11 Tips On How To Prevent and Treat Acne-Prone Skin
Looking for skin that exudes a
goddess-like radiance through every minuscule pore? Want to zap those zits and
stomp out bad skin days for good? YouQueen has you covered! Read on to
discover some simple ways you can tame acne-prone skin.
Do you gaze at the clear, beautiful
skin of babies and children with barely controlled envy? Want to rediscover the
soft, dewy skin of your youth? If so, we completely understand. That’s why we have
searched the globe and compiled the best beauty tips and tricks that will have
your inner Aphrodite making a skintastic appearance in your life once again.
Here are 11 tips on how you can treat your acne-prone skin:
1. Stop Eating
Crap
No, really … Put. Down. The.
Cupcake. We have all heard it a million times but what’s one more for good luck: refined
sugar and processed foods are bad for you. Baaad. And while you may snort, shrug your shoulders and say ‘So what? I Live on the edge, baby!’ consider for a moment that many
experts attribute a poor diet to problem skin.
Hmm, you listening now?
Consuming cupcakes, pizza, chocolate and take-away food
doesn’t just destroy the inside of your
body, it attacks the largest organ on your body too: your skin. So ease up on
the french fries and swap the donut for a carrot. You’ll stabilize your blood sugar levels
and benefit from some much-needed vitamins and minerals that will help boost
the development of healthy skin.
Oh, and while you’re at it – have another glass of water.
Considering our body is made up of around 75% water, the chances are high that
you’re probably not drinking enough of
it. Aim for two liters each day and add an extra 500ml’s if you have exercised.
2. Sip Your Way to
Clear Skin
It’s not just what you eat that impacts
your skin either; it’s what you drink too. Water flavored
with lemon (just cut up a few slices of a lemon and add them to a jug of water)
is a proven antioxidant that helps alkalize and detoxify your body as well as
provide it with vivacious vitamin C. But what does all this mean for you? Easy – clear, smooth,
wrinkle-reduced and very delightful skin. Ah, swoon …
Another great beverage for awesome
looking skin and stopping acne is green tea. Packed full of antioxidants and
cancer-fighting substances, green tea boosts your metabolism (hmm, hello weight
loss) and fights inflammation as well. So add a cup or two of green tea to your
daily liquids and enjoy clear skin and a healthier body.
3. Nutrient up
Dr. Georgiana Donadio, who is the founder of the National
Institute of Whole Health, believes that our skin is the fingerprint of what is
happening inside of our bodies. She has stated that skin conditions including
acne are manifestations of potential nutritional deficiencies. To restore the
inner health of your body, try boosting the levels of the following vitamins
and minerals in your diett
•Silica
•Vitamin C, E and A
•Selenium
•Zinc
•Omega 3 Fatty Acids
With a healthy diett , you should be able to get all of these
vitamins and minerals. Check out 8 Foods to Keep You Young and Healthy or some great healthy food ideas.
If you think you might be deficient in anything though,
schedule yourself in for a blood test at your doctor and find out for sure. We
know, we know, blood tests aren’t cool. But your
doctor will be able to see exactly what’s happening in
your body and then recommend some supplements to get your body (and your skin)
back on track.
Here’s a fun trivia question: what daily
item does the skin on your face come in contact with for the longest? … Still thinking? Here’s a hint: you sleep on it. It’s not your bed, it’s not your sheets and it’s certainly not your boyfriend, it’s your … pillow!
Now ask yourself
how regularly do you wash your pillowcase. Is it weekly? Fortnightly? Monthly?
Assuming you get around seven hours of sleep each night, that means that if you
wash your pillowcase once a week you’re spending a
solid 49 solid hours with your face mooshed against your pillowcase. If you’re washing it once a fortnight, that’s 98 hours. And if you’re washing it once a month … well, that’s 196 hours.
Moving on to our
next science fact: did you know that you shed about 40,000 skin cells every
hour? Every. Hour. So that means every night you shed 280,000 skin cells.
Across a week, that’s 1,960,000 skin
cells. Over a month it’s 7,840,000 … And guess where all of those skin
cells are hanging out? Just chilling out, soaking in the atmosphere. That’s right: your pillowcase. Where you’re sleeping each night.
Ick, right? I’ll give you a
quick break to go grab your pillowcases and stuff them into the washing
machine. Okay, you done? Awesome. Now it’s pretty
unreasonable to expect you to wash your pillowcase each night (although with
those figures I don’t see how you can’t). So a good alternative is to
cover your pillowcase with a clean towel.
In China, it’s actually pretty standard to put a
small towel over the top of your pillowcase to keep the dirt and skin cells
that accumulate during the night in the one place so it’s easy to remove and clean daily. A
simple thing like this can instantly help you prevent acne, and we both know
that preventing is easier than treating them.
5. Learn How to Sleep Properly
Sticking
with the sleep theme, another good way to get the good skin fairies to pay you
a visit is by learning how to sleep properly.
