Sudden breakouts

Sudden breakouts

Renata Trister DO

This is a quick emergency guide for an occasional break out. It may help some of you who suffer from those extremely irritating red spots/welts/cysts/whiteheads/swellings – anything really that comes on in a hurry. If the cause is unrelated to food/changes in diet or routine or you simply don’t know why your skin is reacting…try this anyway.

First things first – food:

• Be honest about any dietary changes you’ve had and make adjustments. For a lot of the people it means the following. Coffee (especially the extravagant kind that involves sugar/cream/syrups), soda and sugar.
• Drink water lots of it.
• Ingest fish oil and salmon. One example diet is the Dr Perricone 3 Day Diet. Dr Perricone really pioneered of the anti-inflammatory diet for skin care. He pioneered it when everyone thought he was crazy and has stuck to his guns to be proven correct. He has several books and the quick 3day diet plan is free on line.
• If you are vegetarian and fish isn’t an option you need flax/Udo’s oil and can snack on seeds and nuts high in omegas. Flax, walnuts and soy are examples.
• No sugar.
• Minimal dairy – and dairy should always be organic.
• Anti-histamine (assuming you have no medical contraindications). Anti-histamines job is to calm the redness and ‘put out the fire’. These can make one drowsy so make sure you follow all instructions. These can help temporarily with very swollen, welts and should only be used on rare occasions.

Routine:
• Evening cleanse is key. Balm/oil cleanse the skin. Make sure you’ve rinsed properly.
• Acid tone. Make sure you go over the spots/cysts really well. If they are bleeding, go over them until the acid quells the bleeding, which it should.
• Apply something topically to the area – various products are available at the drug store. Proactiv solution system is also good to use occasionally. A more natural spot treatment is made by Aesop – It contains vit c, niacinamide and salicylic acid but its in an aloe base so it calms, gets rid of the redness and hydrates – as opposed to harsher products designed to ‘dry-out’ spots. They don’t need drying out, they need nourishment.
• Apply facial oil. One designed for a combination /oily skin is ideal but in all honesty, most oils will do the trick (assuming you personally are not allergic/intolerant to them). Ren omega oil and Lotus oil from Clarins are just 2 examples. Use 3-4 drops into your palm, swipe across the other palm, apply to the areas affected first, then elsewhere. Don’t saturate your skin. Less is more. Layer. Don’t suffocate.
Now you need to monitor the situation. Keep the spot gel to hand, and reapply after you’ve used the oil. Leave it half an hour or so, check your skin, reapply the oil if its absorbed. You can apply 3 times over the space of a couple of hours. Especially if your skin was drinking it. Alternate: Control gel (your spot treatment)/Oil/Control gel/Oil.
Before you go to bed check your skin. Apply a last hit of Control gel, followed by your oil. Moisturize if needed. This routine works best with little or no silicone. Layer upon layer of silicone gives you ‘rolling’ and gets in the way of absorption of the gel/oil.

In the morning:
• Light cleanse
• Acid tone any toner with salicylic or glycolic acid
• Hydrate tone – Pure simple Rosewater is great
• Control gel
• Couple of drops of facial oil
• Moisturizer

You should find the redness has subsided a little and the spots have either come to a head or started to go down.
Keep an eye on your diet, check your skin regularly throughout the day – the Control gel is clear and can be used over makeup etc. if you want to – and repeat the process the next evening until you start to see results.

This may not work for everyone – but it’s worth trying!