Acne is a very irritating skin condition to begin with, especially for adolescent girls and boys with particularly sensitive skin already. This skin condition greatly lowers their self esteem most especially when the case is severe. Such people tend to use any treatment, even if it is just too rough for those with the sensitive skin type, just to get rid of acne.

However, this is never a right choice to make. These treatments vary in terms of how strong they are and the possible effects on the skin, whether negative or positive. It is therefore important to know your skin type. People with sensitive skin should get acne treatment for sensitive skin.

The best acne treatment for sensitive skin is a natural product. Compounds like sodium lauryl sulfate which is often included in acne skin cleansers are very strong and hence inappropriate for sensitive skin.

This type of acne treatment will destroy the skin and in the long run make it susceptible to other skin infections. It is therefore important to invest in sls free acne treatment as it is gentler on the skin.

Essential oils like jojoba and tea tree are very good acne treatments. These are gentle on the skin and are sls free. The oils are just the right amount on the skin and therefore chances of having clogged pores are minimal. The oils are also easily absorbent in the skin. This makes them less sticky than other oils which trap dust.

Tea tree and jojoba oil are usually combined to provide faster and better results. The two are combined in a ratio of 3:10. These are 3 parts of tea tree and 10 parts of jojoba oil as tea tree is stronger than jojoba oil.

Tea tree mainly works as an antibiotic. It kills the bacteria that cause acne. These bacteria are also responsible for the formation of pus in the bumps. If they are eliminated early, chances of the acne developing into severe type are minimized.

Jojoba is important for its non-greasy and absorbent aspects. Aloe Vera is also a good natural treatment for acne. This works by killing the bacteria and at the same time moisturizing the skin.

Natural treatments should be used on the affected area at least twice a day. This should mainly be after a bath when the skin is fresh. It is very important to ensure that you do not use harsh soaps on the affected skin area while you use these treatments.

In conclusion, before you embark on any treatment for acne, ensure that it is good for your skin.

Sodium lauryl sulfate is a destructive chemical that is often used in facial cleansers and other soaps. It creates foam, which consumers have been conditioned into believing is a sign of effectiveness, but it is actually a derivative of sulfuric acid. It dissolves the top layers of skin, drying it out and causing premature wrinkling.

The skin’s oils are removed, which causes the skin to overcompensate by creating more oil and, consequently, very bad acne blemishes. Skin that is prone to acne needs to be cleansed with gentle products that do not contain SLS. It may take a long time to become accustomed to facial skin still feeling somewhat soft and oily after being washed.

In addition to being bad for skin, SLS is bad for hair: when used in shampoo, sodium lauryl sulfate completely strips away all of the healthy moisture and oils. It is so harsh and abrasive that is it used in household cleaning products and automobile maintenance fluids.

It is used in facial and body cleansing products because it is inexpensive and disperses naturally occurring oils for a feeling of being clean, but one is not really cleaner after using these cleansers than after using gentler soaps with less foaming action.

SLS seeps into the body and mimics the effects of female hormones, raising the odds of contracting breast cancer, developing menstrual problems, and experiencing lowered fertility. When facing an almost absolute probability of aggravating both body and acny with sodium lauryl sulfate, it is best to seek out washes and creams that contain natural botanical ingredients and do not lather into the deceptive foam that has made SLS such a common ingredient in most popular cleansers.

Sodium lauryl sulfate is also bad for eyes, the respiratory tract, and is dangerous when swallowed. It is not a chemical that is conducive to healing acne or perpetuating healthy, glowing skin. In some people, it can cause rashes, itching and painful breakouts.

Consumers are advised to read product labels and ensure that their favorite brands do not contain this dangerous chemical additive. Acne sufferers should see a licensed dermatologist who can prescribe medication targeted toward the patient’s individual needs.

We’re happy to tell you we’ve added a new informative page for your viewing. It’s all about something we are very passionate about – natural acne cleansers.  We are, of course, passionate about a holistic, complementary approach to treating acne.  Part of this effective treatment regimen is using effective and all natural, non irritating yet very effective natural acne cleansers.

Our criteria for “natural” are the following :
NO SULFATES – Especially no SLS, or sodium lauryl sulfate, which disrupts the delicate moisture balance of the skin and can actually aggravate the skin and force it to produce even more sebum.

NO artificial colors or fragrances. Artificial colors and fragrances contain a bevy of skin-unfriendly chemicals that not only irritate the skin, but also enter the body where they can become bio-active and cause things like nerve damage, cell damage, hormone disruption and more.

NO PARABENS. And no other chemical preservatives.  These can cause hormonal disruption upon entering the body. They have also been linked to cancer.

The natural acne skin cleanser  on our new page must fit this criteria.  Happy reading!

