Acne Treatment In Five Simple Steps

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Acne Treatment in
Five simple steps
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
essenTiAl sTeps To Acne cleAr skin
www.acnetreatmeninsitute.com
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Table of Contents
Disclaimer????????????????????????????????????????
???????????????????????????????
3 Introducion?????????????????????????????????????
??????????????????????????????? 4 Sufering from
Acne??????????????????????????????????????????????
?????????? 5 You are not alone ???????????????????
???????????????????????????????????????? 5 My
experience????????????????????????????????????????
???????????????????????? 6 What causes Acne?
??????????????????????????????????????????????????
?????? 7 What factors cause acne?
?????????????????????????????????????????? 7
Hormonal ?????????????????????????????????????????
?????????????????????????? 7 Geneics??????????????
??????????????????????????????????????????????????
?????? 7 Psychological ???????????????????????????
??????????????????????????????????? 7 Diet
??????????????????????????????????????????????????
??????????????????????????? 7 Types of
acne??????????????????????????????????????????????
???????????????????? 8 Cleansing
??????????????????????????????????????????????????
?????????????????????? 9 When you should cleanse
your skin ??????????????????????????? 9 When you
should cleanse you skin ??????????????????????????
10 The typical steps for cleansing are as
follows?????????? 10 Which is the best
cleanser??????????????????????????????????????????
? 11 Exfoliaion???????????????????????????????????
?????????????????????????????????? 11 Why is
exfoliaion it important? ?????????????????????????
?????? 11 Choose the right agent
????????????????????????????????????????????? 11
How to exfoliate ?????????????????????????????????
?????????????????????? 12 Spot Treatment??????????
??????????????????????????????????????????????????
? 13 Toning ??????????????????????????????????????
?????????????????????????????????????
13 Moisturise ????????????????????????????????????
???????????????????????????????? 14 Tips
??????????????????????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????? 15 Myths
??????????????????????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????? 16
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Disclaimer
The informaion contained within this publicaion
is based upon my own knowledge and experience and
takes into account the most recent published
academic research. However it is not intended to
replace the expert knowledge and services or a
physician or dermatologist. This publicaion is
intended to provide you with informaion to help
idenify cosmeic products but is not intended to
subsitute the decisions a doctor can make for you
on a one to one basis. If you believe you have a
serious skin condiion you should seek the help of
a qualiied medical praciioner. There is nothing
in this guide that can help diagnose your skin
condiion. If in doubt get the expert opinion of a
qualiied dermatologist Copyright
acnetreatmeninsitute.com
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Introducion
HThis publicaion aims to help you understand
i Im Susan Sadler the author of this guide and
just like you I once sufered from terrible acne.
acne and place you on the right path to treat
your acne and stopping it from reoccurring. Oten
those sufering from acne dont understand the
basic causes of acne or the fundamentals of how
to treat it. To be honest the wide selecion
of treatments available can make choosing the
right one a dauning task, especially when a lot
of them dont work. Inspecing what some treatment
products contain can also make you a litle
apprehensive to try them azelaic acid and
benzoyl peroxide dont sound too inviing to your
face but are two stable ingredients that are in a
lot of the top treatment products and bring tre-
mendous beneits for most suferers of acne.
Dermatology is a tremendously in-depth branch of
medicine. I will keep to the basics of acne
causes and the fundamental principles of treaing
and prevening acne as well as my own personal
experience to successfully treat- ing acne. I
want you to maximise your chances of treaing your
acne without making you read unnecessary
literature. The truth is for most people the
procedure for treaing their acne is relaively
straight forward but it involves paience and more
importantly consistency. One of the hardest
aspects of treaing acne is choosing a product
that is efecive. Acne Treatment Insitute ofers a
comprehensive comparison of modern day over the
counter treatments?
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Sufering from Acne
Everyone desires beauiful lawless skin,
fortunate- ly for those lucky few it comes
naturally and they dont put efort, thought or
consideraion into it, they simply have beauiful
skin and perhaps take it for granted. However
most people dont have lawless skin and there are
a plethora of skin con- diions that you can sufer
from, one of the most common is acne. With
reading this guide and applying the knowledge
contained within it you will signiicantly
increase your chances of treaing your acne. Dont
let acne afect your self-conidence, your social
engagement or your life.
