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Baby Your Skin!

Improve Your Acne by Cracking Its Code.

By Gia Published 4 years ago 13 min read
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Baby Your Skin!

With all the stress factors that are constantly being thrown as us, like projectile missiles, that range from family life, to balancing work, finances, commutes to work, and our careers; it’s nearly impossible, not to stress out and avoid acne breakouts. Acne doesn’t care about your age, income, profession, or social status. Acne doesn’t care if you have a date in two days, or even if you’re getting married! Why? Acne is heartless and ruthless. It doesn’t care about your wants or needs as a man or woman, who desperately desires clear skin.

It seems that with every corner that you may turn, or Instagram post that you may scroll through – there’s a certified esthetician; giving tons of advice, and selling products, as they recommending this serum, this cream or that cream - all with a combined acne wash and post use application recommendations.

We are given precise instructions, as to what we should do to our skin, and how, but one major issue that’s widely overlooked, is that men and women’s skin types vary, and each man and woman are complex individuals, with complex skin care needs.

What is considered and sworn to be a miracle in a bottle, and liquid acne gold for one man or woman, may very well be the acne curse for another.

No, we cannot all use the same face washes, face creams, same serums, or partake in the same cleansing beauty rituals. No two men or women are alike, and neither are our skin types. Some may have oily skin; when our peers may have dry or even what is called, ‘combination skin’.

Combination skin is when you have a mix of oily at some times, and dry at other times and these times can sometimes be determined by weather, our diets and or our stress factors. These factors alternate, causing our skin to react differently, and for some, this can cause severe breakouts. It’s pure hell. Breakouts force us to rush around, searching high and lo, to find an instant miracle on the shelves of our local drugstores, and dermatologist.

Acne Triggers?

The first step to fighting acne, is to figure out your skin type, and what you may or may not be doing to trigger it…

You need to take some time to try and figure out, what exactly is making you break out? Take some time to think about it…

It is your diet? What are you eating? How much sugars, sodas, candy/sweets, fried foods, msg’s, are you eating? Are you eating enough fruit and veggies? Sugars can irritate your skin and the pores of pimples.

Are you drinking enough water? Think for a minute: How many glasses or water or bottles are you drinking daily? One to two bottles a day, won’t cut it. Try four to six 16 ounce bottles a day. Water is essential in cleansing, detoxing and filtering out harmful toxins in the skin. It flushes our pores and assists with sweating. Water also assists with detoxing our organs like our kidneys, liver and pancreas. Most energy drinks contain too much sugar. Your best bet is to drink Pedialyte and water, or a natural detoxing juice, without loads of added sugars and dyes.

Are you an active outdoors person? Could it be too much sun exposure without sunscreen? Do you apply sunscreen when you’re outside or going outside and do you wear hats when you’re out in the sun – even if it’s for a few hours?

Could it be too many stress factors in your life? How much stress are you under and how can you minimize it, if possible?

Could it be how you’re handling your oily or combination skin? You must find out what your skin combination is… That’s vital because if your skin is oily and you’re using a facewash for non-oily skin, then that could be your only problem. If your skin is non-oily, but you’re using a facewash for regular skin, that could also play a factor in your acne.

How much sugars, sodas, candy/sweets, fried foods, MSG, are you eating?

Are you eating enough fruit and veggies? Do you eat enough citrus? Do you eat enough veggies? Are you taking vitamins that are vital for your skin?

Do you exfoliate? Exfoliating skin, helps you rebuild and develop new skin cells and also helps with regenerating damaged skin. There are an array of tools that you can use to exfoliate your skin, such as buff-puffs, loofas, electronic rotary facial scrubbers, and more. There are also cleansers that contain tiny micro-exfoliating beads, sugar and sea salt scrubs and even skin creams.

Have toy tried face masks and products such as Biore pore strips? If not, try them. You can find this product on Amazon as well and yes, they really do work. I’d suggest washing your face first, and rinsing with warm water to help open your pores a bit, before application, which will assist with making the removal of blackheads easier.

Retinols are also used to help with renewing and exfoliating skin. You can also try chemical peels, by meeting with an esthetician, who may try one on you or even do a facial that will open up your pores and assist with removing clogging oils and chemicals.

