Acne Magazine : Skin Care, Tips, Treatment Reviews

Boy oh boy, was the point of dry frigid air not being good for your skin hammered home for me today. My husband and I decided to go to our alma mater where we both went to college, Kent State University, to the ice arena and go ice skating. Yes, neither of us is very good at it, and haven’t been in a while, so we though it would be fun to see if we could still do it.

Well, to make a long story short to that end, he ended up falling on his bum several times, and I had to struggle to hold back the snickers that I inevitably felt looming, that all aside, we both had a great time, and some solid, quality spousal bonding time!

One of the things I noticed on the rink was how dry the air was. Of course, they probably have to keep the humidity dramatically pared back on the ice rink since the ice has to stay as firmly frozen as possible, and the mere fact that it’s basically man made ice makes the surrounding environment very dry and very cold.

We weren’t cold though, because we were getting so much exercising skating and er, falling I guess, but nonetheless, I noticed that after the two hours on the open skate out on the ice, we had chapped hands, chapped lips, and my skin looked like I had aged a couple years because it was so dried out from not only the dry environment but the lack of water I had taken in to my body over the last two hours, that my crows feet looked more noticeable, and my skin just looked more sunken.

That goes to show you how important moisture is to your skin, inside and out, no matter if you have acne or not, especially if, like me, you have maturing skin that has seen some days on it. We were both really parched, probably from a combination of being nervous about falling and the zillions of tiny kids that seemed to be weaving in and out of everyone, causing people to crash, wobble and flail in attempts not to fall into a pile on top of the poor little kids, and the dry environment.

We literally couldn’t stop drinking water for like three hours after our adventure. And guess what? As soon as I rehydrated and also put some of my trusty moisturizer on my face, my face was back to looking “plumped out” and more firm, with less noticeable flaws – much more healthy! Moisturization and internal hydration are SO important to your skin, I can’t drive that point home enough!

There is a famous woman who is very skinny. I won’t mention her name, but she is a very beautiful, rich and powerful woman. She is extremely, sometimes painfully thin, and I believe that she really tries at it, perhaps even resorting to diet pills or drinking caffeine or simply deprivation to achieve that level of thinness. No one is that thin without trying, and because of her previous more shapely body, I believe that her extreme thinness is due to her dieting habits.

She also happens to have skin that can look bad at times. I’ve known women like this actually, which is why I think that dieting pills and drinking copious amounts of coffee or other caffeinated drinks to stave off hunger, which is what a lot of avid, extreme dieters do, I’ve seen it in action, contribute greatly to making your skin look bad. It can also contribute to the appearance and severity of rosacea.

Many times people who resort to these sorts of dieting methods look somewhat dehydrated, which makes them look more sunken, and can age the face. Also, they may have small bumps allover their face, because caffeine and stimulants cause a rough texture to appear on the face, I’ve seen that in action on myself over and over when I’m starting to need caffeine to get me through my day, so I can personally attest to the roughness factor.

I actually also had an aquaintence a while ago who had gorgeous, olive toned skin thanks to her heritage. She also happened to drink almost a whole pot of coffee every single day, and this made her skin look rough. While overall, she still had avoided a lot of the signs of aging thanks to her genetics, she still had that roughness that was telltale on her cheeks, forehead and chin, that was probably a direct result of both dieting and drinking tons of coffee to keep herself thin.

So, if you’re dieting, or you are interested in staying thin or at a healthy and comfortable weight for your self, it’s probably a good idea to try to do it without the help of too many stimulants and caffeinated products. After all, you’re sort of defeating the purpose of looking better if you’re poisoning your skin in order to stay skinny.

I recently returned from Las Vegas. We stayed for 4 days, and I actually got married! So, needless to say, in addition to all the usual nerves that occur when you are going on a trip and have to organize everything, be certain places at certain times, and yadda yadda, there was a lot more stress on me that I had to take into account, and plan ahead so that my skin wouldn’t break out on my most important day.

Not only that, but there are some preventive and cautionary measures you should take before you go on any vacation, since the stressors of going away can sometimes take quite a toll on your largest organ. First, take into consideration the type of climate you are visiting. If it’s a really humid climate, take a lot of blotting sheets, and don’t be afraid to use more drying skin products that help soak up that extra oil that’s bound to produce on your skin.

