All about blemishes
❓ S kin blemishes come in many forms. Most often, you'll find them in the form of a blemish, mark or discoloration left on the skin. Whether they are tiny or large, skin imperfections can be embarrassing, unsightly and emotionally upsetting. What can cause them? How can blemishes be treated?
What is imperfection skin?
👩🦰 An imperfection can be thought of as a flaw that alters the appearance of something. When we talk about skin blemishes, many people first think of acne pimples.
🔎 S ure, acne is the most common form of blemish, but skin imperfections aren't always characterized by pimples. Although they can be found in the form of blackheads, comedones or microcysts, pigmented spots, scars, shiny skin and pimples are also part of them.
👱♀️ It is important to remember that blemished skin is skin that has uneven areas or has a different color tone, dry patches or oily areas.
From the above, you should understand that there are several types of skin imperfections.
👉 Do you have blemished skin? Read this to learn how to treat your blemishes.
What are the different types of imperfections?
As we mentioned in the previous section, acne is not the only imperfection found on the skin.
🔎 So me imperfections are said to be congenital that are found a lot of the clear, pigmented, depigmented or red forms. Other skin imperfections appear as they develop.
👩 So there are many different types of blemishes that can affect our skin. Some are due to genetics, while others are caused by environmental factors or poor lifestyle choices. But no matter the cause, blemishes can make us feel self-conscious and can be difficult to hide.
Among the acquired imperfections, the most known that you will see are:
- Vitiligo spots are localized depigmentation with well-defined contours.
- Brown spots, which are the result of too much sun exposure.
- Visible pores, these micro depressions on the surface of the skin that appear more on the face. They are generally noticed by their "tangerine skin" appearance.
- Whiteheads or closed comedones are small bumps that appear on the skin. They are round in shape and usually have a diameter of less than 3 mm.
- Blackheads are recognized as one of the common forms of mild, non-inflammatory acne. They are formed as a result of sebum clogging the pores and turn black. They are known to be stubborn and difficult to remove and are most visible on the forehead and nose.
- White pimples are small bumps containing pus. Their diameter can vary between 5 mm and 10 mm. They frequently form as a result of a bacterial, viral or fungal infection.
- Red pimples or papules are inflammatory acne lesions that have developed into a red growth. Red pimples do not contain pus and form as a result of sebum accumulation in the hair follicles.
- Scars, although it may seem strange to you, scars left on the skin by wounds or acne pimples can also be considered as the imperfections of the skin.
What are the imperfections due to?
❓ All the imperfections we just counted in the previous section can be of various origins. We must not forget that genetics play a role in determining the type of skin or the amount of collagen produced, for example, which can make some people more sensitive to facial skin imperfections.
👉 Blemishes can be caused by many factors: hormonal fluctuations, poor diet or lifestyle, too much sun exposure or unsuitable products. These factors promote excess sebum and therefore imperfections such as pimples.
Before knowing how to prevent and treat blemishes, you need to know your skin type and determine their cause. Among the most well-known causes of skin blemishes, we have:
Excess sebum
📌Noneed to teach you anymorethat excess sebum is the main cause of skin blemishes.
Sebum is not originally intended to cause damage to the skin. In fact, it is a substance secreted by the skin's sebaceous glands to moisturize and protect the skin from external aggressions.
🔎 Now it turns out that for many reasons, these sebaceous glands go haywire and produce excess sebum. Excessive sebum production is one of the main causes of blemishes on the skin, such as blackheads, whiteheads and pimples. When oil builds up on the skin, it can mix with dead skin cells and clog pores. This creates the perfect environment for bacteria to thrive, leading to inflammation and blemishes.
In addition,excess oil can make the skin look oily and contribute to a dull complexion. While excess oil is most often seen in people with oily skin, it can also be a problem for people with dry or sensitive skin.
Have you noticed excess oil on your face? Purify your skin with these simple tips.
The hormones
How can we understand the fact that hormones can be the cause of certain skin imperfections?
😊 Your hormones fluctuate during different times in your life. This can cause excess sebum at certain times, especially depending on your menstrual cycle or puberty. This excess sebum produced is the cause of your clogged pores and acne pimples.
🙋 Hormones are also responsible for some depigmentation caused on the skin. In fact, female hormones have the effect of stimulating the production of melanin and allowing brown spots to appear. Pregnancy, taking hormonal contraception or other hormonal treatments can promote the appearance of these brown spots.