You are not alone You dont sufer alone, acne is
the worlds most common skin disease and afects
650 million people, just know that you dont have
to go through it alone and millions of people
have been successfully treated. Everyone
especially during adolescents will have an acne
breakout with an occasional spot but
approximately 15 percent of adolescents will
sufer from frequent and persistent acne. It most
commonly shows its irst signs during early
teenage years and peaks between 17 and 21 years
old. This type of acne of adolescent acne is
extremely common and easier to control than adult
acne. Acne in its second most common form
usually develops in early adulthood but it can
arise at any point in someones life. Adult acne
is harder to control and usually will require an
oral treatment in combinaion with consist- ent
skin treatment from acne treatment products. The
treatment may also need to coninue consistently
for years or the acne may return.
6
an all-ime low I prety much made every mistake
you could make and it was abundantly clear that I
needed to approach acne in a completely diferent
manner. It wasnt long ater hiing rock botom and
residing there for a while that I had success and
in a relaively short space of ime I managed to
start seeing huge improvements and eventually be
com- pletely acne free. I have minimal scarring
and have been acne free ever since. It wasnt
even hard to do once I knew how.
My experience My personal experience with acne
started when I was a teenager. I had whiteheads,
black heads and papules around my chin but mostly
concentrated on my forehead. It really wasnt a
pleasant site. I remember having a few acute
spots and the colour of my skin changing colour,
geing slightly redder. Knowing what I know now I
should have addressed the issue immediately but I
didnt and it developed to a state in which I was
extremely embarrassed. It made me incredibly
self-conscious, when talking to people all I
could think about is they were staring at my
acne. For women in paricular there is incredible
social pressure to look atracive and I knew that
my acne was the polar opposite.
All I had to do was follow a simple ive step pro-
cess. Its a ive step process that most of the
major acne treatment products use and they do so
for a reason. It works. You may already be
familiar with the method but you need to
consistently apply the methodology for a duraion
of at least four weeks to get noiceable results.
The ive steps are as follows

1. Cleansing
2. Exfoliaion
3. Spot Treatment
4. Toning
5. Moisturising

For a teenager there is a unique problem of not
quite being your own person but trying to be in-
dependent. I didnt want to approach my parents
for help as it was embarrassing, I didnt think
they would understand or be able to help. This
was also before the ime of the internet, if you
could imagine such a place. Its a lot easier in
this day and age to get the informaion you need
to treat acne so hopefully you wont have to go
through the same experiences I did.
The causes of acne can be split into two disinct
categories internal factors (e.g. hormone levels,
psy- chological stress) and external factors
(e.g. clogged pores). While it is true that to
maximise your chanc- es of treaing acne you
should address both aspects that can cause acne
your irst port of call and the most efecive is to
treat acne externally. We will briely talk about
some internal factors but the ma- jority of this
document will address external factors.
Within a relaively short space of ime the acne on
my forehead was geing worse. I felt that it had
de- veloped so much it was a prominent feature of
my face and that I would be described as the
girl with the spots. My skin was quite oily and
I tried Clearas- il to clean it and whilst you
can visually see from the coton bud the amount of
dirt it cleans from your skin it didnt produce
any noiceable efect on re- ducing my acne. I made
the huge mistake of picking and scratching my
acne thinking I could clean it up and make it
look less noiceable. If Im being hon- est I went
to some ridiculous extremes to clear my acne,
its hard to say this because it sounds stupid
but in my desperaion I even used a nail ile in an
atempt to scratch of the spots on my
forehead. Needless to say it didnt have the
desired efect and I had to cut my hair to have a
fringe to cover up the atrocity I had created. At
this point I was at
Educaion is your best weapon against acne. Thor-
oughly understanding what can cause it and what
you can do to treat it is the key. For that
reason Im going to talk a litle bit about the
causes of acne. You can of course skip this
secion if you want to only read about the process
of efecively treaing of acne?
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Geneics
Geneics play a large factor in acne prevalence
this is backed up by numerous scieniic
studies. If you are geneically predisposed to
sufer from acne then its unfortunately
unavoidable and cannot be prevented all you can
treat it to lessen the symptons.
What causes Acne? Your skin is covered in
follicles which are also known as pores.
