Tips on managing Acne outbreak

Okay, let me first start off by saying I am terrible at skincare and make up stuff. I am never that passionate about it except for occasional bout of inspiration and enthusiasm after watching michellephan or xteener youtube clip. But I have my fair share of experience visiting GP, Derms and beauticians to know a bit about taking care of problematic skin. Especially after my massive allergy/outbreak.

1. Stay away from hot shower/bath
I love hot shower especially on a cold night and early morning. But it also makes my skin really blotchy, red and worse, itchy. I used to ALWAYS come out of the shower with scratches across my chest and back. According to my beautician, hot water is really drying to the skin and also promotes the growth of the bacteria hence spreading your acne to other area. I have switched to tepid if not cool shower these days and while i still itch (i have ridiculously sensitive skin!) it is ALOT less than before.

Photo by Erix!

2. Ice your face day and night

This advice was given to me by a colleague a year back. She swore by it saying that it really calms acne. Well her glowing skin is more than enough testimonial of this great tip. My beautician instructed me to dunk my face into a bowl of ice water every day and night after washing my face. I modified it slightly since I don't have a big enough bowl. I put about 5-6 ice cube on a face towel, wet it and ice my face for about 15 mins. It makes a huge difference on my acne and helps alot on the pain and soreness.

3. Stay away from Benzac
I got this from a derm. And man, this is some nasty nasty stuff. You can read more about this "miracle" cream from acne.org under "Dan's regime" which essentially ask you to slather on thick layer of Benzac on your face every day, suffer through the peeling process and after 1-3 months (depending on your condition) you will have clear skin forever. The catch is you need to do this every day rest of your life if you want to maintain the clear condition. I can't imagine putting that much chemical on my face so I have only put on the acne as the instruction says. Nonetheless, I still got a massive allergy reaction to it and my face started peeling BADLY and my acne rapidly spread from my jawline to my cheeks. My face was half swollen and red all the time. If 3 days of application can cause all these I can't imagine putting thick layers of this on my face for the rest of my life. Imagine the damage on your skin. You have been warned. Please read up on the downside of this terrible cream if you like to embark on Dan's regime.

4. Don't ignore your whiteheads
If you have sparse whiteheads which 99% of everyone has, it is fine to ignore them. It is likely to go away after exfoliation and your usual skin regime. But if they start to spread, and stubbornly refuse to go away even after much exfoliation then please start to panic and do something about it. I have tons of headless whiteheads (they just looks like tiny bumps on your skin) beginning of the year. It was too close to the wedding so I choose not to do anything to do and let them sit dormant. And god bless, my face behaved right through the wedding.  It was not perfect but at least the make up went on beautifully and the photos turned out well.
Accordingly to my GP, he says that every whiteheads is the beginning of an acne. So it is only a matter of time every single whitehead would erupt and mature to an acne. And that was what happened to me!
However, I also learn from my beautician that we can intercept the full blown outbreak by skillful extraction of the gunk. Skillful is the key word. Extraction done wrongly is equally damaging to the skin. I am damn lucky to have found my current beautician. Within a week, she cleared all my bumps from the most superficial skin layers. However, the acne hidden within the deeper skin layers would need time to clear. Her aim is to eventually get rid of all the acne "roots" and achieve perfect skin. Frankly i am just happy with average skin. I have problematic skin all my life, battling with at least one or two pimples at any one time, so perfect skin is nothing but a distant dream for me. Nonetheless I am heartened to know i was in good hands and that brings me to my next point...

5. Find a good beautician
I was with Leonard Drake for the last 3 years and was really happy with them. I went to them after my skin reacted badly with London's tap water and they salvaged my skin. But it was only when I had my whiteheads which was due to hormonal imbalance and stress that I realized that they were not as skillful as I thought. I always remember how one of beautician insensitively expressed her frustration with my headless whiteheads. And trust me  you don't need another person to remind you how hopeless the situation is. With my current beautician, she was supportive, optimistic, and confident. And going to her is nurturing to my esteem, which is so important at this point. Most critically, she is so damn good at what she does. You can have smooth clear skin and yet she can still spot the looming acne deep in the skin layers and extract them out. My favorite part of the facial is how she would show me the gunk each time she extracts them. There is something morbidly satisfying about that.

6. Try Zinc cream
Zinc supplement as we all know is fantastic for healing of injuries, skin, hair, etc.. Zinc cream works in the same way topically. Granted, I don't have deep scars so i can't tell the effect of it on them. But for the smaller, punctured holed type of scar, this works great! It has healed some of the tiny scars only after just a couple of weeks of application. I put on a thick layer of it before sleep and in the day I apply it liked a moisturizer. Zinc is also an effective sunblock so i get to skip my sunblock as well.

There are plenty of other tips told to me but thought I will skip them since they are the stuff most of us already know e.g. don't pick your face, tie up your hair, stay happy, etc..

Oh there is one more thing i did every time my skin screws up: I stop all my products immediately. Except the cleanser of course. It is hard to pin point the reason of the outbreak and it is safer to eliminate all possible suspects. Besides, it is a good thing to let your skin rest. And slowly introduce back the product when your skin is calmer. It also serves as a way to identify which of the product is no longer suitable for your skin.

Photo by The 5th Ape

And to end off this post, I will touch on something more personal. I spent a lot of time thinking about the reason of this outbreak. It was very important for me to understand that as it was not triggered by any product reaction (except for that damn chemical peel and benzac but they were not the cause of my whiteheads) or environmental effect. There is something wrong with my body. Physically and emotionally.

I was suspected to have PCOS sometime last year. Simply said, I may have irregular ovulation which may makes it hard to conceive. It was something really hard for me to swallow as I love babies to death and have always wanted so much to raise a few of my own. Paranoid me ran through all the worst case scenario and then brainwashed myself I can accept them so I can moved on with life. But little did I know that subconsciously I was greatly affected by the possibility of uphill journey to motherhood. I will spare you the details but together with the moving of the house, a few unexpected financial burdens, some long standing family issues, wedding preparation, I was under tremendous stress for the last one year. Either that or the PCOS finally tip my hormones unbalanced and hence the chronic insomnia and outbreak.

If you suspect your acne outbreak is due to stress or PCOS, do take some time out to think through things. I was kind of glad to have this outbreak. It shook me up. Stop me from charging forward all the time and finally come to terms with some of my unhappiness, fears and anguish. I finally accepted and embraced the uniqueness of my family issues. I acknowledge how paranoid I have been on my unconfirmed PCOS condition and accepted the uphill journey I might took.

I won't say I am stronger now. But I dare say I have finally put down some of these baggages. Yong has been a big factor of my stress. I was not used to sharing my burdens and stress with another person other than my mum. I was petrified to let him see the vulnerable side of me. Again, god has his way of doing things. I witness his graciousness and incredible big heart and through this episode, I learn to open up to him completely and this really moves the relationship to a different level.

I have digressed a little but you get the gist. Emotional cleansing is as important as the physical one. That is my last tip for you and hope you have found this little post useful and hopefully motivating. :)