How’s your skin doing?
If winter has gotten the best of it and you’re not sure how to restore moisture without triggering an acne breakout, this post is for you!
Avoiding breakouts while also…
- tackling sticky cells
- fortifying our skin’s lipid barrier
- and getting rid of a buildup of dead skin cells
… is a common stumbling block for acne-prone skin types like desert marigolds, daylilies, but also congestion-prone types like sunflowers.
The trick is to avoid any actions that unintentionally make congestion worse.
For example, often, when folks are faced with a rough buildup of skin cells, they take actions to remove those cells (makes sense!); however, what usually happens is the action they take damages their lipid barrier further. This causes hydration (water) to seep out of the skin more rapidly, which causes more congestion and dehydrated skin – something that can happen year-round but is so common in the winter.
(psst.. if you skipped over the paragraph above, it’s important!)
So what’s a radiant rebel to do?
Instead of getting caught in a scrubbing spiral, take these steps instead:
3 Steps for Restoring Moisture
1. Gently Tackle Buildup
Yup, we’re still going to remove that rough buildup of dead skin cells, but we’re going to do it gently with a product that infuses hydration into your skin at the same time (remember, water loss is a major factor in congested skin that leads to breakouts – so we’ll be restoring the water that’s been lost).
- Here’s how: Use PHA Pore Purifying Facial Scrub to gently buff off rough skin. The PHAs in this formula acts as a hydrator by attracting water to the skin.
2. Stop Acne At The Start
Acne can’t happen without inflammation. While we often think of inflammation as an obvious reaction that can’t be missed, that’s rarely the case with acne. Inflammation that happens below the skin surface, in our pores, as well as on the surface of our skin often isn’t felt or seen until the result of the initial reaction comes to a head – literally, in the form of a blemish. Step two is all about squashing inflammation while stimulating our immune defences to fight off any problematic bacteria.
- Here’s how: Use Comfrey & Willow Bark Hydrating Toner after using the PHA scrub.
- The willow bark in this toner continues to purge pores of buildup while the aloe, cinnamon bark, and sarcosine (an amino acid) stop inflammation in its tracks (therefore blocking acne from cascading into a full-blown breakout).
- The aloe also combines with glycerin, capryloyl glycine (another amino acid), and hyaluronic acid to pump up the hydration levels in the skin, which reduces inflammation over time and makes it easier for our skin to purge debris from our pores.
3. Seal in Hydration + Replenish Lipid Barrier
Finally, we want to seal all that hydration in to create an environment that makes it harder for acne to thrive. This can be done a number of ways, but since we want long-term solutions, we’ll be sealing in that hydration with ingredients that won’t clog the pores we just deep cleaned. We will also provide our skin with the building blocks it needs to fortify its lipid barrier (the barrier that prevents water loss in the first place) and infuse the skin with a potent dose of antioxidants that buffer our sebum (our skin’s oil) against damage. Damaged sebum becomes sticky and pore-clogging, so this is not a step to miss!
- Here’s how: Use Mango & Pineapple Facial Moisturizer overtop of the Comfrey & Willow Bark Toner to seal in hydration, fill the gaps in your lipid barrier, and infuse the skin with acne-fighting antioxidants.
To keep your skin comfortable, repeat steps 2 & 3 daily and swing back around to step 1 as needed.
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