Hi,

I don't know the specifics of your skin and what may be causing your problem skin, but when I was 13 my skin began to be terrible too. I went through Accutane, anti-biotics, etc. for about 10 years (all the while using things like Pro-Active) but my skin still always was embarrassing. It was red, dry, oily, lumpy, bumpy, sometimes painful. Going on the pill did help the big painful bumps, but I did still have black heads (I STILL have black heads, and I am now in my 30's).

All I can say is that it is more than likely hormonal. I tried the all-natural herb-y, hippy products too (ingesting Silica gel, oils and all that good stuff), but the one thing that has helped my skin (without having to supplement hormones with birth-control) was taking 4 capsules of Vitex (or Chasteberry) every morning. If i run out, I notice the effects on my skin right away. It's only about $11 for a bottle in Canada (I use the Natures Way brand ones, though I don't think it should matter).

Also, learning to be gentle with my skin has also really helped me in the last two years. I use Spectro Jel (again, Canada, but I think Cetaphil may be similar) every night and some times in the morning. Then I rub in some natural moisturizer (I use Calia All Natural Skin Cream). I make sure I stay away from fragrances, and any chemicals that clog my pores and give me black heads.

If I ever do feel that my black heads are looking a bit bad after cleansing I simply dip a cotton ball in some lemon juice, dab it all over my face, leave it on for 20 minutes then rinse it off and apply moisturizer.

I hope this helps you a little bit. Everyones skin is different, and hormones really play a HUGE role. Good luck!

Thank you for replying!

I forgot to add that I use garnier face wash and exfoliator which both have a percentage of salicylic acid in and I really like them. They make my skin so smooth I would definitely recommend it to anyone! I use freederm oil free moisturiser, and my dermatologist told me thats the best one.

I also use sudocrem ALL the time. All of my friends are convinced it makes my skin worse, however I really prefer to just slop it on and cover all the spots and redness up rather than see it all in the mirror...

One of my friends has absolutely flawless skin, and a few months ago she got one little spot and she put sudocrem on it, and she ended up breaking out in a little cluster of about 5 sore spots... So I really don't know what to think about sudocrem. Any opinions?

Also with me, I pick and touch like crazy. I know I shouldn't but I'm sure you understand when I say it's the hardest thing ever to avoid!! The excessive picking has definitely contributed to my scarring!

Also with me, my skin is constantly up and down. 90% of the time it's awful, however occasionally it clears about 70%, and just as I think it's getting better, it gets awful again, back to square one...

So do you think I should just try the pill? The side effects of accutane are too much for me as I'm already extremely self conscious...

Hey sweets! Acne at your age is almost certainly the result of hormonal fluctuations. I second the advice of taking Vitex berry. You can also control the intensity of hormonal swings through diet by avoiding the two most common hormone disruptors for teenage girls (and anyone really): Milk and soy

I also recommend avoiding foods with a high glycemic index, as the insulin roller coaster also causes hormonal problems. That means no sweets and minimal grain-based products like pizza and bread and pasta, etc. Eat lots of vegetables and protein from cold water fish like salmon! Salmon is my number one food for keeping breakouts at bay!

As an added bonus I also recommend adding unflavored gelatin to any soups that you eat as gelatin is fantastic for healing your body from the inside out. It will help to heal your skin as well as your insides, and also makes hair and nails grow faster. I add it to lots of things like freshly juiced carrots, but it is completely undetectable in soup, so that's where I use it the most. I make sure to eat some everyday to keep my skin pretty. I don't recommend going on the pill because you are at an age where your body is working to get itself into a natural rythm. I went on the pill from 16-22 and when I went off it, it was difficult for my body to get back in sync. I went 8 months with no period at all, and it took 2 years to get back to normal. Also, going on the pill just masks the problem which is probably diet-related. When you go off the pill, your acne will only return (which is what happened to me as an adult) if you do not address the root cause of your acne.

Best of luck to you!

Edit: I almost forgot. I take borage oil every day, and it helps with both hormone fluctuations and inflammation; making it INVALUABLE for young women with hormonal/insulin related acne. I highly recommend it, as well as a b-12 supplement, as sometimes it's hard to get enough of the b-vitamins.

Thank you for replying dscully!

Wow... its amazing how much we need to do to have healthy skin! And then theres those people who do nothing and are rewarded with flawless skin... Unfair!

Thank you for all that information!

Speaking of diet... I wouldn't say mines too good. I'm not a very experimental eater by far! I do eat a good quantity of fruit, for example I eat a few bananas/apples/oranges a day. (I had 5 bananas yesterday!) And I do tend to go through a few boxes of blueberries a week. (I ate a whole tub about an hour ago!) However on the other hand, in terms of meals I am not so healthy and experimental. No word of a lie... I just live off chicken dippers, chips and peas. I practically eat that same meal every tea time.

