Whether you have acne on your face or your body, breakouts can cause you more than just discomfort. They can be damaging to your skin and your confidence. In severe cases, they can even be enough to stop you from living the life you want.
But, what if you have acne on both your face and body? Now, before you get frustrated and feel hopeless, here are 5 easy things you can do to banish acne and gain control over the situation.
1. Use the right cleanser
This is one of the easiest and most basic solutions to banish acne. Since dirt, oil and bacteria can get trapped in your pores, it’s only essential that you cleanse your face, preferably in the morning and before getting to bed. However, to treat acne, you need to use the right products in cleansing. Because the skin on your face is different from the skin on your body, you may have to use more than one cleansing product to treat your acne. For your face, you need something that’s gentle but potent enough to kill acne-causing bacteria and unclog your pores. Benzoyl peroxide is a good choice.
A glycolic acid is also a great option. Apart from helping you heal acne, it can also lighten the skin and reduce dark spots. For your body, try a salicylic acid body wash. This ingredient can dissolve dead skin cells that can clog your pores and cause pimples.
As to how frequent you should wash your body, do it after working out. Leaving sweat on your body for too long can encourage bacterial growth.
2. Exfoliate regularly
Acne-prone skin will benefit greatly from exfoliation. With too much oil and dead skin cells sitting on top of your skin, it’s relatively easy for your pores to get clogged and irritated. By exfoliating, you are technically buffing away those dead skin cells. Apart from getting clog-free pores, exfoliation also helps improve blood circulation so you can get glowing skin. Your skin’s texture will feel smoother and your complexion will obviously be brighter, too. For your face, choose something gentle. You can use a face scrub, a facial cleansing brush or an enzyme peel.
As for your body, you can use an exfoliating brush, an exfoliating bar soap or a body scrub. Use any of them with gentle rotating motions on your shoulder, chest and back where breakouts are more common. Try to exfoliate once or twice a week. Do not go more than two times a week as over exfoliation can lead to more problems.
Scrubbing too hard can cause irritation and minute damages in your skin. It can also trigger your skin to produce more oil and the oilier your skin gets, the more breakouts you are likely to have.
3. Make it a habit to moisturize
A lot of people with acne forego moisturizers because they think these products can cause more problems. If you are one of those people, you are committing a serious crime against your skin. You see, when your skin isn’t moisturized, it’s triggered to produce more oil to compensate. The problem is that your skin isn’t dry; it just thinks it is. For your skin type, choose an acne moisturizer that’s lightweight. Anything too heavy and occlusive can cause more breakouts.
Pick one that contains the right acne-fighting ingredients. Your best options include salicylic acid, benzoyl peroxide, tea tree oil and witch hazel. Try to find body lotions and creams with the same ingredients as well. Since the skin on your body is a bit thicker than your face, you should find products that can really penetrate your skin’s deeper layers.
Apply your moisturizer right after cleansing while the skin is still damp. This way, you’ll be able to seal in the moisture into your skin. Once in a while, you should also treat your skin with a mask, especially your face. Try a peel-off face mask for acne once or twice a week to free your pores from impurities.
4. Wear sun protection
When your skin tans from excessive sun exposure, your zits as well as your skin turn dry. Your tan makes your blemishes a lot less noticeable, too. Unfortunately, when the tan fades and your skin begins to recover, its tendency is to produce more oil to make up for its lost moisture. As a result, your skin gets oilier and that can cause more breakouts.
Apart from that, too much sun exposure can also speed up skin aging. It burns the skin, reduces its elasticity and leaves spots. It predisposes you to skin cancer, too. To make sure none of these things happen, always wear your sunscreen before heading out. As much as possible, use products with SPF 30 or higher and make sure they offer broad-spectrum protection.
Wear protective clothing when you know you’ll be exposed to the sun; like a hat or a good pair of sunglasses. Avoid going outdoors between 10 am and 3 pm as this is the time when the sun’s rays are the strongest.
5. Reduce stress
When you are under stress, so is your skin. Too much stress can boost your body’s production of the stress hormone cortisol. This hormone has a direct effect on how your oil glands behave. The more cortisol there is, the more sebum your oil glands produce. And you know what happens when there’s too much oil.
Stress can also affect your diet. It can make you crave for sweets, chips and processed foods. These things can aggravate your acne and make you gain weight, too.
You won’t get too much sleep when you’re under stress as well. Less sleep means less time for your body to repair itself. So, before stress takes over your body and skin, take time off your busy schedule to relax and unwind. You can try meditation, working out or find a new hobby.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in any guest post featured on our site are those of the guest author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of Beauty that walks as a whole.
Author Bio: Hannah Do is the founder of Thank Your Skin, a beauty blog dedicated to providing honest skin care advice and information. She aspires to help her readers achieve their most beautiful skin by sharing personal tips learned through both years of experience and thorough research. Check out her latest article about Best Drugstore Powder For Oily Skin. You can find her on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook“
