Skincare

Facial cleansing is an important part of managing acne and that is not because it should be done often but rather because it needs to be done correctly. Any product that combats acne has a side effect of drying the skin. For this reason, we don't want to over dry the skin with facial cleansing when we are using acne-fighting products.  It's hard for some people to trust me on this at first, but the fact is that you definitely do not need to use a cleanser every night. The cleanser typically plays a small role in fighting blackheads and pimples. (The...

 (The words grade and type are used interchangeably, they mean the same thing.) There are multiple acne scales out there. In order to explain well and match products to acne type (or grade) I use the one by Dr. James E. Fulton Dr. M.D., Ph.D but I modify it a bit. In his scale there are 4 types or grades of acne. For each grade a person could have a little of that grade (type) or a lot of that grade. This system qualifies but does not quantify and so one grade is often not any better or any worse...

When you have acne skin the more things you put on it the more likely to suffer break outs and clogging. I always preach 'less is more when it comes to your skin!'. My all time favorite DIY skin care is to do a weekly yogurt mask-that MUST be followed by a strong manual exfoliation, such as with our pink buff. The yogurt is a good consistency to saturate those dead skin cells so that they swell and then slough off more readily. If you do all 4 steps you will most likely see good results the next morning! As well as...

  According to the American National Institute of Health benzoyl peroxide has an 80% efficacy rate. This is the highest rate for any acne fighting ingredient. BP also has the lowest toxicity rate of the other effective acne fighting ingredients according to Environmental Working Groups, Skin Deep program. (I highly recommend this very reputable resource for checking any of your skin care ingredients)How benzoyl peroxide works is super cool! There is one species of bacteria involved in the acne process and it is called Propionibacterium acnes. This bacteria is anaerobic which means it can not survive where there is oxygen and this...

So simple but so important; the larger the pore, the larger the oil gland, and the more oily the skin. The smaller the pore, the smaller the oil gland, and the less oily the skin. It is good to know this for a few reasons. One is that you can easily know your skin type by assessing your pore size. It can be hard to diagnose your own pore size so here are some tips to get started. Below are three photos of upper cheek pores. The first has small pores, the middle has medium pores and the third has large...