Acne 101

A guide to preventing and treating everyone's biggest beauty buzzkill.

We all know that waking up with unruly hair or pesky pimples can ruin your mood faster than you can say "rise and shine." While a cute hat can easily disguise a wild mane, covering up acne is more of a challenge. There isn't a single solution that instantly zaps zits into oblivion, but there are ways to effectively treat blemishes in a timely manner. Here’s how to prevent these uninvited guests from showing up in the first place.

Causes

• Not washing your face enough. We condone occasional all-nighters, but trust us when we say that no matter how late you get home, going to sleep with your makeup on is a major no-no. It pollutes the skin, clogs pore, promotes breakouts, and ruins your "beauty sleep."
• Washing your face too much. Believe it or not, but over-washing your face can actually perpetuate oily skin because your body tries to adapt to the excessive moisture by producing more oil. Avoid this surprising misstep by limiting your facial cleansing to twice daily – once in the morning and once at night.
• Stressing out. Research has proven that heightened stress hormones can throw off your equilibrium, causing weight gain, high blood pressure, and, of course, acne. When you're feeling overwhelmed, exercise or practice deep breathing to calm you down.
• Dehydration. Drinking water helps your body flush itself of toxins and can also prevent acne from flaring up. Bored with H₂0? Alternate with coconut water, which is rich in electrolytes that promote optimum hydration.

Prevention

Make sure your daily skincare routine includes products that are specially formulated to treat your specific skin type. If you're prone to breakouts, nail down an oil-free cleanser-toner-moisturizer trio that can effectively wash away impurities while calming surface inflammation. Pangea Organics' Cleanser, Toner, and Facial Cream for oily to blemish-prone skin does the trick for us.

Treatment

Once a pimple crops up, the first thing you should do is use a spot treatment to calm that sucker down. We like Juice Beauty's spot treatment, Blemish Be Gone for its combo of salicylic acid and Vitamin C, which unclogs pores and heals blemishes without inflaming skin. For a more long-term treatment, opt for something that battles blemishes daily without drying out your skin, like our favorite cure-all serum, SIRCUIT® Cosmeceuticals' Fixzit.

 - By Natalie Alcala