Are you possibly vitamin deficient? There are hair, skin and nail vitamins that contain biotins and necessary nutrients for your skin, and this is where a dermatologist would be handy.

Do you juice or detox? Try juicing and using detox recipes. There are many raw juicing recipes that work wonders for the skin and body. Do you eat enough fruit?

Are you allergic to something that you’re eating? Think about it… Do you often itch or sneeze after eating things? Do your eyes water and does your skin erupt into pimples when you eat some things? For me, its dairy, chocolate, peanuts, olives, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, walnuts and pecans. I’m allergic to all of these things, including your typical peanut, that’s responsible for yummy peanut butter.

Are you using a heavy moisturizer that are clogging your pores? If you, look for a non comedogenic airy/light moisturizer that won’t clog pores.

Do you touch your face a lot with germy dirty hands? Try not to touch your face with unclean hands and use lots of hand sanitizers when you’re out and about. Our hands are magnets doe germs, being that we come in contact with other people every day, by touching what they’ve touched, and we don’t know where their hands have been or what they’ve been up to. So use caution. Don’t touch your face or pick your pimples.

Do you wash your cellphone? It’s better to use earphones and not press a phone to your face, due to the exposure of germs. Always wash your cellphone and use disinfectant wipes to wipe it clean daily.

Do you wear excessive make-up while you have bad acne and do not allow your skin to breathe?

It’s going to take a lot of discovery about yourself, your habits, and your diet, just to figure out what you may be doing wrong to your skin and if you’re possibly causing your skin to have persistent acne. I’d suggest keeping a journal and documenting what you eat and the reaction that it had on your skin.

Change things up a bit, and try these suggestions. Keep a skin diary. It’s important to observe and record what you are doing and I found that it helped me discover what I was doing, along with my doctors, to solve my acne problems.

Not Working?

Could it be something much deeper, that’s beyond acne? If you try these above recommendations, then it may be something deeper. It may even be an allergy to something that you’re allergic to, but love and that means that it’s time to part ways with it or find an alternative. This is when you must consult with your primary doctor, who will then hopefully recommend a dermatologist, and even an allergist to have an allergen test performed, which may help you crack the mystery to your nightmarish acne.

What Do I Use?

From experience, my dermatologist has always prescribed the golden, golden-yellow toned Neutrogena, with salicylic acid and a duo facial cream and or serum with glycolic acid. Facewashes with salicylic acid are excellent because they are infamously known and revered for unclogging pores and clearing up blackheads. The Neutrogena that I use, has salicylic acid, and I’ll pair it, twice a week, with CeraVe Renewing Cleanser, that has hyaluronic acid and a few other goodies. I also use a moisturizer with glycolic acid, to assist with the unclogging of pores. I also use a serum with glycolic acid, because it is known for assisting with your skin's natural exfoliating and renewing process and it also helps your skin retain and absorb moister. It also helps with reducing blemishes and marks left by pimples.

Her favorite moisturizers to prescribe are the brands Almay and Aveno, with green tea extract because green tea calms and soothes irritated skin and it helps remove the pain and redness of angry irritated skin that’s the aftermath acne and pimples.

Where and how do you find face wash with these vital ingredients and how to price it?

You can start by going to your local drugstores or my favorite place, Amazon.com! I have noticed that Amazon.com, has what seems to be the best and most inexpensive prices for facial washes, that contain these very important, vital and necessary ingredients needed to fight acne, such as salicylic acid, glycolic acid, and hyaluronic acid; for extremely affordable prices, compared to your local drugstores and fancy beauty counters and you won’t go broke for face care. You won’t have to pay a ridiculous price for skincare products, that help you fight acne and you don’t have to be a celebrity and visit your celebrity esthetician, to have great skin! Yay!!! Right?

Fighting acne shouldn’t break and bankrupt your bank accounts, and many of you who are in fact college students and even high school students, don’t have loads of cash, trust-fund left by mommy and daddy, money to blow AND you’re certainly not the child of a celebrity, who has hundreds to dish out on doctors and celebrity estheticians for overnight and instant skin miracles. You may have one or even two jobs just to help pay for tuition. You’re a regular member of society, who deserves to have great skin too and your bank account balances and status, should not be a factor to attaining it.

