How To Clear Acne Tips for 2012

1) Wash Your Face Often: Most dermatologist recommend that you wash your face at least three times a day to get rid of excess skin oil. A lot more people than you think have a problem with this one because it’s really hard to remember to wash your face that often, especially if you haven’t been in the routine of washing your face before! I’ve found that if you associate washing your face with some other frequent activity that you do every day that it is much easier to remember. For myself, I made it my goal to make sure that I washed my face after every meal. Being that I eat at least twice a day and most of the time three times a day it was a great way to know that my face would be getting washed as much as it needed to be. After a while it just became second nature to wash up good after a meal.

2) Give it time: Most people have unrealistic expectations of the acne clearing methods that they choose to use. No matter what method on how to clear acne that you use, all of them are going to take some time to get working and often times you may find that your acne gets a bit worse before it gets better. As long as a treatment isn’t giving you serious discomfort, you should give it at least two weeks before thinking about trying out a new acne treatment.

3) Wash Your Bedding Often: This is something I never really realized until I read an article about it in a dermatology magazine. We are in contact with our bedding for a good third of our life. Our bedding acts as a big sponge that absorbs anything that we give off including skin oil. If we don’t wash it often enough, then we’re essentially coming in contact with collections of skin oil and gunk for eight hours a day. Wash your bedding at least once a week, especially the pillow cases to make sure that you’re problems aren’t being made worse while you’re asleep!

4) Use Moisturizer Your Skin: For those of us that live to the North the winter times are especially tough because Winter tends to make skin conditions worse. The lack of humidity in the air combined with the cold weather and gusty winds makes it difficult to keep our skin moisturized. That’s why I recommend that you use an oil free moisturizer at least once a day. It’s a myth that using a moisturizer causes acne. Start using it and you should see a great improvement in not only your acne condition but how your skin looks and feels as well.

5) Don’t Worry About It: Getting rid of your acne problem is important to good health and making you feel better but it isn’t the end of the world that you have acne in the first place. A recently study pegged the number as high as 95% of American teens that experience an outbreak of acne at least once in their lives. You’re certainly not alone. On top of that there is a well-known association that stress can cause acne or make it worse. So lighten up and take it easy and reduce a little bit of stress in your life. If nothing else, at least take it easy on yourself about your acne problem. The more that you worry about it the more problems that you’re likely to encounter down the road.

These are just a few tips to get rid of acne, this website is full of them from all different kinds of walks of life. No matter what method on how to clear acne you use, make sure that you stick to the plan, that you give it some time and that you keep your skin moisturized and clean.

Have a Safe and Happy New Year!

The first thing you should know about preventing acne is that it is an ongoing process.  The problem with keeping your acne under control has to do with the root cause of acne which is increased hormone production. During adolescence, various hormones in the body begin to increase, the most important being testosterone. In addition to causing many of the physical changes we go through while becoming adults, testosterone is also the cause for a large increase in the production of sebum (skin oil). When our sebum production is in overdrive, our body can’t expel our skin oil faster than it accumulates and this leads to blocked pores, bacteria infections, and acne. It takes years during our teenage years for these fluctuations to resolve themselves and thus we must keep up our acne treatment throughout the entire duration of hormone production for it to be effective

How To Prevent Acne in 5 Basic Steps

Wash Your Face At Least 3 Times A Day:  The number one most important thing you can do to prevent acne is wash your face often.  Most dermatologist recommend that you wash three times a day.  Human beings are creatures of habit and if you have any chance at all of sticking to the 3x a day plan, you’re going to need to get a face washing routine going.  The best way that I personally found to incorporate face washing into your daily routine was to make an active effort to wash up before every meal.  I generally eat three times a day so it worked out great.  Missing once in a while isn’t so big a deal but going more than 12 hours or so without washing your face greatly increases the probability of an acne break out.  Some studies suggest that it only takes a few hours for a pore to become clogged and just six or eight hours more for bacteria to start multiplying. When going out to look for a face wash you want to make sure of two things.  One, that it is mild enough on your skin to use three times a day and two, that it doesn’t contain any oil based ingredients.

