Acne Magazine : Skin Care, Tips, Treatment Reviews

I noticed an interesting short article – well actually a Q&A where a reader asks a qualified doctor a question, on one of the news sites I frequent the other day. This one of course caught my eye because it was about acne, more specifically it was about acne in a woman who was probably in her forties or late thirties, somewhere thereabout. You’ll see why I came to that conclusion when you read what it was about.

Many women have experienced the improvement that being on certain birth control pills can provide in their acne problems. A lot of the birth control pills on the market are estrogen-dominant, which means that they naturally lower the testosterone (male hormones, or androgens) in the body. This means that the likelihood of acne decreases, since androgens are actually the base cause behind most cases of acne vulgaris. Acne is, after all, a hormone-based skin care problem.

The more balanced your hormones are, which can happen many times on women who have unbalanced hormones, then go on the pill, because they are imbalanced to begin with, the less likely it is that acne will form on your face. Excess androgens, or testosterone, will force the body to create more sebum (oil), which collects and traps dirt and bacteria, which creates whiteheads, blackheads – well, you know the drill.

Women who have been on the pill for years and years, which is the woman’s situation that wrote in, may actually experience a surge in their acne, even if they are in their forties when they come off the pill. Why? Because sometimes the effects and benefits of the pill aren’t even realized until one takes themselves off the pill. They may not even know they had a pre existing overload of testosterone before because they’d been on the pill for so long, but once they come off, here comes the acne.

Being on the pill for years and years is not supposed to be good for you, so I’ve heard. Then I’ve also heard there may be some protective benefits of the pill, no matter what you believe, there are some natural hormonal acne solutions that you can try as well that will try to sync up your hormones to healthy, non acne conducive levels.

I’m writing about this fun phenomena, because I just experienced it last night, and am now seeing the result of this funny little pain that occurs on my face when I can feel a pimple forming on it. I swear, when I feel those cortisol (stress) hormones elevate in my body, my heart rate accelerate and my breathing become shallow when I’m under a lot of stress, I can almost feel a new hormonally fueled pimple forming under my skin.

That’s exactly what happened to me yesterday when I was totally stressed out about these wedding reception invitations we had to send out. I was getting hit from all angles, with people calling me to add on new invitees, my husband (we got married a few short months ago, we’re having a reception later, it’s kind of out of order, I know!), not knowing if he got everyone and unable to provide me with the addresses I needed, and trying to figure out how many more I needed to print out, because yes, we saved tons of money by printing them ourselves, but let me tell you, that was a lot of additional work!

So, as I was feeling my heart rate go up and my breath get short, I could also feel a slight throbbing on my chin, right under the left side of my bottom lip. I swear, I could feel a zit forming on my chin! And sure enough, within a few hours, I felt there and had a hard bump, but it was still too far under the surface to show any color, it was just a bump. Then, when I woke up this morning, of course it must have come to the surface enough and it was reddish in color, and misshapen, a bump in other words, or a swollen area, but more localized than it was last night.

I’m sure that if you’ve been struggling with acne for a while, as I have, you have experienced this. Cortisol, which is the hormone that is released in abundance by our bodies when we are under a lot of stress or are in sticky situations, is actually a huge hormone disrupter. It can cause your androgens, which are the male hormones in your body, to go haywire, which in turn lends itself to acne. In fact, hormone imbalance is a huge reason for acne prone skin.

But that’s not all cortisol is responsible, or at least partially responsible for. It has also been linked to obesity, so it is best to keep cortisol levels under as tight control as possible for your life, which means you need to minimize stress levels. In the end, it’s good for your weight and good for your skin.

So, I understand that the birth control pill, or at least some variations of it with lower and more even dosed hormones supposedly, is supposed to help keep my hormones in check and help clear my skin up. One of them, the Yasmine pill, is even advertised as a pill that helps to clear the skin up. I know that I have had relative success over the years in using birth control pills to help keep my skin clear, but they are not an effective catch all, and you can still break out while on the pill. The one I’m on now, which is a low, even dose pill, I think helps somewhat to keep my skin clear, however I noticed a really interesting trend.

