardous to your health. But I’m not all together against it, because I think that with the right amount of going tanning, and for therapeutic benefit to get UVB light and therefore vitamin D, especially in the winter, it can serve a purpose. But the absolute rule of course is that you don’t over do it, exposing yourself several days a week, and you don’t EVER get burnt, because this is where the real genetic damage and sun damage comes in, which can lead to skin cancers.

The problem is, many teens are still going tanning, and way too much. Not to mention, in the beds that mostly put out UVA light, which does not help your body produce vitamin D, but only serves to damage skin and get you really tan.  Estimates say that nearly one in nine teens go tanning often, and that’s really not good.

First of all, teens skin is still very smooth and supple, and they also do not use the same restraint that a lot of adults would use since adults are usually a little more worried about their health, while teens are still primarily focused on what something will do for their cosmetic appearance. And shoot, trust me, I’m including myself in that generalization. I didn’t care whether I’d get skin cancer ten, twenty years down the line when I was a teen, all I cared about was getting tan and looking good.

I burned myself repeatedly in tanning beds – and the real sun – in order to get that coveted tan look, even though my skin is very pale since I’m of Irish descent. Not a good thing, and teens that don’t have skin that is meant to tan are doing this all the time in hopes of looking more attractive.

Like I said, I do believe that some indoor tanning may serve a purpose, especially in UVB beds, to enhance vitamin D production, especially in the winter time for those that live in areas where there is no sun in the winter, but indoor tanning can be dangerous when it’s abused.

Thinking back to my high school days, which was a while ago, I remember the foundations that were available to us teenaged girls back then. It was the days of Cover Girl popularity, when foundations were heavy, had a lot of mineral oil in them, and often smelled of menthol, like the Cover Girl products that were supposedly noncomedogenic did. They were cheap, heavy and mask-ish foundations.

And not only did they help to clog pores, but they didn’t let the natural beauty of the skin show through, and God forbid you had a blemish, they usually made them look worse, highlighting their raised nature and not doing much for their darker pigmentation either, accentuating the very things that were wrong with acne blemishes.

Today, we are lucky enough to have relatively inexpensive access to excellent, non-heavy, noncomedogenic (non pore clogging or acne causing) types of foundations that not only help us to maintain healthy, acne free skin, but also help protect our face against UV rays and sun damage, and also happen to make our skin look great, playing up the natural beauty and luminosity of our skin.

After all, those of us that have acne are blessed with very moisture-heavy skin, we almost never suffer from dehydrated skin, and once we get those blemishes cleared up, one of the great things about naturally oily skin is that it also tends to look warm and glowing because of it’s moisture rich nature.

Heavy and cheaply made foundations often magnify the appearance of acne. Another important note when picking a foundation if you have acne is to choose colors that play up your natural skin tone and tone down acne blemishes, which are red. This means that you don’t want to go with too many yellow undertones, but you also don’t want to go with red or purple undertones either.

I’ve found one of the most perfect foundations and colors that is universally flattering is Revlon Color Stay foundation for either combination skin or normal skin in “Buff”. Buff is a very flattering color to a lot of skin tones, and it isn’t overly pink or purple, nor is it overly yellow or orange in tone.  Revlon Color Stay foundations provide excellent coverage, but I never find they look to heavy on me, or mask my skin’s natural glow.

I make sure I water it down enough by using a water soaked pad to apply it though, so that it doesn’t come off as heavy, and I often will mix either lotion with it to add a nice warm glow, or a luminizing cream to dilute the heaviness.

I have had a few times where I’ve gone and gotten very strong chemical hair treatments in my life. I got the Japanese straightening treatment, which is also known as thermal reconditioning, which uses strong chemicals to straighten and smooth out the hair’s cuticle and seal it in so that humidity cannot get to it as easily. I have also had many hair colorings, which of course also uses chemicals to deposit the dye deep into the hair permanently.

Of course, these kinds of harsh chemical treatments can make your hair look fabulous in the short run, or maybe even the long run, but what they are doing to your head, your forehead where they inevitably leak down on, but what they are doing to your skin and how they are entering your blood stream is anything but “fabulous”.

And I may sound like a hypocrite because I’ve had them done, but I think that I have had some skin damage by my hair line because of these chemical drips getting on my the top of my head, by my hair line.

The reason I say this is that I’ve had two basal cell carcinomas removed from this exact area. While I know that is a place on the face that gets lots of sun, I have always been religious about putting sunblock on my face, and into my hairline since I’ve been an adult, so it’s odd to me that this is the area where these irregular skin cell growths have popped up.

Could it be that the chemicals caused cell damage, and now that area is going to be super susceptible to irregular skin cell growth -aka cancer? I don’t know for sure since I’m not a doctor and don’t claim to know everything, but it sure does seem awfully coincidental, no?

I think that one of the best tricks to helping to minimize or diminish the appearance of acne, or even acne scarring, or for that matter, any skin imperfection or blemish (this includes wrinkles too ladies), is to make sure you are using a luminizing, light bending foundation or other foundation-type base makeup on your skin.

Some people with acne, including myself years ago, are afraid to use any foundation at all because they are afraid it will further clog their pores, causing more acne or causing their skin to be harder to keep clear.

When you choose the right products for your skin as far as foundation and all other makeup goes though, this should be the last worry on your mind, as there are some great, totally noncomedogenic products our there that not only don’t cause breakouts, but also help protect your skin against the sun and other environmental damage and toxins, and they actually make your skin healthier.

One of the main ingredients that you want to try to avoid, since it is heavy and greasy, and can clog the pores in some formulations, is mineral oil. Mineral oil is one of the worst offenders. You can easily spot this ingredient because it usually simply says “mineral oil” on the ingredient list. One of my favorite things to look for in a foundation is the word “luminizing” or “pearlescent” or “glow”.

These types of formulations usually contain light bending poylmers which help to reflect the light in such a way that makes your skin appear smoother, more luminous, and less flawed since it tends to camouflage any imperfections.

Some of the formulations that I have liked so far that you can either wear alone or you can add a little to your regular foundation are Tarina Tarantino’s pearlescent primer and Revlon’s Skinlights luminizer (which I believe has since been dicsontinued in stores, but can be found online). If anyone else has other suggestions, please share them.

Another tip for making your skin appear more dewy and natural, and less “made up” or chalky (which is one of the worst things you can do if you have acne, this just leads to crusting and a generally lackluster appearance, as well as draws attention to your zits) is this. Use a makeup sponge, and wet that sponge with cold water before you apply the foundation or luminizer to it.

This helps the makeup to blend better, giving it a more sheer, natural appearance. Another tip is to add a good lotion to your foundation, this makes the skin appear more dewy and also helps the blending process.