Working Out with Adult Acne

We’re edging toward the end of winter, and your workout resolution is well under way.  Or, your regular workout routine has been under way for a long time.  Either way, this is often the time I get asked about the best way to keep acne clear with a workout schedule that seems to interfere too often with keeping skin healthy.  How do you avoid over- or under-washing the skin with workouts, and how to keep skin hydrated enough?

Wedding Prep for Adult Acne

The fact that right now is not “wedding season” is precisely the point of this post. 

In the 20+ years that I have been specializing in Adult Acne, I’ve had people contact me just a few weeks before their wedding (a few people, even just 2 weeks ahead), to book a facial to get rid of their breakouts.  

If someone tells me her breakouts are very recent from stress, that’s one thing.  In that instance I tell her a facial will exfoliate, calm and hydrate her skin to prep for better makeup application, but when it comes to clearing her breakout, I tell her it’s actually best to treat it at home with my Ice Therapy technique twice a day.

Enjoy Your Chocolate This Valentine's Day!

I wrote about the connection between various foods and Adult Acne breakouts. Naturally, the time around Valentine's Day brings up questions about the chocolate-breakout connection. Dermatologists have long poo-pooed the idea that there is a connection between the two, and I think it's because the focus was always on the chocolate -- that is, the cocoa.  There's more here than meets the eye!


Think about this: when are you most likely to eat chocolate? Around your period!  And when do you break out the most? You get the idea...

However, and this is a big however, with mounting evidence that there is indeed a connection between dairy and some acne conditions, and between sugar and increased inflammation in the body leading to worsening of existing acne conditions, chocolate is starting to be seen under a new light.

Scarf Attack! How Your Winter Breakouts Can Be Prevented

Do you have new jawline and neck breakouts that are bad enough to have you running to your doctor?  Don’t go making an appointment just yet… This winter is cold but the weather keeps fluctuating.  Sometimes it's humid with snow, sometimes bitter cold and dry. Nothing else bears the brunt of freezing cold like your skin. But you know what, while everyone is familiar with the drying and chapping effects of frigid winds, very few people take into account how the weather might affect adult acne.  What makes winter different, why would adult acne breakouts be any different than now?

The answer is friction.

AcneWhispererTV - Removing Eye Makeup the Right Way

If you think the task of removing eye makeup is a simple no-brainer, my experience with hundreds of adult acne clients over the years shows a different picture.  Why?  It’s just removal of makeup, what’s the big deal?

Removal of a stubborn coating of mascara involves quite a bit of rubbing.  Thing is, depending on the material used with makeup remover, it can also involve microscopic scratching.  This results in two really important problems.

Cornstarch! Adult Acne’s Best Friend!

Mineral Veil, HD Microfinish Powder, Light Reflecting Setting Powder.  I see these a lot among my clients’ makeup arsenals, chiefly because my clientele all have breakout issues.  Summer can really be gross.  There’s very little that’s worse than a greasy mess over layers of makeup.  These powders are not just setting powders, they do serve a great purpose for oily skin; they absorb oil like no one’s business and the white ones don’t clog pores or irritate inflamed skin.

Thing is, considering they run anywhere from $20-50, and considering most are made with just one ingredient, the white ones in particular, do we really need this?  In my opinion, this is really one of the things we can indeed save money on.  Like I said, these powders are great.  But they’re not all there is.

Do I need an eye cream with oily skin?

One of the first things I was taught in Beauty School (where I went in my early 30s in 1997) was that at that time, just in the United States alone, the skincare industry boasted $3.2 Billion in sales annually.  The reason stated?  "It’s incredibly easy to sell moisturizer."  I’m not kidding, that’s really what they said.  Frankly, I think it’s extremely impressive.  Everyone needs moisturizer.  There’s a reason there are so many out there to choose from.  Like I always say, “Everything works for somebody, nothing works for everybody.” 

My job in specializing in Adult Acne is to make sure my clients are getting adequate healing and hydration in their lotions while avoiding pore clogging and irritation.  In addition, my job especially is to make sure they’re getting anti-aging concerns taken care of without clogging pores and causing breakouts unnecessarily.  Prevention is a big part of anti-aging consciousness these days, and it comes up a lot in my practice.

So what about eye cream for prevention?  

Gimmick, or necessity?