9 Tips to destroy acne

I didn’t get acne as a usual pubescent teen. I was relatively fresh faced in the mid noughties and thought id dodged it right up until the age of around 20 when literally overnight my face started to erupt so badly that I was convinced that it had to be an allergic reaction to something. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, ground zero for my cystic acne starting was unclear although hormonal birth control may have been a catalyst to what was going to be a life long condition which I’m still wrestling with at 29. I have spent years and years trying to find the sweet spot to keep my acne away, however the flare ups will come and go, and like a lot of acne sufferers its something I have to deal with. With your own skin it really is a matter of trial and error, there is no magical cure, but I’m going to share my own journey and what has helped me gain some control over my face and perhaps it might be the little bit of wisdom that’ll help you too.

1. STOP ALL DRYING PRODUCTS IMMEDIATELY

We may as well get the most controversial point out of the way quickly. If you are a chronic acne sufferer chances are, (and believe me I know what’s in your bathroom cupboards), you’ll have at least four or five products such as Clearasil (tm) or witch hazel that promise to calm your skin right down and take your spots away, I cannot stress this enough, please don’t believe the hype. What actually happens when you use any sort of drying product is that your skin effectively panics. Acne is created by an overproduction of sebum in the skin, which means that when you artificially dry it out, it creates more to even out the balance, giving you, you guessed it, more acne. If I were you (and I am but all skin is different), I would throw that shit right out. Right now. I cant tell you how long I spent using drying products thinking that the oil in my skin was the problem, and what happens is that as soon as you stop using it, or even during, your skin will freak out and double your issues not to mention creating scars.

2. Your outside reflects your insides.

You can try all the creams, face masks, and exfoliants in the world but what truly makes a difference to your skin is paying attention to what you’re putting in your body. It takes a while to work out what can make acne flare ups worse but it really is worth researching and it can often turn out to be the weirdest things. Going on a low sugar diet can help as well as eating plenty of fruits and veggies, but the one thing that has helped me more than any other dietary change is reducing the amount of gluten, and dairy day to day, resulting in me eating a roughly 40% raw food diet. I’m not saying give up the foot you love but eating lots of dark leafy greens, nuts packed with vitamin E and anti inflammatory foods such as 70% dark chocolate and introducing turmeric and ginger will certainly help. Fast food makes the surface of my skin blow up like Mt Vesuvius so maybe swapping out the KFC for sushi is a good start.

3. Face masks and moisturiser

Moisturiser is going to be your best friend forever when it comes to fighting cystic acne believe me. I’ve been through a few that worked for a while and as I’ve said, every persons skin is completely different. Holy grail products often pop up by mistake which is very much what happened to me. I used a very good Vitamin E face cream for a while from the body shop and would never stray from it until I had a particularly bad breakout. Certain products I find have a breaking point which is when I switched to a very basic baby lotion for my day to day from Johnson’s. Its absolutely nothing fancy but something in it just seems to calm my skin down and I am not going to tempt fate by straying from the path, its good to trust your skin when you have a fluke to see if it carries on, that’s how we get products that people ‘swear by’. I use a very light wearing sunscreen over it and I’m good to go. As I’m over the age of 25 and do wear a lot of make-up for my job as a cabaret singer I make sure to wear an eye cream, while not touching any of my other skin with heavy wearing creams or lotions.

When I’m having a really bad breakout through stress and my skin is full of blind boils with no sign of stopping I do use a little home made mask to call time. I use one egg white (tightens pores and reduces inflammation), half squeeze of lemon (antiseptic and astringent), and just a shit ton of turmeric powder (again natures pro anti inflammatory), and make it all into a paste. I paint that on my face and leave it for about 15 minutes no longer otherwise you’ll be a particularly fantastic shade of oompa loompa, and then wash it all off. It works great as a gentle exfoliator too! In the morning everything that was raging is a LOT calmer.

