How to Tell if Your Breakout is from Stress or Diet

"My skin is freaking out! How do I know whether my breakouts are from stress, diet, or 
a combination of both?"

In my experience, when someone says, "My skin is freaking out!" it usually means that they're experiencing breakouts and dryness at the same time. 

Testosterone is the hormone responsible for oil production in the skin. Oil glands are bigger in the T-zone area of the face, while in certain places (like the sides of the chin) the pores are smaller due to natural facial contours.

In the case of stress, an adrenaline rush can produce an overwhelming amount of testosterone, which in turn produces an oil rush to those T-zone pores. If your skincare routine is either pore-clogging or dehydrating, the oil can't come through onto the surface of your skin. This back-up of natural oil is what results in a nasty, irritated breakout. With non-clogging, hydrating skincare products, the skin is more pliable so less oil is held back. If you break out primarily around your mouth, chin, and forehead, stress is likely going to be the primary problem.

So what about diet? 

Skincare Q&A: Pregnancy-Related Acne Issues

As an online esthetician, I'm always answering questions about adult acne, ingrown hair problems, rosacea, or general skin sensitivities. So! I thought that I would feature a skincare Q&A on my blog to address some of these issues.

There are some questions that are sent to me via email or through ChickRx, a now-defunct site where anyone could ask questions that relate to various lifestyle topics and experts (like myself) would offer valuable advice or suggestions. If you have any questions that you would like to ask (or have featured on the blog), please don't hesitate to speak out in the comments below! If you would rather have a question be answered privately, I am always available by email. :)

This week's Skincare Q&A features concerns of pregnancy-related adult acne and beauty issues. 

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"I recently found out that I'm pregnant. Do I need to worry about what's in my skincare and beauty products? Should I switch to all-natural? What about the products that contain Salicylic Acid or BPO?"

Corporate Acne and Stress: Part 2

Yesterday, I discussed why you might be more likely to be stressed at work and why that gives you breakouts.

When we talk of an acne breakout being "hormonal" we usually mean breakouts that occur with PMS, changing or stopping birth control, or having an emotional freak-out. What do hormones have to do with acne?

As I mentioned in "Corporate Acne & Stress: Part 1," it's all about the male hormone, testosterone.

Testosterone is responsible for oil production in the skin. There are two main places where this hormone is produced in women -- the ovaries, and the adrenal glands. Any time there's an adrenaline rush, there is also an accompanying testosterone rush. Conflict stress (from the fight or flight response) can produce this rush.

Corporate Acne and Stress: Part 1

"How Can I Stress Less About Work?" (Part 1 & Part 2), talked about managing the stress that many of my clients ask me about, as the economy has produced a new kind of work force that is full of women under pressure. The subject of workplace stress is especially pertinent to my business. As a specialist in Adult Acne, I get quite a few clients coming in to see me because of the stress caused by their jobs.

Contrary to what conventional wisdom would hold, since the economy blew up in 2008 not one person has come to me for a facial to feel better or to prepare the skin to look better for an interview. Everyone who has come to me for help with Adult Acne is typically working a 9-5 (or later) job. So why did my business as an Acne Specialist boom after the 2008 recession?

What makes this recession different from all others are the layoffs that created a smaller workforce doing double to triple the work. This is what has affected the average client who has come through my door in the last 4-5 years. As middle management with MBAs were laid off, those working under them got promoted from within, at very little above their previous salary. Having no real experience in leadership or management, these (usually) women are under tremendous pressure to turn out numbers like their predecessors while supervising former colleagues.

The result?

Days on end of terrified supervisors behaving badly, creating an environment where if someone willing and able to do the work of more than one person wants to keep her job, she'd better comply. She may be more valuable than the supervisor, but she's not irreplaceable. She wants to flee or fight back, but she can't. As valuable as she is, she can still lose her job. And with companies enjoying this new found money-saving work force doing more work at less pay, why should they hire anyone else? No wonder there are little-to-no job openings. So! The worker has to keep her fight or flight response inside and take that stress home.

How Can I Stress Less About Work? Part 1

This is the first part of my Adult Acne and the Economy series where I speak about the issue of stress in the workplace and how it can effect your emotional and physical well-being, as well as how it could be negatively affecting the clarity of your skin.

As an independent woman with her own business, many of my clients ask me about how to become less stressed out about work.

Here in Chicago, my clientele generally work in the corporate world, holding positions in the sales, advertising, consulting, marketing, and public relations fields. They see me not only as independent, but also calm and serene much of the time. I clearly love my work, I am an enthusiastic expert in my field of esthetics, and I don’t have to follow anyone else’s orders since I run my own show. Naturally, my clients want to know just how I do it all by myself, and especially, how I stay so calm!