When I was in Costa Rica, for instance, it felt like my face was working overtime on producing sebum, and I actually had to wash my face once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and then again at night just to not appear like a big greaseball in pictures. I actually enjoyed not wearing any foundation in Costa Rica, and it was hard to actually try to since the humidity just pretty much melted it off your face anyways.

You may want to take advantage of time in a climate like that and give your skin a break by not wearing a whole lot of makeup. Just MAKE SURE you use a lot of skin friendly, noncomedogenic SPF on your face and other areas still. The extra protection that many foundations offer wouldn’t be there, so you must compensate my applying a high rate SPF religiously.

If you’re going ot a dry climate, take along a great noncomedogenic moisturizer that has no mineral oils in it – something that you can apply and reapply without irritating the skin or clogging those pores, and make sure you keep it well hydrated. You may want to bring a red-reducing cream as well, so that your skin doesn’t appear red if it does get overly dried out. And, I know it’s hard to do on vacation, but try to limit sugar and alcohol for the best complexion on your whole trip. I know, hard!

Aging of the skin has always been a fascinating area of study, and now that good skin is totally “in”, and has been a hallmark of the ultimate mark of beauty for quite a few years now, it’s being studied more and and more not only in terms of how to treat common and marring skin conditions such as acne and rosacea, but also in terms of how to turn back the clock on aging skin and help prevent it from happening in the first place.

I thought the study that was performed on twins and how their skin aged differently, even though they were identical and from the same DNA, was an interesting case in point about how we can actually control the rate at which our skin ages and what it looks like, much more than we probably thought we could. After all, it’s not just good genes that get you skin that doesn’t age as quickly or ages more gracefully, but it in large part has to do with ……drum roll please……YOUR LIFESTYLE.

Yes, this has been hammered home here at Acnemag for years, but it’s a point nonetheless that shouldn’t be taken lightly if you take the appearance of your skin seriously, and you want to keep it looking great for as long as you possibly can. The studies involved several sets of identical twins. The most interesting one was a set of female twins that were bicoastal. One lives in Ohio, the other in Florida, and the differences in their skin’s appearance is quite remarkable.

The one that lives in Florida actually had more sun exposure over the years than her twin, which right there, puts her in a higher risk of aging skin to a larger degree and more photodamage, which creates sunspots and other telltale signs of aging on the skin. Not only that, the Florida twin has been a smoker for several years.

Smoking accelerates aging of the skin because it is a toxin, it cuts off oxygen to the skin, and therefore not only is a grey pallor eventually visible on smoker’s skin, but also their collagen production suffers because of a chain reaction of events related to the inhalation of the toxin over and over, and their cells go rigid much quicker, which means that wrinkles appear much more easily than when collagen is present, and makes the skin more flexible and smoother.

Another interesting point made by the study was that people, once past the age of forty, who have more body fat, tend to look younger longer because their fat fills out the wrinkles in their face, making it appear more supple, while more lean body types tended to look older due to the lack of facial fat. However, when younger than forty or so, the opposite apparently holds true, and those that are leaner actually look younger than their biological age. Food for thought!

Today’s discussion isn’t really so much about acne, per se, but more so it’s about protecting your skin from getting skin cancer, as I’ve just been to the dermatologist a week ago to get my bi-yearly checkup since I have melanoma skin cancer in my family (my grandfather on my dad’s side actually died from a melanoma skin cancer), and also since I’ve had a few basal cell carcinomas taken off already myself, no doubt due to my sunbathing habits years ago and poor sunscreen choices for my face, even when I wasn’t being directly exposed to the sunlight.

Now I know better, and I wear sunscreen every single day on my face, and not just the sunscreen that already comes included in my foundation and my glow lotion I use, but I also apply a 15 spf sunscreen on my face prior to even putting the foundation on, so I’m actually double protected. Since I’ve started doing that, I haven’t gotten any additional basal cell carcinonmas on my face, which is where all but one appeared.

The other appeared in between my breasts, probably because that skin was exposed to the sun when I was younger and would lay out with a triangle top bikini on and it would burn that particular area quite often. While skin cancer is definitely caused by a variety of reasons, including your genetic makeup and tendencies, it is definitely aggravated by exposure to damaging UV rays, which alter the cell’s genetic makeup and can make them spawn cancerous cell division, so sun exposure is a known factor, although it’s important to note that melanomas and basal cell carcinomas are also discovered in other areas where there is no sun exposure at all.

