:Clear Skin Blog

Besides the usual cleansing solutions and gels, there are a number of bar soap products marketed to acne sufferers. Do these clear skin soaps really help? And what makes them better than typical soaps?

Most general bar soaps are not the gentlest means of cleansing. For the less sensitive skin of your hands and body, these products may be fine, but for facial cleansing it’s usually best to use something gentler. This is especially true for acne sufferers who find they need to wash more frequently than most people (although even with a gentle cleanser, you really shouldn’t be washing more than twice per day - washing too frequently can stimulate your glands to overproduce oil). Clear skin bar soaps tend to include moisturizers such as aloe to keep your skin from overdrying, along with vitamins and minerals known to fortify the skin. Many soaps are oil-based, while acne soaps are usually oil-free and guaranteed not to clog your pores (of course, no soap should really clog your pores). It’s not unusual for acne soaps to also contain strong antibacterial ingredients such as tea tree oil, which kill acne-forming bacteria. However, since these ingredients are usually drying, expect them to only be present in small amounts.

In the end, clear skin soaps often do include some benefits over typical bar soaps, but moisturizing facial soaps such as Dove are usually on par with most of them. Compared to cheap bar soaps that may dry you out and leave a residue on your skin, they are definitely preferable, just keep in mind that while these products may assist in the fight against acne, they are not really a solution. Very seldom is surface dirt an actual cause of acne. If a soap is effective at unclogging oil buildups in your pores before they solidify, that would be the primary benefit . Popular brands include the Purpose Gentle Cleansing Bar, clear skin soaps by Cleans & Clear, and similar products by Burt’s Bees. A clear skin soap can also make your skin feel invigorated and smell nice, but it would be wise to remember these factors have little to do with acne.

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Monday is Memorial Day, a time to remember those who have bravely given their lives in service of their country. Due to the long weekend, I know a lot of people will be taking time off for short vacations or visits with family. I’ll actually be right here working on some updates on the way for Acne-Vitamins.com that you’ll hopefully be seeing in about 2-3 weeks. In any case, due to the national holiday postal carriers will be off work Monday, so weekend orders will be shipping out Tuesday instead.

As a side note, any of you that would like to read the full text of my last acne article on some of the more unusual barriers to clear skin can find it here. While the primary cause of acne for the vast majority of people is the excess production of skin oil by your glands, there are a lot of contributing factors that many don’t even consider. More diet advice is on the way as well.

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Neosporin is one of the most popular topical antibiotics on the market. Typically applied to small wounds in order to prevent infection, its use as an acne treatment has only recently become more popular due to the internet. However, while Neosporin may in fact be a very effective means to clear skin for some, this is a powerful antibiotic, and the side effects of long-term use could potentially be serious. If you’re in need of a strong spot-treatment, use Neosporin sparingly.

The benefits of Neosporin make sense to acne sufferers. It kills bacteria, speeds the healing of wounds, and can minimize the appearance of small scars. Neosporin’s combination of Bacitracin, Neomycin, and Polymixin-B kills a broad range of bacteria beyond the typical acne treatments such as benzoyl peroxide. Also, unlike BP, Neosporin is unlikely to cause drying since it uses an oil base (something that acne sufferers typically try to avoid - however, it’s actually the oil underneath the surface that your glands produce which is more likely to become a barrier to clear skin). From user testimony, many experience faster elimination of acne with Neosporin than other topical products that use BP or salicylic acid, and the reduction of redness makes spots less obvious.

Despite these benefits, users should take into account the precautions Pfizer themselves have printed on the bottle, such as “Do not use over large areas of the body” and “Do not use longer than 1 week unless directed by a doctor”. Neosporin kills more than just the P. Acnes bacteria that forms in pustules. It also kills many of the present agents that normally help your skin resist harmful bacteria. In addition, your skin may build up an antibiotic resistance that could make you more susceptible to serious infection down the road. Because of these considerations, the ongoing, regular use of a strong antibiotic like Neosporin is generally to be avoided. Pfizer is well aware of Neosporin’s use as an acne treatment, and the fact that they do not market or promote it as such should tell you a lot.

