A C N E
A Simple Guide On How To Treat Acne
Acne is a common skin condition that affects an estimated 85% of people at some point in their lives. It occurs when the skin pores become clogged with oil, bacteria or dead skin. The condition is characterized by blackheads, whiteheads, tender red bumps, and cysts. It usually appears on the face and neck but can also affect the back, shoulders and upper arms. If left untreated, acne can cause scarring, hyperpigmentation that lasts for months or years and significant emotional distress including depression and low self-esteem. Keep reading to discover how to treat your acne and explore whitehead and blackhead treatment.
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Treating Acne
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There are several ways to treat acne, but their suitability depends on the severity of your condition. Here’s how to get rid of acne:
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1. Keep it clean
Cleansing your face twice a day is one of the most effective ways to treat face acne. Wash your face with a facial cleanser in the morning and evening, and if using a face cloth, make sure you always use a free one. Ingredients such as chamomile extract can soothe inflamed skin and reduce breakouts, or marigold extract can aid skin repair.
After washing, pat your face dry with a clean towel and apply a toner. Toners tighten pores, making it less likely for oil and dirt to get trapped in them.
2. Scrub away impurities
Exfoliating regularly is another great way to stop acne. It helps remove dead skin cell build-up and debris that clogs pores. Be sure to exfoliate only once or twice a week as over-exfoliation can cause redness and irritation.
3. Always apply moisturiser
Moisturising your face is just as important as cleaning it. Cleansing your face can strip it of moisture and oils, causing the skin to produce more sebum to compensate for the dryness. To avoid this, apply a gentle moisturiser after washing your face every morning and evening. Be sure to use the best acne moisturiser for your skin type.
A good day-time moisturiser is lightweight, yet creates a barrier to protect your skin from pollutants and environmental stressors. Try out Sönd’s Sidekick Day Cream, which includes silica and pentavitin to strengthen the natural skin barrier.
At night time you can opt for a heavier cream with active ingredients, to give your skin the chance to regenerate overnight.
4. Try a chemical peel
Getting a chemical peel regularly will not only treat active acne, but also hyperpigmentation and acne scars. A facial peel is a chemical peeling agent that contains acids which help break down the outer layer of skin and reduce spots and inflammation.
Chemical peels can increase photosensitivity, so always remember to wear sunscreen before heading outdoors.
5. Be consistent
Your best weapon against acne is a consistent approach to skincare. It’s too easy to fall asleep with your makeup on after a long day, or switch between numerous products in the search for the magic cure. Get into a routine with your skin care and stick to simple, gentle products that work in harmony with your skin - rather than against it. Your skin will reward you for forming good skincare habits now.
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Reduce your acne by avoiding these food types
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Acne can be caused by a variety of things including diet, stress and hormonal imbalances which makes it very difficult to get to the root cause as to why any individual person has it.
The best way to find out what is causing acne is through a process of elimination and changing certain lifestyle factors.
Below we outline common foods that trigger acne.
Dairy products
Studies have shown links between consuming dairy products and acne breakouts. The reasons are that dairy products can increase insulin levels and androgens (male sex hormone) which can stimulate increased oil production.
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Sugar
As much as we might like chocolate, ice cream or sugary drinks they cause havoc in our bodies. Consuming sugar causes our insulin levels to spike leading to cellular inflammation within the body. The imbalance this causes within the body can trigger acne breakouts. If that wasn’t bad enough it also breaks down our collagen and elastin reducing the firmness of our skin.
White carbohydrates
White carbohydrates like bread and pasta get broken down into sugars once consumed. Like eating sugars, this will cause an insulin spike which can lead to an acne breakout.
Greasy fast food
Greasy fast food can create inflammation within the body which can trigger acne. Fast food can also contain a lot of sugar which will also increase insulin levels.
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Alcohol
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Alcoholic drinks can cause systemic inflammation which can trigger acne breakouts. Alcohol is also often mixed with sugary drinks which is giving the body two substances which can lead to acne. Alcohol also dehydrates the body impacting how well our cells and body can function.
Think about how much of each of the foods above you consume on a weekly basis. If there is one you feel you eat a lot of try cutting it out for a few weeks. Cutting the food type out might impact how you feel as well as improve your skin. Make a not of how you feel whether it be lethargic, uneasy stomach or anything else and then use that to compare how you feel a few weeks later.