On a school day this is roughly what I eat:

Either a bagel or a subway sausage sandwich every morning (oops lol)

A banana or orange at break time

Jam sandwiches at dinner (I eat like a little child lol)

A chocolate bar or a bagel when I get home...

And then my usual chicken dippers, chips and peas meal.

Not very healthy or varied at all! Could this be the reason behind my acne do you think?

Thank you again!

Thank you for replying dscully!

Wow... its amazing how much we need to do to have healthy skin! And then theres those people who do nothing and are rewarded with flawless skin... Unfair!

Thank you for all that information!

Speaking of diet... I wouldn't say mines too good. I'm not a very experimental eater by far! I do eat a good quantity of fruit, for example I eat a few bananas/apples/oranges a day. (I had 5 bananas yesterday!) And I do tend to go through a few boxes of blueberries a week. (I ate a whole tub about an hour ago!) However on the other hand, in terms of meals I am not so healthy and experimental. No word of a lie... I just live off chicken dippers, chips and peas. I practically eat that same meal every tea time.

On a school day this is roughly what I eat:

Either a bagel or a subway sausage sandwich every morning (oops lol)

A banana or orange at break time

Jam sandwiches at dinner (I eat like a little child lol)

A chocolate bar or a bagel when I get home...

And then my usual chicken dippers, chips and peas meal.

Not very healthy or varied at all! Could this be the reason behind my acne do you think?

Thank you again!

OH DEAR YOU ATE 5 BANANAS!? Bananas are highly bred and engineered to be as sweet as possible. They are essentially SUGAR BOMBS. They have a very very very high glycemic index. Strike bananas from your diet immediately. Blueberries are actually very anti-inflammatory. Keep eating them.

I don't know what chicken dippers are, but they sound processed. Swap that for baked or roast chicken.

Oranges are also very high GI. I avoid them myself, but do indulge in a small juice glass occasionally.

Looking at your diet, it seems to consist of lots of inflammatory and high GI foods. I would start there for sure! Bagels are terrible for me personally because they are concentrated bread and are very high GI. Does your school serve salads? You could try eating a salad with salmon or tinned tuna on it and a non-cream dressing (milk, remember) for lunch. For snacks, I recommend almond butter or something on carrot slices or celery. Fruits, particularly fruits with intense coloring like pomegranites or blueberries are VERY good for you, but remember they also have lots of sugar so it's best to keep berries and things to a handful or so per day. You want to eat more healthy fats and less sugar. Definitely avoid anything sweetened or processed. If it's in a packet or a box, avoid it!

Do you like curries? Turmeric (from curries) is excellent for fighting inflammation. A great meal is curried chicken or fish served over a small amount of rice or quinoa. If you think of acne like a fire, think of anti-inflammatory foods as the water you use to douse the fire.

Hey!

So on the topic of healthy foods that help your skin (and yes, high sugar, high salt), eating plain organic (or not organic) full fat (2-6%) yogurt really helped my skin with the addition of probiotics; it tastes a bit gross at first, but stick it out and you may begin to like it. The bonus of plain yogurt is that you can eat it and rub it onto your skin to minimize redness and reduce inflammation (it is a really mild lactic acid treatment). Just rub it on and wait for it to dry (20 mins or so). Also, taking vitamin B complex everyday continues to help my skin.

Your diet (processed foods) sounds like it may contain some chemicals/ingredients that you may be allergic to or just are sensitive to. I am sensitive to processed foods and try to eat/drink clean (lemon water in the morning to detox and 2 big glasses of plain water at night). Having a high amount of toxins in your body/liver may be affecting your skin. I am NOT a doctor by any means and only say this because I too used to eat processed foods (high in MSG, gluten, and other chemicals that look like they should be on the ingredient list of a cleaning product and not on your food label) and greatly suffered from it (uncontrollable weight fluctuations, some hair loss, brittle nails, my cuts/bruises easily got infected, etc.)

I have never heard of Sudocrem before, but looking at the ingredient list, there are a couple of things in it that may be exacerbating plugged pores: lanolin (while in-and-of-it-self is fine, I use it on my cuticles, lips and any broken skin areas for healing, but do get pimples around my mouth when I use it on my chapped lips; it comes from sheep wool, it is a thick, yellow, waxy oil), and Zinc oxide (while some people do not break out from this, I certainly do. I like to use physical sunscreens which are high in zinc oxide, and I do get overly greasy, oily skin with red bumps and white/black heads).