Microscopic Sebaceous glands (someimes referred
to as grease glands) within the skin produce
Sebum which is an essenial oil responsible for
lubri- caing and waterprooing your skin. Usually
sebum will travel through yours pores to the
surface of your skin. People like us who sufer
from acne due to sebaceous glands producing too
much sebum and from pores becoming congested by a
mixture of the oil and dead skin. When the oil
becomes blocked it gives acne causing bacteria
(Propionibacterium ac- nes, abv p.acnes) an
environment to thrive, this pro- duces the highly
visible symptoms of acne. Though its not
completely understood what causes some glands to
produce excess sebum there are a number of
contribuing factors.
Psychological
You may have found correlaion personally yourself
between acne outbreaks and mental health, I for
one use to have increased acne severity when I
had a lot of mental stress. There are mixed
reports on whether stress is a factor. Some
people and some studies say that stress doesnt
increase the severity or risk of an acne outbreak
but the Naional Insitute of Health lists stress
as a factor. You may ind that the efects of
stress and acne difer from person to person.
Diet
This may surprise you but the relaionship between
diet and acne has a lot of contradicing studies
sur- rounding it. Many previous scieniic studies
have found there to be no correlaion between diet
and acne. Though recent studies have found that
cer- tain elements of diet may make acne worse
but not necessarily greasy foods as you may
expect. High glycaemic index foods can spike your
insulin and the types of food that have recently
been associated with worsening already associated
acne. Foods with high Glycaemic index are
typically white and sugary foods. You can
immediately lower it by eaing more complex
carbohydrate equivalents such as brown bread and
brown rice as well as less sugary foods.
There are a lot of conlicing indings for what
fac- tors can cause acne. Many diferent scieniic
studies have published contradicing indings for
many fac- tors. It seems that natural variaion
from person to person is quite large so its
important to try to follow best pracices and ind
what works for you the best.
What factors cause acne?
Acne is caused from sebaceous glands beneath the
skin which are controlled by sex hormones this
is why acne is far more prevalent in teenagers
than in adults. These grease glands produce our
skins natural oils to protect our skin though
someime the pores to the skin become blocked
usually by produc- ing excess oil.
Eaing bad foods may or may not afect your acne
but eaing healthy foods is always recommended for
healthy living and it may give your body a beter
chance of naturally defeaing acne.
Hormonal
Remember acne can only be treated it cannot be
cured. The amount of treatment and the results
you may see will vary signiicantly from person to
person. Usually it takes a minimum of six weeks
consistent treatment to see any results. Giving
up treatment too earlier ater not seeing
immediate results is frequent- ly the reason why
many people never manage to treat their acne?
The causes of over acive grease glands can be
hor- monal triggered. Events such as puberty or
menstru- al cycles are frequent causes. Also
hormone alter- ing medicaion such as steroids can
have a similar efect.
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Types of acne
Whitehead
Acne can take many diferent forms we are going to
briely idenify the most common forms of acne. To
help yo understand thie diagram below shows a
normal follicle. Normal Follicle Blackhead
Blackheads are essenially blocked sebaceous
ducts in the skin, blocked by oil and debris. The
pore is open but blocked its medically know as
an open comedo. The dark appearance of a
blackhead is caused by oxidaion due to the open
pore. Its an incredibly common and misconcepion
that black- heads are caused from lack of hygiene
or dirt.

• Whiteheads much like blackheads are the result of
  another blocked sebaceous duct only this ime the
  pore is closed and appears white. The pore being
  closed stops oxygen from contacing the blocked
  oil and without oxidising it will remain white.
  This is the only diference between white and
  blackheads.
• Pustule
• Pustules are large spots that contain puss they
  frequently cause signiicant inlammaion on your
  skin. Most oten they are on your face or areas
  that produce a lot of sweat like your shoulders
  or back. They look like your typical big spot
  an inlamed red area surrounding a white centre.
  The puss is created from your cells in your body
  ighing the
• bacteria that cause acne themselves breaking
  down. They can also grow into cysts and become
  hard if untreated, this is known as cysic acne.
  Again this reiterates the urgency of staring acne
  treatment as soon as possible. The best over
  counter treatments for pustules are those
  containing peroxide, salicylic acid and sulphur.