To search for face wash with these ingredients, first start with just going to Amazon.com, or even download the app and type in these keywords: “salicylic acid, hyaluronic acid, and glycolic acid + face wash.” Before you know it, you’ll be overwhelmed in a good tingly way, with an array of brands to buy and select for great prices, that again, beat drugstores and beauty counters. I love Amazon.com, and the fact that it recognizes that there are regular members of society, who are in fact on a budget, and who are searching for affordable skincare, who are not trying to go bankrupt. Amazon allows you to price and select your products from ‘low-to-high’. Most face washes range between $5 to 20.00, but you can usually find something even more affordable and good, for between $5-14.00.

Follow Instructions…

I would recommend following the instructions on the bottle of the cleanser and not to over irritate your skin, by over-washing it. Most facial cleansers recommend washing twice a day: morning and night, and some even recommend washing at lunch or a third time, but some cleansers can over dry your face. I would recommend washing with a mild cleanser in the morning, and then using the major facial cleanser at night, giving it a chance to really soak in during bedtime and nighttime hours, being that you’re sleeping and you’re not experiencing any stress, your hands aren’t touching your face and you’re at peace. Some feel that more is better and that is especially true, if their acne is pretty bad, then they’ll feel compelled over-wash their face and use copious amounts of facewash.

Some may panic and be so hell-bent on curing their acne within a few days, that they think that using two to three pumps on facial cleaners will cure their acne, within a few days, which could result in excessive breakouts and drying of the skin, which leads to more acne and your skin drying out. I know it’s hard, especially of you have bad acne to be tempted and over-do it with washing, but don’t. Start out gradually. Ease your face routine in. More is not better and excessive washing of your face, will not bring you a miracle overnight. It will bring you a nightmare…

I know it’s hard, when you have an important social event on the near horizon, such as a dance, a date, a speaking event, or even your own wedding or the wedding of a family member!!!

Oh and please don’t try to use a combination of face washes. Some make the dreadful mistake of using 3-4 cleansers and alternating them. Don’t do this UNLESS your doctor tells you to do so and you’re under their care and medical guidance. Don’t take it upon yourself to be your own doctor. You also have the option of consulting with non-pricey celebrity estheticians, who will not charge you an arm and a leg and do not decide that popping your pimples is the ultimate answer and solution to minimizing the existence of a pimple. Go to a dermatologist for black and white head extractions. If you attempt to pop them yourself, you may cause scaring, and damage the skin follicle, which can cause even more problems. Be gentle and patient with your skin.

What’s My Skin Regimen?

Avoid foods that aggravate my acne and avoid sugars completely, only having sweets on special occasions. I also avoid gluten and starch. I wash twice daily with CeraVe – morning and night, use a light moisturizer. I avoid sun and drink at least 6 bottles of 16 ounce water a day with lemon. I detox with fruits and juicing. I also apply sunscreen with vitamin e, and whenever I go outside, I avoid sun completely, and I wear and collect large sun visors. I think that my diet is my biggest help, being that I eat a lot of citrus and fruits in my diet. Everyone is different, therefore, every skin regimen is different as well.

Try to be mindful of your activities and record what happens and any noticeable changes in your skin… Try this for at least three months and if this doesn’t work, then you may need the help of a professional…

When to go to a dermatologist?

If these things aren’t helping, then it’s time to go to your primary and have him/her recommend a dermatologist. If you have a HMO, then you may be required to first see your primary doctor, in order be recommend a dermatologist. If you have a PPO, you don’t have to go to your primary doctor. You can just go directly to one, that’s in your network and handle things right away. Over time, you’ll begin to see a difference and working with a professional will assist you in achieving your ideal skin and conquering your acne, but again be patient and easy on yourself.

skincare
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About the Creator

Gia

University grad. Earthy, artsy, quirky, nerdy, crafty little book worm, who designs jewelry! I love nature, animals, art, travel, and good vibes, w/lots of info on many experiences on life, love, fashion, health, and beauty.

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