BACK TO SCHOOL SKINCARE – BE ACNE FREE!

What’s worse than sending your kids back to school with a face full of acne, blemishes, or red, ugly irritated skin? School is hard enough without dealing with skin problems.

The trick is to get the right balance between ingredients that target and treat the acne (bacteria) without stripping all the skin’s natural protectants resulting in super dry, flaky, irritated skin.

Sometimes the really aggressive products are needed if prescribed by a Dermatologist (Accutane, strong Retinols, Benzoyl Peroxide, etc.), but with teens particularly, the skin should be treated carefully and topical products with anti-bacterial agents and gentle exfoliants are generally effective enough.  

Here are FIVE EASY TIPS FOR REDUCING TEEN ACNE:

1. The key is to keep the skin as clean as possible so the bacteria doesn’t build up.  
2. Keep the hands off the face!!
3. Keep the hair off the face too (bangs, and long hair that hangs in the face are huge culprits for bacteria!)
4. Wash pillowcases weekly.
5. Sanitize all surfaces coming in contact with the face regularly, like cell phones and sunglasses!

And always wear mineral SPF!  The sun is NOT good for acne. It does NOT “dry it out”…it causes more inflammation and irritation.

Simple and effective skin cleansers, toners, scrubs, masks and serums should incorporate ingredients like: salicylic acid, glycolic acid, retinol, sulfur, clays, anti-bacterial agents and soothing calming ingredients as well to prevent redness, and calm inflammation. Natural anti-bacterial ingredients are plentiful but not always in high enough concentrations to be effective, so read labels carefully.

TIP: ingredients are always listed in order of concentration, with the highest first and trace amounts last.

 

TIP: the actual concentration or amount of an ingredient will NOT be listed, therefore, many of the “actives” may be in such small amounts that they do not actually “do” anything and are there to entice the buyer.

Try DermaMD’s Wasabi Line for acne–prone skin

It’s simple, smells great, comes in clean unisex packaging and is suitable for tweens right up to adults. It comes as a pack with a Gel Cleanser, Toner and Serum. You can add on the Charcoal Mud Mask for the Complete Anti-Acne Skincare Collection

Some of the active ingredients in this collection are: Natural Willow Bark, Wasabi Japonica root, Green Tea, Niacinamide (which is comparable to 1% Clyndomycin), Charcoal and Peppermint.  These provide anti-bacterial properties, purify and decongest pores, stimulate healing, promote hydration, provide gentle exfoliation and leave the skin fresh and clean without excessive drying.

Mud Masks are great as well. Clays such as Bentonite can be incorporated into Spa treatments like facials and chemical peels. Regarding Chemical Peels, Salicylic Acid is by far the best for acneic-problem skin. In Spa treatments are much stronger (20-30%) than any topical products on the market (usually 2%).

Glowingly Yours,

Iris