Is had inadvertently gotten a little off topic in my last discussion about the whole soap vs. liquid cleanser question, and if one was generally better than the other when it came to acne prone skin .The answer is no, because a good natural acne soap can have just as good ingredients as a liquid cleanser, it is just in a solid bar form.

We started then to talk about two potentially toxic and irritating and drying ingredients that are commonly used not only in bar soaps, but also in liquid cleansers for the skin.  It is also used in shaving creams, shampoos, cream, and toothpaste among other personal care and hygiene products.

We are talking about sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate, both of which belong to the same chemical family of surfactants.  They are both potentially irritating and drying to the skin, and depending on the concentration of them in your product, they can cause severe irritation in some people.

Just because we use something for a minute or two while washing our face, brushing our teeth, or sudsing up our head with shampoo, it doesn’t mean that it won’t linger on the skin and then absorb into the body. That is a dangerous misconception about body care products that contain harmful chemicals in them.

We sometimes think about things that only stay on our bodies for a minute or two as inconsequential, when in fact, traces of it stays on our body and is then quickly absorbed into our blood stream, where it needs to be metabolized, stored somewhere, or rid of through the body elimination processes.

This is where toxic body care can really mess with our body’s inner workings, and this is why it is important to avoid certain toxic ingredients in our skin care.  Our skin is the largest organ of our body. It is important to use products on it that do not contain large amounts of toxic or potentially carcinogenic ingredients, because the surface area is so great, and the potential to absorb a large amoung it great as well.

Think about body lotion, for example.  I personally use body lotion every night after my shower. Now, if I’m using a body lotion that has things like parabens and other chemicals in them, then I am literally lathering my whole body in them from head to toe, maximizing my body’s absorption of them.

That means that I am maximizing my potential for problems within the body and my organs if these chemicals have effects on the organs, or gets stored as toxic material in the body fat.  It’s important to really consider this, and to choose your body care products wisely by reading up on what to avoid in them.

I remember reading, a loooong time ago in a book about skin care (when there really wasn’t a lot known on the subject), how one person recommended that you always buy a liquid cleanser over a soap. They insisted that this was the only way to get the skin clean.  However, this is really not true.

You can get the same cleansing and bacteria-removing action from a bar of soap, especially with some of the more natural soaps today for acne.

They were talking about the “old days” when many opaque soaps for acne had too many drying ingredients in them.  This was also when it was basically unheard of that a soap be SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) free, like you can get today. SLS is a drying ingredient that is used in many body and face soaps today.

It is a cheap sudsing agent that most companies use in soaps to get that perceived cleansing action.  However, it is a harsh surfactant that can remove protective surface oils that help to protect your skin against the elements. In response to that, your body often produces more sebum to give the skin back that protective layer.

This is where conventional soaps fail acne prone skin, in my opinion.  Instead, there are other ingredients that can help to get the skin clean and free of bacteria. Ingredients like lemon grass, tea tree oil and lavender, as well as other totally natural materials can help to really get the surface bacteria off the skin as well as below the skin’s surface in the pores.

Not that SLS can’t be in liquid cleansers too, but it may not be as necessary since it is already in liquid form and more easily suds up.  SLS and SLES (Sodium Laureth Sulfate, a close mimick of SLS) is in many other products we use every day too. It’s in toothpaste, shampoos, and basically any other personal care product you can think of that lathers up really well when you apply friction and water to it.

It has gotten bas press because it has been linked to drying out the skin, mouth and scalp, depending on where it is used.  It has also been linked to other health issues as well, and it listed as a toxin ot the liver, which cannot process it once it is absorbed into the body.

More to come on the topic of SLS and SLES in the next post, sorry to get on my soapbox about this (no pun intended), but I think that it’s an important topic that we discuss.

I’ve been enjoying a little hobby (that’s actually getting a bit expensive, but oh well), where I’ve been making some of my own body products from scratch. Sometimes, you just feel like you’ve tried so many products, and you know exactly what you like and don’t like, and that you could actually do a pretty good job of making something exactly to your skin’s own specifications.

And, it’s fun. I compare it to cooking, which I also love, because you have to kind of experiment over and over again to get it just right (this is where this hobby gets expensive unfortunately, I’ve wasted so many ingredients this way, but many of my batches came out totally unusable).

What I made recently was an acne soap. I like liquid acne cleansers, but I like acne soaps even better, Just something about having a solid bar of soap that I like. It lasts a while, and it does a great cleansing job, and I do travel frequently certain times of the year, so I like to have something that I can just throw in a container and not worry about it running all over my suitcase as I would with liquid pump cleansers. 