I am not sure if I already said this, but dabbing a bit of lemon juice on black heads/ white heads, letting it dry (20 mins) and then washing it off, or if your skin is unbroken, using a water/lemon mix and applied to your face overnight can do wonders (it may sting [probably will], and if you experience discomfort, wash it off and use a yogurt face mask instead).

And I totally agree about being wary of going on the pill. I was only on it for a short while (about 2 years) and it took me a long time to get my hormones back in check; this is when I started taking Vitex (Chaste Berry).

I know it costs a lot of money and is sometimes difficult to find, but visiting a Naturopathic doctor can help you get your body balanced and pinpoint allergies that you may have to products and food. I am by no means a hippy type vegan raw foodie person, but it always worries me when doctors keep prescribing antibiotics and sometimes dangerous prescriptions to people (especially young people) to get rid of their, more than likely hormonal acne.

My family doctor put me on antibiotics/treatments to treat my acne when I was about 13 and just continued to increase the strength of things once my body stopped responding to them (first minocycline, then tri cycline, then tetracycline, all of which my skin stopped responding to).

Hahaha, fixing problem/acne prone skin is such a loaded question! Sorry for the long responses! Also, if you want to cover a bit of redness, pure mineral makeup (I use Meow Cosmetics Concealer to spot cover redness when I have it).

EDIT I also wanted to say that hair products (especially if you wear your hair down) can contribute to blackheads on your forehead and cheeks.

Thank you for all the information guys! Definitely going to try some of these foods this week!

I also forgot to add, despite how unhealthy my diet is... I do actually drink A LOT of water! I love water! However I do drink a couple of cups of tea a day too... which I know isn't good for skin. But I do drink at least 5 pints of plain water a day and I don't drink fizzy drinks (not a very big fan).

As you can tell I'm not very aware of what foods are good and what foods are bad for skin... Obviously I know a cheeky mcdondalds isn't good, however I hardly eat fast food these days so I'm good in that area.

I'm just about to eat my sunday dinner as I write this, I'm having gammon, yorkshire puddings (I'm from the UK lol), peas, carrots and broccoli. (I don't like potato by the way lol), so yeah, opinions on that meal? Good for the skin? Bad? I'm lacking all this knowledge as you can tell! Anyway thanks guys

Thank you for all the information guys! Definitely going to try some of these foods this week!

I also forgot to add, despite how unhealthy my diet is... I do actually drink A LOT of water! I love water! However I do drink a couple of cups of tea a day too... which I know isn't good for skin. But I do drink at least 5 pints of plain water a day and I don't drink fizzy drinks (not a very big fan).

As you can tell I'm not very aware of what foods are good and what foods are bad for skin... Obviously I know a cheeky mcdondalds isn't good, however I hardly eat fast food these days so I'm good in that area.

I'm just about to eat my sunday dinner as I write this, I'm having gammon, yorkshire puddings (I'm from the UK lol), peas, carrots and broccoli. (I don't like potato by the way lol), so yeah, opinions on that meal? Good for the skin? Bad? I'm lacking all this knowledge as you can tell! Anyway thanks guys

Potato is pretty high GI, but I eat them sometimes. If you don't like them, don't worry. They don't have any magical health benefits you're missing out on. Broccoli is very anti inflammatory, and so are peas and carrots.

Hey!

That's great that you drink a lot of water! It definitely helps! That supper sounds ... awesome to me! It is a bit unrealistic to pass up a yorkshire pudding (YUM YUM!) hahahahaha. Remember too, that drinking a lot of water diminishes your body of water soluble vitamins B & C. This is where I suppliment with lemon water and a Vitamin B complex capsule.

There are a ton of beauty blogs out there that address makeup and breakouts/acne. I think AMR (A Model Recommends) has a series of videos addressing some breakouts, products and factors that maybe contributed (she is a model and already has beautiful skin and uses some expensive high-end products) but also struggles with breakouts occasionally.

There is also a video blogger from Australia (I think) that deals with acne in a holistic approach (some of it is a bit extreme for me), but check it out for sure. This is where I learned that supplementing Vitamin B can help skin conditions. [Removed]

Hmm my list of shopping for my mum is expanding and expanding as I learn more haha! Thank you guys!

Vitamin B supplements are a must... Thank you for informing me!

Another thing... I guess I'd be classed as a typical 'binge drinker'... I do get pretty hammered pretty much every weekend, and I know alcohol isn't good for your health at all, but can it effect acne?