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Acne on different parts of face
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What causes acne on your chin could be down to a totally different reason to why acne spots are developing along your hairline or on your cheeks.
Face acne treatments can include oral medications to reduce sebum production or that help to control the hormones that might be responsible for acne breakouts.
They can also include topical ointments to kill acne-causing bacteria or clear dead skin cells away from the skin. Or face acne treatments could mean a combination of medications and topical products alongside a holistic approach to treating face acne.
There are some surprising reasons why acne may break out on different areas of your face and some simple ways to help prevent it from happening. Here’s some of the common causes of acne on the chin, cheeks, forehead and nose, and what you can do to help treat these acne breakouts.
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Treat acne holistically
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While acne on different parts of the face may have unique ways of caring for them, it is always worth taking a holistic approach that takes diet and lifestyle factors into consideration.
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Who Does Face Acne Affect?
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Acne on different parts of the face can affect anyone, but those in their teenage years and younger adults tend to have more acne prone skin than older adults.
However, women between the ages of 30 and 45 can also develop acne due to stressful, busy lives often juggling a career and family life, as well as developing symptoms of the perimenopause and menopause.
Two of the most common causes of acne on the face are stress and an imbalance of hormones such as when going through puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, breastfeeding or the menopause.
Acne on different parts of the face can also be down to our genetics - we may be more prone to developing acne prone skin if a close relative such as a parent or a sibling also has the condition.
Food intolerances and eating a diet high in acid forming food such as meat and dairy products can also lead to acne on the face.
There are many different treatments for acne, so it’s important to understand our acne triggers to ensure we choose the right treatment.
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What is Face Mapping for Acne?
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Face mapping is a technique carried out by a skin specialist that helps to work out which areas of the face are more prone to acne breakouts. An acne face map will then provide useful information on where to focus your efforts for acne treatments.
Acne face mapping can also help to identify the potential causes of acne on different parts of the face, including acne potentially caused by stress, hormones, bacteria, a poor diet, certain skincare products and environmental toxins.
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Types of Acne Breakouts on the Face and What They Mean
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Different types of acne on the face can be caused by different factors and there are four main types of acne spots that can form on the face:
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Whiteheads - when dirt, dead skin cells, stale makeup and sebum (the wax like oil produced by the skin) build up in the pores, whiteheads are formed.
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Blackheads - blackheads are the same as whiteheads, but they become black when a head is formed and it gets oxidised by the air.
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Papules - papules are small, hard, red lumps that form under the top layers of skin. Often associated with inflamed, red skin, they’re different from yellowheads as they don’t contain pus.
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Cystic acne - the most angry of acne spots, cystic acne causes large, painful lumps under the skin that are filled with yellow pus and can leave behind angry, red scarring.
What Causes Acne on the Chin and Jawline?
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It’s commonly a hormonal imbalance that causes acne on the jawline and chin area. An increase in male hormones called androgens can lead to an increase in sebum production. Sebum is a natural oil produced by the skin. If it’s produced excessively, it can block the pores and lead to acne, most often around the chin and jawline.
Being premenstrual or menopausal can lead to hormonal imbalances, as can being on certain contraceptive pills, which can lead to chin acne and acne on the jawline.
Resting your chin on your hands can also lead to acne in these areas if your hands are dirty or carry bacteria.
It’s also thought that gut health could contribute to acne, particularly chin acne and acne spots around the jawline. Poor gut health can be caused by a diet of processed, sugary, salty and fatty foods, which can then lead to hormonal imbalances.
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How to Get Rid of Chin and Jawline Acne
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If you’re regularly getting jawline acne and flare ups of acne on the chin, then you may need medical treatments such as Aldactone or Co-cyprindiol, drugs that help to manage androgen and sebum levels.
Topical treatments such as glycolic acid, salicylic acid or azelaic acid may also help to treat chin and jawline acne.
Looking at your diet can help too. Try to eliminate processed carbohydrates such as white bread, pasta and rice, and other processed, high fat, sugar and salt foods.
Reducing your intake of dairy products, meat and animal proteins can help to manage jawline acne too as these foods can contain traces of animal hormones which can add to your hormonal imbalance.
