In my journey to perfectly clear skin, I’ve come to learn the nature of my skin and the various “types” of breakouts that I get depending on the cause. How can that be, you ask? Well, let’s just say I’ve meticulously researched this matter and have noted every time I’ve had a breakout. After a lot of time and close observation, you will start to recognize patterns, as I will explain in the following paragraphs.
1. Hormonal Acne
Photo above taken: May 11, 2017
In this photo, you can see a few pimples – the most prominent being the one on the right side. It is called hormonal or “cystic” acne that forms much deeper beneath the skin and takes a longer time to form than just your average pimple. They’re usually very red, painful, and swollen. If you’re lucky (which I never am), they may go away on their own; they’re healed from inside your body rather than the outside and they never form a [white]head. If they do fully form, they generally always leave behind nasty red marks that take a long time to fade. In some cases, they may even scar.
We know that the photo above portrays hormonal acne as it tends to form on the lower quadrant of the face and, again, is deep beneath the skin. Because of the depth of the infection, I can speculate that this wasn’t due to some product I put on my face, but rather, it is due to an imbalance of hormones within. To top things off, this also formed nearing the end of my monthly cycle, which is precisely when any woman’s hormonal levels would normally fluctuate. So each month, I generally see cystic acne such as this when my period is about to come, which is how I came to the conclusion that they must be due to hormones. However, I’m a lot less likely to have a breakout like this when I’m sleeping enough and not as stressed out during the days leading up to this time of hormonal fluctuation.
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Did You Know: Both a lack of sleep and increased stress levels produce a greater amount of the hormone in your body called “cortisol.” When your body is flooded with cortisol, you may notice more breakouts because cortisol is responsible for lowering levels of estrogen and other hormones predominantly found in females. These hormones are critical for counteracting the predominantly male hormone, testosterone. High levels of testosterone* lead to: increased (dark) facial hair and – you guessed it – acne. This is because testosterone is responsible for your sebum (oil) production, and more oil on your face means more of a chance for your pores to become clogged and become infected. This is when acne occurs, and depending on the conditions, it may form into what we call blackheads, whiteheads, or hormonal/cystic acne.
Blackheads (not pictured in any of my photos) are infections in the pores of your skin that appear black. It’s a common misconception that the black appearance is dirt, but it’s actually a buildup of dead skin cells and sebum that oxidized as they were exposed to the air. So blackheads are open-pored infections. Whiteheads are infections in the pores of your skin that appear to have a white top (as shown in all of my photos). These are closed-pore infections. Hormonal/cystic acne, previously mentioned, are infections that occur deep within the skin which may or may not lead to a large whitehead.
2. Food-Triggered Acne
Photo above taken: April 17, 2017
Not all people who have acne may experience this, but many testimonials suggest that food and acne are, in fact, connected. Acne that is triggered by certain food can occur immediately (within the same day of consumption) or over the course of a few days (although most typically the day after consumption). Some of the most common food triggers include sugary food like chocolate, dairy products like milk, or oily/deep-fried food like french fries. There are also food triggers caused by grains that come from oats or wheat and also by nuts.
The photo above was taken several hours after eating deep-fried chicken. I know this because it happens every single time I eat something that has been deep-fried and oily. I began taking photos and making a mental note of everything that leads to this. For me, personally, food-triggered acne always causes a spree of tiny whiteheads. If I’ve had a lot of the offending food, it may occur all over my face, but if it was minimal, then it’s usually confined to my chin and upper lip. Thankfully, these pimples tend to heal much quicker than my hormonal/cystic acne (unless, of course, I’ve been unkind to my skin by aggressively popping and squeezing pimples… heh). If you ever find yourself in this situation, I highly recommend using AHAs and BHAs – chemical exfoliators. They will unclog your pores and clean out the gunk that has built up. As mentioned in a previous post, always wear sunscreen if you incorporate these actives into your routine!
3. A Little of BOTH: Hormonal & Food-Triggered Acne
Photo above taken: May 5, 2017
This unfortunate photo above shows what a particularly crappy situation you can find yourself in if you eat food that triggers acne and you’re hormonal. However, if you look at my first photo again, which is my most recent one, you’ll see how amazingly my current products have healed and faded this mess! I guess one (and perhaps the only) upside to having crappy skin is that I can buy and try out more products! I’m always on the lookout for better products.
My current skincare routine looks like this:
- Oil Cleanser: TheFaceShop - Deep Firming Cleansing Oil*
- Cleanser: Cosrx - Low pH Good Morning Gel Cleanser
- Astringent Toner: Missha - Time Revolution Clear Toner
- Hydrating Toner: Kikumasamune - High Moist Lotion*
- First Essence: Missha - Geum Sul First Essence Booster
- Serum/Ampoule: Missha - Time Revolution Night Repair Science Activator Borabit Ampoule
- Lotion: TheFaceShop - Chia Seed Moisturizing Cream
Other Products that Help with Acne:
4. Misc. Acne (Not Pictured): Fungal, Irritation, Etc.
Fungal acne usually appears as tiny whiteheads in small clusters – not far in appearance than my acne pictured above – that are actually more yellow in color than white. Our skin composition is composed of fungi (typically yeast) and bacteria (could be good or bad). When we don’t have enough of the good bacteria living on our skin to eat the yeast, then it results in this fungal acne due to an overgrowth in yeast. I personally don’t have any real experience with this type of acne, but I have heard some testimonials in which people developed fungal acne due to products containing fermented ingredients.
Irritation and/or allergic reactions typically cause red bumps on the surface of your skin with no head. They may feel warm to the touch but more often than not, these bumps are itchy. When this happens, you can be assured that you put something on your skin that it didn’t like. This could be because you’re allergic to some ingredient. But this also happens to skin that has been stripped from overdrying products, usually due to alcohol being present in high amounts.
Side Note: There are many more skin conditions, such as rosacea, but the conditions described above are the ones I’m most familiar with!
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