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Cleansing
Facial cleansing is the single most important
factor in treaing your acne. To maximise your
chances of being acne free you need to know what
to cleanse with, where and when? If you are
prone to acne then you have probably been through
the ritual of daily cleansing but most people
dont have a clue how cleansing actually works or
how to cleanse efecively. Cleansing will not only
clean your face by removing dirt it will also
kill Propionibacteri- um acnes the bacteria that
causes acne. If you kill the bacteria frequently
then it will have a reduced chance of making its
way into your pores. When you should cleanse
your skin You may be expecing a diferent answer
but if you arent wearing makeup then in most
circumstances cleansing your face just once a day
should be suicient. Too much cleansing is
detrimental to your skin. Cleans- ing more
frequently than once a day can cause irritaion in
your skin and subsequently create more dead skin.
Dead skin is part of the recipe for developing
acne it can clog pores and will increase
the severity of your acne. I am sure that you
can relate with the premise that every- one who
sufers from acne wants to be cured and clear
of the visual symptoms as soon as possible.
Unfortunately this desperaion to be acne free
immediately leads many people to be too
aggressive when cleansing their face. Your skin
is deli- cate especially on your face it should
not have any signs of pain, it shouldnt be red
or ingling if it is then you are washing and
scrubbing too hard and it will only make your
acne stay longer. For a cleanser you dont need
to aggressively scrub the acive ingredients in
the cleanser will do the work on their own. Most
modern day cleansers dont actually encourage you
to scrub with a washcloth just gently apply them.
10
Your skin is delicate especially on your face it
should not have any signs of pain, it shouldnt
be red or in- gling if it is then you are washing
and scrubbing too hard and it will only make your
acne stay longer. For a cleanser you dont need
to aggressively scrub the acive ingredients in
the cleanser will do the work on their own. Most
modern day cleansers dont ac- tually encourage
you to scrub with a washcloth just gently apply
them.
Cleansing Facial cleansing is the single most
important factor in treaing your acne. To
maximise your chances of being acne free you need
to know what to cleanse with, where and when.
The typical steps for cleansing are as follows
If you are prone to acne then you have probably
been through the ritual of daily cleansing but
most people dont have a clue how cleansing
actually works or how to cleanse efecively.
Cleansing will not only clean your face by
removing dirt it will also kill Propionibacterium
acnes the bacteria that causes acne. If you kill
the bacteria frequently then it will have a
reduced chance of making its way into your pores.
1
First wash and clean your hands thoroughly,
there is no point cleansing your face if your
hands are dirty you will just transfer bacteria
from your hands to face.
Prepare your face by washing it with warm
2
water. The warm water will open up the
pores in your skin and allow deeper access
into them for the cleanser.
When you should cleanse you skin
3
Read the instrucions for the cleanser you
You may be expecing a diferent answer but if you
arent wearing makeup then in most circumstances
cleansing your face just once a day should be
suicient. Too much cleansing is detrimen- tal to
your skin. Cleansing more frequently than once a
day can cause irritaion in your skin and
subsequently create more dead skin. Dead skin is
part of the recipe for developing acne it can
clog pores and will increase the severity of your
acne.
may need to work it into a lather before
F
a
c
i
a
l
c
applicaion. Apply the cleanser and massage
l
e
a
n
it into your skin gently in circular moions. Most
cleansers should be let for a minute allowing
them ime to work their way deep into your pores
and dissolving dirt and atack bacteria.
s
i
n
g
i
s
t
h
e
si
n
4
Ater the alloted ime recommended by the
g
l
product has expired remove the cleanser
e
from your face by either splashing it with
m
o
warm water or gently using sot, damp coton pads.
Make sure all the cleanser is removed from your
face. Any residual cleanser let on your skin can
cause irritaion.
s
t
i
m
p
o
r
t
a
I am sure that you can relate with the premise
that everyone who sufers from acne wants to be
cured and clear of the visual symptoms as soon as
possible. Unfortunately this desperaion to be
acne free immedi- ately leads many people to be
too aggressive when cleansing their face.
n
t
f
5
Ater removing the cleanser you want to
a
c
t
o
rinse your skin with cold water. This will
r i
n
close your pores and prevent dirt from
t
r
e
entering them. It will also reduce any redness or
in- lammaion in your skin and leave you looking
more fresh faced.
a
i
n
g
y
o
u
r
6
Finally dry your face with a clean towel or
a
cn
paper towel. Dirty towels are a haven for
e
bacteria and you will transfer them to your
skin if they are used. Make sure you clean your
tow- els regularly.
