Other Factors of Acne Skin Care

by Paul E. Web

As a long time sufferer from acne, I’ve spent some years looking into the different forms of acne skin care.  One thing I’ve learned is there are about as many different forms of acne skin care as there are people looking for acne skin care.  Everyone seems to have their own unique idea on ways to treat acne, or prevent acne from occurring in the first place.

The one thing I have learned about acne skin care is that your skin can be treated by ways other than topical products.  Skin is a part of your body, and contrary to popular belief is very much alive; only the outermost layers of skin are ‘dead’.  Taking good care of yourself in general can therefore be a good method of acne skin care.  This means a healthy diet and frequent exercise, but most important I’ve found that keeping stress levels down makes a huge difference for me.  My acne is like a stressometer; if I’ve got a lot on my plate I’m pretty much guaranteed to wake up in the morning with two or three new little friends.

So learning different techniques to keep stress levels down has proven to be the best acne skin care I’ve come up with, in that it prevents it from happening at all.  What you decide to do to keep stress down is up to you, just make sure it’s not alcohol!  Alcohol may help you relax, but its one of those culprits that can cause a lot of acne outbreaks for people.  Stress isn’t just feeling pressured or tense, but also includes stress to your body that you don’t otherwise notice.  Alcohol puts your body under stress, even if it makes you feel mentally at ease.

Of course, some acne just pops up whether I’m stressed or not, so there’s always a need for some acne skin care beyond just healthy low stress living.  As far as topical acne skin care treatments, I prefer using soaps that have either salicylic acid or benzyl peroxide in them.  For years I was using benzyl peroxide soaps every day with some success, but I’ve recently discovered salicylic acid is just as effective in acne skin care for me. 

I use one or the other every day whether I’m having outbreaks or not, and follow up washing my face with applying a moisturizer of some kind.  This last part is key, as I’ve found that not using a moisturizer will often lead to outbreaks.  Acne skin care soaps are often quite harsh, and can in themselves cause acne for me if I don’t follow up with something to sooth the cleaned skin.