If you feel like you’re constantly experiencing acne breakouts, but you don’t know where you’re going wrong, read this post to learn 5 simple tricks you can do at home to prevent acne.
A little bit of acne is TOTALLY NORMAL, but doing little things as preventative measures can make a world of a difference. Here are my tips:
- Removing your makeup. We all know you should remove your makeup, but there’s a little more to it than that. There are tons of cleansers out there that say they can remove makeup and cleanse your face at the same time – I’m not a fan of these. I don’t think they do a good enough job cleaning off your makeup.
To make sure that I get all my makeup off, I use a white washcloth. I have a bunch of them, use a separate one every time I remove makeup, and wash them every week. I use a WHITE washcloth specifically, so that I can see if there’s any remnants of makeup. I want to make sure all of it’s off, so in the 8 hours when I’m sleeping, I don’t have any makeup seeping into my pores.
Also make sure you’re using 2 cleansers. Use makeup remover first- I’m not a huge fan of the wipes because if they’re dry, it’s a lot of tugging on your face. My favorite thing to use is an oil cleanser. There are so many different brands (one is Dermalogica).
How to: Start by applying the oil cleanser all over your face (no water), then take a cotton pad and remove your makeup.
- Clean your makeup brushes. I know it can be annoying – I used to hate washing my brushes. There are some sprays that wash it off right away, but those make me wonder what kind of chemicals are in them to clean it off right away.
I’m super excited to share some cool gadgets by Sigma Beauty. Their brushes are great because they’re vegan, cruelty-free and anti-microbial (agent that kills microorganisms or stops their growth). That technology built in will already help prevent the bacteria that builds up on your brushes.
*Quick note about bacteria: There’s normal bacteria that lives everywhere- our skin, mouth, etc. They’re supposed to be there, and we’ve adapted to that. It gets messy when makeup is sitting on your brush, especially if it’s on a wet surface (think beauty blenders). That moist environment is perfect for bacteria to grow. Now you have bacteria growing in your brushes, and you use these brushes on your face, so your face is getting a different kind of bacteria than it knows how to handle. Sometimes bumpy texture on your skin is caused by the bacteria from your brush. Now that you know how gross it is, hopefully you’ll be motivated to clean your brushes more often.
The Sigma Spa Brush Cleaning Glove is super easy – you just put it on, wet it, add a few pumps of the SIGMAGIC Brush Shampoo Liquid, wet your brush and circle it around on the glove until there is no residue. If that wasn’t cute enough, Sigma Beauty also makes a cute little stand to dry them on called DRY’N Shape Tower Face & Eyes. The point of this is to dry your brushes facing down so they dry faster and you avoid keeping any moisture in them. I think you guys will love all of these.
- Diet. It always comes back to food because what you put in your body is so important. Your skin is the only organ that lives outside your body – we can see our skin, so we know if something is going on inside. I recommend foods that are WATER-FILLED or full of FIBER to help flush out toxins and prevent acne. Some of my favorites are celery, cucumbers, watermelon, apples and berries. Some things that are known to make your skin worse (and are unhealthy overall) are gluten, dairy and processed foods.
- Clean your hands before touching your face. This sounds like common sense, but I never even used to notice touching my face sitting in class. I love to keep hand sanitizer on me to prevent transferring bacteria from my hands to my face throughout the day.
- Pillowcase. I replace my pillowcase pretty often. It might be a little more money to buy a few extra ones, but it’s a one-time investment that will last you years. I love a good silk pillowcase and replacing it at least every 2 nights to make sure it stays clean. If I don’t have a clean pillowcase on hand, I take a clean towel or t-shirt and put it over the pillow for the night.
Any tip that I have for your skin, energy, weight, etc. is going to be synonymous to the other because I would never recommend something that’s good for one part of your body, but not for another …which is why I have an issue with fad diets – they might be good for your weight, but they’re not good for your overall health.
Those are my 5 tips for acne! I think these are all easy, lifestyle things you can incorporate.
