Diligently using your acne-fighting products but still not seeing results?
Find out the 5 reasons why your acne products are not working
1. You are spamming acne treatments in your routine
Sorry to break the bad news, but spamming acne products may unfortunately slow down your skin transformation progress.
Acne treatments are meant to help by drying out the acne or controlling sebum production. But overdoing it may cause your skin to become dry and dehydrated, leading to possibly more breakouts in the long run.
Instead of only having acne facial washes, moisturisers and treatments in your routine, use acne treatments together with gentle skin care basics such as a hydrating cleanser and toner to ensure your skin stays hydrated and oil level remains balanced.
2. You are not moisturising enough
Those with oily skin often think that they do not have to moisturise, but that’s a really common misconception.
Not moisturising enough could in fact cause your skin to go into overdrive, producing more oil to combat the lack of moisture. This is when you’ll notice oilier skin and more breakouts as the excess sebum and oil clog the pores.
Hydrating well on the other hand, helps to ensure a good balance of oil and water on our skin and maintain its elasticity and resilience.
If you’re worried about oiliness or clogs from cream-based moisturisers, use a lightweight hydrating serum like Aqua Boost Serum 10 that moisturises your skin without burden.
3. You are changing your products too many times
With the vast variety of products in the market, the temptation to try out new products in a bid for instant results is real.
However, switching between too many products may just be the cause of your slow skin progress. Hopping around products may also irritate your skin and makes it hard for you to figure out why.
Skin care products take time to work. Our skin’s renewal cycle takes about 28 days and longer with age.
Skin inflammation starts beneath the skin and it takes time for acne to rise to the skin surface. This means that it might be four to six weeks before the results from your acne routine starts to show.
When you start using treatment products that encourage skin renewal, you may experience purging at the start as your skin is renewing at a faster rate. Many misunderstand that they’re having more breakouts, but it is actually the products working.
Give your products time to work. Once your breakouts start to clear after two to three months, cut down the use of your acne products increasingly and transit to a conditioning routine to help your skin recover from any scars.
Tip: If you are adding a new product in your routine, do a patch test first to ensure that it doesn’t cause sensitivity or break you out.
4. You are over-cleansing your skin
Think that cleansing your skin often will help with your acne? Well, cleansing is good for our skin, but overdoing it can do the opposite.
Many with acne skin tend to overwash their skin to combat the oiliness. Doing this, however, may remove the natural oils that keep the skin barrier healthy and maintain its functions.
Once the skin barrier is impaired, the skin’s resilience against external aggressors will drop, resulting in more breakouts.
Those with acne skin should cleanse not more than twice a day. Use a gentle cleanser that leaves your skin moisturised without any feelings of tightness. If you’re not sure whether you’re over-cleansing, read 4 signs you might be over-cleansing here.
5. Your lifestyle habits need to change
If you’ve been struggling with acne skin for a long time, it might be time to reevaluate your lifestyle habits. Stress, lack of sleep and imbalanced diets are factors that can affect your skin health.
Habits such as picking your pimples, not changing your pillowcases often and not cleaning your hats, hair or even your phone could also contribute to acne. These things come into contact with your face daily and the bacteria on them could exacerbate your acne if they are not cleaned often.
Taking steps to slowly change your lifestyle habits will make a huge difference to your skin. A skin care routine can only be as good and effective as your lifestyle habits.
With enough sleep, a proper diet and controlled stress levels, you’ll notice better skin health.
Reset with a simple skin care routine
Always remember: when dealing with breakouts, less is more.
When your skin is at its weakest, you want to avoid overloading it with too many products that may be too nourishing for your skin to receive.
If your acne products are not working, reset with a simple skin care routine like the Clear Confidence Anti-Blemish Kit that targets acne and blemishes. Focus on acne treatment and hydration, until you start seeing reduced breakouts.