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.

Exercise is a key to keeping healthy skin. There are a number of reasons why. Number one, as it related to acne at least in my opinion and experience is the fact that exercise is probably the greatest stress reliever that you can have.

Stress and acne go hand in hand because stress releases hormones that affect your overall balance of testosterone (or androgens, male hormones) and estrogen. Estrogen and androgens, of which we have both even though you are a male or female, can be very delicate to balance.

When they are out of balance, this causes acne. Acne and androgens and too much estrogen or androgens go hand in hand. Exercising helps keep all your hormones in balance. It keeps the stress hormone cortisol in check all the time. Cortisol is the hormone that is released when you are stressed out.

When I exercise, I can almost “feel” the stress flowing out of my body. I also happen to enjoy glowing, healthy looking skin that’s got a healthy color and healthy tone and texture when I’m working out regularly.

When I’m not working out, my skin looks less toned, and takes on a powdery, dry look. I also do tend to break out more because all that stress that I experience builds up in my body. I can literally feel my skin boiling over with potential acne, and I can feel an acne lesion brewing when I’m under a lot of stress.

Exercise banishes those feelings of stress and anxiety. Not only that, it increases circulation, which is necessary to keep your skin healthy and toned. Exercise in itself helps your hormones balanced.

I also figured that I didn’t now how I’d sleep in the hotel, because sometimes sleeping in a foreign bed really interferes with my sleep. Five Hour Energy, when I take only a half bottle like I should, doesn’t make me break out with acne like other energy drinks such as Red Bull do. I think it’s because it has more B12 and other energizing ingredients and doesn’t rely on pure stimulants and caffeine like a lot of other energy drinks do.

What I didn’t count on though, was the side effect of drinking too much vitamin B12 was. I drank a few of the Five Hour Energies in one day, and that’s when I started to notice all these little bumps on my shoulders and my back and my chest. It was sort of like really mild acne bumps, not inflamed, but almost like a rash.

I didn’t put two and two together until long after we got back from Vegas though. I ended up reading about how Niacin, when consumed in too much quantity can actually make your skin flush and also break out in rashes in different areas.

So what I had experienced was a sort of “overdose” of Vitamin B12! Just a word to the wise, Five Hour Eenrgy may not make you break out with acne per se, but it can definitely make you break out in a rash that you may not know what it’s from.

Normally, when people have unwanted healthy issues with the skin, they prefer to have good skin instead of perfect. They will do anything to solve the healthy skin problems which can further endanger health. These procedures are considered easy and not very likely to be cosmetically focused.

Now, focusing on the real reason why society is obsessed with perfect skin is the look. Cosmetic skin treatment is very popular nowadays, almost 95 % being women. Women pay far more attention to their skin then men. They want to have clean, soft skin with a chocolate color.

Having the chocolate color is not an issue for people with dark complexion, that is natural for them. But women with whiter complexion want to have the brown color on their skin because it adds more style and sensuality. They prefer summer holidays on a beach, applying sun-tanning cream on the skin and letting the sun do all the work for a chocolate complexion.

It seems that summer holidays are not enough to maintain darker complexion. So, there are tanning saloons offering the same effect. That way, women don’t have to wait for summer to come. They can easily get a skin treatment any time of the year.

Apart from skin color, women take good care not to have stretch marks on their buttocks. It is a situation that with age, becomes harder to eliminate. There are, however, various skin treatments in beauty saloons for this type of skin problem.

Both women and men have occasional problems with skin spots on the face. They are easy to treat but don’t quite help for a good look. Again, beauty saloons have treatment for treating spots that tend to appear often on the skin.

Beautiful skin is also hair-free skin. Small hairs on the legs and arms are quite natural for the human body. But while it is natural for men to have small hairs on the arms and legs, women do not accept a single hair on their legs or arms. Waxing does the trick, with a small price of pain during the procedure.

Needless to say this condition could be both very bothersome and embarrassing as well. It can appear anywhere on the body but it most commonly appears on the face and scalp, and also shows up a lot on the knees, legs and feet.

Although the exact causes per individual are never truly known, it it suspected that eczema is really nothing more than an over active allergic response from the body’s immune system against some sort of allergen.

