12 Little-Known Ways to Prevent Acne Breakouts

Acne always seems to pop up at the worst possible times: before a first date, a photo ID, or a work video conference where your face is broadcast in HD to 40 cities at once. As a teenager, you could console yourself that it was just hormones and that it would pass soon. However, skin breakouts rarely check your birth date and can appear whether you’re 20, 30, or even 40. The cause is almost always the same: dirt or infection gets into a pore on your face, causing it to become inflamed and swollen. Hence the well-known rule: don’t touch your face with dirty hands. But this is far from the only way that the bacteria causing acne can get on your skin. Most of them can be “neutralized” in advance.

Clean Your Makeup Brushes and Sponges as Often as Possible

Ideally, all brushes and sponges that come into contact with your facial skin should be washed twice a week. If they are used with powder products, once a week is sufficient. They accumulate a huge number of bacteria and microscopic infection sites that mix with your cosmetics and get on your skin. To clean them properly, soak the brushes in warm water for 5 minutes, then squeeze them out with a soft sponge, apply hair conditioner, gently rub, and rinse with warm water. Then dry the brushes by laying them out on a clean towel.

Store All Facial Cosmetics in Airtight Containers

Factory packaging for cosmetics is good, but not always enough to prevent micro-particles of dirt from getting inside. So store all your facial products in a tightly closed cosmetic bag, or better yet, in separate containers each. This is especially important if they are organic and spoil easily.

Use Headphones If You Love Talking on the Phone

With the advent of smartphones with large screens, facial skin has had a hard time. Touchscreens easily collect dirt and then stick to your cheek, generously sharing it with your skin. If you answer calls for a minute or two and then hang up, it won’t have time to harm you. However, if conversations last 5 minutes or longer, the skin touching the smartphone is likely to get irritated. A headset or headphones will save your facial skin in this situation.

Don’t Let Friends Use Your Cosmetics

There may be an emergency when your best friend urgently needs to use your cosmetics, and she doesn’t have her own at hand. Only in this case can you take the risk and help a friend. In all other cases, feel free to refuse. Even if the friend is the best. Even if she has her own brush. Even if she takes just a tiny bit from the very edge, after sterilizing her hands with bleach. Other people carry a huge number of bacteria that are “foreign” to your skin. They are just waiting to damage your clean and smooth facial skin.

Style Your Hair First, Then Apply Makeup

Hair products, especially if you style them with a hairdryer, can easily get on your facial skin and cause irritation, especially if there is already applied cosmetics. It’s hard to predict the chemical reaction in this case, but you’re unlikely to like the result in any case. Ideally, you should first style your hair, then cleanse your facial skin before applying makeup. Even if something extra manages to get on your face, you can quickly get rid of it.

Avoid Using Body Cosmetics on Facial Skin

Not all things are interchangeable. You can easily take a face cream and moisturize almost any part of your body from heels to fingertips. There will be no harm from this, only benefit from a cosmetic point of view, unless you spend expensive cream on some despised knees. However, body products should not be applied to the more delicate skin of the face. Creams, lotions, and other substances intended for large areas of skin have a coarser structure. They can cause irritation, especially if the facial skin is combination, complex, or sensitive. Of course, not everyone will have such a reaction, but why take extra risks?

Maximize Avoiding Applying Cosmetics with Fingers

No matter how thoroughly we wash our hands, there can still be something on them that will happily crawl out from under the nails or fingertips onto our favorite cream. Therefore, all products that can be applied with a cotton pad or stick should be used in this way. No extra infection sites will appear in the cream, and it will last a little longer.

Use Silk Pillowcases

Silk pillowcases are not a luxury, but a wise investment in clean facial skin. Cotton rubs against the skin during sleep, and any friction can cause unnecessary irritation. Silk, on the other hand, glides. So if you’re not a fan of sleeping in the “steady tin soldier” position strictly on your back, pay attention to attractive and pleasantly cool silk bedding.

Find Quality Toothpaste

The composition of most toothpastes includes fluorides, which, at best, are needed by only one person out of a hundred thousand. A dentist will surely tell you about their necessity for dental health during a regular check-up. If he doesn’t say anything like that, then feel free to discard all toothpastes with increased fluoride content (usually the most economical options) and look for something else. Fluoride compounds often cause small rashes around the mouth, on the lips, and chin.

Change Cosmetic Products Depending on the Season

Our face needs different levels of protection in summer and winter. If you always use the same thing, not protecting your skin from ultraviolet rays in summer and cold in winter, it will result in an allergic reaction and the appearance of acne. So, with each change of season, change not only your going-out clothes but also your set of skin care products.

Don’t Combine Showering and Facial Care

When we take a shower, we greatly undermine the pH balance on the face. After that, the skin becomes somewhat “not itself” and can strangely react to familiar cosmetic products. For example, by the appearance of acne and rashes. It is best if, after a shower and cleansing your face, you wipe it with a toning tonic and only then, without fear of contact with a stream of warm water, carry out all the necessary cosmetic procedures.

Check Yourself for Food “Mini-Allergies”

In addition to real food allergies, which need to be addressed by a real allergist, there are also “mini-allergies” that don’t make you feel bad, but acne won’t keep you waiting. You can diagnose the presence of such a “mini-disease” yourself if you carefully monitor the consumption of products from the “risk group” and check if extra rashes appear on the skin within 12 hours after their consumption. Insidious products include caffeine, alcohol, large doses of sugar, and dairy products. There is a chance that giving up a cup of invigorating coffee in the morning will save you a lot of money that you would have to spend on facial cleansing.

For more information on skin health, you can visit American Academy of Dermatology.