Two Often Overlooked Tips for Reducing Breakouts

If you have acne prone skin, then you want to know about every advantage that you could have in the fight to reduce and even get rid of acne breakouts and unwanted blemishes. While there are dozens and dozens of everyday skin care and Inclusive Health™ tips, the acne team at Murad recently came up with two more tips that aren’t covered as frequently.

Wash Your Glasses Frequently (That Means Sunglasses, Too!)
Anything that touches your face can result in causing Acne Mechanica, which is the technical and scientific name for acne caused by things that come in contact with your skin. For example, people who get back acne breakouts frequently can reduce their breakouts by being more careful about the fabrics that they wear or even by being careful about using backpacks. If you wear glasses to improve your vision or sunglasses to reduce glare (and also to protect your eyes and the skin around them from UV damage and future wrinkles) then those glasses are touching your skin constantly. Even more importantly, the center of your glasses is touching your skin right in the middle of the oily and often breakout-prone T-Zone (the area of your face that forms a “T” and is made up of your forehead, nose, upper lip and chin). The more that oil and debris build up on your glasses the more that they are transferred to your skin. That clogs pores and causes blemishes. Make sure to wipe off your glasses or sunglasses regularly to avoid transferring pore-clogging elements directly to your skin.

Read the rest of this entry »

Murad Skin Care Product Spotlight: Exfoliating Acne Treatment Gel

Whether you’re dealing the ongoing hormonal acne or simply occasional but regular breakouts, finding the right acne treatment regimen is critical care for your skin’s health and appearance.. While finding the right acne cleanser and an oil-free moisturizer are an important part of that regimen, your treatment product (part of Murad Step Two: Treat | Repair) is the place where you can make the greatest difference in resolving your acne breakouts and improving overall skin health. In this Murad product spotlight, we’ll introduce you to Murad’s best-selling Exfoliating Acne Treatment Gel along with customer reviews and testimonials. After you’ve learned about this product, we think you’ll agree that using it as part of a complete acne treatment regimen can give you healthy, clear skin that’s Better Every Day™.

About Murad Exfoliating Acne Treatment Gel
As part of Murad’s proven Acne Complex® treatment regimen, Exfoliating Acne Treatment Gel does everything that you need in order to get clear, stay clear.

Penetrates Deeply: Using Murad’s patented Hydrogen Peroxide delivery system, the acne-fighting ingredients are able to penetrate deep within the skin’s surface to clear clogs and fight acne-causing bacteria within pores and hair follicles.

Read the rest of this entry »

What Makes Teen Acne Different?

If you’re a teenager with acne, then you’ve probably read just about every piece of acne treatment advice that there is. But that doesn’t mean that you’ve gotten clear skin. While it’s true that all blemishes form from the same process – pores are clogged creating a build-up of acne-causing bacteria – that doesn’t mean that how pores are clogged or the best way to treat your blemishes is the same at any age. There are a few factors that make teenage acne different from other types of acne. Here are some things to keep in mind about teen acne and how to treat it effectively.

Teen Acne is Almost Always Hormonal Acne
While acne can be caused by skin care products and makeup (Acne Cosmetica) or by materials or hands touching your face (Acne Mechanica), almost all teen acne is Hormonal Acne. As a teenager, your body is going through a natural period of adjustment that usually includes an increase in hormones. In particular, the androgen hormones can often trigger an over-production of skin cells and oil that leads to clogged pores. What does this mean for treating teen acne? It means that, while you still need to follow all of the tips that you’ve heard about not touching your face, washing off your makeup or using oil-free products, in order to clear your acne you’ll really need to deal with the overproduction of skin and oil. In some cases, doctor prescribed medications can help to balance hormone production. In most cases, though, using a topical acne treatment that can exfoliate away the clogging beneath your skin’s surface before blemishes form will give you clearer skin. If you’re expecting to be able to clear your skin up just by drying out excess oil or changing your pillowcases, you won’t be solving the root of the problem.