Often times, since people who suffer this skin condition may have multiple allergies, it is nearly impossible to tell exactly which one may be causing the eczema. Also, eczema, much like acne, is known to flare up when there is a lot of stress in a person’s life. Funny that most skin conditions react to or are aggravated by stress!

Well, a woman posted on here that she has found out about a possible natural remedy that may help folks with eczema. Specifically, she used this remedy to help her son’s battle with eczema. The remedy is very simple – it’s using high quality probiotics taken orally to help combat it.

There have been studies that suggest that those with healthy intestines and plentiful flora in their intestines that are replenished by these probiotics, may also suffer form less eczema. Also, many folks who have eczema have found that taking a high quality probiotic has helped them to battle and greatly reduce their eczema flare ups, so it seems that there may be something to this.

It is suggested however, that you try it and if it does not work after a few weeks to help you, to try other avenues. One treatment does not usually universally work for everyone when it comes to most health issues, so it is best to try these things out and see if they work, then move on the next idea if that does not work. Everyone’s body is different, and therefore many times different treatments produce different results.

Well, I must have had a stressful week, because I started to feel a little lump right on the border of where my lip and my skin meet, on the left side of my face – the upper lip. I actually thought it might be a cold sore at first because of it’s odd location, but I soon figured out by the way it felt and the pressure that was building under the surface, that it was no more than your typical, painful and annoying whitehead and was festering below the surface.

When you get a zit that’s pretty much right on your lip, it’s kind of hard to treat it correctly. This one seemed to be ready to gently extract because it had come to a head and looked really strange there on my lip – my husband even asked if I had a cold sore, and he was shocked because he’d never seen me get one. Even to extract it was very awkward.

I had to sort of grab it from the inside of my mouth and gently squeeze with some tissue and a hot compress, and it still wouldn’t budge so I was stuck with an unsightly whitehead there for a whole day before it came out.

I used a lot of good acne gel on it to encourage it to come to a head, and I also tried the hot compress a few times to get it to come to the surface as well. I even dabbed an acne mask on it at night, which usually works for getting my bad ones to come to a head. It finally worked, and I was able to GENTLY extract the yucky stuff.

However, I was left with a bright red spot that I was afraid would scar. I feared I had extracted it too soon, and you know that means it’s more likely to lead to an acne scar if you do that. But sure enough, it’s been three days later, and I’ve applied my acne scarring stuff to it and it’s pretty much history, red spot and all!

For example, one of the things I’m afraid of is all the preservatives and chemicals that can potentially harm the skin over time. For that reason, I recently purchased an all natural sunscreen by Dr. Mercola that provides protection by using only natural minerals.

You can tell by the consistency, which is rather chalky, that he’s not using the massive amounts of toxic cohesive agents and emulsifiers and preservatives that most shelf brands do, and I don’t mind the texture at all, it reminds me that I’m using a really natural product. And yes, I’ve used it on my face, and it was totally fine, didn’t make me break out on iota.

The FDA is now going to regulate what skin product companies can actually call a sun block. These products now have to protect against BOTH UVA and UVB rays to be called a “sun block”. Most products don’t tell you this, but they usually only protect your skin against the sun’s burning rays, which are the UVB rays. This is good of course, but what they don’t tell you is that the UVA rays, which they provide minimal protection against, actually are the ones that cause skin cancer and also cause wrinkles.

Oh, and here’s the kicker. UVB rays, which sun screen blocks quite efficiently now, actually is the type of ray that makes your skin produce the ultra beneficial vitamin D. That’s right, you’re mostly blocking out the very ray that, yes, while it can burn your skin, it also is the one that makes this very important vitamin that more and more is being discovered about every day.

The FDA wants sunscreen makers to be more transparent and explanatory in their labeling. They are also concerned that these SPF numbers are misleading to consumers, in that they lead them to believe the higher the number the more protection they are getting. This is not necessarily always true, and there are many more caveats to the story than just a number that tells you what level you are being protected at by your sunscreen. More to come on this important issue!

Often times there are hormonal issues that are behind acne, sometimes it’s hygienic issues and skin care routines, but I’ve found that mostly just can aggravate it or make it a little better but is not usually the root cause, and then of course there are stress and anxiety factors as well. What it really all boils down to though, in it’s essence, is some sort of hormonal imbalance issue.

