Beating Adult Acne : 7 Steps to Better Skin

Alright people, it's TMI time. (Yes, I know it's not Thursday. We'll call it TMI Friday instead, okay?)

Today I'm going to talk about Adult Acne. It's going to be a long one, but hopefully it will help some of you ladies who, like me, have been struggling to get clear skin despite no longer being in your teens.

I don't think there are many people whose faces didn't turn into dermatological pizza at least to some extent when they were teenagers, but for some people the hell doesn't stop when puberty subsides. 1 in 5 adults between the ages of 25 and 40 will suffer from acne and at least 80% of those are women. One of those women is me; I've spent the last 20 years fighting my own face (at least that's how it's felt) and quite frankly, it's been a long, expensive and emotional road. Until now. I'm glad to say that I have finally beaten my acne!!

This is how my skin looks now, sans make up.

It isn't perfect by any means. There are still blemishes, and acne scars, but it's a world away from the way it looked this time last year (pictures HERE, HERE, and HERE, hidden behind links to protect the squeamish!) and I can honestly say my skin is now the best it's looked for 20 years!












There's a ton of information about acne out there, but the trouble is, it's usually conflicting and confusing, and often just tries to sell you stuff (which is frequently nothing but snake oil anyway). Looking back at all the things I've tried, I realise that I wasted a lot of time and money on barking up the wrong tree entirely! There is a whole list of things I wish I'd known a long time ago: it would have made my struggle a lot easier and shorter! In the interests of maybe helping some of the other reluctantly spotty ladies out there, here is that list. Please note that I am NOT a dermatologist. I'm a biochemist, so I know a thing or two about science, but I wouldn't even begin to claim that I am an expert in skincare. These are just the things that I have learned help my own skin and they may or may not help you too.

1. Seek medical advice

If you have acne, the first place you should go is the doctor.  Do not be afraid that your skin is not bad enough for medical intervention, or that the doctor will laugh you out of the room. He won't. He has a whole arsenal of things that can help, as do Pharmacists (though there are some things only doctors can prescribe). While they may not be as attractively packaged or pleasantly scented as things you buy in the drugstore, the chances are they'll work a lot better and will cost you less money in the long run too. While you're showing your acne to the doctor, also have a discussion about whether or not you need to change your method of birth control. Acne is massively influenced by hormones, whether that's our own, or the artificial kind we use to stop ourselves from having babies. You can use all the acne treatments in the world but if your skin is freaking out over hormones (whether that's too much, too little, or the wrong kind), you're going to be fighting an uphill battle all the way. Often, starting, stopping, or changing the type of birth control you use, can make a huge difference to your skin. You may need to be patient and try a few things before you figure out what works best (and for me that was the progesterone implant), but believe me, it's worth persevering.

2. Keep it Simple

It is very tempting to rush out and buy every acne face wash, gel, cleansing wipe, scrub and cream you can get your hands on, and then scrub the life out of your face hoping that the spots will magically go away. Try not to do this as it can actually be counter-productive: acne products (especially those aimed at teenagers) can be very harsh and drying to the skin and it is very likely that your face will reward your efforts with twice as much acne as you had in the first place (I speak from painful experience here). Choose just one or two key things that you know definitely work, and stick to them; your skin will thank you for it.
My daily skincare routine only involves two specifically anti-acne products: Quinoderm cream (reviewed HERE), and African Black Soap, which is legendary for its ability to help treat pretty much any skin condition from acne to eczema and everything in between (I'll be reviewing this soon).

3. Keep it Moist

I make sure my skin is moisturised well at all times. It might seem like a bad idea to moisturise: people can get paranoid about greasing up their skin and think that moisturiser will cause their acne to get worse. Actually it's quite the opposite. You NEED moisture. Dry skin is unhappy skin; it will produce extra sebum to try and fix itself and extra sebum equals extra acne. The trick (which might require a bit of trial and error) is to find a moisturiser which will suit your skin, especially if you have dry areas - it's a myth that acne prone skin is automatically greasy skin, ya know. You want something that is simple and gentle, but not so rich it will block your pores. Things which say 'non comodogenic' are usually good, as they are supposedly not pore-blocking. Things which leave your face still feeling claggy over half an hour later are generally bad - ideally it should disappear into the skin within a few minutes and leave it feeling moisturised, but not greasy. My current favourite is the Superdrug Vitamin E range (again, review coming very soon!).