The pill I’m on is called Alesse, by the way. I’ve noticed that on my “off week” where I am taking only the placebo sugar pills, which I actually don’t take, because I have a good memory and go right back on them after my week off is up, my skin actually becomes extremely clear, like not a dot of acne or a slight bit of bumpiness in sight.

I thought it was odd that my skin would clear so exceptionally on my days off the pill, since this should be when my own hormones would take over, and if there were to be a breakout, you’d think it would be around this time, but no, my skin actually gets better when I’m off of it for this short time.

If anyone reading is a doctor or has a medical background and can answer this question for our readers, some of whom I’m sure have noticed the same thing I have, it would be greatly appreciated! It’s interesting to navigate through the little nuances of acne and why it happens, and how our bodies and our hormones especially, work so that we can work with what we have and get the clearest skin possible in the most natural way possible, and if we understood the mechanics behind it, it would make clearing our skin all that much easier, and of course getting rid of those pesky hormonal acne breakouts earlier on!

I received a question from a new reader (we love those, keep them coming!) about whether or not we had reviewed the Boscia Clear Complexion Kit yet. I have not tried this product, and to be honest, had not heard about it until now since there is such a wide plethora of acne treatment products on the market today, so I cannot offer a true assessment of it, but I did look it up and the ingredients are conducive to clear, yet moisturized skin.

The only ingredient that puzzled me was the maltitol, which I’ve only ever seen in foods as a sugar alcohol (sweetening agent) usually used in low carb foods. And it gives you really bad gas if you eat too much of it, so I found this a rather odd ingredient for a skin care product, but loved the other natural ingredients I saw in it. I’m going to research this maltitol thing, who knows, it may actually have very therapeutic properties for the skin, and now I’m curious about it, since up until now, it was only a food ingredient that I ignored like the plague in diet foods since it wreaked havoc on my digestive system.

Here is the question from the reader, if anyone has used this product, would you kindly post a comment below about your experience? Don’t know if I’ll get around to trying this product any time soon! Thanks!

Dear AcneMag Editors,
Hi, I’m a new reader, and I was looking to see if you have reviewed a product:
Boscia Clear Complexion Kit . I have acne rosacea and always looking for good products and good value.
Thank you for putting information out there for people like me!

Answer to reader :
Hi XXXXX. Sorry for the delay in responding. No, we have not reviewed this product yet. I have never tried it and haven’t really heard anything about it, this is the first I’m hearing. If you happen to try it (I’d suggest seeing if they offer a money back guarantee), please let us know how it works, I’m sure there are others like you who are looking for good user reviews on this product! I looked at the Sephora page with this product and I saw fairly mixed reviews, which is why I suggested asking if there is a money back guarantee, in case it did not work for your skin.

I have a rather bizarre observation to share with you about how my acne sometimes will alternate places. This happened especially when I was suffering from acne badly just when I was a teen and in my twenties, and it still will occasionally happen to me today when the ol’ stressors start to wear on my skin. Stress is my biggest acne trigger, by far today. I would say my biggest triggers for acne to this day are, number one stress and anxiety about particular events or about some particular situation or quandary, and number two, from stimulants like coffee and other caffeinated and stimulant-laced drinks, pills, supplements, and medications.

I’ve always observed, especially in the last five years or so, I guess my acne has “evolved”, that I will either break out on my face or on my back, but it’s never both at one time. For example, shortly after my Las Vegas wedding and when I weened off of the Zenmed Dermacleanse supplements, I noticed that my back broke out but my face was clear and pristine, almost clearer than it had ever been really. So, while it was nice that my face was extremely clear, it wasn’t so nice that my back had broken out in its place.

Conversely, the acne seemed to shift, and for a few days my face broke out after that while my back was mostly cleared up. Very odd! I can’t really think of a scientific or logical explanation for it that would be plausible, but there it is, that’s how it happened, and how it has happened on and off for a while. I have since started back on the Dermacleanse and everything is cleared up now, shoot, now I’m just waiting to break out again because we are planning a reception for the early spring, and then we’ll have all that planning and stress to deal with – fun!

