Hormones, acne & non-comedogenic ingredients

Hello on the first day of spring!

I should have picked more cheerful topic but today’s post is about acne again. It will be a slightly different take from my previous acne post. I also have to apologise if some of you think I misuse word ‘acne’ as mine is (or was) very mild so maybe I should say breakouts or blemishes as I know acne can be so much worse than what I have to deal with. However, this post has come about because my blemishes/breakouts have got much much worse recently. I have been off my contraceptive pill for over 3 months and I really really wanted to not go back to it but seeing what my skin is doing – I am not so sure I will be able to stay off it.

Some background information (you can just skip to the next paragraph but it would be useful if you read this): I have suffered from acne (mild to moderate) since I was 14 or 15 but I always kept it at bay with some sort of skincare & having a few spots as a teenager was fine. When I was 19 I went on my first ever contraceptive pill and was also prescribed benzoyl peroxide and Lymecycline because I complained that my breakouts aren’t going away and I was nearly 20 (little did I know that acne can follow you into your adulthood). I stayed on Lymecycline for way longer than I should’ve done and used benzoyl peroxide until last year so for good 5 years ! Once I stopped Lymecycline I realised that actually the pill and benzoyl peroxide are treating my acne not the antibiotics. My acne was almost non-existent for those 4-5 years and I thought I had grown out of it. Then it started returning once I changed my pill (they pre-warn you about this but you always hope for the best), however benzoyl peroxide still kept it at bay. I then ran out of my acne.org benzoyl peroxide 2.5% treatment and wanted to see what happens if I stop using it, I also came off my pill to see the full picture. Contraceptive pill is a great birth control method but I didn’t want to depend on it for the rest of my life. That’s when things slowly but surely went downhill for my skin. 

I have to admit I change my skincare like socks. This is not just beauty blogger thing as I don’t class myself as real beauty blogger and don’t get sent stuff, this is because my skin changes all the time and I think a lot of it is down to hormones, weather and how it reacts to different treatments. In my ‘Living with acne’ post I talked about products I use daily/weekly to keep my acne at bay and they are tried and tested so I would still recommend every one of them. But it also got me thinking – am I putting too much on my skin? I have over 20 different acne products in my ‘collection’. I don’t use them every day and some of them are for my body acne, some are vitamins, some are ‘once a week’ scrubs and peels. Yet is my skin getting stripped off it’s natural oils and nutrients and has too much to handle?

I will say that my skin is pretty bad at the moment and contrarily to my Living with acne post where I talked about more natural methods, if what I am about to try for the next couple of weeks doesn’t work I will probably have to go back on my pill and maybe even get a prescription from my GP. Acne is depressing and if the only way to fight it is medication it will have to be that. I am 26 this year for heaven’s sake! I can’t go to work with a spotty face.

So now onto my test for the next 2 weeks or so. I decided to strip my bathroom cabinets from all my samples, products sent to me in beauty boxes etc and keep selected 4. Same with make up. I want to see if my skin prefers less. The selection I have made had 2 rules:

• It had to include moisturiser and serum because my skin is very dehydrated at the moment
• Ingredients in these products had to be non-comedogenic or mildly comedogenic (grade 1-2)

My selected 4 skincare products are:

1. Dermalogica Clear Start Breakout Clearing Wash – 1 acne causing ingredient Butylene Glycol which is mildly comedogenic (or grade 1, on scale 1-5) so it’s all good. Butylene glycol is a chemical compound —a colorless organic alcohol used in the following ways: as a solvent (helps other products dissolve in water), as a viscosity-decreasing agent (to thin creams and gels so they’re easier to use), and as a conditioning agent.
2. Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief – No acne causing ingredients found. Boom!
3. Caudalie Vinosource S.O.S Thirst Quenching Serum – 1 acne causing ingredient Dimethicone which is mildly comedogenic (or grade 1). Dimetchicone is used variously in the cosmetic and consumer product industry as well,  dimethicone is used widely in skin-moisturizing lotions where it is listed as an active ingredient whose purpose is skin protection.
4. On-the-Spot® Acne Treatment – this is benzoyl peroxide which not only I am trying to stay away from but I also have recently been having reactions to it, however this particular on-the-spot treatment is great as I only use it on the spot and not all over my face. This has no acne causing ingredients (as you’d expect).

