Acne Magazine : Skin Care, Tips, Treatment Reviews

I used to think that your skin cleanser didn’t matter so much because it seemed that every cleanser I had dried my face out and actually irritated my festering acne sores even more, to the point where they would scab and crust over numerous times before they finally gave in and healed into a nice, pale, red scar. However, what I didn’t realize at that time was that I was just washing my face for too long, allowing the lather to set on my face for far too long, because I thought that would make my skin problems better by getting a deeper clean.

That was also before I got turned onto the awesome acne skin care ingredient that I love to have in all of my skin cleansers, salicylic acid. This ideal ingredient for acne, I’m convinced, is this one in your cleanser because it is exfoliating and refreshes that last skin layer while clearing away debris which causes pore cloggage and makes a nice, big fat zit wherever it happens to settle on yoru skin.

Your cleanser does matter, but you don’t need to spend a whole lot of money to get one that agrees with your skin. However, that being said, I do believe that the ones without the harsh ingredients like sodium laurel sulfate and parabens are the best, since it is my opinion and experience that these types of natural, organic cleasers are actually better for acne prone skin because they have no drying or irritating or allergenic ingredients, which many times can just inflame acne further and make your face look worse.

As long as you stay as natural as possible, you can’t go wrong. You just have to figure out which natural ingredients work best with yoru skin. Is it glycerin? Maybe a vitamin C based cleanser, as is what works for my skin by chance? Maybe it’s something like naturla cucumber extract to calm the skin, or maybe it’s green tea extract, or better yet, many people respond well to the astringent qualities of tea tree oil, which is excellent for acne prone skin.

Finding the right cleanser, as you know, is just half the battle. Eating the right foods, taking the right herbal and vitamin supplements to help fight acne, and keeping your hormones and your skin oil in balance is the most important aspect of keeping clear skin, and as long as you don’t forget that the cleaser is only one minor piece of the puzzle, then you’ve won half the battle to understanding how to fight and win against acne.

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.

Well, I had heard about this Grandpa’s brand pine tar soap for a while, and how unique it was, and that it was different because it was so natural, so I figured I’d finally give it a try. Grandpa’s pine tar soap is definitely a bargain at anywhere from three to five bucks a bar, depending on where you look, and it’s been around since the early 1900’s, so it’s a brand that enough people like that they have kept it around by faithfully purchasing it for a while, which is a good sign that the stuff is good for something!

One consistent thing I kept reading about this unique, pine tar infused soap, was that it had a “unique” smell. Well, it is definitely unique, and it really is kind of repulsive to me to be honest. It smells like burning rubber, that’s the best way I can describe it, and the scent is very strong, I can smell it in the shower actually when I get in. The color of the soap might catch you off guard too, it’s a very dark brown color. Here are the ingredients in this soap : palm oil, coconut oil, purified water, pine tar oil, and vegetable glycerin. That’s it, there’s nothing unnatural in this stuff, which earns it huge points in this day and age where there seem to be tons of chemicals in a lot of our toiletries.

Even though the soap is dark brown, it does lather a white color, and it has more lather than you’d expect for a soap that does not contain sodium laurel sulfate, the ultimate lathering chemical that is added to most soaps and shampoos. It can not only be used as a skin soap, but some people even use it for shampooing their hair, and it’s supposed to be excellent for those with psoriasis and dandruff.

When I cleansed my face with this, it lathered very well, and left my face extremely clean – actually squeaky clean, which did worry me a bit since usually that indicates that your skin has been too dried out by a product you are cleansing with. However, I found that as long as I put a lot of my night time moisturizer on, my skin did not dry out using this product. It has not made me break out yet, so that’s good, and I like the fact that it is all natural, so I’ve added this for now to my night time cleansing routine because I don’t want to use it in the morning also for fear of drying too much.

One word of caution. For some reason, this soap makes my eyes sting, so make sure you rinse your eyes well if any of the soap gets in them.

So, I’m going to go out on a limb and try something very different from what I’ve tried in the past for my facial cleansing. I’m going to try a bar soap that is 100% natural, which means no chemicals, no acids, nothing. I’m a little concerned that an all natural soap just won’t get my skin as clean as a soap that maybe has a little something unnatural in it, but time will tell. I’ve actually ordered several to try. They are organic soaps that have no lathering agents, chemical scents or any other common chemicals in them like parabens or anything.

I have tried an all natural pure glycerin soap on my face before, but it actually made me break out, because I just don’t think it was cleansing out the impurities like a regular soap or liquid cleanser could have done, which would have seeped down into the pores and gotten that dirt and bacteria out, which we all know is what leads to blemishes on the skin. Someone with totally normal, great skin may have the luxury of using soaps that are all natural without problems, but thus far I have not. We’ll see once I try these on my face, I’ll let you know.