For example by dermatologist informed me that she has removed skin cancers from a woman’s and a man’s genitals before, and you know those areas typically do not get any sunlight. It’s important to know your genetic risks as well so that you can gauge what your likelihood is and modify your behavior accordingly. However, using sunscreen should never be overlooked, no matter what your skin tone is.

Not only will sun exposure accelerate aging signs, but it can mean the difference between life and death for you.

Well, in an obvious, but long studied conclusion, tanning beds have finally been added to a list of “definite cancer causing agents”.  This is something that your dermatologist has always preached, but that tanning bed companies will vehemently deny, insisting that as long as their beds are used responsibly, they do not add any risk to you developing skin cancer.  Well, I definitely have always thought they are dangerous, and I even baked myself in them over and over, trying futilly to get my pale white irish skin to take on the sheen and dark glow of those that I envied in high school.  When I think of all the damage I did to my skin in my youth, it really makes me sick.

Not only are tanning beds bad for your health, but they are really bad for your skin, causing age spots, growths and uneven skin pigment when they are used.  The lighter your skin, the worse the damage these beds are, but you are still at risk even if you are not a naturally lighter skinned person.  There has been a huge spike in the skin cancer cases seen in young teens, as the popularity of these tanning beds reached their zenith.

With the boom of excellent, natural looking and highly effective self tanners though, I would have thought that more young people would skip the tanning bed in favor of a fake spray tan, or a cream tan, but this must not be that case, as skin cancer cases have still been skyrocketing and tanning salon’s popularity has not faltered.  However, after seeing this in plain, black and white, and on several major news outlets, maybe it will finally hit people that tanning beds really aren’t good for you, and should be avoided at all costs.

Some think that tanning beds makes their skin look better. While this may be very temporary due to a darkening of the skin pigment, which I’ll admit, is pretty universally flattering, the long term effects are going to make your skin look much much worse, and you’ll wish you had never set foot in one of these beds in your life.

Men who have facial hair have another facet of complexity added to their fight against acne – they have actual hair as a blockade to treating and successfully defeating acne in those areas because the areas that produce hair also happen to be factories for oil (sebum) production as well as collectors of debris and poolings of oil, which is the perfect breeding grounds for acne causing bacteria.  Not to mention that fact that ingrown facial hair on men can cause acne, since they essentially are a clogged pore that runs wild and usually becomes a large whitehead that i svery visible to the naked eye, if it weren’t for the hair obscuring the view.

So, is there really any different way to deal with acne that happens to be amongst a lot of facial hair in men, or do you just have to sort of bit the bullet and hope for the best, applying creams and serums on the face in these areas, hoping the medication will reach the acne postules that it needs to?  Well, it’s a combination of both, but here are some pointers for dealing with acne in your beard guys!

You will need to make sure you are cleansing the entire bearded area of your face each time you wash, and make sure you are using some sort of acne clarifying face wash (I prefer it’s actually a clear gel or soap), with salicylic acid, this will help dissolve the sebum that builds up in the pores where your beard grows, and therefore help to treat and prevent acne from growing there.  Don’t just glide right over the bearded area, but make sure you are lathering the entire area to get the cleanser right down in there, into the skin area and the pores.

A common mistake for guys with beards is that they just lather the beard hair and not the skin underneath.  Make sure you finger tips are reaching the skin under the hair.  Then, I recommend you get either a prescription topical medication or a strong salicylic acid based gel, nothing cheap, make sure it’s high quality since this is extra hard to deal with acne caused by having facial hair, and apply it to your problem areas every night until the problem clears up.

You may notice especially more acne when you’re trying to grow a beard for the first time, this is because the skin is getting used to the hair being there, and ingrown hairs are more likely to occur in this phase, whereas when you have it fully grown out, you should see less of a problem there.

I received a question from a reader on how she can help prevent breakouts before her period.  While there is no surefire way, I gave tips that I think will help reduce inflammation in the body around this time, helping the reduce the likelihood of pimples cropping up. No name was used to protect privacy.