My recommendation would be to consider Neosporin as a spot treatment for those really serious pimples, provided your acne is mild enough that you don’t get these too often. Do not use Neosporin over large areas of your face, or for a prolonged period in any one place. The warnings are there for a reason. To take the red out of the occasional stubborn zit, Neosporin should be perfectly safe (I would recommend simply applying it once before bed), just don’t rely on it as an all-in-one clear skin solution.

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I talked about the importance of protecting your skin from sun damage last week, but there are also other considerations to keep your skin healthy as you age. Besides protection from excess sun exposure on the outside, what you put into your body can often have more of an impact on your skin during your adult years. You may need to take a higher dosage of some key vitamins in order to both maintain clear skin fight off the signs of premature aging.

As you grow older, your body becomes less efficient at processing vitamins for their intended uses. As a result, you may need higher doses of certain vitamins in order to reap the same benefits. Taking a daily multivitamin is a good idea from a young age, but it may become even more essential in your later years. Besides a multivitamin, there a few key vitamins that you may want to consider supplementing individually for best results. Vitamins C and E are among these. Vitamin C is needed for so many reactions within the body that its importance is no surprise. Among those that effect aging and your skin, vitamin C plays an essential role in the synthesis of collagen - a structural protein that helps skin cells remain firm and resilient. Studies have shown that vitamin C levels typically decline with age, so supplementing with vitamin C is highly recommended. Both vitamin C and E are powerful antioxidants, with vitamin E in particularly often being noted for its property of defending against sun damage. Taking both regularly can bolster your immune system against the negative effects of toxins in the skin.

This decrease in both the presence and efficient processing of certain vitamins can also help explain adult acne. Individuals who might have had no problem metabolizing excess skin oil in their earlier years may find that they no longer gain enough nutrients to keep their skin clear as they age. Your regular diet simply may not be enough anymore. Consider supplements such as a multivitamin, vitamins C, E, and B5 to help your skin look its best as you age.

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We all want clear skin, and many people go through a long process of trying tons of different acne products looking for a solution (I know I did). However, it’s important to keep in mind that some acne products we use today can have negative effects tomorrow. It’s wise to take a few precautions, particularly when using strong topical creams, to make sure that you won’t need to trade those anti-acne treatments for anti-wrinkle treatments a few years down the road.

The fact is, most topical acne treatments (that work) also have the downside of making your skin more sensitive to sun damage. This is true for products that use the most popular active ingredients, such as benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid (BP and SA, respectively), and especially for those based on vitamin A derivatives, such as Retin-A and the prescription treatment Accutane. BP and SA come in a variety of concentrations, with the stronger concentrations being generally more dangerous (and not necessarily more effective for combating acne, either). Unfortunately, chances are that if something is strong enough to kill your zits, it’s also putting your skin at risk of increased sun damage (after applying a BP product, your skin is often twice as sensitive to sun damage as it is normally). Following your acne cream with a non-comogenic moisturizer is essential if you’ll be spending any time under the sun, and a moisturizer that contains SPF-15 is highly recommended.

For a time after they are used (longer for Accutane), acne creams tend to strip away the usual layer of oil from your skin. While too much oil is a bad thing, too little is also dangerous. This is one of the benefits of vitamin B5 acne treatment, in that it simply lowers your oil to a natural level, rather than stripping it away completely. These treatments can also dehydrate your cells, leaving you primed for sun damage. If an acne cream or cleanser ever leaves your skin feeling over-dried, know that you definitely have an increased risk of sun damage. Too much sun exposure is the number-one cause of premature fine lines and wrinkles, so time your application of acne treatments to avoid this, and follow them with protective moisturizers whenever possible.

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As many women know, birth control pills can actually be an effective treatment against acne. Clear skin via the pill may seem unconventional, but the fact is that even the FDA has recognized and approved low-dose usage of birth control pills for acne treatment. So what is it about the pill that helps clear up your skin?

Acne is mainly caused by the excess production of skin oil (sebum), which in turn is linked to an increased production of androgens (male sex hormones) by your body. For women, a high degree of androgens are produced just before menstruation. The low-dose use of birth control pills has been shown to decrease the production of excess androgens, and thus effectively prevent acne from forming in the first place. This connection between birth control pills and clear skin has been noted both in medical journals and by numerous women who have noticed their skin improve after going on the pill for reasons totally unrelated.