Exercise:  You can add preventing acne under the near countless benefits of daily exercise.  Exercise is known to help prevent acne through two very important means.  First, when you exercise you sweat a lot and the sweating process acts as a cleansing system for your skin, bringing up dirt and debris from your pores to the surface.  Secondly, there have been several studies done that confirm that exercising helps your body to regulate hormone production.  Remember!  Hormone irregularities are the primary cause of acne in the first place so bringing these levels down helps!  One thing you want to make sure is that whenever you exercise you hit the showers.  Sweaty pores are the perfect breeding ground for acne worsening bacteria so you want to make sure that you wash away the sweat and all the gunk it brought up with it as soon as you’re done.

Eat Healthy Foods:  Thankfully, due to recent studies, the myth that acne can be caused or made worse by fried foods, chocolate, or any other food has been debunked.  There is clearly no link between what you eat and the pores in your skin getting clogged.  But just because acne isn’t caused by foods doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat healthy to help prevent it.  Fruits and vegetables that are high in Vitamin C are a great place to start.  Vitamin C supports a healthy immune system and you need a healthy immune system to keep bacteria infections under control.   Essential Fatty Acids which are responsible for healthy cell membranes for all the cells in our body can be found in fish, nuts and seeds.  More importantly though is proper hydration.  Think of water as a purifier for the body.  Drinking water directly hydrates our skin which leads to less infections and defects and no body disagrees that getting sufficient water helps the skin to appear much more healthy and beautiful.

Get A Little Sunlight:  This is a touchy subject because a lot of people bring sunning and tanning to the extreme, but it is a known fact that getting a little sun will help fade your acne spots away.   The real crutch is knowing how much sun is too much sun, as getting too much sun will make your acne problems worse through blistering and could lead to even more serious health defects.  When it comes to sunning or tanning it is important to gradually increase the amount of sun you get over time as being in the sun too long when you’re Casper white is going to lead to some painful burns!  If you’re tanning, the receptionist should be able to start you off on the right foot but as a general rule of thumb you’ll want to only tan for 5 minutes or so your first few times unless you’re naturally dark to begin with.  Remember!  Whenever going out into the sun, wear sunscreen!   Then wash it off as soon as you go inside!

Patience and Perseverance:  When it comes to preventing acne, it really isn’t difficult in and of itself, the most difficult part is keeping at it for the years that it takes for hormone production to smooth itself out.  The thing about acne problems, especially if you’re a teen is that no matter what, you might end up with a pimple or two despite your best efforts.  It happens to the best of everyone!  The key is to take care of the pimple and not get discouraged about your goals.   By sticking to the advice given on here

and throughout the website, you’ll be able to keep your acne breakouts to an absolute minimum and have good healthy skin when it comes to dealing with them.  Remember that acne prevention is an ongoing process, so stick to the plan!

How To Prevent Acne Tips

Here are some additional tips to keep your skin clear and your acne at bay.

• Wash Your Bedding Often:  When it comes to close intimate contact, nothing touches us more than our own bedding.  We spend a third of our life in close contact with our bedding and most of it acts as a sponge absorbing anything we secrete.  Wash pillow cases at least once a week since they come in direct contact with our face.  Laying on a pillow case that hasn’t been washed in a long time is no different from laying on an oil cloth.  The pillow case literally acts as a sponge.
• Moisturize, Especially in Dry Climates or Winter:   There are a lot of people out there that are afraid to moisturize because they fear it’ll cause acne.  Moisture doesn’t cause acne, clogged pores do.  Your skin needs moisture to maintain itself or else it can become cracked, peeled, and faded.  This particularly goes for areas with low humidity or the north during the winter months.  Use a moisturizer that doesn’t contain oil based ingredients and don’t over use it and you should be fine.
• Honey Works Great:  A honey mask is a great way to purify the skin and leave it feeling soft and hydrated.  A honey mask is simply making a mask out of honey.  The ancient Egyptians and Romans first used honey to purify the skin and heal wounds thousands of years ago and its healing properties are well confirmed.   Just make sure you’re not allergic to honey before making a mask out of it.
• A Little Benzoyl Peroxide Goes a Long Way:  If you’re having excessive skin oil problems, you might want to consider some medicated facial pads or facial soap.  Even if you don’t have acne, using benzoyl peroxide once in a while will help during the times when skin oil production is really in high gear.  Make sure you use a product with a very low dosage of the medicine (1-2%) is great and only use it occasionally.  Skin oil production can fluctuate a lot and if you pay close attention you can catch those peeks and nip at them before they cause problems.
• Wash That Makeup Off Pronto:  Makeup is a major source of acne problems in females.  Makeup by its design really covers up the skin which can lead to clogged pores if left on too long.  I’m not going to tell anyone not to wear their makeup but I will advise you to wash it off as soon as it is no longer necessary, particularly before going to bed.  Also, the less oil based makeups that you use, the better as these types of makeup are particularly bad for causing acne.
• Take It Easy:  It’s a well-known fact that stress can lead to acne or at least help set the perfect conditions for it.  As mentioned previously in this article your immune system is key to keeping bacterial infections at bay.  When you’re stressed out, your immune system takes a hit and doesn’t function as well as it could.  In addition, because of the stress, your body focuses on taking care of other priorities and skin health takes a back seat.  If possible, reduce the stress in your life.  Your stress free attitude may be rewarded with blemish free skin!

