Acne Treatment: What Do We Do? Where Do We Start?

Get A Good Cleanser

• Gel or foaming wash
• Salicylic Acid 2%
• Look for no paraben, perfumes or dyes
• Charcoal is great, removes toxins, but keep your expectations in check.

Toner vs. Astringent

• Who can tell me the difference?
• Astringent is going to strip your skin of moisture i.e. oil. Use sparingly, and if you are
  seriously oily. Otherwise you will taking away from you lipid barrier.
• Toner rebalances your skins pH and helps to remove any excess dirt and oil that may remain post cleansing.

Exfoliation

Helps to Clean Out the Pores and Remove Dead Skin Cell Build Up

• Very important for acne prone skin
• Chemical exfoliation: Acids
  • Salicylic acid
  • Glycolic acid
  • Mandelic acid
• Enzymes: Gentler version of chemical exfoliation
  • Papain (derived from pineapple)
  • Pumpkin (derived from pumpkin)
• Retinols
  • Vitamin A (helps loosen and slough away dead skin cells
• Physical exfoliation:
  • Scrubs
  • NOT ST IVES!
  • Rice, corn, or oatmeal powder
  • Wash cloth or cleansing brush
  • Jojoba beads
  • Sugar or salt grains
  • Microbeads

Whichever route you take, you should be using something every other day or two to three times a week.

Moisturizers and SPF’S

• Oil free moisturizer
• Paraben free
• If it can have SPF included, great!
• SPF with Zinc is my go to

It’s important to moisturize your skin; even with acne.

Why? Because you produce more oil, and are trying to dry it out, and the water component of your skin suffers.

This could, and often does signal the body to produce even more oil to compensate for the lack of water. So quench your skin’s thirst. Hyaluronic acid is great, it can hold up to 1000x it’s weight in water. So look for this ingredient in your oil free moisturizer and your skin will smile back at you.

Blemish Treatment

• Salicylic acid 2%
• Tea tree oil
• Vitamin A
• Benzoyl peroxide (only for 7-10 days) then give your skin a break

Simply spot treat with these concentrations; they will help to speed up the process.