How To Care For Your Acne-Prone Skin

When caring for your skin, acne can make it more difficult to know what the best choices are. In the guide below, we will help you navigate how to best care for acne-prone skin. We will cover what ingredients to look for when using products on your skin, and even what foods can help with acne. Keep reading to learn more.

Ingredients That Help With Acne

If you live with acne, it can make finding skin products that work for you a bit trickier. Although everyone’s skin is different, there are a few ingredients that are known to be beneficial in most cases of acne. For example, salicylic acid is an ingredient used in many acne-treating products. This ingredient helps to reduce the amount of oil building on the skin. As excess skin oils can be one of the main factors in acne occurring, many people can see a reduction in the level of acne spots they have after using this ingredient.

Benzoyl peroxide is another powerful anti-acne ingredient. It can be found in many common acne products from face washes to lotions. It works by reducing oil production, unblocking pores, and killing acne-causing bacteria. In terms of natural ingredients that can help with acne, try tea tree oil. This naturally-occurring treatment is quite powerful at helping to clear acne as well as providing soothing relief to painful, inflamed acne sores.

Acne Treatments

As well to at-home acne products, many people who have acne may wish to seek out further treatment to help reduce symptoms. There is a range of acne treatments available, so it’s worth researching the different options to help find the right acne treatment for you. Some of the different acne treatments available include prescribed medications from a trusted dermatologist or consultants. The ingredients contained in these treatments tend to be stronger than those on the market and can see more effective results.

Most treatments usually take the form of gels or topical steroids but could also be a course of pills that you take over a set period of time. There are also some cosmetic treatments that can help reduce signs of acne, such as laser treatments and skin peels.

Cleansing Skin

In combination with using acne treatments, cleansing skin is important for all skin types as it helps to reduce the build-up of bacteria that causes spots, as well as ridding the skin of pollution and germs that has gathered on the skin throughout day-to-day life.

However, for those that have acne, it’s especially important to make sure the skin is being cleaned thoroughly at the end of the day to help reduce the chances of acne developing due to these factors. You might have to experiment with different cleansers to find one that works best for you, as there are different types available. For example, there are cleansers designed for those with oily, dry, or combination skin. Massaging the skin with clean hands whilst cleansing can help to improve the blood flow to the face, which helps with healing scars and sores from acne.

Eating Right

Caring for your acne prone skin also means thinking about the food you eat. And that doesn’t mean just avoiding trigger foods although, clearly, that is important. It means addressing the root causes of acne at a cellular level through diet and lifestyle.

As nutritionist Jane Hickey emphasises in her article Acne is more than skin deep:

“The evidence of a number of global studies of indigenous societies points to a relationship between food and acne, particularly in the development of acne in these societies when they have adopted a Western diet.

At the time when they were following their traditional diets, studies found that there was no acne in the populations of the Canadian Inuit, South African Zulus, Japanese Okinawans, Aché of Paraguay and Kitavan islanders of Papua New Guinea.⁸ A change has only occurred when these societies have adopted a Western diet, and the prevalence of acne has emerged to a level similar to other Western societies.

The relationship between the Glycaemic Index (GI) of foods and acne has been widely studied. The GI of a food is a measure of the rise in the level of blood glucose, relative to pure glucose after the food has been consumed. Studies have found an association between high GI levels and acne. Evidence has been found that a low GI diet seems to be associated with an improvement in acne symptoms.”

The easiest way to think of a low GI diet is one that cuts out junk food and focuses on eating a primarily wholefood, plant-based diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables, fish and seafood twice a week, moderate amounts of dairy, eggs, and chicken, and red meat very occasionally.

Not only will your skin improve, but your overall health will too! Plus, if you are concerned about the current climate crisis, changing to a predominately plant-based diet is one of the most effective things you can do to reduce your personal carbon impact.