While it’s important to wash your face, washing too many times a day can irritate your skin, causing new breakouts.

Are you faithfully treating your acne but still seeing new breakouts? Your skin care routine could be to blame. Here you’ll find 10 skin care habits that can worsen acne and dermatologists’ tips to help you change those habits.

1. Try a new acne treatment every week or so. This approach can irritate your skin, which can cause breakouts.
2. What to do instead: Give an acne treatment time to work. You want to use a product for 6 to 8 weeks. It takes that long to see some improvement. If you don’t see any improvement by then, you can try another product. Complete clearing generally takes 3 to 4 months.
3. Apply acne medication only to your blemishes. It makes sense to treat what you see, but this approach fails to prevent new breakouts.
4. What to do instead: To prevent new blemishes, spread a thin layer of the acne medication evenly over your acne-prone skin. For example, if you tend to breakout on your forehead, nose, and chin, you’d want to apply the acne treatment evenly on all of these areas of your face.
5. Use makeup, skin care products, and hair care products that can cause acne. Some makeup along with many skin and hair care products contain oil or other ingredients that can cause acne breakouts. If you continue to use them, you may continue to see blemishes.
6. What to do instead: Use only makeup, sunscreen, skin and hair care products that are labeled “non-comedogenic” or “won’t clog pores.” These products don’t cause breakouts in most people. Check out the Elan Medical DermaActive skin care range for acne
7. Share makeup, makeup brushes, or makeup applicators. Even if you use only non-comedogenic products, sharing makeup can lead to blemishes.
8. Acne isn’t contagious, but when you share makeup, makeup brushes, or applicators, the acne-causing bacteria, oil, and dead skin cells on other people’s skin can wind up in your makeup. When you use that makeup, you can transfer their bacteria, oil, and dead skin cells to your skin. These can clog your pores, leading to breakouts.
9. What to do instead: Make sure you’re the only person who uses your makeup, makeup brushes, and makeup applicators.
10. Sleep in your makeup. Even non-comedogenic makeup can cause acne if you sleep in it. 
11. What to do instead: Remove your makeup before you go to bed. No exceptions. If you’re too tired to wash your face, use a makeup remover towelette. Just make sure it’s a non-comedogenic towelette.
12. Wash your face throughout the day. Washing your face several times a day can further irritate your skin, leading to more breakouts.
13. What to do instead: Wash your face twice a day — when you wake up and before you go to bed. You’ll also want to wash your face when you finish an activity that makes you sweat.
14. Dry out your skin. Skin with acne is oily, so it can be tempting to apply astringent and acne treatments until your face feels dry. Don’t. Dry skin is irritated skin. Anytime you irritate your skin, you risk getting more acne.
15. What to do instead: Use acne treatments as directed. If your skin feels dry, apply a moisturizer made for acne-prone skin. You’ll want to apply the moisturizer twice a day, after washing your face.
16. You also want to avoid using astringents, rubbing alcohol, and anything else that can dry out your skin.
17. Scrub your skin clean. To get rid of acne, you may be tempted to scrub your skin clean. Don’t. Scrubbing can irritate your skin, causing acne to flare.
18. What to do instead: Be gentle when washing your face and other skin with acne. You want to use a mild, non-comedogenic cleanser. Apply the cleanser lightly with your fingertips, using a circular motion. Gently rinse it off with warm water, using only your fingers. Then pat your skin dry with a clean towel.
19. Rub sweat from your skin during a workout. Using a towel to roughly rub away sweat can irritate your skin, which can cause breakouts.
20. What to do instead: When working out, use a clean towel to gently pat sweat from your skin.
21. Pop or squeeze breakouts. When you pop or squeeze acne, you’re likely to push some of what’s inside (e.g., pus, dead skin cells, or bacteria) deeper into your skin. When this happens, you increase inflammation. This can lead to more-noticeable acne and sometimes scarring and pain.
22. What to do instead: Resist the temptation to pop or squeeze acne. You want to treat your acne with acne medication. If you have deep or painful acne, seeing a dermatologist is necessary to help clear your acne.

When to see a dermatologist

Many people can control their acne by following these skin care tips and using acne treatment that they can buy without a prescription. If you continue to see acne after giving these tips a chance to work, a dermatologist can help. Some people need prescription-strength acne treatment.