From AcneMagazine, we want to wish you a wonderful, safe and happy New Year. Whatever you’re doing tonight, be safe, and have fun. Whether you think those two are an oxymoron or not, we just want our readers to be safe and have a wonderful time this holiday season. I hope that this New Year will bring us lots to talk about in the world of acne and skin care. Who knows what new treatments will be developed in 2010.

There could be numerous effective remedies, treatments and dermatological advances in 2010, you just never know when that new breakthrough will come along, whether as an alternative acne treatment, or more conventional, but we will have our eyes peeled as usual to share this cutting edge information as soon as we have it, and will scour the news and other media outlets and word of mouth to bring you the latest and greatest in skin care for those with skin care issues.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I really wish they’d come up with a decent decongestant that actually worked on me that did not contain pseudo ephedrine, which as you may or may not know, is a stimulant. And, you guessed it, it can cause breakouts in those of us that are prone to breakouts from anything that causes the stimulation of the nervous system. This includes things like caffeine, ma huang, which is an herb but also a very powerful stimulant that will make your heart race and disrupt your hormonal harmony, and ephedrine, or pseudo ephedrine, which is present in many nasal decongestants like Sudafed and the like.

You know, those ones that you now have to take a tag up to the pharmacy to purchase, because so many meth labs were purchasing products that contained this pseudo ephedrine in bulk to make crystal meth, a lethal street drug that is highly addictive and a huge scourge now in many communities. It’s no wonder that this stuff is used to make a serious street drug, it is definitely quite a powerful stimulant, as both my body and my acne will tell you.

I had to use Sudafed for a few days, and at first I thought I might be ok and actually not break out this time from using the decongestant (the only one that really works for me, but I can also use Mucinex with no side effects). However, after the fourth day, lo and behold, my chine and my nose sprouted those tell tale zits that told me that I hadn’t somehow miraculously gotten over my sensitivity to these products, but I just had a few days before it caught up to my skin for whatever reason this time.

If you have a cold, and you are sensitive to stimulants, then you may want to talk to your doctor about good alternatives that will help decongest you and clear the excess phlegm in your lungs and nose and nasal passages. The other one I use, as I mentioned, which is stimulant free and does not appear to have any negative effects on my complexion, is Mucinex, which is basically a product that you take once a day with a full glass of water.

It is supposed to help break up heavy mucus in the lungs and help to expel it from you via coughing much more easily. It advertises that it makes your coughs “more productive” and I have found that it does indeed do that for me. And no breakouts. However, I still liked to use the Sudafed for during the day when my congestion got really bad also, hence I paid the price with a few nice little new zits. They’re on their way to clearing already though.

I’m an avid user of oil blotting sheets. This is not only because I believe that a shiny, slick looking face just isn’t all that attractive (have you ever seen a picture where your face literally looks like it’s glistening?), but also because I believe that it helps keep my skin’s acne-producing abilities to a minimum. Why? Well, because you’re essentially mopping up all that surface oil that is the “trap” which baits in dirt and bacteria. This, in turn, causes inflammation of the skin’s pores, and thus, in turn, this causes either blackheads or whiteheads, which we all know are a headache to deal with, and can linger for days or weeks, marring our complexion.

You can buy oil blotting sheets for a really reasonable price almost anywhere now, whereas they used to be somewhat hard to find in stores. I’ve found my most recent batch for a buck (yes, a dollar!) at Target by that cheap makeup brand called ELF (Eyes Face Lips). I love their oil blotting sheets because they come in a compact little recyclable sort of carton that fits easily in your purse pockets and takes up the space of a few credit cards maybe. They work great, there’s not much technology that goes into making blotting sheets, so don’t spend a ton of money on them.

Heck, in a bind, you can even use a single ply of toilet paper, or you can also use a piece of a toilet seat cover, which works like a charm as well. Usually, for me, since my skin is still very oily at the age of 35 years old (yes, dealing with wrinkles and acne is no fun at this age, trust me), I have to blot for the first time at around ten o’clock AM.