I really more so bought them for my body instead of my face. They’re fine on the body (unless you’re treating body acne, in which case I do recommend something with salicylic acid, my favorite, or benzoyl peroxide if you must), because they are gentle and the rest of your body generally doesn’t need that deep down clean that your face does when you have acne problems.

I’m already successfully using a lemon glycerin soap on my body, which works great because it doesn’t dry out my skin like some other soaps do, but I already had to to stop using it on my chest because I noticed some small zits popping up there (I have an oily chest area too, quite common for those of us women with acne), so I switched back to using the same face wash I use on my face there and it cleared up pretty quickly.

All of this is in my current obsession with going natural on as many things as I possibly can. It started with me going natural on my shampoo, which was hard to do since it’s really hard to find a great natural shampoo that doesn’t leave your hair looking like a rats nest, and from there, it’s been onto body lotions and other natural experiments. Oh, and how could I forget the most important natural product I’ve always used – deodorant!

Still can’t make the leap with toothpaste though, I gotta have my whiteners in that!

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.

I have found that vitamin C is a great ingredient in a cleanser to look for if you have acne prone skin.  It is not irritating, and in fact, helps the skin to shed old dead cells and look more radiant, plus it helps to scrub away the bacteria that creates acne in the pores.  Now, the one thing I do think is a misconception about cleanser ingredients is that they stay on the skin, they don’t.

What you really want to make sure you buy high quality are the moisturizers and other products that actually stay on your skin, but cleanser does just wash away.  That doesn’t mean that some cleansers don’t do a better job at cleansing and not overdrying, but don’t go overboard on spending in this arena because in the end those ingredients are just washed away by water.

Cleanser is so very important for those of us who have acne prone skin.  If we choose a cleanser that is too harsh, we end up with dried out skin that ends up becoming even more oily because we’ve overstimulated our oil glands into producing too much because our skin tries to overcompensate for being overly dried and irritated. 

Conversely, if we choose a cleanser that is too rich, oily and emollient, we barely even get the makeup and excess dirt and sebum that’s on the surface of our skin off, and risk creating more conditions for a breakout and a big zit since the skin’s surface is too moisturized.  Examples of cleansers that are too rich for acne prone skin might be any cleanser that is targeted for aging or dry skin, that contains heavy mineral oils or any type of thicker emollient.

My favorite cleansers to use are the clear kind, preferably enriched with vitamin C, because I love the fresh finish it gives to the skin, and it tends to work as a nice finisher, tightening the skin after washing.  However, you want to be careful not to use too much cleanser.  The more you lather up, the more drying the cleanser will be, of course unless you are using an extremely heavy cleanser, which I don’t recommend in the first place.

Not to mention, you’re wasting precious money if you over do it on the cleanser portioning, so make sure you use a dollop that is no larger than the size of a dime – a flat dime, not a big fat one.  Sometimes even a pea size squirt of liquid cleanser is enough, it really depends on the ability of your cleanser to lather.  Also, make sure you don’t lather for too long, do it just long enough to get the dirt and makeup off, then rinse with warm water – never hot, and you won’t over strip and irritate your skin, leaving that natural protective barrier intact.   

 

I have a really good suggestion for those that may have skin like mine which is a person in their early thirties who needs to address not only breakout and acne concerns, but also needs to address their anti aging concerns.  You may be able to go through a somewhat transitional phase with your cleansers and moisturizers, which is what I have felt I’ve been able to do as my skin has aged. 

It used to be that I had to use a certain kind of cleanser with no moisturizing agents or anti aging ingredients in it to get my skin to stay clear, and I find that now that my oil production has died down a bit (barely, but it has a little so I can tell I’m aging lol), I can use products now that feel great on my skin and don’t leave it dry at all. 

One such product I’ve recently purchased and really like is by BWC, Beauty Without Cruelty.  It’s a very reasonably priced product, I think it was like eight bucks or maybe even seven for this face wash, and it is gentle and has great, organic ingredients in it.  It is also a pretty generous size, and the cleanser is a clear liquid, which is best for acne prone skin in my opinion – far better than solid bar soap and colored cleansers with additives and colors, but that’s from my personal experience.

It’s BWC Vitamin C and CoQ10 facial cleanser.  It comes in a pump bottle which is great for ease of use, and it holds up fine in the shower, although I have found a bit of leakage around the rim where the pump meets the bottle, but no biggie, and it leaves my skin refreshed and not dry or tight at all, yet it thoroughly cleanses it.  Best of all, it’s anti aging in nature and has not broken me out at all, and my skin does tend to be sensitive to vitamin c sometimes, so this is a good sign as well.

I had talked about a Neutrogena anti blackhead product several months back – heck, maybe even a year ago now, it’s so hard to keep track of time these days. It’s called Neutrogena Warming Blackhead scrub and cleanser, and it comes in a tube that if you use very little with every use, it could probably last you a really long time.