Soap is really transportation friendly, in other words!  My acne soap is a very simple soap which I made with a goats milk soap base. Goats milk soap is a creamy opaque but partially see through soap base that can be melted down and used as a base or other additives of your choice.

I know from experience and lots of reading that some of the best essential oils for acne prone skin are lavender, tea tree oil, and lemongrass for it’s toning qualities.  Lavender and tea tree essentail oils are excellent because they are natural anti bacterials and anti microbials. As you know, bacteria is one of the main causes of acne. 

So, I basically used these three essential oils in a fairly concentrated amount, as my additive. I also added some liquid vitamin E for it’s skin healing, soothing and moisturizing qualities.

I have not tried the soap yet, but if I try it and love it, I might actually start offering it on this site. It may take a few tries to get it just right for our finicky skin, but I would really like to have a great, fresh smelling, ALL NATURAL (no chemicals, parabens, preservatives or anything like that) soap cleanser that can really help everyone’s skin, including mine!

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.

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!

I’m trying out a new, all natural soap without sulfates, parabens or any other potentially harmful chemicals in it, as a night time face wash in my shower. The night time formula soap I bought is one with tea tree oil, known for it’s anti acne benefits and astringent qualities (antibacterial), and lemon grass.

The brand of the soap is Nubian Heritage, and they make all natural soaps for about $4 a pop, not bad at all. The products are also free trade certified, which makes it even better since it is socially conscious, and free of all harmful chemicals – it doesn’t get much better than that.

For the morning time, since I just need a gentle, more moisturizing formula since my makeup is already cleaned off my face, I bought the same brand, but only with less astringent ingredients in it. The morning soap has coconut and and papaya. I chose this formula because it is moisturizing and anti aging and makes skin appear more smooth and supple.

I have now tried both soaps, and they are both pretty great. The lemon grass and tea tree oil soap I use at night takes my makeup off pretty well, and leaves my face feeling clean and refreshed without feeling overly tight or taut, and it has an incredibly clean, fresh scent as well, which never hurts. This soap also contains orange peel, so it helps to brighten the skin and make it appear younger.

There is also shea butter in this formula, which is probably why the soap cleanses well, but does not over dry. It has anti inflammatory properties, so this is a good thing for acne, especially when paired with tea tree oil, which is a great natural anti bacterial agent that helps take surface bacteria off so it does not clog pores and cause acne lesions.

The night time natural soap formula by Nubian Heritage I got has coconut, papaya, and vanilla beans in it. It is advertised as promoting anti aging, brightening and firming. I don’t know about all that, but this one also smells really great, lathers nicely and gives me fresh, clean and toned skin in the morning when I don’t need a heavy scrubbing or cleaning, I just need to refresh my face and get off any debris that may have collected on it during the night time.

I really like these soaps, I like the way they perform, I like what they stand for, and I love that they have no chemicals in them. It makes me feel like I’m doing something great for my skin.

I was at the Dollar General store a week ago, and wanted to grab a facial cleanser to replace my vitamin C one that I had liked, but of course, the face wash I use in the morning is the one I always experiment with, while the face washes I use at night are the ones I tend to stick to because those are taking all the grime off my face from the day time.

I don’t mind experimenting more with the morning face wash because this one can be a more moisturizing, gentle wash, whereas the night time one I need to really get down deep into my pores and cleanse the impurities of the day away. This time, I chose one that’s not really natural, because it’s got all kinds of scents, chemicals and preservatives in it.

But I figured, it might be a nice change because it’s a creamy lather moisturizing formula for the morning. I just really needed something to refresh my skin more than deep clean it in the morning time anyways. The one I ended up with was Garnier Nutritioniste Moisture Rescue.

The formula has grape water extract and apple water extract. What that means I don’t know, since I don’t even know what “grape water” and “apple water” are. Doesn’t sound very therapeutic, but oh well, it’s probably just a marketing ploy to put that it has these natural ingredients in it.

The claim is that grape water extract contains precious antioxidants to help protect the skin’s integrity and that the apple water helps protect the skin’s “moisture barrier”. I tried it, and let me tell you, you only need a tiny little dot of this stuff because it lathers up quite a bit. But the lather is not drying.

After you are done using it, your skin feels cleansed, but not dry or tight at all. I liked it. Of course, I’ll probably just go through the bottle and move on to the next experiment, but this stuff has a nice scent, and it makes your face feel clean without feeling tight .I don’t know that I’d recommend this to remove makeup though, I’m not sure it would do the job well enough for that.

The only other bad thing is that it must have a lot of scents in it, because I couldn’t put my contacts in after washing my face with it, they stung so bad. My eye doctor told me that when your hands are washed with products with a lot of scents, your contacts will sting your eyes.