If we can leave you with anything today, it is that acne prevention is in the doing, not the knowing.  As long as you’re actively trying to keep acne at bay by incorporating it into your routine EVERY DAY and incorporating some of the tips above, you shouldn’t have a problem with your acne.  And when the one or two pimples that manage to squeak by do appear, you’ll be in perfect condition to get them under control quickly.

1)       Moisturize:  When it comes to the winter one of the problems most of us run into is our skin drying out.  There is generally a lot less humidity in the air during winter, especially in the north and so our skin becomes chapped and torn.  This provides a lot of breeding ground for bacteria to grow and oil to collect and thus greatly increases the chance of acne.  Find a moisturizer that is non-oil based and use it often!

2)      Protect the skin from the cold:  Regardless of how much you moisturize, if your skin becomes exposed to the freezing cold and high winds that winter can bring it won’t take long for that moisture to be ripped away.  Protect your skin during the winter and bundle up!

3)      Easy on the acne meds:  Because the winter time is already doing a good job of drying out your skin, give the acne meds that you’re using another look.  If you’re using benzoyl peroxide, you might want to consider cutting down on it a bit if you’re having problems.

Hopefully through the winter you can continue to keep your acne under control.  Remember to moisturize, bundle up, and watch over drying due to medicating and you should be fine.  Merry Christmas!

Chances are if you’ve experienced acne on your face then you’ve more than likely found acne on other  parts of the body.  Body acne is just as common as facial acne and its root cause is the same.   An over production of oil on your skin causes pores to be clogged and possibly infected with bacteria.  Body acne can appear anywhere on the body but it is usually found in the neck, back, shoulder, arm and chest region.  The severity can range from mild to severe with acne covering entire regions of the body.  Clearing body acne is no different than clearing facial acne.  You’re going to want to wash often, treat with some topical treatments, and watch what comes into contact with your acne.

Tips For Controlling Body Acne

Examine the Clothing You’re Wearing – Take a good look at the clothing that you’re wearing.  Tight fighting clothing or clothing with rough fabric may be rubbing up against your skin.  This can aggravate delicate skin causing rash and acne.  This is especially prevailent during the summer months when one is working outside and sweating excessively.  Sweat drenched clothing constantly rubbing up against the skin can cause all kinds of problems.  Look to wear clothing that is loose fitting and allows some air circulation, especially when its warm.  Also make sure that what you are wearing itself isn’t the problem.  You could be sensitive to certain clothing materials and not even know it.

Take a Look at the Soap and the Water You’re Using – If you’re having problems controlling your acne, take a good look at the soap that you’re using.  Is it over drying your skin?  This especially becomes a problem in the winter months when the air is cool and dry.  Take a close look at the condition of your skin and if its dry find a nice non-oil based moisturizer.  Contrary to what a lot of people naturally believe, its not moisture that causes acne – so moisturize up!  You’re also going to want to take a look at the water that you’re using.  Hard water is water that contains a lot of minerals and is usually found in places where well water or river water is used.  If you’ve got hard water you’re going to want to make sure that you’re rinsing off your soap completely as hard water tends to leave residue behind.  Also, if you do have well water you’re going to also want to moisturize to counter act the minerals in the water.

