The Truth About Picking and Popping

If you have acne-prone skin, then you have certainly been told many times not to pick or pop your inflamed acne blemishes. Of course, that’s easier said than done. It’s not uncommon for people with frequent acne breakouts to repeatedly check their skin in a magnifying mirror or scan their face by touching it for irregularities and then squeeze those pimples. Unfortunately, when you do, you may make your skin and your acne worse. There’s really no place in any acne treatment regimen for popping or picking at pimple. What are the facts behind popping and picking at blemishes? Read on.

What are you trying to accomplish when you pick at a pimple?
Acne is caused by a pore being clogged by dead skin, oil or dirt and debris. When you pick at or squeeze at a pimple, what you’re ultimately trying to do is to remove the clogging within the pore so that the infection around it can heal. While that sounds like a logical way to get rid of acne blemishes, as you’re about to see, picking and popping does more harm than good.

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 »

Three Antioxidant Skin Care Lines from Murad

We all know that antioxidants are essential to an effective skin care regimen. This is true whether your skin care concern is anti-aging skin care, acne treatment (particularly for combination skin) or simply having healthy, glowing skin. Every day, your skin and your body are exposed to UV radiation, toxins and pollutants that create free radicals in your system. Those free radicals are oxygen molecules that are missing an electron. The damaged oxygen molecules then attack other molecules in your system trying to “steal” and replace their missing electron. Most often, the molecules that are attacked are skin cells. The result of this is an accelerated breakdown of skin-firming collagen, damage to skin-smoothing elastin, damage to the pigment melanin (leading to sun and age spots) and an overall lack of dullness in your complexion.

Murad has developed three skin care product lines that all utilize the power of topical antioxidants to improve skin’s health and complexion. Of course, eating a healthy diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables and getting your antioxidants internally is also important to optimal skin healthy. Supplementing your antioxidant diet with these refreshing skin care products can lead to healthy, beautiful skin on the outside and inside.

Read the rest of this entry »

Acne Treatment Advice for Teenage Girls

While acne affects both genders and all age ranges, finding the right acne treatment products can present some slightly different challenges for teenage girls. As a teenage girl, not only do you need to combat acne, but you also need to consider how you plan to keep your skin healthy and glowing for years to come. Here are five tips from the acne experts at Murad for selecting the right acne treatment for teenage girls.

An Acne Treatment Is More Than a Pretty Package
We know it’s tempting to buy the acne product with the most compelling packaging. Bright colors, beautiful pictures and pretty labels are appealing to the eye. But when it comes to skin care, it’s what’s inside the packing that counts. Really do your homework to figure out which acne products will be best for your skin. Take some time to learn how ingredients like Salicylic Acid, Retinol and Licorice Root Extract can help clear up acne. Then choose your acne products based on what’s inside the packaging.

A Lifetime of Beautiful Skin Starts Now: Select an Acne Treatment for Healthy Skin
While your acne breakouts may be your biggest skin care concern now, it’s important to remember that your skin will last you for an entire lifetime. Damaging your skin now by using harsh acne treatments that over-dry your skin can have a long-term impact. Look for products that will not only treat your acne, but also make your skin healthier in the long run.

Read the rest of this entry »

Back to School Acne Treatment Tips: Blemish Free Education

While this may not be what students want to hear, the summer is winding down and it’s about to be back-to-school time. That means an increase in stress; a new (and much more structured) schedule; and changes to diet, sleep patterns and, of course, your acne treatment routine. During the leisurely days of summer, having clear skin may come as naturally as sleeping until noon. However, once the school year hits, you need to be a good student not only in the classroom but also when it comes to your skin care regimen. Here are four tips to help you keep your skin acne-free all year long.

Sleeping In Doesn’t Lead to Clear Skin: If you’d rather sleep in than jump right out of bed and run off to class, you’re not alone. However, when you oversleep, you tend to rush through your morning routine—including your acne treatment routine. To have clear skin, you need to stick to your regimen. Taking the time to properly cleanse, treat and moisturize your skin with an acne treatment regimen will help keep breakouts in check. Waking up late can also lead to stress, another common cause of acne, which brings us to our next tip.

Manage Stress Levels for Clear Skin: The school year is much more stressful than the summer. Grades, classes, social commitments and pressures, extracurricular activities, expectations from parents and teachers—all of these things can increase stress. And stress not only contributes to acne breakouts, it also impacts your overall health. Strive for success, but take time to sit back, collect yourself and find ways to reduce stress in your life.

Read the rest of this entry »

Treatment for Acne for Active Teenagers

If there’s one thing that anybody who’s met today’s teenagers knows, it’s that the average teenager is incredibly active. The stereotype of today’s teens may be that they play too many video games and sit around too much, but all of the teenagers we know are involved in tons of school activities and have to balance a social life and studying on top of those. Finding an acne treatment that works with a busy teenager’s schedule can be a challenge. What are the best acne products to meet the specific challenges of active teenagers? Here’s some advice from the acne experts at Murad.