5th product in the picture is La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo[+] which I have been using quite a lot but when I checked the ingredients I was shocked (bearing in mind it is acne treatment, they also claim that product is paraben-free and non-comedogenic). The truth is it has 4 acne causing ingredients: Dimethicone which is mildly comedogenic (as above, this is ok); Glyceryl Stearate Se which is highly comedogenic (grade 3) – Glyceryl Stearate acts as a lubricant on the skin’s surface, which gives the skin a soft and smooth appearance. It also slows the loss of water from the skin by forming a barrier on the skin’s surface. Isocetyl Stearate which again is highly comedogenic (GRADE 5!!) – is an oily liquid. Stearate esters act primarily as lubricants on the skin’s surface, which gives the skin a soft and smooth appearance. Isopropyl Stearate dries to form a thin coating on the skin. Isocetyl Stearate can also be used to dissolve other substances, usually liquids; and Myristyl Myristate which is also highly comedogenic (GRADE 5!) – Myristic Acid, also called tetradecanoic acid, occurs naturally in vegetable or animal fats and oils with relatively high levels found in nutmeg, palm oil, coconut oil and butter. Often used as hair conditioning agent and binder. So I won’t be using this again and don’t recommend the brand for lying even if you are not great believer in non-comedogenic ingredients.

4 selected make up items (not including eye make up, lipstics etc of course):

1. Balance Me Balancing Face Moisturiser – this is not make up but I like applying this particulair moisturiser before doing my make up as it gives really matte surface to work on and sometimes I can avoid using primer (I hate primers). It has 2 acne causing ingredients but both mildly comedogenic. Cetearyl Alcohol which is grade 2 – Works as an emulsifier or thickener and carrying agent for other ingredients contained in a cosmetic solution. It keeps the oil and water parts of an emulsion from separating, and gives products good spreadability. Despite the fact that the CIR Expert Panel recognizes this ingredient as non-irritating, many dermatologists recommend that individuals with sensitive/irritated skin avoid it so this one is for yourselves to decide on. Glyceryl Stearate unlike Glyceryl Stearate SE (Self-emulsifying) is only grade 1.
2. Clinique Anti Blemish BB Cream SPF40 – Annoyingly Clinique do not publish their ingredients online! Unbelievable in this day and age if you ask me. Anyway I checked about 50% of them manually and they all come up as grade 0-2 so I will trust that this product is non-comedogenic to mildly comedogenic. I will email Clinique for full list though.
3. Vichy Dermablend Corrective Foundation with SPF35 – I use this as concealer and it has no acne causing ingredients.
4. Make Up Forever HD Powder – 2 acne causing ingredients. Dimethicone is mildly comedogenic, Zinc Stearate is also mildly comedogenic (it is fine, white powder with a slight fatty odor, generally used for their lubricating properties.

I also wanted to add this to my selection and use instead of primer because it smells and feels amazing but I won’t be. Olay Regenerist Luminous Skin Tone Perfecting Day Cream – 3 acne causing ingredients, 2 of them we are familiar with (Butylene Glycol and Dimethicone – mildly comedogenic) and unfortunately Laureth-4 which is highly comedogenic (grade 5) – clear, colorless liquid, used in cosmetics and personal care products also used in cuticle softeners, deodorants and moisturizing products.

Also remember to wash your brushes! Acne LOVES bacteria.

To my surprise Benefit The POREfessional only has one mildly comedogenic ingrredient –  Dimethicone. I don’t generally like primers but this one has been working for me. Unfortunately, I felt like it was clogging my pores but now I know it isn’t I can use it with confidence.

I will let you know how I get on with these 7-8 products.

P.S. I use acnemantra for long lists of ingredients and sageskincare for individual ingredients.

Love,

Mari x