What's Causing Your Acne?

Wondering what's the cause of your acne? The most common cause of acne is typically due to too much oil production in the pores and this relates to our genetics and lifestyle. 

What's Acne?

Acne in a skin condition caused by inflammation, so figuring out ways to lower inflammation and a root cause can dramatically reduce acne breakouts. 

The source of the inflammation can be from many different causes and controlling the source of the problem is one of the best ways you can manage acne so it doesn't flare up as often.

Common Acne Causes Are:

• Excess hormone activity
• Overproduction of Sebum
• Damaged Skin Barrier
• Bacteria
• Poor Skin Shedding Ability

In general, there are skincare products and routines that can help address some of these causes, like helping to regulate and clear out sebum, strengthening the skincare barrier, and even increasing the skin turnover  to reduce the likelihood of a new acne breakout.

Here are some tips to figure out and prevent your acne cause

Signs Acne is caused by hormonal issues

Usually women are more likely than men to have their acne caused by hormones, but anyone could have hormonal acne.   Hormones can cause issues like sebum overproduction. 

Signs include:

• Breakouts during the week of your menstural cycle
• Breakouts during times of stress
• More acne in the following days if your binged on carbs and sugars 
• More acne after consuming large amounts of Dairy ( look in your food labels, diary is surprisingly hidden in almost EVERY common food from sandwiches, to salad dressing, crackers, tortillas, and even in granola.)
• More acne during pregnancy
• Acne breakouts during menopause 
• Acne commonly appears on lower jawline
• May have more cystic acne 

Certain causes take some tracking like period cycle breakouts,  blood sugar, and dairy intake and process of elimination for a few weeks to determine if it affects your skin.   Unfortunately some things are out of our control so all we can do is wait it out, but there are ways to reduce breakouts and help acne go away faster.

Signs Damaged Skin Barrier Is Causing Acne

• Skin often feels irritated easily 
• Skin has a burning or itching sensation
• Skin looks red 
• Patches of dry or scaly skin

Repair The Skin Barrier

The skin barrier is important because it keeps things like bacteria from going into our skin and bodies.  When the skin barrier gets damaged for any reason, it makes it easier for acne causing bacteria to flourish and cause more acne breakouts.   Some people may even get a fungal  skin infection which can look like acne, but is actually not. 

If this is your cause, put a hold on irritating products like acids, benzoyl peroxide, exfoliating, and retinol based ingredients as they are normally irritating to skin.

Moisturize skin daily with something simple, gentle and ideally fragrance free to let your skin heal and repair its barrier. 

Ways To Treat Acne

1. Reduce the inflammation on skin by not overusing medicated or active ingredients.

Acid treatments like products that contain glycolic, lactic, or mandelic acid, or retinoids should be used a couple times a week, or up to once per day. If you notice any pain or increased tenderness or dryness in skin, consider using it less often. The increased irritation could cause acne to flare up.

2. Try soothing anti inflammatory serums or moisturizers during the day and night. 

I recommend one that has a high concentration anti inflammatory ingredients like aloe, ginger, or chamomile. 

Instead of using strong acne treatments, you something like the Fighter Gel which has antiinflammatory ingredients like aloe,  centella asiatica, and organic sulfur and the peppermint helps to soothe pain from acne. 

3. Double cleanse to really make sure excess sebum or products are removed from skin regularly. To double cleanse, start with one oil based cleanser. Follow up with a regular or gentle foaming cleanser after. Take this quiz and see your acne cause:

If you're interested in trying Banish products for acne scars, you can find your product recommendation with this quiz.