Change Your Bedding – Bedding that hasn’t been changed in a while has had time to absorb a lot of the oil that comes from your body.  Even though you may be washing yourself, when you go to bed at night you may come in contact with some of that oil from the bedding.  Change your bedding at least once a week and make sure that it is made of a material that you’re not sensitive too.  You’re on your bed for a third of your life!  Make sure its comfortable for you and your skin.

Use Body Soap With Benzoyl Peroxide – Benzoyl peroxide is the ultimate acne fighting drug.  It unclogs pores, kills bacteria, brings down redness and swelling, and helps dissolve away dead skin and other undesirables.  Find a body soap that contains a low concentration of benzoyl peroxide and use it every OTHER time you shower.  If after a while, you show no improvement, you can increase it to daily shower use.  A lot of people need very little benzoyl peroxide to get the job done and tend to over medicate themselves.  It’s always best to start low and work your way up.

Remember that treating body and back acne is no different than treating facial acne.  Until the root cause is figured out, you’re going to have to continue your acne regiment.  Stopping for just a bit will allow for more clogged pores and the acne to return.

The problem with acne is its source.  For almost all teens and most adults, acne is caused by hormone fluctuations that cause the body to dramatically increase the amount of sebum (skin oil) your body produces.  The most prevalent of these hormones is testosterone which is a male sex hormone which is responsible for nearly all the changes that happen at puberty.  While these hormone fluctuations are generally solved on their own over time, the problem that they’re difficult to treat directly is why acne is so difficult to treat.

Why does this make acne hard to control though?

The problem with all your creams, lotions, antibiotics, patches, pills, shots, lasers, and most other devices used to clear acne with is that they only treat the problem skin deep.  They’re pretty effective at keeping the bacteria at bay, the pores open, and the redness and swelling down but they don’t solve the source of the problem which is increased oil production.  Which is why even when you clear up your last bout of acne, whenever you stop doing what you’re doing the acne is going to return.

Some Acne Control Tips!

1)  Don’t stop your acne control regiment!   One of the biggest problems people run into is what I mentioned above.  They clear up their acne, they’re fine with their appearance and as soon as they start to lay off their acne regiment the acne comes back.  Until your hormones are back under control and skin oil production returns to normal you have to keep treating yourself or the acne will come back.  This is important in the short term too!  Acne takes a while to cure once you have it, but it doesn’t take long at all for it to form.  Bacteria can start munching on clogged pores in as little as a few hours.  That’s why not washing your face just one night can set you back weeks in your progress.  Dedication is key!

2)  Exercise more!  Exercise helps on two levels.  Most importantly, it is known to help regulate hormone levels.  Any bit of balance you can bring to your body is going to help your skin out.  There are many studies that show that daily exercise helps bring many chemicals in the body under alignment.  Sweating during exercise is also helpful as it works as a detox and purification for your pores.  When you sweat hard all that oil and gunk that was starting to clog up your pores is pushed to the surface where it can be washed away after exercise.  This is in addition to the MANY benefits that being fit and healthy bring in and of themselves.

3)  Don’t Over Do It!  I’ve read a lot of the acne message boards and it seems that just as people have a problem of not sticking to their regiment, there are others that think that if they buy and use 10 different acne products that the problem will go away just as fast.  That’s false!  Your skin is delicate and can only take so many chemicals, treatments and washings.  Stick to one product and try it out for a while.  Too many products will over dry your skin which can lead to a whole host of other problems.

Finally, you need to stick to the plan.  I say that all over my website, but its true.  If I could suddenly invent the perfect product that cures acne overnight with no issues, I’d be an instant billionaire and put entire companies out of existence.  Unfortunately, I can’t do that and neither has anyone else.  It is just too big a problem to solve overnight.  You have to look at your acne as a skin injury.  When you scrape yourself up good, you don’t expect that to heal overnight.  You shouldn’t expect your acne to clear up overnight either.  This site has dozens of different ways to clear up acne that worked for folks all over the world.  Read up, pick the ones right for you and give them a try, and don’t give up for at least a couple weeks!

If you suffer from acne and you’re an adult.  Don’t worry, you’re not alone.  According to the American Academy of Dermatology, 25% of men and almost 50% of women suffer from adult acne at one time or another.  The good news is almost all cases resolve themselves after a while.  The even better news is there are several things you can do to help prevent or treat your acne symptoms.

