Hi. Yes you have
Acne the same way I've had it.
THIS IS MY
Acne CURE
The reason we all hear about so many different remedies is that
Acne is not simple.
It's caused by a whole bunch of LITTLE things that go wrong, not just one big thing.
So if you fix one little part of what's causing it, that can help, but most people have to fix about nine million little things in order to get a cure.
Here are the things that have helped me and they have helped me a LOT. I hope this helps someone.
1) Exercise outdoors. Not super crazy stressful, but get the blood moving and be alive. If you sweat, don't wear clothes that cling, but loose, absorbent clothes so your skin can breathe. Once in a while, try a sauna, steambath, hot tub, or drinking hot beverages or eating spicy foods......this will make you sweat out toxins from your body. Shower after or that stuff is going to stay on your skin!
2) Drink a lot of water. I drink mineral water and spring water. If I'm feeling like I have low energy or craving sweets, I drink a lot of water and this usually makes the feeling go away.
3) I take a lowdose of zinc, a B vitamin complex, and vitamin C w/rosehips every morning and in the evening I take a multiple vitamin plus more vitamin C.
After I workout, I take a fizzy vitamin C powder to put in drinks called EmergenC. My total vitamin C is at least 1500 mg a day. The flavonoids in rose hips also help heal skin and build collagen.
4) I eat lots of salad and vegetables. In fact, every meal, I think of salad and vegetables first and try to choose those. I only go to other foods if I really don't have any vegetables/salads available around that I want to eat. And whenever I eat something, I ask myself how I can add vegetables to it. For example, I add broccoli to macaroni and cheese, I add salsa as a topping to lots of foods, I have an olive in my martini, and I get lots of veggies topping on my pizza. I got creative with it. (By the way, an added benefit is that this made me lose a lot of weight!)
5) I eat plain (no-added oil, raw) sunflower seeds and other seeds and nuts for snacks instead of junkfood. They also have beneficial fatty acids. At first, they taste bland because you are used to food pumped with chemicals, but the more you get used to them, the more you can really appreciate and enjoy the simple natural flavor.
6) I eat fruit when I am wanting sweet things...but I don't go nuts with it. The more I ate fruit, the less I craved sugar. You may think you don't want to eat fruit, but it's because your body is addicted to sugar. You will start to like fruit more and more and more the more you eat it, and you will still like sugar, but you will be able to resist it more. I found the best fruits to be pineapple, papaya, green apple, blueberries, strawberries, lemons, oranges, limes, and watermelon. But maybe you will find some others. (Side benefit, this seemed to make me happier and more cheerful and have more energy).
7) I GENTLY cleanse my skin every morning and evening with Dickinsons cleansing pads. This is a super mild gentle cleanser with ALOE as a key ingredient. There's also some witch hazel in it. But the main point is that it's mild and it's EASY so I actually do it. I think any gentle cleanser is helpful, but aloe is also healing to the skin.
8) I use Neutrogena multi-vitamin lotion in the morning after washing with the Dickinsons pads. It has beta hydroxy (salicylic acid) plus vitamin A, b5 (pantothenic acid), ,and vitamin E.
9) I am careful not to use oily/greasy makeup products on my face but I also don't use anything that is really drying. Drying things seem like they would be good but they actually will irrritate the skin and make it produce more oil.
10) I keep my hair clean but I don't wash it excessively. I wash it once a day but sometimes skip it if it's still pretty clean, to every other day. Just go with what seems natural. I don't think hair is a big factor unless you are letting your hair get really nasty and greasy and rubbing it on your face or something.
11) Very important!!!!! As much as possible, I eat ORGANIC foods without pesticides, hormones, and
Antibiotics added to them. I shop at healthy grocery stores to buy these.
12) I eat yogurt several times a week and ginger frequently. Yogurt helps support the body's GI processes and detoxification. Ginger is an anti-inflammatory.
13) I drink green tea as my second favorite beverage (after water). It is a detoxifier and antioxidant.
14) Once or twice a week, I use biore pore strips for blackheads. It won't get them all in one time, but it helps keep them down. Make sure you let the strip TOTALLY dry. It takes longer than it says on the box.
15) Once or twice a week, pamper yourself with a mask. There are several good masks and I'm experimenting with different ones. So far, the best one I've tried was from an Australian company called Cut From The Wild and it had avocado in it. I don't remember what else. It was AMAZING. But I haven't been able to find it again. (You can do the mask right after the biore if you want).
16) In the shower, I wash my face while I'm in there with a Neutrogena Pore-Refining cleanser that has BOTH alpha and beta hydroxys in it.
17) After I get out of the shower or before going out, I sometimes use a GENTLE (low or no alcohol) toner on the skin. I don't know if this is very helpful or not. I'm still experimenting with it. This is is less important than some other steps.
