Talking About Acne =O

Hi amazing people! XD

So, I'm pretty sure this is not the first time you'll hear me or anyone talk about acne and it's definitely not the last haha. =P Everyone hates acne, no one wants it. (Though every time my dad get's a pimple, he says: Look I have a pimple! This means I'm still young! XD lol)
Acne is a frustrating topic to many including myself, it is painful, annoying, and emotionally damaging, so it's not a light subject to laugh about. Unless your me, and I just make fun and laugh at myself =P.

This post is to give a background on acne, why they appear or where they come from, and how to deal with acne. The main purpose of this post is when I'm reviewing acne products, you will have a better idea of what kind of acne the product will treat, or work better. Of course, they are based on my acne problems and everyone's acne is different, but if you have similar acne types or problems as me, these acne products will probably work better for you. Because I don't want to review a product that will work great for me, and I say it's great, but for another person's skin or type of acne it won't work as well and he or she will get upset or something.
Please remember that I am not a dermatologist, not an expert, this is from my own research and personal experience that I would like to share with you =).
I would like to talk and share with you because you can learn from my experience and compared to when I was 14, my skin has become a lot clearer and acne free. If you look at me now, you'd be like, HA! Acne problems? Yeah right, ur face is great! (or so i've been told haha). So, yes, this is a more or less successful story on acne, which is something to learn from because somewhere along the road, something I did was right, and I hope it works for you too! =D

I am not going to talk about acne formation, I'm pretty sure you can find and you know, how acne forms and what it looks like. I am also not going to talk about the types of acne because it's a pretty well known subject, and if you don't know, it's very easy to find. I'm talking more about acne causation and treatment. The products I used on my acne will be mentioned in this post but there will be more detailed reviews on them in later/other posts.

Puberty acne
Puberty acne is from hormones that tell your body to change to it's appropriate sex and these changes in hormones will cause acne.
Usually, people with puberty acne, won't have puberty acne anymore after they're around 20.
 However, puberty acne also causes an increase in sebum, the natural oil produced by the skin, this can clog pores when your face gets oily and you don't clean in properly.
Treatment of puberty acne
I had puberty acne from 13 till around 17 years old. It is such a pain, because they're based on hormones and not bacteria, so it's not like you can suppress or stop your hormones. It is harder to treat, being based on hormones. A good way to help prevent your pores from being clogged by an overproduction of sebum from puberty acne is to cleanse the face properly with a cleanser that's good for oily skin. Biore has some good products. Cleansers that contain salicylic acid will help remove dead skins cells that can clog up pores, and reduce redness and inflammation.

Adult acne
Adult acne is more based on over sebum production of acne from genetics. There are 2 main ways that adults can get acne front over sebum production:
1) bacterial infection
2) clogged pores
Bacterial love love love oil, because it's so fatty and nutritious they will come to eat it, and your immune system will fight them, causing acne. So many people who have a lot of sebum production (predominately Caucasians) will have bacterial infections and it is very common.
An over production of sebum makes the oils mix with dirt and dust in the air, which can clog pores and also cause acne.
Treatment of adult acne
For bacterial infections of sebum, depending how severe they are, you can take antibiotics. You need to go to your dermatologist for a check and get a prescription. If it is very severe, painful, traumatizing, and possibly life threatening or severely interfering with daily life, there are stronger treatments such as Accutane and Retinol A. Both must be prescribed and if you are going on any such regimen you must, must! do exactly what the directions tell you. Otherwise you will have acne that will never go away and never be cured because those are the strongest things out there! Believe me, I've seen it.

Acne from menstrual hormones
So, for women, everytime they have their period, their hormones will change. Something about estrogen and progesterone but i'm not going into technical details. It's similar to puberty acne i guess, both affected by hormones. Period acne will also eventually cease and go away after the period is over.
Treatment for menstrual acne
Really, I'm not sure about it. Because it's based on hormones, it's more difficult to treat. It will come almost regardless of what you do. However, be patient and keep your skin clean and prevent pores from clogging just like I said for puberty acne. It's gonna come and go regardless, every month, so the best is to wait it out and prevent more than needed from forming during that time of the month.


Universal treatment for any acne
-drink lots of water, this will help fluid circulation in your body and lymph nodes to flush out bacteria and toxins
-stop eating oily, greasy foods, this will help in oil reduction and it's healthier anyway
-eat fruits and vegetables for amino acids and fatty acids that can help repair your skin during and after breakouts
-if you have acne, try not to mess with it, unless you do know how, and after you pop it, apply antibiotic ointment on it to prevent it from being re-infected. Then during the day, apply sunscreen on it to prevent it from getting hyperpigmentation

Other causes from acne you may want to avoid:
-leaning against your phone when using it, which is not very clean
-not very clean pillow cases
-tendency to touch your face a lot or lean on your hands, especially when your hand is on your mouth and goes to your face when you lean on it or whatever
-not cleaning off your makeup properly
-picking acne, which believe me, is hard i know =P

For me, I don't have puberty acne anymore (yay! lol) and I also do not have serious adult acne, maybe just a little. While I do have an oily forehead and oily upper T-zone area, it's just oily, probably a little more sebum production but not that much that it will get infected by bacteria. When I do get acne in my oily areas, it is usually when the pores are clogged by a mixture of oil/sebum and dirt and dead skin cells. I do definitely get acne from my menstrual hormones, and these really suck. =( I just wait it out and clean my skin with salicylic acne cleanser more often during that time.

So basically, I have light/minor adult acne of areas of oily skin, and menstrual hormonal acne. Based on this, you can get an idea of how the acne products I use and review, affect and treat me.
I'm not trying to discourage you and say you cannot use the products I use. You can definitely try them, everyone's skin is different, so it will affect everyone to varying degrees. I am just saying that people who have acne more similar to mine may have better results with the products i use and review than people who don't. Makes sense? I hope so! =D


So, I hope that this was helpful to those who are suffering from acne. If you do have any questions, feel free to ask in the comment box below! I am happy to help!


Thank you for reading and have a nice day! XD