We all know about acne – especially if you suffered from it as a teenager. But, did you know that you can suffer from acne well into adulthood? Some people find that they never had acne until they reached their 50’s! No matter your age, it is still embarrassing and frustrating.
Here are a few things that can aggravate and even contribute to acne:
1. Oil based makeup
2. Touching and picking at your skin (people tend to do this when they are anxious or nervous)
3. Some detergents and soaps can contribute to acne prone skin
4. A lot of sweating
5. Medicines
6. Excessive sun
If you are one of the many people that suffer from acne, try to control the above aggravations and you may find an improvement in your acne.
Other important steps to get clear skin is to do a regular skin care regimen. You must be consistent in this in order to see results. Many people start one regimen only to give up after a week or so. But, if you pick the right regimen and stick to it, you will be amazed at how your acne clears up and is actually manageable. You won’t need to hide behind makeup and clothing anymore.
So, what do I recommend?
First, cleanse your skin with a gentle cleanser. Find something that doesn’t irritate your skin. You want something that does NOT have alcohol or fragrance in it. Alcohol will dry out your skin and this is actually the opposite of what you want. Drying out your skin too much can actually cause more acne because your skin will respond by producing more oil… and causing more acne break outs. Obviously, this isn’t ideal. Also, don’t use anything that has any fragrance in it. Fragrance will only irritate and aggravate already acne prone and sensitive skin. Go simple. You just need to cleanse your skin and remove the dirt and oil (and make up if you wear it).
Second, exfoliate. This is a step a lot of people either skip altogether or do too much. This all depends on your skin type how often you should exfoliate. My recommendation is the following:
- With sensitive (including acne prone skin) or dry skin, exfoliate no more than once per week.
- If you have combination skin or oily skin, you can exfoliate 3-5 times per week.
- If you have normal skin, you can exfoliate everyday!
Doing more than the above is totally unnecessary. Exfoliation is necessary to remove the dead skin cells that can contribute to acne because these skin cells get stuck in the pores and cause you problems. Stick to this and you’ll see better skin overall.