18) At bedtime, I wash with Dickinsons AGAIN and then I use a product that contains retinoid or retinols. This could be RetinA or Renova or Differin. I even found a Neutrogena product that has retinol and salicylic acid in it, which I've been using lately. No prescription! Makes life easier and cheaper. I use the retin-whatever on blackhead areas and area that tend to break out. The stronger the product, the smaller the quantity. If my skin is extremely irritated or dry, I take a break for a night and don't use this.
19) I rarely get breakouts at all with this system. If I have a tiny breakout, usually washing an extra time or do and using a little bit heavier dose of the Neutrogena lotion will help diminish it along with eating right and drinking more water. I also used a medicated concealer that has salicylic acid in it (Cover Girl, comes in a tube like lip gloss) and I'm careful to keep it clean and dry But once in awhile because of hormones or stress, no matter what you do, you could still get a big old nasty red spot.
Very rare, but If I DO get a terrible bad breakout, I apply hot compresses several times with a super hot (as hot as you can stand) washcloth. This will break open the bad zit and help to clean it out without you touching it directly with your hands and squeezing it. I keep doing this until it starts to go down. Throw the washcloth in the laundry after, even if it seems clean, because it can keep acne bacteria on it! In fact, ALWAYS be careful where you have a breakout not to touch the bump and then other parts of your face, because you can spread acne around....it can be "contagious" to other parts of your life if the bacteria from a zit gets rubbed on another area. When you are washing your face, for example, wash the zit part last.
The hot compress might be enough right there, but if not I dab it with a SMALL amount of hydrogen peroxide (you can find it at the drugstore for 50c for a huge bottle. Bottles are brown). THIS BURNS!!!! Just use a little on a cotton ball or a Q-tip ONLY ON THE ZIT and brace yourself! The alcohol in it will sting badly but it will kill the bacteria on the spot. But it will clear the infection up right away and dry up the zit fast, almost TOO dry. Do NOT use this on blackheads or other areas. Only do this once per breakout as it will dry the skin like CRAZY. Then be VERY GENTLE with the area and don't do anything with it. Let it air dry and just heal, untouched. But this is very effective after a hot compress.
20) If the breakout starts to flare up again the next day, treat with a clay mask that is supposed to left on for 15 minutes, but actually just dap it directly on the zit only, not the whole face and leave it there for a few hours. This will dry up and draw out the remaining/new oil.
21) If you are healing from a big/huge breakout, be gentle with your body. Go to bed early or take a nap and get some extra rest, drink water, laugh, have fun, listen to music, breathe, and eat healthy. This will help your skin recover.
22) During a breakout, you may also want to try a little bit of astragalus to support your immune system. Lipoc acid and coq10 also help detoxify the body but they are really expensive, so if you are short on money, do everything else on this list first.
23) Last but not least, sometimes I moisturize ! When the skin feels a little dry, only. Yes! I can moisturize without fear of breakout, but be very, very careful in choosing a product. My favorite moisturizer is a GEL moisturizer that is very light, made by the Body Shop. It has TEA TREE OIL in it, which also makes it an ADDITIONAL acne treatment. Tea tree oil is antibacterial. But when I don't have this around, I use a very gentle noncomedogenic moisturizer made by a French company that I got from a dermo....It's called Tolerin. The Body Shop stuff is the best, though.
24) I use very little foundation on my skin but if I do, I use one that is NONmoisturizing, NONoily, NONgreasy, NONcomedogenic and I try to find one that other people with acne have recommended. You can also use foundation just on the places of your face that need it, if you blend in carefully. But tinted powder is an even better substitute if you skin is very oily or you are going to be outside in the summer time. Cheap decent powders are made by Clinique and Cover Girl (the Clean Makeup one), but there are many others.
25) When I take a bath, I wash my skin with Noxzema (yes!) or Bronners Natural Soap (which has olive oil in it!). These are NOT comedogenic. Not all oils are bad for your skin. The more natural the oil is (like the oils in avocado), the better it is for your skin. But I don't take baths very often, so this is not an important thing.
26) Last of all, if you can afford it, once in awhile, get a professional facial or microdermabrasion. Once a month would be great but even a couple of times a year is helpful. The first time you get a facial from somebody, lie and tell them your skin is super-sensitive so they will not use any crazyharsh products. Also go somewhere that specializes in using natural products on the skin, like masks made from food! Just like a hairstylist, allow the facial person to do more to your skin only as you get to know them and get as sense of how your skin reacted to the facial not just that moment, but for a few days afterward.
I would not recommend a facial or microdermabrasion more than once a month. Your skin needs to heal and rest in between.
That's it! That's all I have for you guys. But this has been my personal acne cure. I hope this helps someone!!!!