Despite these positive aspects, using the pill to combat acne has some downsides as well. Besides the obvious downside should you wish to become pregnant, there are also side effects associated with the pill such as headaches, nausea, breast pain, occasional weight gain, vaginal bleeding, fluid retention, melasma (dark patches on your skin), and depression. More serious side effects such as breast cancer, heart attacks and blood clots are also a consideration. Birth control pills are not the safest acne treatment out there, but they are one of the only things that target your hormones directly. Treatments such as vitamin B5 and Accutane aim closer to the skin level by targeting oil production, while topical treatments like benzoyl peroxide simply target the oil and bacteria that is already there.

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My latest acne article discusses some of the less commonly considered barrier to clear skin. As usual, I’ll post more information on where to find it once it’s published, but in the meantime here’s a quick summary. This article touches on a number of things I’ve mentioned in recent blog posts.

A lot of people out there may be making their acne worse without even realizing it. Keeping your skin clear and healthy means considering your lifestyle as a whole, and it may mean looking beyond the common causes of acne. Here is a quick breakdown of some things to consider:

- Many women already know to consider whether or not the makeup they use is non-comedogenic, but for both women and men, considering the chemicals you put in your hair can also be of key importance, since hair gels and other styling products often contain adhesives that naturally clog your pores and lead to acne along your hairline. Take steps to keep hair products from negatively effecting your facial skin.

- Sweat trapped against your body is the perfect environment for growing bacteria. Always change out of sweaty clothes quickly after exercising, especially with tight clothing that keeps your skin from breathing. Also, keep in mind the everyday situations that have this effect even without exercise, such as sitting with your back against a chair most of the day. Take steps to make sure that sweat is not trapped against your skin with no opportunity for your pores to breathe.

- Besides the common step of limiting highly oily and sugary foods, consider that a diet high in processed grains can also exacerbate acne by increasing your insulin level, which has been shown to be linked with acne outbreaks. You may want to limit the amount of processed breads and cereals in your diet. Also, the simply drinking more water has powerful benefits for your skin. Make sure to get those eight glasses of water per day.

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Well I’ve delayed about this for a while, since Acne Vitamins already has a site map html page and it seems unnecessary to create another site map just for Google, but well, here I am giving in and making one. You would think Acne-Vitamins.com would rank rather well for a search term such as “acne vitamins”, but in fact the page just keeps jumping all over the place in the Google rankings, even with no changes whatsoever on my part.

While submitting a site map to Google should have no impact on rankings, it will at least keep your pages crawled and let you know if you have any indexing errors. These things help, but what really spurred me on to get started with this was a recent post by Matt Cutts concerning the possibility that Google might actually start letting webmasters know why their pages are not showing up. It’s hard to make positive changes to your site when Google doesn’t even let you know what is holding you down, not to mention while sites that are obviously abusing G’s guidelines outrank sites that try to keep things honest.

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Yet another acne testimony update for Clear5. We received some nice user testimony over the last month, but still no new pictures yet. We’ve got a bit of trend going on where mostly women submit testimony, but the few pictures we have are mostly from the guys… Oh well. I’ll have a new article coming up highlighting some of the lesser known obstacles to clear skin (such as in my last post). I’ll just have to try not to get too preoccupied next week with E3 going on ^_^.

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Do you get small acne bumps along your hairline? Many acne sufferers, and even people with otherwise naturally clear skin, find themselves with mild but stubborn hairline acne due to the hair styling products they use. Hairline acne usually consists of small blackheads, and can also effect areas beyond your immediate hairline due to the effects of sweat and/or longer hair lying against your skin. Most hair gels and sculpting products contain ingredients that do not mix well with healthy skin, such as alcohol, oils and adhesives. Many of these ingredients can clog your pores and even promote the growth of bacteria.

For your skin’s sake, it’s a good idea to take care when applying hair styling products. Try to keep gels and oils away from your skin at the hairline, and generally avoid applying these products too heavily. It’s best when gels don’t need to be rubbed down to your roots and against the skin of your scalp. If you use spray products, you may want to cover your skin while spraying near your hairline. At the very least, make sure to rinse off the skin along your hairline after applying hair products. Remember that these ingredients will seep into your pores by means of sweat, so if you’re going to be exercising or doing anything that will involve a lot of sweating, try to avoid laying on a think layer of hair gel (or similar products) beforehand. Hairline acne is easier avoided than eliminated.

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