Read the rest of this entry »

What is Congested Skin and How Do You Treat It?

Do you have skin that’s often dull and just feels heavy? Maybe you never actually break out in acne blemishes, but you have large pores that are frequently clogged or appear as blackheads? If so, what you have is congested skin, a condition in which pores are often clogged and skin looks dull and less lively. If that sounds like your skin type, , don’t get worried! The right skin care regimen can turn your clogged pores, blackheads and dull skin to healthy, radiant skin.

Why does skin get congested?
Every three-to-four weeks (and longer as you age), the skin replenishes itself with new cells. That means that a layer of dead skin cells forms on the top of the skin – or even within hair follicles in the skin. When this happens and the skin cells are mixed with excess oil, they may sink down into larger pores. What’s the end result? Blackheads, dull skin and sometimes even acne blemishes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Three Murad Acne Products That You Need To Know About

For years, customers have shared the proven results of Murad Acne Complex® and the complete range of acne treatment products from Murad. The tried and true cleansers, toners, treatments and moisturizers that Murad customers know and love are an ideal way to get healthy, clear skin.  But the experts at Murad are always developing new products to help ensure that your skin looks and feels Better Every Day™. Over the past year, you may have missed a few of Dr. Murad’s new innovations in skin care and acne treatment. Here are three acne products that can help make your skin great…and, of course, clear.

Murad Clarifying Wipes: Treat Acne Wherever You Go
If you’re a frequent reader of the Murad Skin Deep Blog, then you’ve often heard us say that one of the most common mistakes of acne treatment is to over-wash your face. Every time you wash your face, you strip it of essential oils and moisture that it needs to be healthy. When your face becomes too dry, it simply produces more pore-clogging oil to compensate (not to mention that dry skin cells can clog pores as well). For a more gentle solution that still delivers acne-fighting medication, Murad developed Clarifying Wipes. More importantly, these wipes can be used anywhere, any time. After a workout, while traveling, even while stuck in traffic! Avoid over-washing skin while also reducing breakouts, oil and shine and clogged pores. From the experts of healthy acne treatment, this facial wipe is your on-the-go solution.

Read the rest of this entry »

Four Triggers of Winter Acne

Winter breakouts are no fun, especially since many acne treatment products will actively dry out skin that may already be dry from harsher winter weather. What can you do to reduce and minimize winter breakouts? In addition to using a healthy acne treatment regimen and incorporating Inclusive Health™ practices into your life, understanding the causes of winter acne can help you prevent breakouts before they start. Here are four causes of winter acne that you should be on the lookout for.

Dry Winter Skin Can Increase Breakouts
In many areas of the country, winter means drier air and harsher weather that can lead to dry skin. While it may seem as though drying out pore-clogging oil can reduce your breakouts, dry skin actually brings with it its own breakout risks. Dead and dry skin cells can clog pores just like oil can, and dry, irritated skin is often just as red and rough and unsightly as acne breakouts. Be sure to eat your water daily to keep skin hydrated from the inside and use an oil-free moisturizer to keep skin hydrated topically.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Sauna and Acne Treatment: A Good Thing or a Bad Thing?

A great sauna is, without a doubt, relaxing. But there’s also long been a myth that a sauna is an effective way to add to your acne treatment program. True? False? Like most things in life, the answer is somewhere in the middle. There are ways in which a trip to a sauna can help you to get healthy, clear skin. There are also ways that it may make your acne worse or your skin less healthy overall. And, like most things in life, the results will likely depend on healthy choices that you make. So, is a sauna a good idea for acne-prone skin? Here’s the breakdown on the pros and the cons.