4. Keep it Clean

This might seem obvious, but nevertheless, I can't stress it enough: DO NOT SLEEP IN YOUR MAKE UP. I don't care how pure and wonderful the packaging claims it is. That make up has been on your face all day long, picking up germs, dust, sweat, debris, grease and dirt, and if you don't take it off before bed it's all going to sit there all night too, having a right old party in your pores, which will more than likely get blocked and infected. Nice. At the risk of sounding like a right old minger, I always used to sleep in my make up and take it off the next morning. I didn't think it made that much difference, but it really does. Now I take it off every night before bed and my skin is so much better for it. If I forget or get lazy for a few days, I soon wish I hadn't!!

5. Check Your Make Up

The day I switched from traditional liquid foundation to mineral powder foundation, my skin all but cheered. It turns out all that make up I was using to hide my acne, was actually part of the problem: I can wear as much powder as I like, but if I drift back to liquid, I get maybe two or three days grace, then dermatological Armageddon occurs. I'm not saying that powder is the holy grail, or that liquid foundation is evil; but everyone's skin is different and it's very possible that certain types of make up, ingredients or additives just don't agree with your face. (Silicones, waxes, fragrances and SPF are just a few things which tend to cause problems for acne sufferers). It's definitely worth looking at the things you put on your face and maybe trying to use different formulations for a while, to see if it helps.

6. Check Your Diet

Studies have shown that a bad diet does not automatically cause acne. However, there is evidence from both clinical trials and observational studies to suggest that diet CAN make existing acne worse. Particular culprits include dairy products, sugar, saturated fats and processed foods, so if you currently eat a lot of these, it might help to cut down. Dairy is definitely a trigger for my skin: the more I eat, the spottier I get, and my skin is definitely better when I avoid junk food!

7. Be Patient

The only thing that Acne does quickly is get worse. Whatever you try, if it doesn't seem to be doing much, give it a reasonable amount of time before giving up and trying something else: a couple of weeks if it's a cleanser, a couple of months if it's a treatment cream. If you've changed your birth control it may take even longer: it took almost a year for my skin to settle down from the enormous flare up I experienced when I started using the depo injection, though with the implant that I eventually switched to, it only took a few weeks for my skin to normalise. Go figure.

And... that's it! 7 steps to better skin. It worked for me, and I really hope it will help other people too!

Quinoderm (and TMI Thursday Update 3)

Well my lovelies, it's TMI Thursday again and therefore time for another problem skin update. This week I have been using Quinoderm cream morning and night.

Quinoderm cream contains 10% Benzoyl Peroxide and 0.5% Potassium Hydroxyquinoline Sulphate. The Benzoyl Peroxide works by breaking down some of the links between the skin cells in the top layer of skin and allowing them to slough away: it works a bit like a skin peel, useful in acne because a lot of the problems are caused by pores becoming blocked by dead skin cells. The blocked pores then become infected which is what gives you nasty spots, and that's where the Hydroxyquinoline comes into play: it kills bacteria and fungi that could otherwise have infected your pores.

The cream itself is described as a 'vanishing' cream, this just means that you don't have to rub it in very much and it will still disappear quite quickly. It's an off white colour and it has a sort of musky, medical smell. You apply it to the problem areas of your face after cleansing and then you leave it alone to soak in.

I'm not going to lie to you, girls. (And boys? Do I have any male readers? I hope so!) This stuff is STRONG. 10% Benzoyl Peroxide is about as strong an acne treatment as you can get without a prescription and you're going to need to do a patch test before covering your face in this stuff for the first time. You're also going to discover one especially noticeable side effect when using Quinoderm : it STINGS. Not unbearably so, but it's definitely beyond just 'tingling a bit'. The stinging lasts maybe 5 or ten minutes after application and then it goes away. You will also need to be careful not to get it anywhere near your eyes; this means if you apply make up, don't accidentally transfer the cream from another part of your face onto your eye area because YOU WILL REGRET IT. Trust me on this one. You won't die, or go blind, but you'll have some pretty uncomfortable burning sensations under your eyes for about half an hour to an hour afterwards and let's just say it won't be especially fun >.<  In order to avoid this happening, I try to let the Quinoderm dry right into my skin before applying moisturiser etc. I also do my eye make up first before the rest of my face so that I don't accidentally pick any of the cream up and move it to my eye area on my make up brushes.

