If you’re a young adult heading back to University, save these tips to help to treat and prevent your acne during the school year. Even if you don’t deal with acne currently or on a regular basis, these tips can still be used as a preventative method to keep your skin balanced throughout the school year.

Friendly Reminder: Acne is maintained, not cured. Hopefully that statement brought some relief to those of you wondering “what am I doing wrong?” Everyone is different and requires a different treatment route to obtain individual results. Once your skin has reached a state of being clear, you don’t want to stop doing the routine that helped you get there in the first place. If anything, you go from “clearing mode” to “maintenance mode,” but you don’t want to stop using your acne fighting products. Having the right tools and routine can help you remain consistent in treating this inherited, chronic skin condition.

Keep your routine simple, but effective. School, along with other activities will keep you busy enough. The last thing probably on your mind is to do a 10-step skincare routine when you’re done with classes, homework, or even a part-time job. Three to four steps is doable routine and plenty to start with. If needed, you can continue building on your routine from the basics, but keeping it simple reduces any potential irritations.

Start off your skincare routine with a gentle cleanse twice a day, morning and night. If you wear makeup; use a micellar water, an oil cleanser, or your favorite makeup remover first to loosen up the initial layer of dirt and oils. To maximize the benefits of your cleanse; be sure to cleanse for a minimum of 60 seconds and look for cleansers that contain antioxidants or active ingredients to address multiple factors that can cause acne in our skin. For example, antioxidants like green tea and vitamin c will add protective benefits from daily environmental stressors and free radicals. You want your cleanser to be able to remove excess oil, debris, and any leftover makeup without stripping the naturals oils of the skin.

Small Tip: avoid using towels to dry your face after cleansing. Towels harbor a variety of bacterias and we don’t want to reintroduce them back to our freshly cleansed skin. Instead, opt for biodegradable paper towels and gentle pat your face dry.

Following your cleanse, you want to look in to low percentage active ingredients to target and treat your current and future breakouts. Lower percentage actives might sounds like you’re not getting the best bang for your dollar. On the contrary, starting low allows you to utilize your actives more consistently and is the optimal choice for long term maintenance while also keeping the skin barrier intact. Higher percentage actives require a little more attentiveness with there application as a good percentage of the ones on the market are best used 2-3 times a week.

Examples of ingredients that address acne:

-Benzoyl Peroxide
-Salicylic Acid
-Madelic Acid
-Lactic Acid
-Retinol

Having a professional help build your routine helps keep the confusion at a minimum so you’re not trying a bunch of products and potentially creating a bigger issue.

Note: there will be a time when your skin hits a refractory point and your lower percentage actives might not be benefitting your skin anymore. That doesn’t make your routine bad, it just means you’re ready for an upgrade. For example, your Esthetician originally recommended a product containing .5% of  Salicylic Acid to help with your acne. It’s been some time, and now you feel like you’re not experiencing the same results as your were. You’ve been wanting to upgrade to a 1% or 2% formula but need some guidance. This would be a good time to book with your Esthetician and at your appointment, express you are in the market to get something new. This will save you time and money in the long run instead of trying random products from influencer made videos.

You can find your actives in leave on or wash off form. If you’ve never tried any active ingredients before now, an easy way to introduce them is in wash off form. This allows your skin to build up its tolerance so later on, you can switch over to a leave on product if you’d like.
Side note: Your active cleanser can be both your cleansing and treatment steps after you’ve removed your makeup (if you’re wearing any).

Bonus: You can use your acne facial cleanser on your body to help reduce body acne. If you have a Benzoyl Peroxide face wash, try using it under your armpits to help reduce body odor. Benzoyl Peroxide creates an aerobic environment that will kill off any bacteria linked to causing body odor.

Last part of your routine is a good moisturizer that fits your skin needs. When you utilize exfoliating active ingredients in your skincare, you want to replenish your skin with hydrating and moisturizing ingredients that help protect the skin barrier.  These ingredients can look like:

-Ceramides (skin healing)
-Glycerin (adds hydrating back to the skin)
-Niacinamide (brightens and manages oil production)

These ingredients will help accelerate the skin’s natural healing process. You want to avoid heavy moisturizing ingredients like lanolin or large molecule oils like coconut. These will have the ability to be comedogenic on acne prone skin. Opt for gel based moisturizers that have no added dyes or fragrance in them. These ingredients can be aggravating to the skin during the healing process. This can also be true for your sunscreens. Most people tend to skip their SPF because of how heavy they can sometimes feel on the skin. For those with acne prone skin, skipping this step in the long run can lead t0 acne scarring and hyperpigmentation.

Skin that is experiencing acne is usually in an inflamed state. When we expose ourselves to extra time in the sun, it will add excess heat to the skin. Heat will also add extra inflammation and over time, this will cause cellular damage. Cellular damage will almost always lead to scarring, hyperpigmentation, and early signs of aging.

In our treatment room, our facial clients often express they have yet to find a sunscreen that works for them. Generally, I love to suggest Japanese or Korean sunscreen brands because the formulas offer more options as a consumer to find the right one. Texture wise, they tend to have a more elegant application to the skin, allow for easier reapplication throughout the day, and don’t leave a pesky white cast you might be familiar with. Having the right sunscreen in your arsenal is a game changer as it is the best defense at preventing a multitude of skin concerns ranging from dehydrated skin with fine lines all the way to hyperpigmentation/ scarring.
Best to keep in mind that prevention is easier (and cheaper) than correction.

Even after reading this article you’re still unsure where to start, no worries! Come book with our licensed Esthetician, Ashlee here at BB Meme Salon Hillcrest. We look forward to seeing you! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Click Here to Book Your Acne Facial Here

Pictured Above:
On the left: Client’s skin from her first acne facial treatment.
On the right: Client’s 2 months progress post treatment plus an upgraded home skincare routine.

This article was written by our licensed Esthetician, Ashlee Tomlin.
Instagram: @amtskin