Beauty Blvd.: Skin Care Tips Targeting Breakouts

Apr 4, 2011

Skin Care Tips Targeting Breakouts

Everyone wants clear perfect skin, but is there really such a thing as perfect skin? Even when I do everything correctly, I still end up with a blemish here or there but I think I've narrowed down the basics and I have 'perfect' skin for me.

Cleansing Tips

Always wash your face before bed, you never want to go to bed with makeup or the day's dirt and grim on your face. Even if you don't wear makeup you should still wash your face before bed.
I use a Clarisonic to thoroughly cleanse my skin, but as long as you use a vigorous motion and wash for at least 30-45 seconds you should be ok.
Choose the right cleanser for your issues, this is most important. If your skin is oily and you are using a cleanser made for dry skin, that's not going to help you much.

Beat Breakouts

Personally, I always pop! Here's the thing, I usually only get whiteheads. Luckily, I very rarely get a big red cystic pimple (keep in mind those you can't pop). Once the whitehead comes to a head, meaning a little white dot I proceed carefully to popping it. Here is how:

Take a nice hot shower first, the heat and steam helps open your pores.
After my pores are open, I wipe my fingers with an alcohol prep pad and then gently place my index fingers on each side of the whitehead and then pull apart my fingers while keeping semi-firm pressure on the skin. My key is too pull apart my fingers instead of pushing them together. If the white goop doesn't come out I don't push it, because that leads to scarring.

If it pops, I use an alcohol pad right on the popped area to clean it more. If it doesn't I use Proactiv Advanced Blemish Treatment overnight and then by the morning it's usually ready.

Keep Dark Spots at bay! Unfortunately, as a woman of color dark spots are hard to avoid sometimes. Even when you don't pop cystic pimples and follow all the skin care rules you can still end up with a dark spot thanks to a pimple. It really sucks! But there's a few things you can do get rid of them.

One of my favorite skin care treats is a chemical peel. Chemical peels really help the skin turn over faster which helps get rid of dark spots faster. Now there are at home options that work just as well as Dermatologist treatments.
Add a little glycolic acid into your skin care regimen, whether you add a glycolic acid cleanser, serum, or cream in a few months you will see a difference.