Acne.org Products
Hi so I thought I would start off by saying that I eat very healthy, drink plenty of water, have a low weight, never pick at my face, sleep on a clean towel every single night, use small ingredient products, never wear makeup and I still have acne. I have had acne since I was in the 5th grade. Though I think it would have went away when I was younger if I wouldn't have picked at my skin, but I didn't know back then. I do not pick my skin at all now since I know (:
my acne isn't severe anymore, I used to have cysts that eventually went away by themselves and now I just have lots of scars and a few pimples that constantly pop up in the exact same place ( I only currently have 2 right now, always around my mouth even though I'm SUPER careful when I eat and ALWAYS wipe my mouth after each bite of food. )
Today i decided that I'm going to only wash my face once a day at night and put on my moisturizer and tea tree oil mixture and leave it at that. Only take a washcloth and water in the morning to clean it a bit and that's it, but do I need to put a moisturizer on after that? Or no? I'm concerned that I'm going to do something wrong. My face did not feel oily this morning after I " cleaned " it with a washcloth and water, I actually felt refreshed but I have dry spots on certain parts of my face and it was itchy and didn't look good so I put the smallest amount of lotion on that spot and that's it.
When i wash my face my face at night, I use cetaphil.
I used proactiv for a few months ( everyday. Sometimes I would wash my face TWICE a day with that stuff and put toner on and it was just awful but I thought it would help ) and it literally BURNED my skin and didn't do anything but make more zits pop up ( I probably had 15 zits ) and dry it out a ton.
It does make sense that my skin was the clearest a year ago because 1. I was younger but also 2. I would wash my face only once a day, at night, only used water in the morning, I did not appreciate my clear skin then. That only lasted a few months though until one day I broke out and tried something new and started putting all kinds of crap on my face which I think ruined it and made it 10x worse.
Like I said though, right now I just have 2 pimples that keep going away, coming back and lots of scaring and dry spots but also oily skin on my nose, forehead and SOMETIMES above my mouth but I use those oil absorbing sheets I use if it's oily there )
I just turned 16 years old and yes, I do know that acne is a very normal thing at this age. It's just insanely bothersome to see girls and guys my age not even washing there faces, eating junk, sleeping with there makeup on, touching there faces and they have perfect skin. UGH! It gets to the point where I just cry and cry because I do everything right but I just look so.. gross, so gross that I don't even want to leave the house!
I highly doubt you look gross, and something I have learned is that we see all those little imperfections in our skin but most people don't see it when they look at us. As for your regimen, using a washcloth to wash your face can actually irritate the skin and cause more acne. If you don't want to wash twice a day then just wash at night, but still use water on your face in the morning and apply moisturizer. What do you wash your face with at night? You could at least spot treat those pimples at night with benzoyl peroxide to get rid of them. If they are only around your mouth you could also try changing your toothpaste but they could just be hormonal. What type of scarring do you have? Is it just red marks or do you have rolling scars, etc..?
I highly doubt you look gross, and something I have learned is that we see all those little imperfections in our skin but most people don't see it when they look at us. As for your regimen, using a washcloth to wash your face can actually irritate the skin and cause more acne. If you don't want to wash twice a day then just wash at night, but still use water on your face in the morning and apply moisturizer. What do you wash your face with at night? You could at least spot treat those pimples at night with benzoyl peroxide to get rid of them. If they are only around your mouth you could also try changing your toothpaste but they could just be hormonal. What type of scarring do you have? Is it just red marks or do you have rolling scars, etc..?
I don't actually scrub my face with the wash cloth in the morning. Just fill it with water and pat it on my skin to get the gross-ness off it.
I actually washed it this morning because I couldn't stand the oil feeling even though I felt fine yesterday without washing it. I'm afraid that washing it to much or using to many products is what causes me to break out.
I use cetaphil and trader joes cleanser and trader joes lotion mixed with a few drops of pure tea tree oil.
My whole family has acne. They did when they were my age and all my siblings have adult acne now. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. Which freaks me out because that means I'll have it too?!
Lots of red marks. And I have a few super deep ones that are kind of purple ( idk what that's called )
Question: can a pimple form overnight? Like if I accidentally brush my coat sleeve across my forehead, will that make me get a pimple? I'm extremely paranoid ):
like the other day someone was getting a piece of my hair out of my face and there fingers touched my face and I got really freaked out because i immediately thought great now I'm going to get a zit there ):
Also can baking buttery oily foods like desserts, can acne? Like if I bake a cake that requires butter, I feel like I'm going to get a huge zit because even though I'm not touching my face, that the grease is getting on my face and clogging pores. Can that happen?
I don't eat the food but I made some cookies and I feel like being around butter could make my face greasy? That's just what I've heard.
Paranoid more than anything. I do think that people that work in fast food restaurants always in oily unvented places would most probably get acne because of all the grease and no air.
But I don't think cooking a cake or something with butter and oil in your home should be a problem ! Obviously my advice is not to touch your face and to wash your hands so you have no butter or oil on your fingers. So then if you do touch your face you won't clog your pores.
I really do think it's necessary to clean your skin twice a day. a gentle cream cleanser shouldn't do any harm to your skin and I don't see any acne-reducing benefit in just splashing water on your face. You also should also wear a sunscreen during the day. If I were to use one single product on my skin it would absolutely be an SPF moisturiser.
You need to introduce water to the skin twice a day, which you are doing, but you also need to use something like a moisturiser to seal in that moisture that the water has given you and keep your skin hydrated throughout the day. Dry skin can be itchy and irritated and that's bad for acne and just the general appearance of your skin.
It's of my personal opinion that using gentle products on your skin is good, but unless you're actually using a leave on product like BP or acne medication to target your acne you're not going to see much results. Having clean non irritated skin is all well and good but there's more to curing acne then just washing the dirt and oil off your face. If only it was that easy. That's just what I think though, I've tried tons of ways of caring for my skin including just rinsing with water during the morning and it didn't work for me.
Don't let acne get you down to the point that you're crying over it. I know it's so upsetting when you feel like you're the only one but acne really is quite common in people of many ages. I'm the oldest of three sisters and my skin is the worst and has been consistently for years and I ask myself "why me" a lot of the time.
Yes I do think that you are right about working in oily places with little to no ventilation. I worked at a pizza place in high school as a cook and we also used a few deep fat fryers. My face looked horrible from working there because there was so much grease flying around.
I've read that for some people, the more you touch your face the more it gets irritated so I only wash my face at night, too. In the morning I just use washcloth for my eyes and mouth, then gently blot the oily area w/ tissue or oil blotter.
Also dont get too stressed out about the little things! Stress causes acne too.
Question: can a pimple form overnight? Like if I accidentally brush my coat sleeve across my forehead, will that make me get a pimple? I'm extremely paranoid
like the other day someone was getting a piece of my hair out of my face and there fingers touched my face and I got really freaked out because i immediately thought great now I'm going to get a zit there
AHA+ is good to put on irritated skin. Dan recommends it because it exfoliates your skin. All you have to do (besides washing your hands first) is put it on the areas that you might have scratched or irritated. It makes me feel better, like I won't get acne in the spots that I accidentally scratched.