The food
🍎 An unbalanced diet can also favor the formation of imperfections. In fact, astudy conducted to show the impact of the glycemic index of various foods on the skin confirmed that people on a high glycemic load diet had more acne on their skin.
🥛 In addition, dairy products can also be the cause of acne formation and other forms of skin blemishes. This is because dairy products are made up of two proteins that can contribute to the development of acne. These are casein and whey. These proteins have the ability to trigger a high production of sebum, which is often the cause of blemishes.
Finally, a diet that is too high in fat, sugar or salt can have a role in the appearance of acne pimples.
The sun
☀️ S unbathing in the summer makes you feel good and helps with vitamin D synthesis.
🕶️ Nonetheless, it should be noted that, as with all good things, too much harms. Instead of being beneficial, prolonged exposure to the sun can conversely have unexpected effects.
🙋 Indeed, overexposure to the sun can lead to dehydration and dryness of the skin. Generally, to compensate for this dryness, there is an overproduction of sebum by the sebaceous glands. This, as we have seen, is responsible for the formation of blackheads and other unsightly spots.
☀️ On the other hand, it should also be noted that long exposure to the sun can also contribute to the weakening of the dermis structure and a dilation of the skin pores.
🔎 UV rays are also the exogenous factors responsible for the change in skin pigmentation. Thus, long term exposure to the sun is similarly responsible for the appearance of brown spots, known as sun spots.
Stress and lack of sleep
😊 S tress can take a serious toll on the skin, causing everything from dryness and breakouts to wrinkles and premature aging. In fact, studies have shown that chronic stress can actually change the structure of the skin, making it thinner and more susceptible to damage. Defenseless skin is a gateway for outside aggressors to enter and cause skin problems.
When you're stressed or not getting enough sleep, your body produces cortisol, which increases oil production and can lead to inflammation, clogged pores and rashes. Studies have also shown that stress can aggravate skin conditions like psoriasis and eczema. In addition, lack of sleep can make your skin look dull and lackluster.
Unsuitable products
The use of unsuitable products can lead to theappearance of imperfections. In fact, some makeup or skincare products can be comedogenic and clog your pores. For example, some foundations can actually clog pores and worsen skin problems.
🧪 In addition, harsh chemicals and abrasive ingredients can strip the skin of its natural oils, causing further irritation and dryness. Similarly, harsh scrubs and exfoliants can damage the skin, making it more susceptible to breakouts.
Finally, some products may be effective for some skin types, but not for others. Each skin type has specific needs and a product that is not adapted will make your imperfections worse.
👉 Also avoid touching your face so you don't deposit impurities or bacteria that would cause blemishes. Plus, you'd risk leaving scars.
How to prevent the arrival of imperfections?
It is often easier to prevent the arrival of imperfections than to try to treat them. Thus, a healthy lifestyle allows you to anticipate the appearance of imperfections.
Adopt a balanced diet and regular hydration
🍎 Adopting a balanced diet helps you keep your skin healthy. The secret? Decrease the amount of high glycemic index foods, especially if you have acne-prone skin. In fact, this has a direct impact on the appearance of blemishes since a diet rich in carbohydrate-containing foods stimulates the production of insulin, which, in turn, promotes the excessive production of sebum.
Similarly, a diet low in saturated fat and salt and high in fiber will benefit your health and the skin on your face.
✔️ Ingredients to add to your shopping list to prevent and treat blemishes:
- Fruits and vegetables
- Legumes: beans, peas or lentils
- Oilseeds: walnuts, pine nuts or sunflower seeds
- Lean meats
- The eggs
- Fatty fish: salmon, tuna, sardines, mackerel.
💧 Remember to drink water regularly throughout your day as hydration allows for cell renewal and gets rid of toxins in your body.
🏃♀️ Similarly, practicing regular physical activity allows you to eliminate those toxins, oxygenate your skin and reduce your stress level. This allows you to have a beautiful skin and prevent the arrival of imperfections.
Adopt gentle gestures
😊 Using gentle strokes when you cleanse your face or treat your blemishes has two benefits.
First of all, it helps you to avoid spreading the infections present on other places of the body, they will also help you to avoid stimulating the production of sebum.
✔️ Then, adopting gentle gestures allows you not to aggress your face. This way, you don't risk leaving scars or activating the overproduction of sebum.
Avoiding tobacco
❌ Why avoid tobacco when it comes to skin problems? The harms of smoking are not limited only to the infection of internal organs. In fact, smoking also has consequences on the skin.