10
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makes their acne worse though there is the possi-
bility they could be being too aggressive. It
certainly helped me and I maintain it in my skin
care rouine. As the results are quite subjecive
you may have to approach it with an experimental
mind-set test it, look at the results and make
any necessary altera- ions.
Which is the best cleanser? Picking an efecive
cleanser is a huge part of treat- ing acne. Many
people dont get the treatment results they want
simply from picking an inefecive cleanser. There
are thousands of diferent acne treatment products
available and the vast major- ity of them dont
deliver adverised or expected results. You have a
lot of opions available when it comes to
purchasing a cleanser. One of the best products
you can buy online is exposed skin care it is
probably the best skin cleanser and complete acne
treatment soluion you can buy online. If you
would prefer to buy a treatment plan or cleanser
in person you should go to your local pharmacy
and buy products that are noncomedogenic.
Products from reputable brands such as Clinique
or Neutro- gena are also good choices if you
cant buy exposed skin care treatments. You can
also ask an assistant which products they stock
are currently treaing acne with the greatest
success.
Why is exfoliaion it important?
Your body naturally builds new skin cells and
sheds dead skin cells in a process known as
desquamaion. In normal circumstances dead skin
cells fall of your skin without you even noicing,
this is what the ma- jority of dust in your home
is made from. However in people sufering from
acne this process doesnt always funcion the way
it is intended. If the dead skin cells arent
shed in the way they are supposed they remain on
your healthy skin and can contrib- ute to your
acne worsening. Dead skin will linger and get
mixed with sebum oils. This can block pores which
in turn lead to increased inlammaion and greatly
increase the chance of making outbreaks worse.
This condiion is called retenion hyperkera-
tosis and is the reason why exfoliaion is
important to treat acne. Exfoliaion is physical
intervenion using a scrub or abrasive pad to
assist in the re- moval of dead skin. Choose the
right agent There are many diferent exfoliaing
methods available but they fall into two
categories, physi- cal exfoliaing agents and
chemical agents. Many cleanser products designed
to treat acne such as exposed skin care treatment
we recommend contain glycolic acid. Glycolic acid
will gently dissolve the dead top layer of skin
this means no physical abrasive agents are
needed. Although an
the
ingredient called Glycolic acid may not sound
like it but this is a very mind form of
exfoliaion. I person- ally ind I get beter
results when using it in conjunc- ion with a
physical agent.
Exfoliaion Firstly the efeciveness of Exfoliaion
is quite subjecive and results can vary quite
dramaically from person to person. For me and
based on my experiences exfoliaion was an
integral part of me successfully treaing my acne
but it doesnt always help everyone treat acne.
Some people believe it
A word of warning be careful of treatment solu-
ions, gels and creams that contain naturally
occur- ring rough exfoliaing agents such as
apricot pips. Whilst anything natural sounds
great and may have implicaions of being gentle on
your skin its not
12
necessarily true. Apricot pips for example are
far too hard and rough, the pips will scratch
your skin and cause inlammaion as your skin tries
to protect itself. You can also use a physical
exfoliaing agent such as a scrub- bing cloth but
there are sill more gentle physical agents
available that you such try irst. A beter opion
is to use a sot smooth silicone exfoliaion pad or
a mild exfoliaing pad. I personally use a Konjac
sponge and get excellent results. I always
recommend start- ing with the most gentle opions
of exfoliaion (konjac sponge or silicone bead)
and if you think you need to exfoliated a bit
deeper you can use a scrubbing cloth. If you are
sill unsure which prod- uct to use for exfoliaion
then you should speak to your dermatologist. How
to exfoliate With all the documented beneits of
exfoliaion its quite easy to see how some people
can exfoliate too much, many people think that
more frequent exfoliat- ing will yield beter
results, however this isnt the case. You
deinitely dont want exfoliate too much, its
quite easy to aggravate your skin from frequent
exfoliaion, ideally you should limit yourself to
know more than two imes a week. Exfoliate in the
morning Skin typically renews itself at night so
the best ime to help your skin shred its natural
layer is in the morning. Cleanse before
exfoliaing Follow the rouine in the way laid out
in this document, cleanse then exfoliate. If you
exfoliate before cleansing you run the risk of
scrubbing dirt and residue deeper into your
pores, which will only exasperate your acne. Be
gentle This is really important and it is easy
to be too rough unintenionally. Read the
instrucions on the product you choose. As stated
previously exfoliaing is a very subjecive aspect
of acne treatment for most people gentle exfoli-
aing will make your acne beter but you need to
listen to your skin. Exces- sive redness or
laking from your skin is a sure sign that you are
being too aggressive.