Something else I've noticed is that this cream causes a bit of dry skin and peeling. This is SUPPOSED to happen because it's part of the way it works. It's annoying but not so bad it can't be dealt with by moisturising well and the careful use of a facial scrub here and there. I'm just gritting my teeth and telling myself it's a sign the stuff is working! (EDIT: I eventually found that the dry skin wore off anyway: it seems to be an initial reaction that doesn't last forever)

This stinging and the peeling is definitely worth putting up with, though. I've been using Quinoderm for about three weeks now, once a day to start with and over the last week I've increased it to twice a day - and there's a definite change going on here. It's too soon for my spots to magically vanish (I'm told it can take 6-8 weeks of twice a day application for that to happen) but I've noticed that my blackheads are becoming much easier to remove, and when I have a spot, it's smaller and doesn't seem to last as long. I haven't had to use my extraction kit as often, which can only be a good sign! (EDIT: after 6 weeks, magic happened. Trust me, it's worth persevering with this stuff).

I'm not going to put up any progress photos this week though. Even though things are definitely better and my skin has improved, it doesn't seem to want to show up in photographs just yet. The change is more to do with how my skin feels and how long the spots hang around when they do appear. Only bad things happen quickly, eh? Watch this space and hopefully I will have update piccies for you in a week's time!

Dermatologist's Extraction Kit

I thought I'd start my series of skincare reviews with a tool rather than a product: the dermatology extraction kit, because this is what's made the biggest difference to my skin so far.

It consists of a handle with several interchangeable head pieces in a storage case. I picked this up on Ebay for about £10; there are cheaper ones out there with fewer ‘bits’ but since my skin is so stubborn when it comes to extraction, I wanted a good selection of attachments to experiment with.

1. It’s not a good idea to buy one of those and just stab at your face willy nilly; you could easily damage your skin if you go at it unprepared. Talking to a dermatologist is a good idea, failing that, there are quite a few videos on YouTube which demonstrate the correct way to use these kinds of tools safely and I'd recommend you check them out before trying this at home.

2. It’s also VITAL that you sterilise these tools in between uses. If you have acne, your skin is already infected and sore... the last thing you want to do is add even more germs!! I do it by soaking them in a mug of boiling water for ten minutes. You could also use alcohol, or those tablets that disinfect babies’ bottles.

Now on to the review!

These somewhat barbaric looking tools are basically just very sharp points which you can use to pierce a lesion (usually open comodogenes, also known as whiteheads, or zits) before you try to extract it. By doing this, much less force is needed, which means you do less damage to the surrounding skin when you squeeze, there's less swelling, it hurts less, and the lesion heals much quicker afterwards. Because they're so sharp, they don't hurt; you just find the 'head' of the spot and prick gently - you can feel when the skin breaks and you end up with a tiny neat hole instead of a horrible big split in the skin where you forced the spot out by brute force and ignorance!!  You can also use these sharp tools on smaller cystic acne. These are the zits that form so deep under the skin that they don’t form a proper ‘head’ like a regular zit does. Some of them can last for weeks, months even - and they really hurt! However, you need to be careful with this type of acne. Shine a strong light on the lesion. If it seems to be coming to a point somewhere, like maybe it’s trying to form a head, then make the hole at that point, but GENTLY. If it doesn’t work the first time, it’s not ready and needs to be left alone. You can maybe try again a day or two later. Really big and deep cysts that don’t even try to form a head, shouldn’t be pierced at all and should be treated by a doctor, probably with antibiotics.

The strange looking things on the left are for extracting closed comodogenes; or 'blackheads'. You’re supposed to put the hole over the blackhead (suitably prepared for extraction by steaming or a long hot shower) and press, so that the round part pushes out the blackhead. Many people swear by this, however my blackheads tend to be deep and hard to remove, so I have had little success with these tools - since pressing hard enough to extract the blackhead would result in the metal part literally cutting into my skin. On the right of the picture is a loop shaped tool intended for whiteheads. You use it for removing the, uh, contents of the zit once you’ve pierced it (nice). It works quite well, however I honestly found it more effective to use my fingers and a tissue. If you have very long nails, though, it’s very hard to do this, which is where this tool would be extra handy! 

