Acne Magazine : Skin Care, Tips, Treatment Reviews

I was in the drug store the other day, and having used so many of the other face washes at one time or another that are suitable for acne prone skin, I was drawn in by one I hadn’t used in years.

Mostly by price, because I happened to be low on money that week, I must admit, but also partly out of nostalgia because this was one the first soap bars that I ever used when I was old enough to start developing skin problems in my very early teens, in addition to Clearasil, Noxzema and Basis and Purpose Soap (Purpose is actually another Neutrogena product, and believe it or not, I have no idea if it’s even still made!)

The Neutrogena traditional amber soap bar which is a see through amber colored bar of gentle but deep cleansing glycerin based soap, clocked in at just over two bucks. Right up my alley when I’m running low on cash, so into my little shopping basket it went, along with some other necessities like toothpaste and shampoo!

I use one bar of soap or liquid cleanser outside of the shower at the sink for cleansing my face in the AM before work since I take my shower at night, and one in the shower for cleansing my face in the PM. So the Neutrogena amber soap bar is now my AM cleansing soap.

I love it’s pleasant, earthy, minimally messed with smell, and boy did it bring back memories of my early struggles with acne. It really does do a nice cleansing job on your face, leaving no residue and not drying it out too much. It probably would work well for your back and chest as well and other body acne areas.

Although I like it for once a day, I choose to use a deeper, more acne targeted and skin cell renewing cleanser in the evening with salicylic acid, which is my preferred OTC acne topical treatment over benzoyl peroxide for a variety of reasons. One of them being that benzoyl peroxide is too drying and irritating for my skin and doesn’t seem to do squat to prevent breakouts on my face.

I also like the sloughing aspect of salicylic acid since it helps to renew the skin cells, and this is how it helps fight acne. Acne is caused by a buildup of this kind of crap on your skin, which clogs your pores and creates erosions because or small infections.

So, I got off track, but the down low on the Neutrogena amber bar – it’s a still a great face soap for basic cleansing that doesn’t over dry – and it’s really easy on your wallet. Word of caution, if you’re using this in your shower, either take it out after every use or shelter it in a water proof case so that the warm water doesn’t melt it too much since it is glycerin based.

Ok, so I’ve had two weeks to enjoy the Clarisonic skin cleansing device I bought, and I have some more observations to report about my experiences with this product.  I have to say, it’s quite a nice relaxing feeling when you cleanse your face with this product. It’s a very gentle process, but it almost feels like it’s massaging your facial muscles a bit, but with barely detectable pressure due to it’s technology that uses sonic speed movement of the bristles on the brush.

I wonder, is the reason this thing works to cleanse your skin better because it literally “shakes” all the dirt and debris out of your pores? Hmm, something to ponder.  What I have to report is that I still think the Clarisonic facial cleanser is a good product and a good buy.  It seems to really clean my face much better than when I just rub the cleanser in with my hands.

My skin feels squeaky clean when I’m done, and my skin care products just seem to get eaten up by my skin much faster, which makes me think they are penetrating better.  One of the drawbacks though, is if you wear mascara.  I try to get the mascara off my lashes before I put the Clarisonic on my face, because I notice that the mascara instantly colors the white bristles on the Clarisonic black. I now have a grey brush instead of a white one, so that makes me feel like I’m rubbing dirt into my face, although I’m sure I’m not.

I’ve even been cleaning my husband’s face with the Clarisonic, on it’s two minute cleansing setting (I got the model with the speed and cleansing setting options, which I’d recommend so you can customize it to your skin and likings).  He likes it too.  I haven’t notice any real pore shrinkage yet around my nose or his, since we both have larger pores around our nose, but I’m thinking that with continued use, this product may help with that. More to come after I’ve been using this thing for a little while longer!

Every one of us desires beautiful, glowing skin. This applies mostly to feminine population. Almost every girl has a little something in her skin tone she wants to mask, correct, or attempt to even out. This depends on how you take care of your face. There are so many ways to beautify your skin; all you need to do is to choose the proper one. There is a simple secret to beautiful skin, though. In a word: consistent, quality skin care.

Like the most delicate part of our body, the skin requires everyday care. The basic ways to take care of any kind of skin is cleansing, toning and moisturizing. Skin cleansing is a very important part of personal hygiene. It helps to remove the make up, dirt, oil from your skin.