Treating Adult Acne

Take it easy! – The first thing to do is to not stress out about your acne!  One of the key causes of adult acne, particularly males is stress!  Whether its a lot of stress over a long period of time that manages to wear our body down or times of acute stress such as long hours at work with little sleep – both forms of stress have the ability to cause acne.  The best way to treat this is to treat the source of the stress!  Working hard lately?  Try your best to cut back a little.  Kids terrorizing you?  Find a way to get away for a while.  Examine yourself and ask yourself is there anything really stressing you out lately.  If there is, take steps to fix it and you may fix your acne problems too.

Argh!  It’s that time of the month again! – The main cause of acne in females is hormone fluctuations during the menstrual cycle.  A little bit of this is normal, but if you’re breaking out particularly bad then its best to see a doctor.  He may find that you need hormone therapy which can help counteract the highs and the lows encountered during menstruation.  Also, many forms of birth control not only level out your hormones, but are known to fight acne directly too!

Benzoyl Peroxide works – We’ve got plenty of information here on the site about benzoyl peroxide including an informational page and a page on bad acne.  That aside, take our word for it and it works.  It’s pretty cheap, readily available, comes in endless forms and m and is the #1 recommended treatment for both teens and adults.  Benzoyl peroxide clears out dead skin cells, kills the bacteria that causes acne and brings down both the swelling and the redness of acne.  It takes time to work though, so stick with it for a bit.

Preventing Adult Acne

Sweat it out – Ever notice how thin and fit people rarely have acne?  This is because of the wonderful effects of exercise and being in shape.  When you work out, your pores open wide up and push gunk and oil to the surface.  In addition, exercise is a great regulator of hormones which often is the source of your acne problem.  By working out daily, you bring to balance hormone imbalances which treat acne at its source.  Finally, exercise is a great way to reduce stress.  Nothing bad comes from reducing some stress in your life and as you read above, stress is a frequent cause of acne in adults.

Watch your makeup – Women got it rough, in addition to menstruation causing all kinds of hormone problems, trying to cover it up with makeup isn’t always the best thing.  Most cosmetics by their design are both thick and covering.  Exactly the conditions that acne thrive in.  If you do plan on wearing makeup, you can help your situation by using only as much as you need, washing and pat drying your face before applying, and finally washing your face as soon as its no longer needed.

Moisturize – Sometimes acne appears due to a lack of moisture in your skin.  This is often caused by environmental conditions such as the weather.  Dry conditions, particularly in the winter months can cause your skin to become dry, cracked, and form acne.   Solve this by applying some moisturizer after washing and pat drying your face, or even better find a face wash that moisturizes as well that works for you.

Wear Light Clothing – Opposite of the dry winter months causing acne, the humid summer months can cause acne, particularly on regions of the body other than the face.  If you work outside or sweat a lot, be sure to wear light airy clothing as damp sweat drenched clothing which constantly rubs against the body can cause rash and acne.  Also watch your exposure to the sun.  While most people would agree that a little sun helps lighten acne up, too much makes it worse and can bring on a host of even worse skin conditions.  Use sunscreen and wash your face when you come inside from a hot sweaty day.

If you’re following all of these tips and you still are having acne issues, then the best thing to do is to contact a doctor.  He can determine the root cause of your acne and determine if its stress and bacteria related, or something more serious.  Acne can be a major indicator of serious illness such as diabetes and nutritional deficiency so its best to get it looked at if its being particularly stubborn.

There are a variety of ways to treat your acne.  Check out our home remedy guide and our three step acne clearing guide for more information.

Little Stuff NOT to do to Control Acne

Keep your hands off your face – If you’re keeping your head propped up at work or school with your hands, you’re likely making your acne situation much worse!  Your skin needs to breath and if there are hands constantly covering the face, the oil in your skin isn’t going to get to the surface and you’re going to cause clogged pores.  There’s no need to getting carried away with this tip though, its okay to “touch your face” but keep in mind that the longer your face comes in contact with surfaces that don’t allow it to breath the worse off it can become.