Finally there are these weird looking things here. I have no idea what they're for, so if anyone knows, please feel free to educate me. They look like tools an ancient egyptian might use for scooping out mummies’ brains through their nose :-p

Overall, this has proven a very useful set of tools for me, even though I only really use the sharp tools and occasionally the loop, it’s been worth the money I spent.  Along with the treatment products I’ve been using, it's stopped my cystic acne in its’ tracks. I used to get the really big, deep cysts, but timely use of this kit has allowed me to get rid of those while they’re still small. It’s also let me get rid of any zits as and when they’ve appeared; I could have done this without any tools but it’s quicker and easier this way and seems to take less time to heal afterwards.



Please note although I am a Biologist, and I do know a thing or two about skin and germs, I am not certified as a dermatologist. This is not official dermatology advice, it’s just what I’ve learned works for me.

TMI Thursday Part 2

So the more observant among you may have noticed that I promised to do a weekly feature on skincare for acne, did one post, and then nothing happened for a whole month. Sorry about that: what happened was, I started off all gung ho, then had a bit of a setback that's taken a month to recover from. That doesn't mean there hasn't been any progress at all; quite the opposite, in fact. It's just been a bit slower and more complicated than I originally planned >.<

Anyway, on to the update.

Remember these?

Here you see Quinoderm cream (blue tube in the front right) and a selection of salicylic acid containing products including a facial scrub, two types of face mask, moisturiser, cleansing liquid and an on-the-spot treatment gel.

Original Plan of Action: 

Morning: Facial scrub, Quinoderm, Moisturiser
Evening: Cleanser, Quinoderm, Moisturiser
On the spot gel: as and when needed
Facial Mask: two or three times a week

I also had this scary looking piece of kit; it's basically a set of tools for extracting blackheads and whiteheads. I intended to use this whenever I got one of those real nasty breakouts; the ones that just have to be dealt with physically.

What Actually Happened:

Week one: I followed the plan above. Then I discovered that when your skin is as sore and irritated as mine was (before shots HERE), using this many products all at once is a Very Bad Idea. After about 5 days of this, I looked like I'd been scrubbing my skin with a mixture of sand and battery acid.  Sooo... I spent the next week leaving my skin alone completely and waiting for it to calm down. 

In week three, I regrouped and came up with a new plan. It seemed like the biggest offenders in irritating my still-healing acne were the facial scrub and the two masks, so I put them aside, along with the on the spot treatment gel. I'll still use them, but not until my skin has had chance to heal up some! 

New plan of action (while skin calms down):

Morning: Cleanser, Moisturiser

Evening: Cleanser, Quinoderm, Moisturiser

As and when needed: use extraction kit.

I've been following this plan for a week and a half now. Even though it hasn't been very long yet, I'm pleased to announce there has been definite progress: update images HERE.

The acne on my jawline is looking a lot better already. It's pretty much just blackheads there now. My forehead, always the worst affected, still looks quite bad, maybe even worse! But it doesn't feel so bad. the type of lesion has definitely changed. I haven't had any of the really big, painful, deep cystic spots I was really prone to before. There's been a couple of smaller cysts, but the Quinoderm seems to be stopping them from getting out of control like they used to, and  I've been able to deal with them with the extraction kit quite easily. Other than that, there's just been a few whiteheads (also easy to deal with). As for the blackheads, well they haven't vanished but I wasn't expecting them to. What HAS happened, though, is they've become slightly more prominent, like they're starting to come to the surface somehow? And they've also become easier to remove. It's like the Quinoderm and Clean and Clear have made them looser and I can see that when I do get back to using a scrub on them, they'll start to come away  :)

All in all, considering the setback I had and the fact it's really only been about a week and a half since I started doing this properly, I'm quite encouraged. Next week, I'll be increasing the Quinoderm to twice a day, which is what the instructions suggest you're supposed to do. I just kept it down to once a day because my skin was so angry with me and Quinoderm is very strong.

I'm going to put up reviews for the products I've been using so far as separate posts - watch this space! 

TMI Thursday : Part 1

This post contains TMI: Too Much Information. (It's also very long; sorry about that).