I don't know if different alcohol is better or worse for the skin but I usually drink a bottle of vodka, a bit of Jack Daniels, rum... I tend to be the type of person who likes the higher percentage alcohol rather than the lower typical beers/ciders etc... I personally can't tell if drinking excessive amounts of alcohol one or two nights does effect my skin because to me it's just bad all the time... Any thoughts? Does drinking make any of yours acne worse?

I'm clueless about health hahaha!

Once again, thanks!

Hmm my list of shopping for my mum is expanding and expanding as I learn more haha! Thank you guys!

Vitamin B supplements are a must... Thank you for informing me!

Another thing... I guess I'd be classed as a typical 'binge drinker'... I do get pretty hammered pretty much every weekend, and I know alcohol isn't good for your health at all, but can it effect acne?

I don't know if different alcohol is better or worse for the skin but I usually drink a bottle of vodka, a bit of Jack Daniels, rum... I tend to be the type of person who likes the higher percentage alcohol rather than the lower typical beers/ciders etc... I personally can't tell if drinking excessive amounts of alcohol one or two nights does effect my skin because to me it's just bad all the time... Any thoughts? Does drinking make any of yours acne worse?

I'm clueless about health hahaha!

Once again, thanks!

Alcohol is hard on your body and is pretty high GI. I have a glass or two of red wine with dinner some nights, but avoid the hard stuff. I would give my body a rest, since the liver has to work pretty hard to detoxify all that alcohol. Anything that is hard on your liver can affect your skin and your overall health.

Ooops i'll defo cut down then!

I have year 11 yearbook single photos on tuesday... MY WORST NIGHTMARE. A photo of just me to be put in the yearbook for 200 and something other students to see! And to top it off, my skin is so bad at the moment, any advice? Looking for a quick fix to improve it in less than 48 hours (probably impossible I know)

Ahhhhh I hope someone has a magical fix (I wish lol) eeeek.

Yes, alcohol, drugs (recreational and prescription) and cigarette/tobacco smoke all contain toxins that your liver has to work extra hard to filter. These toxins try to exit your body in 2 ways: obvious (urine) and via skin.

Be gentle with your skin for a week. Do yogurt masks for sure and try to keep everything else off of it. For one week accept your skin and tough it out by not covering the spots or redness. Again, this is what I do if I am experiencing a bout of bad skin before an important event, so no guarantees this will 100% work for you, but just try it. If anything, it will give your skin a chance to rest and breathe.

It looks like Boots has it's own line of Natural Cleansers (Botanics) for fairly cheap that may be a bit gentler on your skin than Garnier (again, 100% totally up to you).

I would do yogurt masks, drink lots of lemon water (1 - 2 tablespoons [30 mL] per 10-16 oz [500 mL]) and take 2 capsules of Vitamin B per day (this is typically over what is recommended) and leave my face totally bare day and night (excepting maybe a light moisturizer in the day (something with similar ingredients to these http://www.boots.com/en/Botanics-81-Organic-Hydrating-Day-Cream-50ml_1262009/ or a simple seabuckthorn or rosehip oil massaged in on a damp face (these oils are high in Vit. C and should help with healing).

This is what I would do, not saying you have to. Good luck! P.S. don't think you have to spend a lot of money, this is what makes it hard to maintain a gentle skincare regimen.

Ooops i'll defo cut down then!

I have year 11 yearbook single photos on tuesday... MY WORST NIGHTMARE. A photo of just me to be put in the yearbook for 200 and something other students to see! And to top it off, my skin is so bad at the moment, any advice? Looking for a quick fix to improve it in less than 48 hours (probably impossible I know)

Ahhhhh I hope someone has a magical fix (I wish lol) eeeek.

To reduce inflammation in the short-term: Do a steamy soak with epsom salt. I do this by taking a bath with a couple cups of Epsom Salts (henceforth referred to as ES) and then soaking a washcloth in the warm water and putting it on my face. When you feel the washcloth getting cold, replenish it with more bath water. You could also just fill a bowl with hot water and epsom salt, but I like the bath method better since I like taking a bath! When you get out, leave the salt water on your face and go to bed. You can also make a paste with the salt and apply it to individual spots, but I feel this is overkill. If you wash your face with ES in the morning, you can rinse it off or leave it on. I sometimes still leave ES on my face even though my skin is clear because it makes my skin feel nice. It does wonders for inflammation, but you should still address your diet!

Thank you Klervie! I'm going to get myself some vitamin B supplements tomorrow I'm actually sat with a yoghurt mask on my face right now as I type this on my laptop right now haha!

And thank you dscully! I'm definitely going to sort my diet out...

If only I could be one of those people who could just eat what I want without having to worry about my skin! Ahhh it sucks.

Moved to general acne discussion