The most important function is killing the bacteria which try to infect your skin, and cleansing devices can help to remove this from your face and your body if you have body acne that you want to prevent or treat. Starting a daily skin care routine is important, but finding an effective skin cleansing product that keeps your appearance as youthful as possible is even better!

Facial cleansing should be effective without irritating the skin, and to achieve this it is important to choose the most appropriate products. Nowadays there are many products for keeping the skin clear. There are cleansing oils, cleansing wipes, cleansing milk, cleansing gels and so on. There are also different types of cleanser which you can choose from.

Every one of them is useful on their own way. You can use devices or products other than your hands to apply the cleanser, in order to get a deeper, or more exfoliating (depending on your goal) cleansing.

The Buff Puff facial sponge is used for deep cleansing of your face and skin, but it’s mostly for exfoliation. It will leave your skin feeling clean and refreshed. The feeling is just wonderful! Many machines exist for lively and pure skin. Ultrasound facial machine emits ultrasonic waves that can be ideal for the skin. This is a possible way to get rid from unwelcome bacteria.

Have you tried a spa care yet? If not, you should definitely do it with effective, affordable, professional facial, beauty, body treatments available. What dermatologists say is that there are several ways to cleanse the face, but the ingredients that work for one person may not work for someone else. Therefore, look for a cleanser that suits your skin type.

One mistake that all some of us commit is to cleanse the face too often. This should be avoided, if we want perfect skin. The only care this skin requires is cleaning it at least twice a day. You should take good care of your skin, in order to be gorgeous and pure. Cleansing your skin should be part of the daily routine. It can also be enjoyable, like you’re in a spa too, if you choose to use a skin cleansing device.

Ok, this is NOT yet a full on review of the Clarisonic facial cleansing device that I recently purchased online, this is just my first impressions of the product after using it a grand total of three times so far.

I bought this cool contraption (the Pro version with 4 speeds) after reading glowing reviews on a few websites about it. A lot of people with acne felt that it really helped to shrink their pores, refine their skin tone and deep cleanse their pores. They felt that they had less breakouts after using it for a while too.

I’ve been eye balling this device for a while, wanting to try it but procrastinating because of the almost $200 price tag. I finally took the plunge and bought it though. The set up was fine. You have to charge it on it’s charging cradle for 24 full hours before using it. So I charged it from about 4 PM to 4 PM the next day. I used it for the first time at night, to get all my makeup off.

I was surprised at how soft the bristles were. The gentle brush is included with the product, depending on your skin type or goals, you may want to buy a harsher one. The fine brush worked ok for me. The instructions to use the different settings was a little confusing at first and I had to read over them a few times. It works off of lights and beeps instead of obvious “dummy” settings that tell you exactly what they are. I’d change that if there was something I could change about the product.

The device beeps every time you are done with one area of your face, and lets you know when it’s time to move to the next area of your face. You use circular motions and barely press the brush to your face, the machine does the work for you.

My skin feels extremely clean when done using this product, almost squeaky clean. It also feels pretty dry because I’m sure I’m not used to this type of deep cleansing, so I make sure to put EXTRA moisturizer on afterwards. I like the device so far, but it’s too early to tell after only three uses if it’s actually making my skin look better or less prone to breakouts. More details, experiences and reviews coming as I get to know my Clarisonic better!

I just ordered a Clarisonic facial cleansing tool today.  They are almost two hundred bucks for the Pro version with 4 speeds, but I came into a little bit of guilt free money, and I’ve wanted to try out this little puppy for a long time after hearing good things about it, especially for anti aging and acne fighting aspects of the cleanser’s deep cleansing abilities.

Clarisonic is a deep skin cleansing device. It sits in a holder while it charges, and it has a patented sonic cleansing motion that cleanses your skin with your chosen cleanser much deeper, they say twice as deep or something like that, than regular, good old fashioned “manual” cleansing with your hands.

The reviews on it have been pretty steadily good, and women and men who use it say that it has helped with the little bumps they get on their face, their skin tone, and blackheads as well. A lot of people who suffer acne have also noticed that it has greatly diminished their breakouts, so this is something I want to give a try both for my occasional acne and oil issues since it deep cleanses out bacteria, dirt and oil, and also for anti aging.

I should be getting my unit in the mail next week, so I’ll be sure to drop you a quick report on my experience with it. I’ll probably report on my first experience with my first impressions of the product, then a week later progress, then two or three weeks later and maybe even a six week interval so you can get an idea of whether this thing is worth the $180 it sells for.

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!