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What Causes Mouth Acne?
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Mouth acne can be caused by regularly touching the skin in this area. Acne around the mouth can also be caused by using thick, oily lip balms, lipsticks and glosses that can clog the pores.
Eating something that your body is sensitive to can also trigger spots to form around the mouth but if this is the case, it’s less likely to be acne, and more likely to be a skin condition called perioral dermatitis.
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How Can I Treat Mouth Acne?
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The skin around the mouth can be more sensitive and often, topical acne treatments can’t be used around this area.
Try to limit the amount of times you touch your face with your hands, and make sure your hands are always clean and if you can, free from hand creams and lotions.
Use lip balms, lipsticks and glosses minimally – maybe keep them for special occasions and always use one that is non pore blocking or ‘non comedogenic’
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Keep an eye out for trigger foods, and limit the amount of processed and animal-based foods you eat, and aim to eliminate all dairy products.
If you do eat an oily food, make sure you wipe around your mouth afterwards using a clean cloth or face wipe to remove any oil that might be left behind.
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What Causes Acne on the Cheeks?
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Although acne is often caused by genetic and hormonal reasons, there are some surprising other causes, and they may make you feel a bit queasy.
Acne on the cheeks could be caused by bacteria on the skin that have come from faecal matter. We’ve all heard those reports on the presence of bacteria such as E.coli on our smartphones. E.coli’s natural habitat is the gut, and it exits the body in our faeces…
Taking our phone to the toilet, not washing our hands properly and simply holding onto the handrail on public transport can all transfer faecal bacteria to our hands and phones.
Touching our cheeks and pressing our phones to our faces as we talk into them can transfer these bacteria to our faces, and cause acne breakouts. Sleeping on a pillowcase that hasn’t been changed in a while can do the same. You may notice that your cheek acne is worse on one side – the side you sleep on or hold your phone to.
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How to Get Rid of Acne on the Cheeks
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Washing your hands regularly, changing your pillow cases weekly and wiping your phone with an antibacterial wipe every day can help get rid of acne breakouts on your cheeks. Plus, avoid the temptation of taking your phone to the toilet with you!
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Why you Might Be Getting Forehead Acne
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If you have naturally oily hair and you wear it forwards onto your forehead or you have a fringe, it could be causing small acne bumps to form on your forehead. Your choice of haircare products can also be to blame for your forehead acne.
Haircare products such as oils, waxes and serums are designed to moisturise the hair – and they do a great job at this.
However, what they do for the hair, they also do for the skin. The oils can block the pores on the forehead, which means that the natural skin oils, or sebum, can’t be released. This causes blockages and the red bumpy spots called papules and is a main forehead acne cause.
The forehead is also where teenage acne usually begins, and forms small red bumps along the hairline and across the forehead.
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How to Get Rid of Forehead Acne
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The best way to get rid of forehead acne is to keep your hair away from your face. This might mean growing out that new fringe you’ve just had cut in!
Also, make sure you wash your hair regularly using a clarifying shampoo which clears away any build up of products. Avoid wearing hats with a tight headband that sits on your forehead, too, as this can block the pores.
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What Causes Nose Acne?
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The skin on the nose is different from the skin on the rest of the face – it tends to have larger pores that can become blocked with excess sebum more easily, leading to angry red nose acne spots and bumps on the skin.
A different condition, called acne rosacea, which causes the skin to become red, inflamed and possibly thickened and lumpy can also affect the nose. Our article on acne rosacea will tell you more about the condition and help you find out if you have acne or acne rosacea.
Again, touching your skin can lead to nose acne, but acne in this area can also be a sign of hormonal imbalances or a poor or very acidic diet.
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How to Get Rid of Nose Acne
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As with any acne, everyone has different skin and there is no one magic acne treatment that helps everyone with nose acne.
Looking at your diet and enriching it with wholegrains, fruits and vegetables can help treat acne around the nose. If your nose acne flares up around the time of your period you may have a hormonal imbalance which could be helped by drugs such as Aldactone or Co-cyprindiol.
Topical treatments containing sulphur can help to control sebum production when applied to the nose area.
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What Causes Cystic Acne Breakouts on the Neck?