13
Spot Treatment
Toning The use of a toner agent is again a litle
subjecive some people will see great beneits from
using a toner whilst overs wont, a toner wont
be detri- mental to your skin though so its
always worth trying. Results from using a toner
depend on your skin and the type of acne you are
sufering from. This stage of the skin care
treatment is the least important in my opinion
and may not be necessary at all. Try it and look
at your results, if you like the way it makes
your skin feel and look then coninue using
one. Toners are applied to your skin ater
cleansing but before moisturising usually with a
coton ball or pad. Toners are designed to close
the pores in your skin which prevents further
dirt or dead skin enter- ing them. I use a toner
and if you choose to use on make sure its
hypoallergenic so your skin shouldnt react to
it. Also you may want to look if your toner
contains alcohol which could dry out your skin
and exasperate your acne symptoms. All good skin
care complete kits will contain a toner cream or
loion.

• You may think that acne treatment and spot treat-
  ment is the same but spot treatment focusses on
  individual troublesome pimples. Cleansing will
  reduce the amount and severity of blemishes in
  your acne and exfoliaion will help with the
  removal of dead skin, white heads and black
  heads. But for those persistent spots that dont
  seem to be im-
• proving you can apply speciic treatment. With
  most skin types you can use a product that
  contains more Benzoyl Peroxide on a speciic spot
  that you can with a loion that you will apply to
  your enire face.
• Typical cleansers have around 2 - 5 benzoyl per-
  oxide but spot treatments have up to 10 benzo-
  yl peroxide which would be too concentrated to
  apply to your whole face but to individual spots
  it works wonders. Its highly concentrated and
  gives maximum results and shouldnt dry out your
  face if
• applied to a few individual spots. I dont really
  need to cover spot treatment in too much
• detail. All you do is ater you have cleansed (and
  exfoliat- ed if needed) simply apply
• a small amount of the product on your most
  troublesome spots. If you want an efecive spot
  treatment product
• you can try this one. Or if you buy a complete
  skin care product like exposed skin care one will
  be included.

14
Moisturise
To inish your rouine you should moisturise.
Cleans- ing your face oten strips it of the
essenial oils that it needs to remain healthy.
Thats the point of cleansing, you want to
unblock pores and clean excess oil from your
skin, but it wont difereniate between excess oil
and essenial oils. Your skin is an organ and it
needs moisture to funcion properly. To ensure
that it doesnt dry out, peel or crack you should
use a moisturiser. Moisturising is an essenial
step and should be done unless you are in the
very few minoriies that have excepionally oily
skin and then moisturising may not be nec-
essary. I moisturise ater every ime I cleanse my
face. You should use a non-comedogenic or
non-acnegenic moisturiser, this simply means that
it wont contain ingredients that could clog your
pores meaning it wont produce blackheads or
whiteheads. There are moisturisers made for
oily, combinaion or dry skin. For oily skin which
is most common for acne suferers the use of a gel
based moisturiser is usually beter suited, they
provide essenial moisture without overburdening
your skin. If you sufer from paricularly dry skin
then you may be bet- ter suited to use a cream
based moisturiser. They are heavier and longer
lasing than gel based mois- turisers but for most
acne suferers a gel based one would be more
suited. Again the best approach is to moisturise
and see, if your skin sill feels dry use a
stronger moisturiser. If it feels too greasy then
you should change to a lighter product.
15
Tips
Stopping treatment too soon
4
To keep your skin blemish and acne free you
should coninue using an acne treatment product.
If you stop using it too soon then there is a
high likelihood it will return. When you become
acne free the best acion to take is to taper
down on the amount of treatment you are applying.
If you are cleansing once a day start cleansing
once every two days. Then ater a while if your
acne sill hasnt returned start using it twice a
week. For most people who sufer from acne you
will need to coninue using some treatment product
even when it has gone. Dont pick Im sure you
have heard this numerous imes and you know you
shouldnt pick but unless you know the reasons
for it then the incen- ive isnt always there.
