People have been asking about acne. Stress. Hormones. MASKS!
Whatever the reason, there are multiple steps you can take to help improve the break outs. Here, we’ve outlined them, in order of how aggressive you’d like to get.
One tip before you do anything: If you’ve been applying multiple products and cleansers in an attempt to blast away your breakouts, your skin may just need a rest from all excitement. Step back and let it rest for 3-4 weeks before trying another routine.
START HERE
1. Gentle cleanse: CeraVe Acne Control Cleanser with Salicylic Acid
2. Spot treat with benzoyle peroxide
3. Organic spearmint tea – twice a day. You can even start this while you’re giving your skin a rest. Heal from the inside!
4. Absolutely apply moisturizer. Often people try to overstrip their skin when breaking out. But this just causes your skin to produce more oil, leading to more breakouts.
5. Sunscreen: MUST MUST MUST wear sunscreen to protect your skin.
WHY?
* CeraVe Acne Control Cleanser with Salicylic Acid: Salicylic Acid helps kill the acne bacteria. So cleansing with this helps treat the stuff that’s causing the breakouts.
* Organic Spearmint (NOT peppermint) tea 2x a day. In a research study, people who drank tea as compared to those who took minocycline (an oral acne med) had the same impact on their acne by the 3rd month! Spearmint is a good antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory ~ all the goodness!
https://www.byrdie.com/spearmint-tea-acne-remedy
* Spot treat with benzoyle peroxide: This helps heal the breakouts.
MASKNE?
If your skin normally doesn’t break out, but masks are wreaking havoc on your skin, try SkinBetter Exfoliating Pads. A powerful combination of retinol, lactic/salicylic/glycolic acids in a convenient pad, it gives a serious overnight exfoliation that can help “unplug” things.
* Convenient single use pads are used at night. Follow your gentle cleanse by swiping the pad all over your face and neck area (or the area being treated). Allow it dry, the apply moisturizer to “seal” it.
A STRONGER APPROACH
Add retinol into the PM routine. Retinol helps accelerate skin turnover, helping exfoliate (so things don’t get so plugged up). You can also mix a little retinol with your moisturizer for easy application. This helps keep your skin from getting to dry.
Retinol comes in varying strengths
💪 Over the Counter Option: Cerave Skin Renewing Retinol Serum
💪 💪 SkinMedica Retinol Complex .5
💪 💪 💪 SkinBetter Alpharet – super strong retinol that comes with less irritation
Whenever using retinol, you MUST WEAR SUNSCREEN every day. This is to help protect the skin that’s been treated.
❤️ EltaMD Elements: Tinted, moisturizing mineral sunscreen that is great for sensitive and acneic skin. Oil free!
❤️ SkinBetter ToneSmart Compact: Great for touch ups, or helping even out skin that’s been broken out. The sleek compact is gorgeous.
CYSTIC ACNE
This step of treatment comes highly recommended for cystic acne. But it requires commitment to seeing your provider.
• Blue light treatments help zap the P.Acne bacteria, and can be especially helpful for cystic acne. Product has a hard time getting down deep, so blue light can help treat deeper acne that you can’t even see. We recommend starting with 6 weekly treatments. Yes, weekly!
• Consider oral acne medications. You’ll have to see your Dermatologist to see if this is a good route for you.
BEST PRACTICES
Use oil free products. The EltaMD elements sunscreen is great for acneic and sensitive skin. The neutral tint is nice for covering slight blemishes.
Don’t OVERTREAT skin. When skin is stripped, it will overproduce oil to balance itself, causing more acne or clogged pores. Don’t over bomb.
- Dairy and whey can trigger inflammation and acne. Drink lots of water. Your weight / 2 = # of oz to drink per day (130 lbs/2 = 65 oz.)