Top Twelve Tips for Combating Acne

Top Twelve Tips for Combating Acne : How to Get Rid of Spots

*Disclamer* I'm not a dermatologist or an expert, these are merely the tips and tricks I learnt during my fight against spots and acne. These hints may be obvious, or useless! For me, the only thing that helped was a prescribed topical. However, these tips certainly help for healthier skin and a healthier body and may well help you.

Before

After

Drink lots of water! 

Don't go overboard, obviously. I used to drink a pink of water every other hour during office hours PLUS tea and coffee and evening drinks. I must have been consuming more than a gallon a day. I pretty much constantly needed a piss. 

Eight glasses a day is really vague, not everyone has the same size glasses scientist dummy! I would say 2 litres a day is plenty. Stay away from sugary drinks and alcohol (I should take that advice I'm such a ginner), not just because they dehydrate your skin but also because they're pretty bad for your body as a whole. 

Get Eight Hours Sleep

Body needs its rest. Will also help with stress levels. Stress can often be a contributor to skin problems, if you're well rested you're less likely to sweat the small stuff. 

Change your pillows and sheets 

At least every fortnight, better still every week. I used to have major grumpines with my partner about his laundry habits. Now I just take clean pillow cases round when I stay over. Pillows can harbour lots of germs so wash them occasionally too

Clean your phones

Where does your mobile go? Pocket, bottom of bag, tables, the floor...? And you press that thing against your face?! It's disgusting when you think about what grime must be on your phone... Just use a wet wipe to give it a clean every now and then. That goes for land lines as well. 

Don't touch your face

And if you have to, wash your hands first. Think about where your hands have been, handling money (that's been handled by god knows how many people first), stroking your pet (my dog rolled in fox shit last week but that's a whole nother absolutely traumatising story), opening a public bathroom door... 

Now I don't want to go Harold Hughes on you but if you're having problems with your skin, it's probably a bit sensitive so I'd advise treating your skin very delicately.

Also... DON'T pick your skin. That includes squeezing. No matter how tempting it might be, it will almost always look worse afterwards. It will just spread the bacteria and make your skin inflamed. Don't do it. I'm serious. 

Eat six a day

Try to make sure they're mainly vegetables; fruit contains a lot of sugar which is bad for your teeth. Spinach is great for iron, tomatoes for antioxidents, broccoli is f*cking delicious... If you want to look great on the outside a good start is to enrich your body from the inside. 

Get outdoors

My mum was actually prescribed a UV face lamp for her acne in her 20s. I'm not sure what the science is behind that but vitamin D levels are generally quite low; people spend so much time in doors and wear very high SPFs when they are outside. Vitamin D tablets are a good substitute but I find that being outdoors adds to my well being which in turn can reduce stress.

Keep active
Again, keeping healthy inside and out aren't exactly going to go against you when trying to get your skin clear

Cleansing is a separate step from removing makeup
I am CONSTANTLY chastising my friends and sister for this. I definitely used to be an offender; I'd use a soap to clean my face and that's it. What I discovered that when I started using a toner following washing my face, there would always be a grimy makeupy dirty residue on the cotton wool pad showing that I wasn't cleaning my face effectively. 
So, even if you just use something cheap olive oil or baby oil, use a separate makeup remover BEFORE cleansing your face; it's a much more fail safe way of getting all the days grime off your face.

THROW AWAY YOUR MAKEUP WIPES!

THEY HAVE NO PLACE IN YOUR FACIAL ROUTINE (in my humble opinion... I get a bit capslock happy when it comes to skin care). They don't do a good enough job on cleansing your precious skin and they are pften much more abrasive than your hands or a cotton pad and when your skin is sensitive, you don't want to be aggravating it. 

Clean your make up brushes

I used to never clean my brushes AND chuck them in my purse/handbag amongst all my other crap. How very naughty of me. Depending on your usage, I'd recommend cleaning your brushes every two weeks, and if you're taking them around in your bag, put them in a clean brush roll or cosmetic bag. 

Be patient
Something that my dermatologist told me is that skin is on a six week cycle. If you start doing something to treat your skin, you won't see the effects for up to six weeks. If you do anything to your skin, hang in there for the six weeks to find out if its effective or not. This is definitely the case with my skin and Epiduo... It just takes patience and staying positive, you will find the thing to help your skin eventually. In the mean time, deep breaths and keep smiling. 

*Other than the photos of myself, the other images are from multiple sources via google