Don’t pick your pimples – Picking your pimples is one of the worst things you can do if you’re trying to get your acne under control!  When you pick a pimple it releases the infection to other areas of your face including underneath the skin you just tore!  When this happens the result is more of what you don’t want:  more pimples.  Pimples can almost be treated like scabs in that they’ll go away and dissipate on their own once the skin is healed.  The most important part is to make sure all those pimples are opened up and that the bacteria that is causing them to be red and swelled up is treated!  This goes for scrubbing in the shower too!  I know its a big compulsion that scrubbing hard will open those pores but resist the urge!  Opening up acne that isn’t ready to be treated is only going to make it stick around longer.  Finally, as a final warning – picking your acne is the #1 cause of acne scarring in teenagers and young adults.

Keep out of the sun! – I hear a lot that the sun can help clear your acne and in some ways it can!   A suntan darkens the skin and makes it harder to see blemishes and acne, but it comes at a price.  Too much sun will cause sun burn which will really make your face look rough.  Sweating can clog the pores so make sure that you wash your face as soon as you get the chance.  Finally, a lot of medications that are out there to treat acne increase the skins sensitivity to the sun!  If you’re taking one of these medications make sure to follow the instructions and to use sunscreen whenever you’re exposed to the sun, especially in the summer!

Little Stuff to do to Control Acne

Change your bedding often – One thing to help speed along getting rid of your acne is to wash your pillow cases more often.  Of all the surfaces that come in contact with your face, your pillow meets your face the longest!  Oil is spread from your face to the pillow case and continues to cause problems even days after.  Days old skin is just ripe for bacteria!  Depending on how bad your acne is, you might consider washing your pillow case two to three times a week.

Take it easy!  – Did you know that stress is known to be a contributor to acne?  I’m not implying that your acne is caused by stress but it sure doesn’t help when it comes to clearing up acne.  Just last week, the U.K. government released a study indicating that stress not only can cause acne, but causes it to heal slower as well.   It’s impossible to avoid all stressful situations, but the less stress you take on the better off you’ll be!

Work out time!  – Working out isn’t only a great way to get acne under control but its also great for the body on all levels!  Exercise causes you to sweat (or at least it should!) which helps to clear out your pores.    This brings sebum and dead skin cells up where you can wash them away.  Secondly, exercise restores fluctuating hormone levels to a balanced level.  Almost all acne problems are either directly or indirectly related to hormones, and so keeping them under control is always beneficial!  Finally, taking a tip from the tip above, a lot of different exercises actually releases stress which is a bonus.

Head and Shoulders it up – Head and shoulders is one of the home remedies that have been hot on the net lately.  Apparently head and shoulders is a good way to treat acne while taking a shower.   Head and shoulders is really good about removing oil from your face and the zinc in it helps to improve complexion and it’s also supposed to reduce acne scarring with extended use.  Hundreds of people in the acne community swear by it!   The same can be said with toothpaste!  Apparently toothpaste is great at drying up acne.  The way most folks use toothpaste is to dab a bit on stubborn or particularly greasy pimple and leave on overnight.  A little bit may get onto the pillow cases but thats okay, we plan on washing those anyway.  As with any home remedy, try on a small part of your face first before using it all over to reduce risk of a freak allergic reaction.

I can go on and on about things you should or shouldn’t do.  One thing to keep in mind about acne is that it is an infection.  The better the health and condition of your body, the better off you are at fighting an infection.  What’s good for the body is good for your acne so eat well, drink lots of fluid and exercise!

Go back to part 2 of our controlling acne featured article!

Oral Medications That Clear Acne

There are several different medications that clear acne including Tetracycline, Erythromycin, Clindamycin, Minocycline, and Doxycycline.  Of these medications, the two most common are  Tetracycline and Erythromycin.  All of these require a doctors prescription so be sure to talk with your primary doctor or your dermatologist before starting any treatments.

Topical Medications that Control Acne

Chances are if you’re looking around the drug store or the supermarket at all the different acne products out there, they contain one of the two following chemicals:  Benzoyl Peroxide and Salicylic acid.  These two chemicals are the tried and true big hitters in controlling acne.

Benzoyl Peroxide is the most common form of medication for treating most forms of acne. Consisting of two parts benzoyl and one part peroxide, it fights acne in three ways. Firstly the peroxide component works as an antiseptic and can clear infection out of most

Benzoyl Peroxide

small wounds and pores. The benzoyl component works as an anti-inflammatory agent and can bring down the swelling and the bright redness of acne.  Finally, together the chemicals also act as an oxidizing agent.  The drug comes in many different forms from creams and mask to pads, sprays, and direct alcohol solutions.