Challenge: You Need to Reapply Your Makeup Several Times a Day
If you play a sport, participate in dance activities or even just have to take gym class during the day, you may have to reapply your makeup, quickly, several times a day. To help prevent skin aggravation that can come from stripping your makeup off frequently and washing and possibly irritating your face frequently, find an ultra gentle cleanser for removing the makeup (before you sweat in gym class). The gentler, the better!

Challenge: You Have to Go Long Periods of Time Without Washing Your Face
You may have the other challenge, which is that your day is so busy that you have to go long periods of time without washing your face while dirt and oil build up. Make sure that you’re using a lightweight, oil-free makeup. We’d also suggest using some chemical-free blotting papers to remove excess oil during the day. Remember though, realistically you should only wash your face twice a day anyway, so your long schedule shouldn’t negatively impact your acne treatment plan!

Read the rest of this entry »

Acne Scar Treatment Advice for Prom and Graduation

It’s about that time of year again! In just a handful of weeks, high school seniors (and some lucky underclassmen) across the nation will get to participate in two of the most loved rites of American high school careers – prom and graduation. However, we all know that many teenagers struggle with acne and finding the right acne treatment during their high school years. As a result, many teenagers will have some remnant acne scars that they’d love to remove prior to the photo-centric prom and graduation events. But what’s the best acne scar treatment to use in time for spring’s big flings?

To get rid of acne scars, you have a number of options. Obviously, intensive dermatological solutions such as laser treatment are one option. However, these treatments can be both expensive and even unnecessary. Murad Post Acne Spot Lightening Gel offers an affordable, easy-to-access solution to getting rid of acne scars that can be used at home and which is proven to visibly show results in fading and removing scars that remain after you’ve cleared up your acne breakouts.

Murad Post Acne Spot Lightening Gel uses the strongest skin lightening agent, Hydroquinone, that you can get without a prescription. In addition to lightening existing scars and post-acne spots, the AHAs in Murad Post Acne Spot Lightening Gel promote skin exfoliation and turnover so that your darker, scarred skin falls away while the healthy, lighter skin beneath it works its way quickly to the surface.

Read the rest of this entry »

Teenage Acne Treatment Primer

Being a teenager is hard enough, but when your skin is breaking out and you can’t find the right acne treatment, it’s even harder. Having acne and acne scars on your face can affect your self confidence, your social life and even make you physically uncomfortable. Finding the right acne treatment or acne medication can be a challenge, and it can be frustrating. However, despite what you may think, it is possible to get clear, acne-free skin in your teenage years. Here are some things to look for specifically in a teenage acne treatment.

Think Long Term
We understand that your immediate concern is getting your skin as clear as possible, as fast as possible. However, what you do to your skin today can impact it down the road. Acne treatments that over dry skin or treat acne just by drying it out instead of treating the underlying causes will only mean one thing: that sooner rather than later you’ll be looking for anti-aging skin products! Select an acne treatment that’s gentle on your skin, includes and oil free moisturizer and doesn’t just solve the “symptom” by drying it up but actually solves the problem of acne.

Acne Treatment is More than a Topical Treatment
It’s never to early to start to understand the idea of Inclusive Health care. If all that you do is find a great skin cleanser and spot treatment, you won’t be dealing with your acne from the inside out. Learning to eat your water, a diet high in antioxidants and reduce stress and your exposure to pollution. Acne needs to be treated as much from the inside as it does from the outside. Any teenage acne treatment that works needs to address both issues.

Be Patient.
Finding the right teenage acne treatment may take a few twists and turns. Just because you have acne, it doesn’t mean that the specific type of acne you have, or your skin type, are right for every product to treatment regime. Be prepared for a good treatment to cause you to break out again before you get better because it will be flushing the toxins from your skin.

The most important thing, whether you’re choosing to use Murad’s Acne Complex® or not, is to do your homework. We know that’s not what anybody in their teenage years wants to hear, but a teenage acne treatment is rarely as simple as picking something off of the shelf at the drugstore. However, by looking at your options and then selecting the acne treatment products that are best customized to what you need, you can be well on your way to clear, perfect skin.

Murad has a complete line of acne treatment products, many of which are ideal for the challenges of teenage acne treatment. Click here to learn more about the Murad Acne products.

Perfect Skin for Homecoming

It’s that time of year! Fall is here and homecoming is just around the corner! Want to have perfect skin in time for the much anticipated formal dance? Here are three things you can do now so that you’ll have beautiful skin just as the leaves turn and homecoming rolls around.

Start Treating Your Acne Breakouts
If you start using an acne treatment now, such as Murad Acne Complex, you’ll see clearer skin in time for your homecoming formal. Clear skin isn’t something that you can instantly get, so don’t wait until the last minute.  Exfoliating regularly to clear away dead skin cells, using a skin cleanser that removes bacteria and hydrating your skin regularly are all parts of a process that needs time to develop. We typically say that Murad Acne Complex takes approximately four weeks to see the best results. But many people have seen results in as little as 3 days! Of course, you should also make changes to your diet now as well to begin treating your skin from the inside out with supplements.

Read the rest of this entry »