At Elan Medical Skin Clinic in Rayleigh, Essex we are a registered medical clinic. Our Dermatology Nurse Consultant is able to prescribe prescription only medication for the treatment of ace.

With the right help, virtually everyone who has acne can see clearer skin.

What is Spironolactone?

Spironolactone is a medication that has been around since the 1950s. It functions as a diuretic medication (promotes water loss) and is licensed in the UK for the treatment of blood pressure and heart failure.

So what does this have to do with acne?

As with many medications, they often come onto the market for a specific medical problem and then we realise the drug itself has a number of other actions. In otherwise fit, young healthy women, without a background of kidney or heart problems, it is also an extremely effective drug for adult acne.

How does Spironolactone work for acne?

Acne is caused by an interplay between hormones and genetics. Hormones known as androgens drive oil production in the skin which is part of the process in acne development. Spironolactone is an ‘anti-androgen’ drug and reduces the level of androgen hormones in the skin. The knock-on effect is reduced activity of the oil glands. Scientific studies have shown that it is able to reduce oil production at starting doses of 50-100mg daily.

Who is Spironolactone useful for?

At Elan Medical Skin Clinic we often use Spironolactone in the following circumstances:

1. Post-teenage women with acne
2. Acne that flares up with menstruation
3. Women with acne that aren’t suitable for Roaccutane or do not wish to take it
4. Women with a condition called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)

Who should not take Spironolactone?

It is not a suitable treatment for male patients with acne, as it is not a good idea to reduce androgen hormones in men. It is also not suitable for those with underlying heart or kidney problems. It should also not be taken if you are trying to conceive, are pregnant or breastfeeding.

What happens next?

If you would like to discuss this or any other treatment for acne, we provide a responsive service that aims to set your mind at ease and ensure you are fully informed before booking your dermatology consultation.

How do I book an appointment?

You can either call Elan Medical Skin Clinic on 01268 770660 between 9.30am and 5pm Monday to Saturday or you can click here to fill in a contact form and one of our reception team will contact you by phone or email, whichever you prefer. You will be asked to pay your initial consultation fee by credit or debit card on confirming your appointment.

Acne is a disease of the pilocebaceous unit in the skin. The cause is hormonal. The hormone Testosterone causes an enlargement of the sebaceous glands in the skin, that start to produce an excess of oil production. As the skin sheds its surface, the dead skin cells stick to the excess oil causing a blocked pore.

 

Acne bacteria are all around us but when the pH balance of our skin is maintained at slightly acidic level of pH 4.6 the acne bacteria are less likely to live on your face. If the pH balance of your skin is incorrect the barrier function of the skin is impaired. If the acne bacteria enter into a clogged pore where there is no oxygen, they thrive and multiply, causing a spot or a cyst under the skin.

This can happen at any age.

Common myths about acne

Contrary to popular belief, acne is not just a skin condition that occurs in teenagers. At Elan Medical Skin Clinic we see acne in a wide age range of our clients.

Acne is also not caused by eating greasy food. In fact, diet has very little impact on acne at all. It is purely a hormonal problem.

Both men and women produce the hormone Testosterone. Men produce Testosterone in greater amounts than women and the female hormone Oestrogen helps suppress Testosterone production in women. It is therefore not surprising that women who have lower Oestrogen levels are more likely to suffer from acne, particularly around the time of their monthly period.

 

What can trigger acne?

Acne is commonly triggered by

• Stress
• Reduced immune deficiency
• Cosmetic products
• Hormonal changes

 

How do we treat acne at Elan Medical Skin Clinic?

• We can prescribe medication that suppresses Testosterone production in women
• We commonly prescribe antibiotics that target acne bacteria
• Acne Phototherapy can sometimes help reduce the inflammation of the skin, destroy the acne bacteria on the surface of the skin and can also help to stimulate cellular repair of the skin.
• We use Elan Medical DermaActives that contain ingredients that help to maintain the pH balance of the skin, speed up the cellular turnover of the skin and help to repair the damage that can lead to pigmentary changes or scarring of the skin.

Our DermaActive Acne Programme can be purchased from our online store. However, booking a Dermatology Consultation will ensure that you also receive the prescription only medication that you may need.

At Elan Medical Skin Clinic, we ensure that you receive a thorough consultation prior to any treatment programme. We will make sure that your treatment programme is devised to your individual needs and concerns. We can also help you with the cosmetic and psychological aspects of acne and acne scarring.

Book your Dermatology Consultation today…….