The strength of these products lies anywhere from 2.5% to 10% benzoyl peroxide.

One key thing to keep in mind is that using the 10% dosage isn’t always the best!  People think they need to go in guns a blazing when in reality 10% benzoyl peroxide for a long length of time is going to dry out and mess up almost anyone’s skin.  Start low and work your way up.

Finally, one major advantage that benzoyl peroxide has over most other treatments is that acne doesn’t seem to resist it at all.  In some cases, acne can gain resistance if a treatment is started and not finished making it all the harder to get rid of the next time around, but to date there is no evidence that acne is able to adapt to benzoyl peroxide.

Controlling your acne naturally

Honey mask have been used for centuries by folks as a way to have fair skin.  Honey works by working its way deep into the pores and peeling out anything that might be clogging them up.  Honey also has some anti-inflammatory properties so it tends to reduce the swelling and redness of acne.

Stick to your acne control plan!

The first step in getting your acne under control is by making an effort to wash your face regularly.  While this sounds easy, a lot of people who have acne problems struggle here because they don’t incorporate it into their routine.  Acne is created by oil (known as sebum) being secreted from your pores.  This greasy gooey oil can clog up the holes in your skin causing them to swell up.  This is where your black-heads and white-heads come from. When your pores get clogged, this provides the perfect condition for bacteria which love to feed on this oil to grow and multiply.  Your skins defenses go off and begin to fight the infection.  This is where the redness comes from.  The most important thing when it comes to taking control of your acne is to make sure that this oil doesn’t clog your pores and if it does, that it is washed away quickly.

The number one problem that folks have when trying to get rid of acne is they don’t maintain a routine.  Acne, particularly in adolescence becomes a problem when the skin kicks oil production into overdrive.  If the oil isn’t removed quickly, pores become clogged and acne sets in.  Just forgetting to wash your face one time can allow conditions for clogged pores.  The #1 recommendation I can make is that you set up a routine to where you wash your face two to three times daily.  It can be between meals, regular intervals, whatever fits into your life style, but consistency is key!

Here are some tips I’ve found that proved to be useful as far as washing your face goes:

1)  Wash your face before or after every meal – This suggestions is useful because its purpose is to get you into the routine of washing your face.  I for one know it can be hard to remember to wash up all the time when it hasn’t been something I’ve done a lot before.   By washing your face before or after every meal, you ensure that you actually get it done.  After all, you’ve got to eat don’t you?

2)  Find a face wash that you can use often – This is trickier than it appears because everybodys skin is different.  When looking for a face wash, you’re going to want to find one that isn’t medicated.  There are plenty of other products out there that you can use that can apply the same medication, but by leaving the meds out of your face wash you can ensure that it is soft enough on the skin to be able to be used daily.

3)  A little bit goes a long way – Face it, acne products are expensive enough as it is.  Reading around, I find that a lot of people are under the wrong assumption that by using more face soap, you do better for your skin.  This isn’t true at all.  As far as most face washes go, you really only need a pea sized amount to get the job done.  Using too much product on your skin can cause your probles to get worse instead of better!  Be sure to follow the directions on the bottle and remember that you can always add more soap, so be stingy!

4)  Don’t scrub too hard – You can’t just scrub your acne off your face.  By scrubbing hard you break the skin and leave yourself open to infection.  Plus, sebum can seep through your skin to other parts of your face and cause acne there as well.  When washing your face, work the soap into a nice lather and gently massage your face.  As hard to resist as it is, the less you come in direct contact with your acne, the faster it’ll get better!

5)  Pat dry your face with a towel – This goes hand in hand with the tip above.  You want those pimples to heal on their own and not spread their oil, so pat dry your face.  This prevents any friction that can cause the pores to open prematurely.

6)  Don’t Over Do It! – Some people like to go in guns a blazin’ when trying to take control of their acne problem.  There is such a thing as over doing it!  If you’ve got face wash, face spritz, face lotion, face mask, facial pads, medications, and everything else under the sun each with a host of ingredients not only are you not going to clear all your acne but you can create for yourself a whole host of other problems due to over drying and over medication.  Pick a product or two and follow accordingly.  You can see good results without a laboratory full of chemicals.

