The Skin Nerd: Why do some adults still get skin breakouts?
Your blemishes actually all have the same origin story.
MANY adults suffer from chronic adult acne, which can be painful and can affect confidence, and frequently it can be impacted by multiple factors — including hormones, dietary intolerances and stress. But many adults who suffer from milder acne, such as an occasional breakout or the odd spot, wouldn’t consider themselves to have acne at all.
I am quite pro looking for the cause of a skin concern, rather than treating it without understanding it. If you are one of these humans who is afflicted by a once or twice monthly terrible singular spot, it can be near impossible to figure out what is causing it.
So, what is a spot, a breakout or acne? No matter what you define your blemishes as they actually all have the same origin story.
When our sebaceous glands, the oil factories in our mid-dermis (the living layer of the skin), create too much oil, the oil can mix with dead skin cells to create plugs in our pores. If infection is introduced to these plugs, even from our own bacteria — particularly cutibacterium acnes, this is where we will see pus, swelling and redness. So, the classic spot.
Now, an overproduction of oil stems from an imbalance of hormones. If we make too many androgens, a sex hormone, this usually spells oiliness.
So, technically, all breakouts are caused by hormones at some point in the process, but I suppose what’s important to consider what may influence our hormones. If you experience higher levels of stress twice monthly, for example, this could be what is influencing the spots that form, as your cortisol levels influence other hormone levels. If every last Friday of the month, you eat two tubs of sugary ice-cream, this influx of insulin may mean that your androgen levels spike too.
In general, if someone only gets the odd spot, they may not see it as a skin concern at all — and that’s absolutely grand if we’re being honest. Spots aren’t the end of the world. However, sometimes these occasional spots are bothering the haver but their skincare routine isn’t geared towards tackling spots at all!
So, the first thing to introduce to tackle these breakouts is a double-cleanse. Ensuring you pre-cleanse with something like the Cleanse Off Mitt (€6.50, skingredients.com) and then follow up with a cleanser that will effectively remove the residue and help to rebalance the skin is essential, as it means the skin is clean (and yet, not stripped of oils entirely, as they are important for our skin too).
A mild, nourishing cleanser is perfect for the majority of the time but you may need something to oust spots when they show up occasionally. You want salicylic acid to help dissolve debris in the pore, so something like Skingredients Sally Cleanse (€25, skingredients.com) or The Ordinary Salicylic Acid 2% Masque (€11.99, inishpharmacy.com). I chose these two specifically as they’re both wash-off products, which I think is important with high levels of salicylic acid, especially if you’re not actually excessively oily — using a leave-on, potent salicylic acid product may dehydrate your skin.
The other ingredient that I would very much get behind when it comes to even the very odd spot would be vitamin A, especially in the form of retinyl palmitate, which can be found in the Environ range and the Skingredients range.
Together, these will help to keep any breakouts as infrequent as possible!
The American Academy of Dermatology said in 2014 that they believed that probiotics may be an effective combination therapy for inflammatory skin conditions such as acne. Advanced Nutrition Programme Skin Clear Biome (€68.00, 60 capsules, theskinnerd.com) uses four specific probiotic strains that are recognised for their skin benefits, with research towards their ability to support gut health, immunity, reduce inflammation and decrease excess sebum.
In this supplement, the active cultures are paired with zinc, and studies on zinc have shown that those deficient in zinc can see improvement in their acne when they supplement zinc.
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