ACNE TRIGGER
Acne occurs when the pores of your skin become blocked with oil, dead skin, or bacteria. Each pore of your skin is the opening to a follicle. The follicle is made up of a hair and a sebaceous (oil) gland. The oil gland releases sebum (oil), which travels up the hair, out of the pore, and onto your skin. The sebum keeps your skin lubricated and soft.
One or more problems in this lubrication process can cause acne. Sadly, there is no such thing as a ‘cure’ for acne, but understanding the potential triggers that can both cause and exacerbate blemishes may help you to alleviate symptoms and improve your skin condition. Here are some of the most common ones :
High Glycemic Index Foods
Eating lots of refined carbohydrates and sugars — like white bread, potato chips, cookies — and other highly processed foods with a high glycaemic load set off a chain-reaction that might be responsible for an acne breakout and may increase blood sugar and insulin levels.
This spike in blood sugar levels triggers a cascade of effects that causes the skin to produce more oil and plug the pores, which sets the stage for acne. Anything white or refined is something you should avoid. Try switching from white bread to whole-grain and from white rice to brown.
Bad Product
If you’re frustrated because unlike your friends with perfect complexions you actually do take care of your skin, your acne trigger could be the sneaky ingredients in your products. If you have oily or combination skin and are prone to breakouts, you should be using skin-care products labeled "oil-free," "non-comedogenic," or "water-based,". Just one of these will ensure that the skincare has been specifically formulated not to clog your pores and and make matters worse.
That said, if you’ve tried all the above and your breakouts continue to worsen, make an appointment with your dermatologist to see if you could be allergic to another ingredient in the product.
Stress
If it seems as though you experience more breakouts when you're under a lot of stress, you may be noticing more than a coincidence. Stress doesn't cause acne outright, but research shows that stress triggers hormonal changes that may worsen acne in people already prone to pimples.
Pillowcases
But you can take preventative steps.Wash your face every night. Seems obvious, but this will help to prevent dirt, grime or makeup from getting onto your bedding and launder your pillowcases every two to three days. This ensures you're not lying on a pillowcase with several days' worth of oil soaked into it or pooled on the surface.
Dirty Makeup Brushes
One of the main causes of acne is a combination of excess skin oil, dead skin cells, and bacteria. This is where your makeup brushes come in. According to Huffington Post, only 61 percent of women wash their makeup brushes once a month and 22 percent of women don’t clean them at all.
If you use your brushes too many times between cleanings, and they’ll start re-despositing impurities back onto your skin. These impurities are then left sitting on your skin all day, which can result in clogged pores and breakouts.
The simple solution is to wash your brushes weekly or, at a minimum of once a month and make sure you’re the only one who uses them.
Not Cleansing Properly
It would seem like one of the most simple, straightforward routines in the book. But washing your face takes time and attention — and doing it the right way could make the difference between beaming skin and an acne breakout.
Many believe that you need to only wash your face to remove makeup or when it looks dirty. In actuality, it’s recommended you wash your face twice daily. However, the amount of times you wash your face may be less important than how the job is done.
Removing makeup, dirt, and grime properly will help prepare the skin for your skincare regimen, as well as support the skin in its overnight regeneration and renewal processes.
Sleep In Makeup
If dirt and debris from the day can cause breakouts, imagine what makeup can do. One night of sleeping in your makeup is unlikely to cause long-lasting damage to your skin. However, each night you sleep in your makeup, your pores become more clogged. Eventually, this can result in the formation of a microcomedone, which attracts the acne-causing bacteria to your pores.
To avoid this mishap from occurring, keep a package of makeup remover wipes by your bedside table just in case you can’t make it to the bathroom to rinse with cleanser.
Hormone
Common acne, known medically as Acne Vulgaris, is generally caused by hormonal changes in the body, and its onset usually can be found in teenage years when puberty rears its head. Acne is directly attributed to the rise of androgen hormone levels. The production of these hormones rise when a child begins puberty, and is the reason much acne is prevalent in adolescence. As androgen levels rise, the oil glands sitting directly underneath the skin enlarge and produce increased levels of oil, also known as sebum. When pores are filled with excessive sebum, it can cause surrounding skin cells’ walls to rupture and create a breeding ground of P. acnes bacteria.
As the sebum attempts to push out of the pore, it can attach to this infectious bacteria and dead skin cells, causing a blockage that begins the formation of a pimple. According to Medical News Today, dermatologists purport that almost three quarters of 11 to 30-year-olds will deal with acne at some point, but acne breakouts can continue on into adulthood, and have been observed in patients in their fifties.