As no surprise to any esthetician, the most common issue clients suffer from is acne. Acne is most prevalent in teens, young adults, and clients going through hormone changes, however acne can affect anyone at any age. Knowing how to properly care for acne and help prevent break outs for your clients of all types and conditions is one of the best tools you can have in your skincare tool belt.
First, let’s talk about where acne comes from. Acne can be caused by 3 different sources: oil, bacteria, and dead skin cells. Let’s dig into each of these a bit deeper to fully understand how we can help our client’s battle acne.
Oil
Oil is the fuel to the fire when it comes to acne. Having an oily environment is just asking for a breakout to happen. We can keep oil under control by using ingredients like salicylic acid, sulfur, kaolin clay, and tea tree oil. These ingredients are going to remove any excess oil in the skin preventing oil from clogging our pores. Another tip is to make sure you are not under moisturizing the skin. Not giving the skin enough hydration can cause an excess of oil production making it hard to remove this oil. If your client has oily skin, chose a lightweight moisturizer but do not skip the moisturizer altogether.
Bacteria
The bacteria that causes acne is called proprionibacterium. This can be more present in some clients more than other based on eating habits, hormones, or genetics. Benzoyl Peroxide, sulfur, and nasturtium are all powerful ingredients in providing oxygen to our cells. This is important since bacteria cannot survive if oxygen is present in the skin. Having a way to fight bacteria daily will reduce the chance of an unexpected break out.
Dead Skin Cells
Dead skin that has yet to slough off can sit on the surface of the skin or become clogged inside the pores and cause a buildup that leads to a break out especially if there is oil or bacteria present. Using chemical or physical exfoliators such as glycolic acid, lactic acid, enzymes, or jojoba beads will prevent clogging of the pores and also speed up our cell turnover keeping our skin young and healthy.
Recommending a homecare routine for your clients who are acne prone that incorporates ingredients that combat oil, bacteria, and dead skin will help clear breakouts and prevent breakouts in the skin. If you know or your client knows which one of these three issues are causing their breakouts, then it will make your recommendations that much easier!
For further information about acne or homecare please call GlyMed Plus at 800-676-9667 or email us at info@glymedplus.com.