[TIPS] How To Avoid & Improve Your Acne

These tips are for those who get mild to moderate acne since I cannot guarantee that it will completely heal somebody who has cystic acne (I will make another guide for those who have it).

1. Do not wear makeup so often or avoid wearing it altogether until your skin has cleared up. As tempted as you are to cover up the redness and the blemishes, letting your skin breathe is the best way to go as it prevents clogging up your pores even more.

2. Avoid touching your face. Try not to obsess picking at your bumps or constantly using your hands to contact your face to prevent further swelling. Your hands get really dirty easily even if you have just sanitized or washed your hands, bacteria can lurk their way there without your awareness.

3. Disinfect your things. I never used to get acne around my chin and lower cheek area but ever since I started talking on the phone until I fall asleep on it, I would breakout every other day on the side that came in contact with the phone. I started using alcohol to clean the surface of my cellphone. It's a good idea to disinfect the other things that you use often such as your mouse and keyboard even if they do not touch your face directly (especially if you're the type to rest your face on your hands often).

4. Change your pillow cases and bedsheets in a consistent manner. You are probably not aware of the dead skin cells, the bacteria, oils, and dust mites lurking while you sleep. Not only that but some people drool on the fabrics they sleep on. Eww. I mean try to change them before they even start getting smelly!

5. Keep your hair out of your face. I broke out way more when I had short bangs that poked my face. If you do not wash your hair daily, it's really good to pull your hair back to avoid irritating and itching your skin as well as keeping bacteria way.

6. Make sure you cleanse your skin well. Some of you probably think that rubbing the cleanser on your skin will produce more discomfort and stress for your acne but it's a good idea to make sure you massage the cleanser well to get the dirt out especially when you wear makeup everyday. Do you not just apply the cleanser on your skin while you sit and wait for it to do the work (because it won't). You have to learn to gently scrub to get in there. If you have cystic acne, it's a good idea to avoid too much friction and abrasiveness so avoid having too much things to remove on your face (eg. makeup).

7. Use a good face cleanser. You do not need to blow your money to get an effective cleanser. You just need one that gets everything off. Also, be wary of the ingredients. Avoid fragrance and alcohol because they do not work well with sensitive skin.

8. Include BHA (beta hydroxy acid) in your routine. Beta hydroxy acid helps with exfoliating your skin. I know scrubs do that but most BHA topical creams do not need friction as you just leave it on and it causes your skin to peel. A popular BHA that we often see is salicylic acid. It's enough to get one in 1%-2% concentration because something stronger can over dry and irritate your skin. Also, take note of the fact that BHA only is effective at a pH 3 to pH 4. If your cleanser or cream has salicylic acid and it doesn't seem to do what it's supposed to do then keep in mind that you're not allergic to it (if you're allergic to aspirin, do not use BHA), that you're letting your skin absorb it, and that it's at a pH of 3-4. (Source)

9. Watching our diet and of course, drinking lots of water. Stuffing ourselves with natural foods that are filled with vitamins and nutrients will really benefit us. If your internal system is working will, it will reflect on our external surface self. Include vitamin A, C, D and of course, antioxidants in your diet. Avoid junk. Drink 8+ glasses of water each day. It keeps our body regulated by flushing our toxins out and hydrating us. It will maintain your body's natural moisture so you don't overproduce it on your eyes (to prevent puffy and dark eyes) and your skin (to prevent an oilier face). Try it and you will see and feel a difference.

10. Keeping your face balanced. We all have different skin types: oily, dry, sensitive, acne prone, combination and it's really important to get to know how your own skin works because what works for others does not always work for you even if you do fall in the same category as them. Our body has a balancing system. If an area is harmed or distressed, the body quickly works on that to heal and calm it down. The same applies with our faces.We all have our hormones and as much as we want to blame everything for our skin condition, hormones are the direct cause of our acne. We all function differently and that's why we get envious if somebody doesn't break out despite the crap they eat or do to their face. It's because of their hormones. The foods and the environment aren't the direct causal factors of acne. They just correlate with our hormones. This does not mean that you should completely do whatever the heck you want and not expect it to do harm to your body but at any case, they do affect your hormones and hormones affect your overall biological function. So do your best to keeping your body balanced. I mean people automatically think oil=acne but it's actually the overproduction of oils (due to hormones) that causes it. What will not do you good is you completely strip away the moisture out of yourself by not drinking water and using products that dehydrate your skin because your hormones will respond to produce more oils. So if you have oily skin, try to use a light moisturizer and not go insane with drying products. If you have dry skin, find ways to moisturize your skin because if your skin dries out even more, overproduction of oils will occur and we all know what that means. (Source)

Good luck. I hope that you learned something.