4. Dermarolling

After we’ve calmed storm cystic acne chances are scars are left in its wake. Mine were so bad that my entire face was red and pitted, I never left the house without make-up and filler, and the first time I visited the cosmetic clinic I sobbed while taking my make-up off with a wipe. The procedure that made my skin feel 80% better after all it had gone through when my active acne had calmed down was Dermarolling. In essence its a little tiny roller with lots and lots of needles on it (they are like 2mm nobody is talking torture levels here), to force trauma on the affected area forcing the skin to produce collagen. They numb you out while they do this and it takes around 3 weeks to start seeing proper results but boy do they blow you away. If you do decide to research this option for scarring just know that when they say your skin is going to feel very sensitive and might peel they are in no way kidding. I looked like a tiny lawnmower had been dragged over my face for three days and factor 50 sunscreen is a MUST. As with all cosmetic procedures please do your research thoroughly and go to a licensed practitioner, I used Harley Medical Group and they were fabulous.

5. Dopamine and serotonin.

I’m not going to sugar coat this for you, the easiest way to start taking control of your skin is to do things that release endorphins. I passed this little nugget of information onto my friend who has incredibly bad facial psoriasis and he’s looking better every day. If you love running? Go for a run. If singing or dancing is your jam? Do that. But hormonally speaking acne reacts to orgasms better than anything else (of course if you’re not of age reading this part just skip forward). This is great news for your happy hormones in general even if you’re not in a relationship and have to take matters into your own hands (wink wink, nudge nudge). When I had terrible flare ups I felt disconnected to my body, not only are orgasms a great way for your body to release all those feel good skin flushing hormones but its a great way to get in touch physically again. Your body isn't a bad body for having acne, be kind to it and it’ll start to cooperate.

6. All of the water in the world

This one is fairly obvious although very few people actually get enough water. Drinking it filtered is way better and If you cant manage that boil it then cool it (remember we were talking about allergies earlier? Chlorine allergies are a thing and boiling your drinking water fixes that, just to rule out the possibilities). Adding some lemon slices as an extra anti inflammatory kick is a double pronged attack, a big ole pint first thing in the morning is an absolute must.

7. Go get your hormones checked.

None of this stuff is going to work if your hormones are out of whack. If your doctor has prescribed you all of the creams and tablets in the world for acne, its time to be insistent that you be referred to someone who can check your hormones properly and give you the run down of what's going on. If you’re on birth control I highly recommend switching methods to give your body a break. If acne has only just become a problem since being on birth control its definitely worth changing up to see if it makes a difference. Remember to give all of these factors time. As an acne sufferer I know how desperately we all want to wake up one morning with perfectly dewy and clear skin but the reality is we’ve got to put the work in to get the perfect balance of what works for us. I’ve found that more often than not if the acne sufferer is a woman there is some hormonal nonsense going on there. For me personally my big break in cystic acne happened just after I was found to have menorrhagia and polyps on one of my ovaries Our skin is our biggest organ and it can tell us a lot about what’s going on inside of us.

8. Stress

This has been the single most difficult to manage and most prevalent reason for my flare ups. I started to notice myself saying “Oh great a breakout is the last thing I need today!” After a stressful event or a time where the pressure was on, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to make the link. For the sake of your skin, if anything in your life is stressing you out that you don’t need right now? Get rid of it. Finding a place of calm within yourself will make it all so much better I promise. My poor skin has just recovered after a breakup of a long relationship and looking good again, but now I have the scars to bear. I’ve started to try and care less about what my face looks like without make-up, after all, no one else does. I think of my skin as having freckles, they are just different to other peoples freckles. And the more we start to normalise it the better we will all feel about showing our true faces.

9. Keep clean but not too clean

The last piece of advice I can give to you is try not to go overboard with cleaning your face. Your skin is already going through enough without you picking and scratching at it causing it more trauma, a light, home-made exfoliant that's chemical free will do the job once a week. Other than that all the face washes, acids, and scrubs in the world aren't going to do a thing. Remember that this is a healing process not a nuclear test site. Once your acne is gone your skin is going to need the integrity to heal from its trauma, so the best thing you can do is to be very very kind to it. A good rule of thumb is if what you are doing to your face would destroy a piece of paper you are being too rough. Be kind, slap some Aloe Vera on your face and for gods sake, step away from the Clearasil.