Possible Pro: Open Pores, Sweat and Detoxification
There’s some debate among skin care experts about whether sweating is technically good for your skin or not. On the “sweating is great for your skin” side, the open pores and sweat caused by the heat of the sauna allow the sodium and potassium in your sweat to work as an exfoliating agent. Anything that helps exfoliate away dead skin cells that can clog pores is good for your skin in the long run. However, the problem comes when that same sweat is left on your skin without being washed off for too long. When that happens, the sweat can cause irritations and even aggravate more breakouts. Solution? Enjoy the sauna and the benefits of the sauna, just be sure to use a gentle acne skin cleanser when you leave. Remember, you don’t want to use a powerful cleanser after the sauna. Cleansing your face too many times during the day can result in over-drying, which can cause more clogged pores and blemishes. Stick to something gentle!

Read the rest of this entry »

Hormones and Your Skin: The Not Always Friendly Relationship

For many of use, when we’re a teenager, we hate what our hormones are doing to our skin. Overactive teenage hormones are the main culprit of acne breakouts and excessively oily skin. And, of course, we all hope that as we get older our hormones will regulate. However, hormones play a key role with your skin’s health through most of your life. Depending on your age, gender and genetic makeup, you may or may not have to understand the relationship between hormones and your skin. However, knowing what you can expect your skin to do as a result of your body’s hormones can prepare you to find the perfect skin care regimen.

The Teen Years: Overactive Hormones, Oil and Acne
When we hit puberty, almost without fail our hormones go into overdrive. For many, this doesn’t have an impact on their skin. However, for many people the overactive adrenal gland produces hormones that result in an excess production of oil (causing oily, shiny skin) and an excess production of skin cells (clogging pores and hair follicles and causing acne breakouts). Whether your skin care concern is finding an effective acne treatment or just finding a way to reduce oil and shine, hormones are the cause of skin imperfections for a huge number of people during their teen years. If you’re battling teenage acne and what to start a path to clear skin, a great place to start is the Murad Acne Treatment and Resource Center.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall. Are You Obsessing About Your Skin?

In the movie “Mirror, Mirror,” Julie Roberts plays an evil queen who doesn’t want to give up her youth and beauty (you might recognize it as a modernized version of the Snow White fairy tale). While the movie is a fun way to relax and unwind on a Friday night, there’s a question that we all should ask ourselves. Whether your skin care concern is acne treatment, anti-aging, anti-wrinkle, combination skin, oily skin, dry skin or any mixture of these — are you obsessing over perfect skin to the point that you’re doing more damage than good?

Obsessing Over Acne-Prone Skin: Increasing the Chance of Acne Scars

If your skin type is prone to acne blemishes, then it’s easy to obsess. The more frequently that you breakout, the more often you’ll find yourself in front of the mirror trying to get rid of blemish after blemish. There are two risks here. The first is that it’s likely that your blemishes are more visible to you than they are to anybody else. That doesn’t mean that you don’t want to treat and heal them, but it does mean that the more that you stare at them the more they’ll look large and red to you! The second risk is that, typically, when a person spends hours in the mirror looking at their blemishes, they also pick at those blemishes. When you pick at or pop an acne blemish, you risk getting acne scars or post-acne marks. While a blemish may be unsightly, an acne scar or post-acne mark is just as bad – and harder to treat.

Read the rest of this entry »

Is Toothpaste a Reliable Acne Treatment?

You have a big day tomorrow, and all of a sudden you notice a gigantic blemish on your face. As you search the internet and call all of your friends to determine what the best acne treatment for your sudden pimple is, you encounter tons of advice suggesting that you use toothpaste to treat and heal the blemish. Is toothpaste a reliable and healthy way to get rid of blemishes? Is there a better acne treatment product for blemishes? Not surprisingly, there are reasons why so many people recommend toothpaste for blemish control, but there are an equal number of reasons why you’ll be better off using a true acne product.

What Does Toothpaste Do to Heal Acne?
The first thing to understand is “How does toothpaste heal acne?” The primary ingredient in toothpaste that dries and heals blemishes is mint. Mint in any form, including fresh mint juice, has a drying quality to skin. Once a blemish becomes inflamed acne (visible on the face), the best solution to healing it is typically to dry it out so that it flakes away from the surface. Toothpaste is, unquestionably, effective a drying out blemishes.

Read the rest of this entry »