Question :

Hi,
How to not get pimples before period?  What should I watch out for?
Please help me.  Thank you in advance.  Thanks,
XXXX

Hello XXXX.  While there is no guaranteed way you won’t get pimples before your period, especially because of the hormonal fluctuations of testosterone and estrogen right before you menstruate, there may be some ways you can help control the breakouts.  One is to avoid caffeinated products if you happen to consume anything with caffeine in it on a regular basis.

This includes coffee, soda with caffeine, any sort of supplements that contain stimulants and anything else with a stimulant or caffeine.  Unfortunately this also rules out a lot of the PMS pills you can take like Pamprin and things  like that because most of those do contain caffeine.

Another thing you can do is to drink fresh lemon juice in your water.  This may help to reduce the inflammatory tendencies in your skin around the time of your period.  Lemon juice is a natural anti inflammatory, as are cucumbers.

Around your period, since your skin tends to be oilier, it may be wise to carry blotting sheets with you, to gently blot away excess oil and debris that may aggravate acne.  You can also try to wear a lighter foundation or moisturizer around this time, so as not to encourage the plugging of pores.

Hope this helps!

Thanks!

It’s tricky when looking for products for acne prone skin.  You’ve got face washes, moisturizers, creams, serums, cleansing pads, astringents, various alternative therapies, supplements, and all kinds of other considerations when you’re dealing with acne prone skin.  It’s tough because you always have to make sure that these products that are commonly purchased for the skin and are supposed to enhance the skin’s beauty, are also not going to make you break out.

One such skin care product that is particularly sensitive and needs to be chosen with caution and great research, is a sunscreen.  Sunscreen is a necessity, especially because we find ourselves dealing with one of the worst case scenarios when it comes to how well our ozone layer is doing, and there are more and more cases of skin cancer popping up allover which may or may not be attributed to reduced protection by this layer.

You need sunscreen, period.  So, when you’re choosing one for your oily and acne prone skin, first make sure there is no  mineral oil in it.  Mineral oil is one of the most skin and pore clogging materials that you can purchase in a product.  Make sure it is a very light, weightless formula.  You can even open it and check it’s consistency if you need to, to see if it’s a heavy cream or a lightweight one.  Light is better, it allows more oxygen into the skin, so those pores stay clear and free of dirt.

It’s hard to pick one that’s light and also effective, I acknowledge that, because the role of a sunscreen is essentially to form a physical barrier between your skin and the damagin UV rays that are emitted from the sun.  To form a physcial barrier, it needs to have some sort of weight to it, but with today’s technology and the ability to make tiny polymers out of something that once was a heavier substance is much better today.

Last but not least, make sure it says it’s uncomedogenic, this means that it’s been tested for it’s pore clogging abilities and found that it is minimally pore clogging, at least enough to earn that label.  I used a heavy sunscreen before and almost instantly felt that it was making my face break out, so there really is something to this.

When it comes to back acne, there is one thing that is very important in preventing getting those big, plugged up comedones that seem to take forever to go away, and that is venting.  Yes, I said venting.

What I mean is that when you are say exercising, or you are going to be in the hot sun for a while, wear something that is very light and airy, not a thick material, even if it’s cotton which is one of the more breathable fabrics, because it causes the dirt and sweat to just sit there without evaporating, and this increases the likelihood of you getting a big zit in the area because of the clogging of the pores.

I made this mistake the other night in the sauna.  We have a far infrared sauna in our basement, which I love retreating to at night as a means to escape not only the harsh winter weather her in Ohio where I live, but also a means of skin purification, which I think has helped the clarity and tone of my skin immensely.  The bench seats of the sauna heat up as well on their own, creating a relaxing place to lay your back, especially if you suffer intermittent back and neck pain, as I have for fifteen years now thanks to a series of car accidents that left me with spinal misalignment.

I usually will wear a very sheer tank top into the sauna, but this time I chose a heavier cotton tshirt because I was too lazy to find out where my newly washed gauzy tanks were.  I laid down on my back like I usually do, for about fifteen minutes before I sit and start to read, and the next day, because of the trapping of the sweat and dirt (i’m almost positive that’s why), I woke up with a huge under the skin zit.

If I wear what I’m supposed to which is light and vented clothing with a lot of breathing space, then I dont’ get these, but if I don’t, then that is the outcome which goes to show it really does matter what you’re wearing when you know you’re going to be sweating a lot.  I have another example of trapping sweat and dirt in the upcoming post, but this one is about sunscreen.