Skinspiration… Could your skincare be creating your acne?

*Disclaimer; All work produced in this skinspiration blog is owned by Nicole Webb, with copyrights to La Beauté Ltd.  

YES it most certainly can be!!

You see acne always has a cause; whether it is hormonally, internally or externally, finding the cause is a big step in enabling us to treat it and skin care can be one of the causes!

There are some skin care ranges that although marketed that they are good for the skin, and in particular good for acne, they are actually lying to you as a form of clever marketing! These products won’t help the skin and treat acne they will actually create it or stimulate what is already there. But their marketing never tells you that!!

How do I know that some skin care products (or ingredients) are responsible for creating acne?
By simple science; involving you skin’s P.H and a bacteria that lives on everyone’s skin.
Everyone’s skin surface has a P.H of 5.5 (remember the P.H scale from school)
There is a good bacteria that lives on everyone’s skin call P-Acne (propionibacterium acne), this bacteria is just one of the many positive bacterias that co-habitats on the surface of the skin. This particular one is found near the opening to sebaceous glands/hair follicles/pores over the body.
As sebaceous lipids (internal lipids/oils) move up the hair shaft/pore to the surface the P-Acne bacteria automatically turns it into an acid. This acid has a P.H of 5.5, same as the skin surface.

BUT

If the skin surface is stripped by wrong product use then the P-Acne’s home is removed and the flow of lipids is reduced.
To protect itself the P-Acne will move down the hair shaft/pore in search of a new home and a higher supply of lipids.
The base of hair shafts/pores has a P.H of 7 (neutral). Once inside the shaft/pore the P-Acne continues to make it’s acid of P.H 5.5 but this time it has been added to a P.H 7 environment, creating a reaction and inflammation that we see on the surface as pimples.

In order to return the P-Acne to the surface and restore harmony to the skin, you must stop stripping the skin with wrong product use. The products you apply to your skin must support the P-Acne environment on the surface and keep regular lipid flow.

It is common for some stripping ingredients to make an immediate improvement in the skin, so you think great this is working! Then with time it regresses back or to an even worse state. This is the product ranges clever marketing; it keeps you using it with hope it will continue to help!
BUT now you know about the bacteria P-Acne, so if you find a product is stripping the skin, making it feel tight right after application, you know it is effecting your P-Acne’s home and your result will be acne!WARNING: A major stripper of the skin barrier is soap or harsh cleansers. If after you cleanse your face, it immediately feels tight, has a shine to the surface or you have to apply moisturiser to ‘hydrate’ and loosen the tight feeling then the product(s) you are using prior is stripping your barrier and will be creating issues in the skin.
Soap and some cleansing products have a alkaline p.H, often between p.H 9-12. This a huge increase in the p.H scale from the skin surface p.H from 5.5!
So think about the feeling your cleanser is given you following.
Tight, shiny, needing hydration, then be alarmed!!