Treating your acne can be a tricky thing, and we can often find ourselves trying as many different products and methods possible to get our skin clear and acne-free. However, some skincare mistakes may be making your skin a lot worse! This could cause permanent damage to your skin barrier in the long term.
What are the top 7 skincare mistakes that are causing your acne to get worse?
Here are some things that you might be doing that could be causing you to breakout even more:
Over-exfoliation or scrubbing
Exfoliating your face more than 2–3 times a week with exfoliants or scrubs can be extremely harsh and abrasive on your skin. It can result in irritated skin and make it harder for your acne to clear and heal. Stay away from any excessive exfoliation and try gentler scrubs that don’t contain any harsh granules or chemicals. You can also use physical exfoliants like an exfoliating brush, where you can easily control the level of intensity.
Skipping SPF
It is necessary to apply SPF to any exposed area of your skin, especially your face, on a daily basis. The sun’s UV rays can still affect you even if the weather is cold and cloudy. If you do become sun burnt, your pimples become temporarily dry, but your skin will react by producing more oil, leading to more pimples. Your skin barrier can also become damaged, resulting in changes in skin tone, darker areas of hyperpigmentation, texture, wrinkles and most importantly, an increased risk of getting skin cancer.
Applying an SPF that has factor 15 or above every day can easily prevent this and be additionally beneficial in protecting your skin barrier.
Avoid touching your face
Touching your face can spread the bacteria, dirt and oil that has collected on your hands and cause clogged pores and breakouts. You can try to keep your hands away from your face by tying or pinning back your hair, moisturising your face if itching is what is causing you to touch your face and also keeping your hands busy by doing activities such as doodling or gaming. If you are going to touch your face, you should always wash your hands thoroughly.
Using too much or too little acne treatment
Putting acne treatment only on pimples can help to kill the bacteria on the entire area. Acne medications can be used to speed up the healing of existing pimples, and prevent new pimples.
Cleansing Your Skin
You might not be cleansing your skin enough, especially if you are wearing makeup. It can also be a good idea to double cleanse if you are wearing makeup.
Drying out oily skin
Many think that counteracting oily acne-prone skin and drying it out will help with reducing their oil production on their face, resulting in less breakouts. However, this can leave you with more breakouts than you started with.
When washing your face, there is always some level of hydration and natural moisture lost, depending on your skin type. This hydration needs to be replenished by using a some form of moisturiser, whether that’s an oil, serum or cream. If you have oily skin, opt for a lighter moisturiser that doesn’t feel too heavy or greasy on your skin.
Inconsistent skincare routine & treatments
With acne prone skin, simplifying your skincare is what is best to treating and healing your skin and its barrier. Trying new products on a consistent and frequent basis can cause irritation, and this is a factor that you want to minimise as much as possible with acne. Give your products enough time to work as with some acne targeted products, the results may not be immediate and some may even take up to 12 weeks to create any difference.
With acne targeted medications, it isn’t effective if you apply 2–3 times a week. These medications last around 6–12 hours, so it is important that it is applied at least 2–3 times a day unless it is advised otherwise by a healthcare professional.
Smoking
Did you know that smoking can also impact your skin? This is because the blood vessels in the skin to close up, so it becomes deprived of nourishment that the blood flows around the body.
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