7)  It takes time to control your acne – If there were a product out there that could clear your acne overnight it would be an instant billion dollar success.  Unfortunately, there isn’t a product out there that can do this and you shouldn’t expect it.  People want instant results, but acne is an injury on your skin and injuries take time to heal.  In fact, during the first few days of treatment, acne can even get worse!  What is important is that you stick to the plan.  As long as you don’t miss a beat and you’re not over doing it as far as treatment is concerned, you’ll see your acne begin to clear up in a week or two.  If you don’t see improvements after a couple weeks, then its best to talk to a dermatologist and determine a new method of treatment.

8)  Don’t stop now that you’re clear! – A mistake that a lot of people make is that after they see significant improvements in their acne, they stop what they’re doing and the problem comes back!  The increase in sebum takes years for the hormones to balance out and throughout the entire time you need to be continuously vigilant in your treatment.  All the medications and products out there  clear pores and kill bacteria.  They don’t cure the cause of the acne which is the oil production.  Until that balances out on its own, you need to keep treatment going.  If it doesn’t balance out on its own after adolescence, hormone therapy can provide treatment.

When it comes to controlling your acne, it’s a tough undertaking.  Integrate your routine into the normal flow of your life and you’ll find that its not too difficult to get into the acne fighting routine.  Persistence, dedication, and a bit of patience are the keys to success in controlling acne.

It’s almost that time of year again when winter sets in and acne gets worse for thousands of people in the Northern United States.  Thousands of people see their acne get worse every winter, especially if you live in the far north with the below 0 temperatures and high winds.   Plus, to make things worse, that nice skin tone you’ve managed to get over the summer fades away making acne look worse and acne scars more visible.

Why does winter weather make acne worse?

The problem is that during the winter we tend to stay indoors a lot where the air is quite dry. Well, except when we go outside in the freezing cold where there is even LESS moisture in the air and frigid temperatures that freeze and evaporate the moisture on our skin very quickly.  On top of that, suddenly changing temperature from really warm to really cold is never good.  Ever feel your skin tighten when you hit the warmth?  Our face usually comes in direct contact with the air outside, so it has a lot to deal with!

Ways To Clear Acne During the Winter Months:

1. Circulate the air in your bedroom:  Most folks spend most of their time at home in the bedroom, most of it sleeping.  One good thing to do is to open the windows when its not AS cold out to circulate the air a bit.  This has been shown to help out quite a bit
2. Use a humidifier:  My dermatologist actually recommended this to me and I’ve got to say that it works great.  Humidifiers add humidity to the air by warming the water up and turning it into a light vapor.  My grandmother used to put a large bowl of water in her room to accomplish the same thing.
3. Keep hydrated:  This is important because while you may not be as thirsty all the time, you still need six to eight glasses of water a day.   Water not only helps to keep your skin hydrated, but it also helps rid your skin of toxins and helps facilitate the movement of nutrients from the blood stream to the skin.  Water is good, drink up!
4. Change up your facial cleansers:  A lot of facial cleansers have products such as Benzoyl Peroxide that are also known to dry out the skin.  Put those away and switch to a facial cleanser that doesn’t contain any medication.  The weather is doing the drying out part for you, so just make sure that you continue to wash your face often to keep pores open and infections out.
5. Lube it up:  Keep your skin moisturized by using a moisturizer.  Look for one that contains aloe and doesn’t contain oil as this will not only keep your skin moisturized and supple, but will also fight against the redness that dry winter weather brings on.
6. Cut back on the meds:  Talk to your dermatologist before taking this one to heart but like the face wash you might want to cut back on all the medicines you may be taking to clear your acne.  The reason being is a lot of these medications help dry out the oil on your face and winter is already causing that.  If you do stick to the medications, limit your exposure outdoors, especially on windy days.
7. Exercise it up:  Exercise is so good for you in the winter that you should do it even if you don’t have an acne problem, though doing it will help your acne.  Exercise helps to open your pores, sweat out toxins, increases circulation, balances hormones, relieves stress, and builds muscles and endurance.  It’s also a fact that a lot of people don’t get enough exercise during the winter months.  Just make sure you wash your face with your gentle face wash after you’re done!

This is just a start.  Be sure to talk to your dermatologist if you’re problems get significantly worse as he/she may be able to get you something to help.

See also:  Does sunlight help to clear acne?   AND   Ways to clear acne naturally!