Sounds
dumb, right? But actually, most of us aren’t utilizing the sleep function to
the best of our abilities. It’s been proven that our body spends
the hours between 10pm and 2am renewing, recovering and rebuilding itself. But
what time do you normally go to bed? If you’re like most people, it’s probably around
12am. That means you’re missing out on two valuable hours
of skin renewal time.
While
it’ll be hard at
first, timing your sleep to get the most benefit out of this restorative period
will help boost the health of your skin so it’s looking plump, clear and soft come
morning.
6. Keep Your Hands to Yourself
Or
technically, keep your hands away from yourself. Just like ick accumulates on your pillowcase during the night, dirt and
germs accumulate on your hands during the day too. By touching your face, you’re automatically
spreading those germs to your delicate skin.
To
help ditch this habit, spend a few days being conscious of how often you
actually touch your face. Maybe when you’re listening to someone talk, you
cup your face with your hands. Or when you’re feeling stressed, you rub your
hands over your face. When you’re tired you might even rub your
eyes. There are a myriad of ways we unconsciously touch our face during the
day. Just pay attention to what you do and how often – you’ll be surprised!
7. Sweat It off
Phwoar, just another reason to get some
daily exercise – working out can help you to get
clear, beautiful skin! Exercising increases the blood flow in your skin, which
helps you to sweat. Sweating then removes toxins from your body that can clog
your pores and encourage acne. The extra blood flow provided by exercise also
increases the amount of oxygen in the skin and boosts nutrients that stimulate
healthy skin. Pretty cool, right?
Tip:
Make sure you wash your face after exercising to ensure your pores don’t become clogged.
8. Wash off Your Make up
It’s been a long,
hard day. You tug on your pajamas and flop into bed. Your eyes close and you’re a second away
from drifting off to sleep when you remember, crap – you forgot to
wash off your makeup! Your eyes snap open and you wearily consider the reality
of getting up and washing your face. You argue with yourself for a while.
Finally, exhaustion wins the battle and you close your eyes once again,
thinking ‘one night won’t matter’.
Uh,
we’ve all done it!
And then we’ve all broken out
a few days later and felt like the massive pimples came out of nowhere. Now
that you know what happens when you sleep makeup-free, imagine what happens
when you sleep with makeup on.
The
ick factor connected with hundreds of thousands of skin cells
shedding? Triple it. Overnight, your skin absorbs all of the grease and grime
and clogs your pores, preventing sebum from doing its job and removing
irritants from the pores. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, it’s like having a
power outage at work; sebum is left twiddling its thumbs and hanging around
bored. It stays in place and further clogs your pores, promoting breakouts.
If
you want to wake up with clear, perfect skin then you’ll need to remove
your make up each night. Fact.
9. Steam Your Face
Want a cheap, easy
way to develop healthy skin and banish bad skin days? Grab a pot, fill it with
hot, boiling water then drape a towel over your head. Now, hang your head over
the top of the pot. Voila – facial steaming
on a budget!
The benefits of
facial steaming are well documented. By steaming your face, you’re softening your skin and the top
layer of dead skin cells. This in turn helps remove and release any build up of
dirt, bacteria and dead skin cells. It will also help your skin absorb your
skincare products better.
Note: If you
suffer from rosacea of fungal infections, do not try facial steaming without
first consulting with your dermatologist or doctor.
10. Clear Skin with a Clarisonic
If you’ve never heard of a Clarisonic, it’s like an electronic toothbrush for
the face. The Clarisonic Sonic Skin Cleansing System is a technology that uses 300 movements per second to remove
six times more makeup than regular manual cleaning.
For acne
sufferers, this means skin that is cleaner, smoother and healthier than ever. Clarisonic is promoted as
being a tool to remove impurities and reduce oily areas and blemishes. It has
hundreds of positive reviews and while is quite pricey, is considered to be a lot of bang for your
skincare buck.
11. See an Expert
Just like you see
a plumber when your tap explodes and you call an electrician when your lights
won’t turn on, you should really visit a
skincare specialist when
Just like you see
a plumber when your tap explodes and you call an electrician when your lights
won’t turn on, you should really visit a
skincare specialist when your skin is misbehaving. They know their stuff, can
identify underlying issues and treat both the surface layer of the skin and the
layers of skin underneath.
Skincare
technology has come in leaps and bounds in recent years and there are a variety
of proven techniques and procedures that remove acne and acne scarring. A few
include microdermabrasion, facial peels, light therapy and comedone extractions.
There are also a variety of laser treatments ranging from light and relatively
pain-free to James Bond-style lasers.
You’ll need an expert to administer
these treatments though, so book in an appointment to see your local trusted
skin care clinic or dermatologist.
So, there you go – eleven easy ways to treat your
acne-prone skin and transform yourself into a clear-skinned goddess! What do
you think? Do you know of any more clear skin tricks that work a treat?