Acne is one of the most common skin concerns. Knowing how to correctly manage it however, is not as widely known. A simple search on how to clear up acne will provide a plethora of skincare myths and bizarre TikTok hacks which will often make your breakouts worse.
The key error people make when dealing with breakouts is trying to manage them without having a daily strategy in place. Similarly to healthy eating or going to the gym, a consistent approach is the only way to get results. Skin success starts with daily habits rather than sporadic actions so here are four things not to do when treating acne.
1) Expecting Monthly Facials To Cure Acne
The core issue with breakouts is clogged pores and an overproduction of oil which monthly treatments simply cannot fix. There’s nothing in a facial that can do the work of daily use of topical or oral medication and active ingredients. On the downside, you’ll also be at risk of pore-clogging products and friction aggravating your breakouts even more, not to mention the hazard that is extraction.
2) Relying On Physical exfoliation
You cannot scrub breakouts away! Acne-prone skin is typically highly sensitive and exfoliating too often can do more harm than good. Believe it or not, our skin does in fact naturally slough away dead skin in a process called desquamation. If we look at the principles of how the skin behaves, a normalised and natural exfoliation process is often better to get ahead of breakouts rather than using aggressive and harsh scrubs that will leave your skin sore, dry and worse than before.
3) Using A Face Mask
Much like the facial philosophy, masks can supplement your routine but they should be seen as add-ons rather than miracle cures. Masks won’t help you treat breakouts but they can help when you’ve overdone the actives and your skin needs comforting.
4) Spot treating
Buying a blemish treatment and using it on individual spots will never give you peace of mind. This is especially true of retinoids, which are the mainstay of blemish prevention.
And yet I still see it, all the time! When treating the skin, the goal is field change, in which the whole complexion improves, not just the problem area. When using a product such as Flawless Nightly Serum, which is my retinoid and the cornerstone of treating breakouts, I recommend evenly distributing it all over the skin as full face application offers so many more skin benefits.
