The following is a repost of an interview with me by Beautiful with Brains (click here for original). Read on – I share all my juiciest skincare gossip to help you on your clear skin journey! Got acne? I don’t know what’s worse. The angry red, oozy pimples that take over your face and rob you of your self-esteem or the harsh treatments that turn your skin as dry as sandpaper – and lead to more acne down the line. Ugh. Isn’t there a way to get rid of acne naturally? Yes. Just ask Tracy Raftl. Suffering from acne since she was a teen, Tracy tried all the conventional – read harsh – metho ..read more

This is a guest post from Jessica Gremley of the Natural Acne Clinic Are you well over your teen years and still struggling with stubborn acne? If so, you’re not alone.  Millions of people still deal with pimples and breakouts well in to their 20s, 30s or even 40s. And if anything, adult acne is even more frustrating, more embarrassing – and more difficult to clear. As someone who struggled with stubborn acne for years, I know how incredibly frustrating it can be. I tried everything to get clear — pills, lotions, antibiotics, skin care. They would work for a while, then my acne would com ..read more

Hi, my name is Krista and I am a recovered acne sufferer after a 5 year battle. I have tried for months to bring myself to writing this story. The emotional well is so deep when it comes to my health and skin. But I am getting out the bucket and doing it anyway in order to help all of you! My skin issues resulted from systemic yeast (candida) overgrowth caused by antibiotics – internal and topical – which threw off my digestion, liver, and hormones. (Note that candida overgrowth can be caused by birth control, steroids, and high sugar diet as well). These organs were struggling to work proper ..read more

Last week I talked about why you should get your hormones tested if you have acne. This time I promised you I’d tell you which ones to get tested and by which methods. So first of all, let’s talk about the main hormones that are useful to know about if you have acne. They are: Progesterone Estrogen (specifically estradiol) Testosterone DHEAS DHT Cortisol Luteinizing Hormone (LH) Prolactin Insulin Why You Want to Test These Hormones If You Have Acne Progesterone that is too low compared to estrogen (or progesterone that is normal with estrogen that is too high) is a very common issue that ca ..read more

Here’s my opinion. If you’re an adult woman with acne, you should stop wasting time and money and just get your hormones tested. Our hormones are, in most cases, intrinsically linked to acne breakouts. So knowing what your hormones are doing is incredibly worthwhile in your pursuit of clear skin. If I could take a time machine back to when I was breaking out badly, this would be one of the first things I would have done. I didn’t do that though. Because I thought it seemed too expensive. And I thought I already knew everything that I needed to know to clear my skin (partially true, but there ..read more

If you’re someone with acne, the answer in your mind to the above question “Does acne make you unattractive?” is likely a resounding, unequivocal YES. After all, you think it looks ugly when you look in the mirror. Society seems to support the idea that acne is unattractive. And ok, not trying to crush you further, but studies have shown that people do rate it as being unattractive. So that must mean that YOU are also unattractive because you have it. Right? I know that’s how I’ve felt during my years of acne struggle. Assuming that as soon as a love interest saw I had spots, they would basic ..read more

If you’re a woman with chronic acne, you’ve likely been prescribed the birth control pill as a solution. And the question is: Does it work? Should you use it to clear your skin from acne? And if you are going to use it, are there certain ones that clear acne better than others? So let’s start with the first question. Does the Birth Control Pill Stop Acne? In a lot of cases, yes. I will attest that when I was a teenager, I was on the slow release hormonal birth control shot (Depo Provera) for two years. And my skin was awesome. But of course, clear skin came with an expense. Other side effects ..read more

If you struggle with chronic acne, an underlying syndrome you may have is something called PCOS, or Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. PCOS is a very common hormonal syndrome, allegedly affecting 5 to 10% of women. One of the common symptoms is acne. So what the heck is PCOS and why does it seem to cause acne? And more importantly what DO YOU DO ABOUT IT so that you can stop struggling with your skin? Is PCOS What’s Causing Your Acne Breakouts? So despite the fact that it’s right there in the name — ie ‘poly cystic ovaries’, having cystic ovaries is not actually a defining feature of the syndrome ..read more

It’s a habit most acne sufferers know. That insatiable urge to run and check the mirror a thousand times a day. I’ve been there. You’ve been there. What are we actually doing when we go to check the mirror? What are we trying to accomplish? For some reason we are grasping to the desperate hope that the acne has magically cleared up in the last five minutes. Except, of course, we know it hasn’t. And then all that happens is that we are just reminded about our skin and more miserable than ever. And we logically know this is pointless and just creates more pain. And may lead to picking at our sk ..read more

Hi friend, today we’re going to explore an effective, permanent method of acne scar removal. Called dermarolling. In which the tool you use soooorta looks like a torture device. Well, not sorta — it looks exactly like a torture device. Maybe I shouldn’t have started the article with that. Anyway, it only hurts very mildly… not so much like torture per se…. ANYWAY…. This torture device is called a dermaroller or a skin needler, and what it does is called dermarolling or microneedling. The basic premise is this: When you’ve got acne scars (not so much red flat marks, but deeper indented o ..read more