Your EXPERT Acne Skin Care Routine!

Hi, guys. We are here helping you get closer to great skin days now today I'm starting my acne solved series something I'm excited about, and I guess the last time I talked about acne and its such a serious format was some time ago I realized I've been on blogging for four years, and I thought it was long overdue to redo that acne series um but with a really practical focus, so you go away from reading these articles with the tools and the structure in mind to get a handle on your skin now 

Acne is the number one concern that I see in the clinic, and it's the number one concern talked about on the various platforms Instagram, my Facebook group, and on here on blog,

So I thought why not do a deep dive into how to get a handle on this common and problematic skin disorder and I often know times there's lot of reservations about taking action that you're setting yourself up for disappointment somehow that you have fears that you won't be able to cope that you've read about products may be causing problems, 

So I really want to give you the confidence to build a structured routine to know that you've got the capabilities to handle any bumps in the road, pardon the pun, and really to see you through three months period really of taking charge of your skin using the tool kit of tricks that 

I've developed to help manage my own skin as well as those of my patients in the clinic, so the first thing I want to give you is a shopping list of tools to see you through now firstly you're gonna need a basic non-foaming non-drying nonclogging cleanser and the word is non-comedogenic, and you're going to hear me use that term a lot, the next thing 

You're gonna need is a moisturizer and possibly to a lighter format and a richer format that's gonna be able to help you customize your routine based on where your skin is at on your acne journey next thing you're gonna need as part of this kind of basics kit is a proper sunscreen. I know it might seem counterintuitive because so many sunscreens can cause problems but with good choices, 

You can make this part of your everyday routine, and it's gonna stop problems like worsening of those dark marks, and then it's going to help protect you and start your anti-aging journey in a sensible way - in terms of actives, then you're going to need two things to start off with it's that simple the first thing is an anti-inflammatory too, and that's gonna help you get a handle on those red blemishes, so we talked about papules. We talked about pustules, we talked about nodules and cysts, and they all tend to have an inflammatory component to them, 

So you need ingredients that are gonna help tackle that so that's gonna help you get a handle on the acne that you have in here and now. The second thing you're going to need is a preventer now at the core of every acne blemish inflamed or not is a clogged pore or a come done; hence the term in skincare of non come do genic so what we want to do if we really want to get ahead of the acne to solve it to prevent it as opposed to just reacting to new blemishes, as they come, is to unclog the pores now there are only a few ingredients that do that in this skincare arena and that retinoids and azelaic acid now. 

Azelaic acid is the friend of the pregnant person because we don't like to use retinoids in that instance but for pretty much everyone else if we can use a retinoid, is first-line, I'm gonna talk about those in a bit more detail make up is part as a tool kit I think it's very important that in the makeup category, you don't make matters worse so I'm a big fan of skipping powder and long-wear foundation 

You probably knew this already, so seek out non-comedogenic bases I'm going to give you some options in the comments down below and skip powder use blotting papers instead, if you're troubled by t-zone shine now, the structure of your routine is pretty straight forward, so I think of cleanser moisturizer SPF in the morning with a space between your cleanser and your moist Dreiser as being the key position to place your anti-inflammatory and then at night time you get your cleanser and your moisturizer, and there's a space in between for you to use your retinoid or if using azelaic acid that would go in there too if you've read my article on do How To Minimize Large Pores. 

You'll have an idea of how to use those tools at different levels of intensity depending on where you're at, so for instance, you're starting out you might want to go into super gentle if you have sensitive skin or you have a history of maybe your skin reacting to certain products, in which case I think it best to start one active at a time. 

There is no race. There's no reward for being a first over the finish line with any of this, you must go as slowly as quickly as your skin permits, a very oily thick skin girl is going to be much more tolerant of actives than somebody who's got thin delicate skin and you can get acne in either situation, particularly as you get older, so start off at a sensible level knowing your own skin's natural behavior, so the easiest way to go in gently is to do the following is to skip days in between the use of your active so you might start off with an alternate day schedule you might apply your active over moisturizer you might even dilute your active with some bland moisturizer to make it less strong,

so those are the ways that you can reduce the intensity to make things more tolerable the final thing you can do is to consider with your retinoid pre-treating with niacinamide which will make your skin more tolerant when you introduce the rest night onto your skin as I pointed out in the dosing video it's really important to quantify the amounts so that you can be consistent and where appropriate, escalate the quantity so I tend to always recommend starting off with a half a fingertip unit which is essentially a large pee and if you can building up to a full finger tip unit as your skin promoter permits this is just a guide not everyone will be able to do that and different people different tolerances 

But that's the kind of framework to use so that you can escalate in a consistent fashion and those your skincare in a consistent fashion for maximum results in terms of where you apply the product to and talk about the active products now I would recommend using the thirteen technique for your preventer step at night typically so three dots, three dots - and - and for your anti-inflammatory steps it can be a little more targeted now thirteen dots works fine if you tend to get acne all over the face, but it's more typical in teens and males to get teased on problems and in women to get problems along the jaw and a new part of the face,

So if we modify the dot technique for the t-zone we're probably talking seven dots of three to two, and for you were talking eight to ten depending on whether the area around your nose is involved as well, so thirteen dots all over and then the modified dot technique depending on where your trouble zones are for the anti inflammatory step. 

I think it's important to be aware of actives that I don't think have any real role to play in solving acne, so things like vitamin C, which I find a lot of people get quite caught up in, whereas my vitamin C going to go vitamin C does not particularly help acne, so I think that's that you can safely put aside until things are significantly better with your breakouts.

The next thing is a Hacethese are not absorbed into the oily hair follicle and therefore have little potential to really start to unplug pores. That's where beta hydroxy acids will work better next thing I think to put aside of your facial oils and your facial scrubs neither of these will serve you when it comes to solving acne and unfortunately despite the trend I don't think masking is gonna solve the problems either so I think the focus should be on skincare that you use on a daily basis or at least aiming to build up to a daily basis in a consistent measurable fashion a final note on anxiety and managing the desire to pick totally understandable and I think almost physiologic there's something about blemishes that makes us want to get in there and do something I'm going to ask you now to do best to resist and to work with your environment to reduce the risk of it happening so look at your lighting is it kind is it making matters worse is it making you feel more anxious about your skin address it'd be kind to yourself your mirror should be your friend and I think in terms of knowing yourself know when you're most likely to attack your skin if this is a habit that you experience.

So think about your night time routine don't take makeup off when you come in from work if you know that that then starts an evening up of peering in the mirror and having a bit of a fiddle try to do your skincare in a ruthlessly efficient fashion speedy in and out into a bed and no fiddling a final thought is to log your skin's activity because it's so difficult even when I see patients in the clinic I've been really difficult to know what's what in terms of progress because it's so easy for the eye to be distracted by red marks of spots that have gone so I think if you can do an inflammatory spot count on a come done count and maybe document with selfies in good natural light it's a great way of really being objective about your progress so that can really help so I hope you're feeling informed and confident that you can put together a routine to help improve thequality of your skin I'm gonna with you on this journey guys and I look forward to seeing you for the next video bye for now