Top Causes of Adult Acne

By: Ashton

In high school, everyone hated me for my skin. While my friends were suffering from the average puberty breakout, I had clear baby soft skin. I was always the girl with the great skin—until I wasn’t. My junior year of college rolled around and suddenly I got more than just the occasional blemish, my complexion was totally suffering. I was in my 20s, why would I just know start breaking out? When you’re an adult you’re supposed to have flawless skin right?

Wrong. Adult acne is a thing and actually many adults are dealing with it. Even though we are no longer dealing with puberty, there are still many causes that can cause acne. Getting down to the source just might help with clearing it up.

• Stress
Oh, the “S” word. Whether it is a full-time job, hard classes or whatever, you’ve probably experienced stress sometime in your life. Stress does this thing to your body, where it makes you produce a hormone called cortisol, which puts your body into overdrive and the result is that your oil glands create excess oil. Yikes. Lower your stress by trying some calming yoga poses or doing an activity that you enjoy.

• Hormones
Even though we are no longer going through puberty, our hormones still play a big role in our lives, especially for women. Fluctuation in our hormones our menstrual cycle can lead to painful cystic breakouts on our chins and backs. When it comes to being that time of the month, make sure you have a spot treatment ready and to not overdo it on the chocolate!

• Pollution
If you live in a city, chances are that when walking outside you are coming in with a layer of pollution on your face. This best can be dealt with just by cleansing your face after being outside.

• Cleansing too often
This one sounds like it is doing no harm, but it can be a big cause of unwanted blemishes. When cleansing too frequently, you are stripping away natural oil from your skin, this causes your glands to overproduce oil, and as we all know, too much oil causes unsightly breakouts.

• Cleansing not enough
This one sounds self-explanatory, but I know of so many people who don’t wash their face before going to bed because they are ~lazy.~ Don’t be this person. Make sure to always take off your makeup and cleanse before bed. And do the same when you wake up because when you sleep, you sweat and that’s gross.

• Wrong products
It is so beneficial to know your skin type. Our skin is constantly evolving so make sure you keep up to date with it as well. Using your old products for combination skin might not work in the winter when you are a tad bit drier. Also, make sure that you are exfoliating at least twice a week to remove dead skin cells.

• Sugar
Sugar is this evil thing that even though it tastes so good, it does horrible things to your body. Not only is it detrimental to your complexion, but also to your waistline! If you’re craving something sweet, pick a fruit parfait over ice cream.

• Food allergy/sensitivity
This one can be tricky, especially if you don’t know if you are allergic or sensitive to anything. A way to figure out what can be the culprit is to only eat the suspected food item and then to wait to see how you feel. If you get red splotches or a bloated upset stomach then you probably have an allergy or sensitivity to that item. The most common sensitivities are dairy, gluten, and soy. (If you know 100% you have an allergy to something do not eat it)