If I miss that, then my skin becomes a veritable grease pit. I can literally take my nail and scrape my face, and get a combination of oil and foundation under my nails. It’s that greasy! So, if you have very oily skin, you may want to start carrying blotters around with you to minimize that surface oil and keep your skin looking matte and fresh all day. It’s really worth the small investment, and it may even help prevent some of your acne from forming in the first place. I’d just go to Target and pick up a cheap pack, or your local drugstore and see what they have and start trying them out, I guarantee you’ll get addicted to them after a little while!

It seems like one of the top requests for the skin is to have smaller pores, which is why so many products focus on shrinking and tightening and clearing the pores, so that you can have one solid, smooth mask of skin on your face with no intermittent “interruptions” in the form of big black pores on there, disrupting the illusion of perfection. There are lots of things that can help with the appearance of larger pores, however, it’s unfortunately a truth that we have to generally live with enlarged pores as they are hard to actually shrink down, especially if we have oilier skin.

In fact, let’s answer that question about why the pores are larger on the facial skin than anywhere else on the body. Well, the answer is very simple. We have waaaay more oil glands on our face than we do on other areas of the body in general. Sure, some of us are a little more active, speaking of sebum production, however, in general, most people tend to have more oily skin on their face, which means the pores enlarge to let that oil come to the surface.

That’s why acne sufferers generally have a harder time with large pores, they have oilier skin, which provides for larger pores, and the oilier the skin, the larger they appear. However, you can help to camouflage large pores, which especially occur near the nose, with a great foundation. You can also help shrink the pores by using a great astringent, which helps to temporarily shrink the pores so that they aren’t so obvious.

I like to use a green tea or tea tree oil astringent, as they really help to close up the pores after you’ve washed your face. Another trick of course, is to splash the face with ice cold water after washing it in warm water, to help to shrink or close the pores. This also acts as a barrier against invading bacteria into the pores which can cause the pores to become infected and to start an acne postule at the surface, which we all don’t want.

There are some professional spa treatments that can help to shrink the pores, but these are also usually temporary. You may want to stay away from pore strips that rip the gook out of pores, as they can leave you with open, iflamed, and potentially infected pores, which look ten times worse than just a normal blackhead.

A lot of people probably don’t know that there is actually a different purpose for the two most popular over the counter acne fighting ingredients in topical acne skin care treatments, benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid. I know that I didn’t really know there was a difference until I did some research to find out which one was better.  Turns out the one that works better for my particular skin type and specific issues is salicylic acid. I also like this particular ingredient because it tends to not dry me out as much as benzoyl, but that definitely will depend on your skin type whether the same holds true for you.

Here is the main difference between benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid.  Benzoyl peroxide is more of a bacteria killer than anything.  It goes after and attacks surface bacteria, which in turn helps to prevent and clear up acne since bacteria getting into the pores is a main reason for acne developing.  The reason that acne develops is because the over production of sebum causes bacteria and debris, such as dead skin, to get caught in and stuck in the pores, which causes inflammation in turn, which causes the acne you see.

The sebum causes the skin to be more “sticky” and attract this debris and bacteria, which is why some of the ways acne is treated is through the reduction of sebum production, making sure the debris is cleared away at all times, and attacking the bacteria that causes the acne to grow.  Salicylic acid comes in where the debris is.  Salicylic acid is a sloughing or exfoliating agent which helps clear away debris such as dead skin flakes and cells that eventually get caught in the sebum and cause inflammation.

It is great for sloughing off dead skin cells and revealing newer skin cells, and for this reason, there are salicylic acid acne treatments where you can swath it allover you face and let it sit, sort of like any other acid peel, and it will help to clean off the debris that so often causes acne to occur. A lot of people love this one too because it helps to fade old acne scars while also helping to treat the acne that’s there or soon to crop up because of it’s exfoliating properties.

I personally prefer it because it has dual uses and makes the skin look vibrant while also contributing to the demise of acne.