I'm not kidding; those of you who're only here for the nails, and anyone with a squeamish constitution? Look away now, while you still can... because this is the first in a new series here at Glitter Mountain: TMI Thursday. These are the posts where I'll be documenting my journey towards clear skin. I have adult acne; it's embarrassing, often painful, and usually rather unattractive to look at, but since 50% of women and 25% of men suffer from acne at some point in their adult lives, I'm not alone: that's an awful lot of other people out there who, just like me, have been staring in the mirror and wondering why the heck puberty seems to have come around a second time and what on earth they're supposed to do about it now. When we were teenagers, we could at least rest easy in the knowledge that the chaos on our faces would go away eventually. Not so now, when there's no obvious end in sight; it seems we're stuck with it and that's a very disheartening feeling. It's because of those people that I've decided to do this series; I'll be reviewing the products I use to help me, and documenting my progress with photographs, and hopefully it will be useful to fellow sufferers as well as to me.

There are various types of acne lesion which vary in severity; I'll save the descriptions for another day and for now, just say that my particular selection box of fun includes pretty much all of them at one time or another. There's lots of reasons why someone might get adult acne, and although I've always been a bit prone to this sort of thing, the reason it's got so bad in recent times is because of this:

The contraceptive injection. 

It stops you having babies. It also stops your periods (for most people). And more importantly for me, it stops me from having 14 week mega-periods that leave me crippled with pain, anaemia and exhaustion. It's a sad fact that my hormones are not very well behaved and need to be forcibly controlled by the GP. I've tried a whole ton of other treatments and this is the only thing that works; it's either this or let them microwave the inside of my womb until it stops working completely. I figure a few spots are a fair price to pay in this particular exchange.

Except, well, it's more than a few spots. I'm going to show you a few pictures; they're hidden behind links so that you only have to see them if you really want to. Be gentle with me, I'm really having to be rather brave here... NOBODY sees my skin without at least a layer of concealer, you know?

My forehead.

This is kind of an 'after' shot. I had a whole lot of really bad spots about two weeks earlier than this because when my shot is due to run out, my skin has a party. (Even I'm not brave enough to show you that particular monstrosity). Normally I have the shot two weeks early to try and stop this, but clever me thought perhaps it'd be alright to leave it the full 12 weeks over Xmas. Wrong. Anyway, this shot shows where the spots used to be before a new shot of hormones and something sharp and pointy (more on that later) showed them who's boss. 

My forehead, with make up.

The previous shot doesn't really show the extent of my blackheads, so I took this picture under downwards lighting and with lots of make up to make them more obvious to the camera. As you can see, there's a lot of them. Plus, you know how they always say you can steam these things and then squeeze them out? Doesn't work for me. The GP reckons it's because I have Psoriasis: my skin renews itself 7 times faster than normal and this means it's 7 times as blocked. I suspect even a sandblaster would struggle here.

My jawline (right)

As well as my forehead, I also get acne on my jawline. It's worse on my right hand side for some reason. There's lots of blackheads here too, but my camera was too busy focusing on the zits to see them. Just imagine my forehead, only lower down.

My Jawline (Left)

Not many actual zits here, but plenty of blackheads. Nice.

Okay I'm done with the scary stuff. You can come out from behind the sofa now. Here's something cute to make up for the trauma.

As you can probably guess, I don't much enjoy having this condition. I'm aware that there's a lot of people out there who are WAY worse off than I am, and my sympathies go out to every one of them. You probably won't be that surprised, either, that I've decided to stop just covering things up with make up and hoping they'll go away.

But guess what? There's a whole lot of products out there for skin problems like mine. A lot like anti ageing skincare, it's easy to stand there bedazzled by all the clinical looking packaging and wild claims and not have a clue where to start. Here's what I chose.

I'll be reviewing each of these separately, alongside my weekly progress updates, but for now, meet my twin weapons in this new fight: Benzoyl Peroxide (the blue tube on the bottom right) and Salicylic Acid (everything else). Also meet The Torture Kit From the Dark Ages:

Watch this space for a review of this scary looking piece of kit, too.

Well I think that's probably enough for now; I'll report back in a week's time to let you know how things are going. If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. I'll put up something pretty for my next post, I promise!