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Acne on the back of the neck tends to be cystic acne – that is, acne spots that are filled with pus, called pustules. This is because the skin in this area is thicker and more like the skin on the body than the face, meaning that it produces more sebum making cystic acne on the neck more likely.
Wearing tight necked clothing such as roll necks and shirts can irritate the skin on the neck, and provide the right conditions for blocked pores and neck acne breakouts.
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How to Get Rid of Cystic Neck Acne
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It can be easy to forget the neck area when you’re showering, so make sure you make a conscious effort to wash around the back of your neck. If you have long hair that’s naturally oily or that you add serums to, keep it tied up for the majority of the time to avoid a buildup of excess oil on the neck that can clog the pores.
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What Causes Acne Above the Brows?
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The skin immediately above the brow area is thinner and therefore more delicate than the skin elsewhere on the face.
This means that it can become irritated relatively easily, and that spots and bumps can form in this area as a response to certain, harsh, skincare products, sun screens and makeup.
We also tend to tweeze, wax and thread the hairs in this area away. This can also lead to blocked pores, spots and acne breakouts.
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How to Treat Acne Above the Brows
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Acne above the eyebrows is best treated by keeping the area clean and well hydrated. Using the Sönd alkalising skincare range is ideal!
During a flareup of acne above the brows, Sönd ozonated olive oil can be helpful. Or, topical treatments containing benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid can treat aggressive flare ups.
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What Causes Acne Between the Brows?
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Like acne above the brows, acne between the eyebrows can be caused by oily hair or hair styled with oils and waxes, touching the area. Natural hair oils and oils from hair styling products can block the pores and lead to spots and acne breakouts.
Acne between the brows can also be caused by a hormonal imbalance such as during pinery, menstruation, pregnancy or the menopause.
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How to Treat Acne Between Brows
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Acne between brows can be managed by simply changing your skincare to a gentler formulation or switching your cream foundation to a powdered one. Products containing salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide can also be helpful, as can ozonated olive oil.
If you think you might have a hormonal imbalance, it may be worth speaking to your GP.
Acne between brows can also be caused by stress or a diet high in meat and dairy products, fast food and foods with high salt, sugar and fat contents.
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Why You May Have Acne on Your Hairline and Temples
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Hairline acne, characterised by spots and pimples along the hairline extending down to the temples, is known as acne cosmetica. Using certain makeup and skincare products that clog the pores can lead to hairline acne.
Examples of skincare and makeup ingredients that can clog the pores and cause hairline acne include: oils used to style and treat the hair, hair dyes, sunscreen, cream foundations and oil based moisturisers.
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How to Get Rid of Hairline Acne
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To combat hairline acne, switch to gentler, more natural skin and hair care products. Also, ensure you rinse your hair thoroughly of shampoo and conditioner and when cleansing your face, make sure you cleanse right up to the hairline.
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Getting into a Good Skincare Routine
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Good skincare doesn’t have to mean a complicated routine using dozens of different products. Try a simple routine of an acne face wash followed by an alkalising day or night moisturiser twice a day to see how it can revolutionise the way you feel about your acne prone skin.
The Sönd Rebalance and Reset Cream Cleanser makes a really good face wash for acne as it uses natural butters to melt away makeup and dirt, and botanical extracts to soothe and calm the skin.
Our Calming Hydration Day Cream is rapidly absorbed and richly hydrating - perfect for the daytime. In the evening after cleansing, the Sönd Overnight Replenishment Night Cream soothes and plumps, whilst optimising cell function and repair.
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Tips to Prevent Acne on Your Face
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To prevent acne flare ups, there are a number of things you can do, including:
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Cleansing in the morning to remove dirt and sweat, and cleansing in the evening to remove dirt, makeup, pollution and bacteria - always use a gentle cream cleanser
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Having days where you don’t wear makeup, especially heavy cream foundations
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Keeping your skin well hydrated with plenty of water each day
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Avoiding touching your face and using your phone on handsfree where possible
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Following a diet that consists of 80% alkaline foods. If required avoid meat and dairy products and eat as many green leafs and vegetables as possible
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Keeping your hair away from your face as much as possible
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Visiting a skincare specialist if at home treatments don’t seem to be working