Hormones can be thrown into imbalance by many, many things. And not only that, these causes can vary from person to person and from tolerance level to tolerance level. Everyone has their own “trigger” for acne, so it really must be treated as individiually as it is diagnosed in the treatment program that is chosen. That being said, there has been some buzz that taking vitamin D supplements has helped some people’s skin clear up.

Vitamin D is actually a vitamin that can be found in a lot of dairy products such as eggs and fortified milk, but it can also be found in cod liver oil and certain types of fish. You can take a Vitamin D supplement, however, numerous studies point to the fact that sunlight is the best source of this vitamin.

This is because your body best synthesizes the vitamin from the sun, and uses it most efficiently when it is garnered this way, rather than taken in oral form. This is not to say that Vitamin D supplements are useless, but you do process this nutrient much more effectively when you get it from sunlight. There has been evidence that Vitamin D plays an important role in your immunity as well as in protection against cancer because it helps prevent cells from turning into cancerous cells.

Some tips you may want to adhere to in order to maximize your natural sun-gotten vitamin D are as follows. Wear sleeveless shirts and shorts, this way you get as much sun exposure on as much of your body as possible. Try to limit your time in the intense sun to no more than fifteen minutes fully exposed and NEVER get burnt. After being exposed to the sun’s ray’s, try not to shower for several hours afterward.

The reason for this is that your skin continues to process and absorb and actually “make” vitamin D on it’s surface after interacting with UV light several hours after you bathe in the sun. For this reason, not bathing or showering for several hours afterward helps your body to maintain more of the good stuff that’s left on the surface of your skin and process and absorb it.

What is eczema, first of all? Well, it is a skin condition where the skin becomes inflamed and there may be patches of red, dry itchy skin. Some forms are more difficult to treat, and they involved little nodules that pop up as well as the redness and irritation, and that is the form of eczema that seems to respond well to a certain type of concentrated beam laser therapy on the affected areas of the skin.

The therapy involves a highly concentrated beam of UV light, the same type that you get naturally form the sun’s rays, on the affected area. It can also be used on those with vitiligo, the skin lightening condition that Michael Jackson was thought to have, and psoriasis. Patients who did not respond well or did not respond at all to the typical treatment of topical steroidal creams for inflammation, responded to this type of laser treatment, so it is very promising news for those with hard to treat eczema that they may actually have other options that work.

This is usually because the person’s hormones are particularly susceptible to being thrown off balance by these types of stimulants, and therefore they produce more sebum when their nervous system is overstimulated. Sometimes I may see a lag time of a day or two on a caffeine binge and a breakout, but it almost assuredly always happens when I drink a lot of it, or when I’m under large amounts of stress or anxiety.

So, when we talk about soda, particularly caffeinated sodas, like the ever so popular and seemingly addictive diet colas that are out there, there are a lot of ingredients besides the caffeine itself, that really aren’t skin friendly.

And for those that have acne prone skin, we need all the dietary help we can get when it comes to getting the right hormone balancing foods and nutrients in our bodies so we can “fight acne from the inside out” as has become such a popular marketing phrase for so many of the popular acne fighting supplements today.

Phosphoric acid is a common ingredient in soda, and although it is no so much caloric in and of itself, it breaks down into sugars in your body. Sugar is another skin sin, and you should strive to minimize it in your diet, if not totally eliminate it (I know, this is impossible, I love desserts and especially chocolate and that’s just never gonna happen for me, but I do try to minimize it).

Sugar basically can throw off your blood sugar levels, which in turn aids in breaking your face out by turning on the hormones that cause acne or throwing them out of balance. It also is bad for your collagen, as it makes your collagen cells rigid, which is why we look more aged. Your collagen cells should be soft, and pliable, and excess sugar in the diet makes them rigid.

Soda is also loaded with artificial flavors, chemicals and a host of other body and cell toxins that boil down to nothing but trouble for your skin. If you think drinking diet is any better, then you’re wrong because artificial sweeteners have their own host of bad side effects as well. The bottom line is that you should try to steer clear of any type of carbonated soda and try to drink non carbonated, healthy drinks in it’s place for your skin.