:Clear Skin Blog

Back acne is one of the most stubborn types of acne problems out there, so what should you do and avoid doing for best results? Let’s start with the don’ts:

Don’t scratch at blemishes you can’t reach. Facial acne is easy, in that if you want to pop those zits, it doesn’t exactly take much dexterity to do it. Back acne, however, is often just out of reach. Unable to get your squeeze on, many resort to scraping away with their fingernails. Do yourself a favor and avoid this. Not only will you most likely not eliminate acne pustules, you’ll also greatly increase the chances of getting acne scars that may just stick around for along while.

Don’t try to tan away your blemishes. Sunshine alone will not eliminate acne, and while getting a dark tan may help to hide it, be aware that you may be inviting further acne as a result of skin irritation, as well as skin cancer, which is never a pretty sight. And that’s not to mention premature aging.

As for the do’s:

Do wash regularly with a bath sponge. It’s not just your face that needs cleansing and exfoliation. Shower regularly, and if you can’t reach easily, get yourself a back scrubber with a gentle texture that will both lather well and help exfoliate those dead skin cells.

Do use an internal acne treatment. External creams are just not practical for treating back acne. Find an internal acne vitamin treatment that treats your whole body at once. While internal treatments will not always eliminate current acne as quickly as external ones, they are the only ones which can offer true acne prevention, ensuring you have a clearer back in the future.

Do get a some sun. But didn’t I say not to tan your acne away? Well here’s the deal: In moderation, a little UV exposure is a good thing. It promotes exfoliation, enhances circulation, and enables the production of vitamin D. Getting around 15 minutes per day is healthy.

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I just recently picked up a rice cooker myself, and boy was it a good purchase. Making rice is exceptionally easy with one of these, and it makes for a quick, healthy, and thrifty meal (although prices are on the rise…). With the popularity of diets that replace typical breads with rice-based meals, such as the South Beach Diet, etc., rice has become a hot item for the health-conscious, especially brown rice.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, rice is also better than processed breads when it comes to skin care, as it contains fewer (or no) artificial ingredients that can spell problems for your skin, and doesn’t put as much of a drain on your metabolic fuel, which means a lower chance of experiencing oily skin as a result of your meal.

Brown rice is the rice of choice for a number of reasons. Unlike white rice, brown rice still has it’s outer covering of bran intact. Brown rice has more than three times as much fiber as white rice. Most people do not get enough fiber in their diet, and fiber is needed to slow the absorption of carbohydrates, even your level of blood sugar, and lower your cholesterol. The bran layer also contains key minerals whicyh are beneficial to skin health, such as zinc and magnesium. Some rice is also enriched with additional vitamins, in which case you should not wash off the rice prior to cooking it, as you may wash away some of these.

While rice is nice, let’s face it, a big part of the benefit of eating rice is that you’re not eating processed breads. Processed breads are very quickly absorbed and use a lot of coenzyme-A in their metabolism, putting a drain on your body’s ability to break down skin oil. If you look around the world, you’ll find that cultures which have rice-based diets rather than bread-based diets all have lower instances of acne in their populations. You might want to think about replacing some of those bread meals with rice ones

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Rosemary oil is a popular ingredient in aromatherapies and hair care products, in which it is credited with stimulating hair follicles and promoting faster growing, thicker hairs. However, recently rosemary extract has also become more common in acne treatments and products designed for the reduction of acne scars.

So why are more skin care products using rosemary? Herbal oils in general have come into greater use in western acne treatments in recent years, and the benefits of rosemary oil make it an easy choice for topical acne treatments. Rosemary is considered one of the most popular of the “essential oils”. Its main benefits for the purposes of skin care include: Stimulating enhanced circulation, which enables small wounds to heal faster; moisturizing dried out skin cells (it is an oil, after all); reducing inflammation, which both makes acne blemishes less noticeable and aids in healing; as well as promoting a more even skin tone, enhancing cellular respiration, and working as a mild antioxidant.

That’s a long list of benefits attributed to rosemary oil. So is it a miracle cure? Of course not. As with virtually all herbal treatments, most of these benefits fall into the “mildly effective” category, and are generally more noticeable against mild acne. However, rosemary oil makes for a helpful side addition in other topical treatments, especially since it works both as a moisturizer and detoxifying agent.

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