Thus, this action leads to an alteration of the collagen and elastin which are responsible for the skin's resistance. In addition to this, tobacco is responsible for the alteration and narrowing of blood vessels, which makes it more difficult for the skin to be oxygenated.
All these phenomena are generally responsible for the acceleration of skin aging. We notice that the skin of smokers is more wrinkled and dull.
In addition, under the effect of tobacco, the skin tends to be more oily since nicotine irritates the sebaceous glands which, in response, produce excess sebum. This leads to an increase in the number of imperfections such as acne pimples.
👉 Reducing your consumption of tobacco, but also of alcohol, allows you to prevent the arrival of imperfections such as the marks of skin aging or unsightly pimples.
Protect your skin from the sun and avoid long-term exposure
☀️ Do you know that UV rays can cause irreversible damage to the skin? Notably, prolonged exposure to the sun can cause sun spots and age spots to appear.
❌ Also, while you may feel like your skin looks better in the summer, it will only be worse this winter when you have to deal with the after sun period. The sun dries out your skin and thickens the epidermis, which prevents sebum from draining properly. When the sun is less intense, the skin becomes thinner and acne pimples reappear in large numbers.
How to get rid of imperfections?
Faced with the imperfections that have appeared on your skin, you wonder what to do to get rid of them?
A skin care routine adapted to your skin type
✔️ Taking care of your skin requires using products that are appropriate for your skin type. Among the skin types, there are dry, normal, combination or oily skin. It is therefore necessary to know your skin type in order to use the right products. On the contrary, if you use products that are not adapted to your skin type, you risk unbalancing your skin and causing imperfections: red patches, pimples or wrinkles for example.
👉 You can decide to incorporate natural face care into your beauty routine to treat blemishes. Choose skincare with antiseptic or healing properties, treatment skincare or anti-aging serums. It is necessary that these products are adapted to your skin type so as not to aggress the latter at the risk of stimulating the production of sebum and promoting imperfections.
Scrubs without overdoing it
😊 S crubbing or exfoliation gets rid of dead skin cells, residue and treats blemishes that can clog pores and are responsible for the appearance of imperfections.
✔️ Getting rid of this debris will open up the pores so that they can better absorb the skin care products that are applied to the skin. This is how the skin will become softer and brighter.
However, scrubbing regularly or in a crude way could have a negative impact on your skin.
Do not pierce your buttons
❌ Pimples that appear on the face or other parts of the skin carry the germs responsible for their own formation. When you pierce them, it's easy to carry the germ from one area of the skin to another and thus, bring more and more blemishes. In addition, popping your pimples can lead to unsightly scars.
👉 While it's very tempting to pop your pimples, it's best to leave it alone and let it disappear on its own or with skincare formulated specifically to treat blemishes.
Moisturize your skin regularly
💧 Moisturizing your skin regularly is one of the best ways to protect it and prevent blemishes. In addition to keeping your skin hydrated, moisturizers can also promote cell turnover and prevent the formation of fine lines and wrinkles. Therefore, regular moisturizing can lead to a more even skin tone and fewer skin imperfections.
A daily routine of moisturizing care will allow your skin to protect itself from pollution and external aggressors that are often the cause of imperfections and premature aging.
Cleanse and remove makeup from the skin
🛀 To prevent and treat blemishes, it's essential to properly remove makeup and cleanse your skin. This helps unclog pores and remove impurities and residues of makeup, dirt or pollution that can clog your skin and lead to blemishes.
🧼 Wash your face once or twice a day with a gentle face wash to remove impurities and treat blemishes.
👉 Do you have sensitive skin? Find out how to clean your facial skin without causing irritating reactions.
The Clean that face product to clean your skin
🧼C leansing your skin is therefore essential to unclog your pores, eliminate dead cells and prevent the arrival of the next imperfections. The cleansing cream Clean That Face Cleansing Cream allows you to gently, but always deeply, cleanse the skin of your face! This cleanser is an ideal ally to treat skin imperfections.
🍃 Its 99% naturally derived formula is enriched with sugar foam and kaolin to purify and regulate your skin. The Aloe vera in the cleansing cream soothes and repairs irritated skin while the lavender extract cleanses your skin.
🚿 Clean That Face is specially formulated to cleanse your face without stripping it of its natural oils, leaving your skin soft and smooth. Plus, this unique cleanser leaves your skin refreshed and glowing.
🧼 This gentle cleanser does not irritate the skin, even the most sensitive skin. It does not irritate the skin and does not cause redness to appear while thoroughly cleansing the skin.