Picking or squeezing spots is far too harsh on
your skin and picking spots takes healthy skin
with it making the area afected bigger and deeper
which massively increases the chances of leaving
a permanent scar. You also run the risk of
pushing infected materials further into your
pores and spreading bacteria. You may think that
picking spots makes your acne look beter but in
the long term it wont Never go to sleep with
your makeup on. Makeup can be a major cause of
skin irrita- ion and while it wont usually
result in severe acne it can deinitely lead to
the formaion of a few pimples if let on too long.
The opion to go through this en- ire skin
cleaning rouine may not always be available to
you depending on your lifestyle. So as a backup
you should keep a bag of baby wipes with you at
all imes, make sure they are suitable for use on
your face. Wash your hair frequently Believe it
or not your hair can increase the severity of
acne. If you have long hair or a fringe then it
can come in contact with your skin. Styl- ing
products from your hair can seep onto your skin
which can trap acne causing bacteria in your
pores. Depending on what hair styling products
you wear there is a possibility you can make your
acne worse.
Sooner rather than later
1
Treat your acne as soon as possible this is
the single most important piece of advice to
take with you. Acne can quickly develop from mild
to severe if let untreated, the more you let it
develop untreated the longer it will take to
treat. Inlamma- tory acne where the skin turns
red and swollen can cause severe acne scarring.
Prevenion of scarring is a much beter opion than
treaing it. Exercise pa- ience with your
treatment, acne may develop really fast but will
take skin at least four weeks to improve- ments
from treatment. Just to reiterate get treat- ment
as soon as possible. Do it today.
5
Sick to one treatment
2
Many people sufering from acne try mul-
iple products in desperaion to treat their
acne. The theory is that more treatments at once
will speed up the healing process. This
mentality will oten cause people to abandon a
product if they dont see results in a few days.
You need to sick with a product for a few weeks
to see improvements. Changing products frequently
can distress your skin and lead to bigger lesions
and pigmentaion. Sick to one treatment.
Makeup
6
Choosing the wrong treatment
3
If you have acne prone skin you need to
choose a product that will work for you. Un-
fortunately in the acne industry there are
hundreds, even thousands of acne products
available and many of them dont deliver what you
would expect. This is paricularly arduous if you
get a product that is going to be inefecive as
you have to try it for a few weeks to see that it
doesnt work. Our recommend product is exposed
skin care. Exposed have literally helped
thousands of people become acne free. You can see
some inspiraional tesimonials and pictures of
previous saisied customers on their website. If
you dont want to use exposed make sure your
choice avoids harsh cleansing products. Alkaline
bar soaps, and alcohol based cleansers carry a
high probably of increasing the severity of acne.
7
16
Myths
Bad Hygiene causes acne
bread, simply switching to brown bread and brown
pasta could lead to some improvement in your skin
condiion. High glycaemic foods spike you insulin
which can trigger a hormonal cascade and
endocrine response, this can result in further
sebum secreion and more acne. A Mediterranean
diet, one thats free of processed foods and high
in fresh fruit, veg and lean meats may contribute
to an improvement in skin condiions. While there
is a lot of contradicing evidence to the
efeciveness of eaing healthy has on acne its
always best to try and eat healthy for general
itness alone. Tanning will help acne This isnt
true in most cases it may actually make the
condiion worse. This may be hard to believe to
some people as they swear by it and to be honest
it may give a short ime visual improvement at the
cost of long term condiion. Tanning can mask the
look of acne temporally but make the problem much
worse as it will dry out your skin.
1
Bad hygiene causes acne is a total myth but
is one of the most common misconcepions
and the one that carries the highest levels of
social implicaions. If you have the predisposiion
to get acne you are going to get acne, no amount
of per- sonal hygiene can prevent it. The best
thing you can do is follow our guide to minimise
the severity of your acne and treat it. Treat it
as soon as possible, if you do have acne you have
it for the shortest imes possible.
Diet
2 There is a lot of conlicing opinion when it
comes to diet and its efect on acne. Some
3
studies suggest there is no correlaion between
diet and acne whilst others suggest there is at
least a small correlaion. The myth though is
about the types of food that get commonly
associated with acne. A lot of people assume
eaing greasy foods will make your acne worse and
this isnt true. Greasy foods you eat dont
directly equate to greasy skin. One possible link
is high glycaemic index foods foods that have a
lot of simple carbs and reined sugars in them,
not grease can make acne worse. These are foods
such as white pasta and white