Simply put, dealing with breakouts is no fun. While pain and inflammation are burdensome, the emotional and mental effects can be just as negative. Luckily, there are ways to address your acne concerns and correct them with blemish-specific products and routines to reveal a healthier, clearer complexion. Here, we give you the down-low and more.
What is Acne-Prone Skin?
First, let’s answer the most important question: What even is acne-prone skin? Acne-prone skin is skin that tends to develop blemishes, pimples, whiteheads, blackheads, or pustules. The skin may clog easily, be shiny, oily, or dry. There’s not one skin type that results in acne-prone skin—in fact, it’s a skin type by itself and needs to be identified in order to treat.
Identifying Acne-Prone Skin & What Causes It
If you’re looking to identify acne-prone skin, look for the following:
- Pores that clog easily
- Excessive sebum production
- A constant cycle of blemishes, pimples, whiteheads, or blackheads
- Redness and inflammation around pimples
If you believe you fall under the acne-prone skin category, don’t worry. There’s so much you can do to help prevent future breakouts and soothe any current ones. But first, let’s understand more about what causes acne in the first place.
What Causes Acne?
The pimples themselves are caused when your hair follicles become blocked (with oil or dead skin cells), and the oil can’t escape normally. The plugged pore becomes what we commonly call a whitehead.
But what causes the follicles to get blocked in the first place? This is where genetics, hormonal fluctuations, and environmental triggers come into play. While some of those factors are out of your control, there's a lot within your control. What you eat, what you drink, how you sleep, if you smoke, your stress levels, and the acne skin care products you use are all things you can choose to prioritize to help alleviate acne breakouts.
Acne Treatments & Products for Sensitive Skin
If you want to heal your skin, Beekman 1802 products are for you. With an entire collection dedicated to blemish treatments for sensitive skin, we have products for every step in your routine. Starting with our Oil Eliminating Foaming Gel Cleanser facial cleanser.
Powered by AHAs and BHAs, this multi-action cleanser helps draw out oil-based debris leaving your skin feeling soft, silky, clean, and moisturized. The gentle yet powerful acids (salicylic, lactic, and glycolic) help to exfoliate the skin, reduce the appearance of blemishes, and control oil production.
Another can’t-miss breakout treatment for sensitive skin is our Smooth Booster resurfacing serum.
This pore-purging serum targets blemish-prone skin without irritating the delicate skin microbiome. By combining the exfoliating effects of PHA (polyhydroxy acid) with naturally soothing calamine, you’re left with restored skin and a clearer and more radiant complexion.
Don’t forget, no acne skincare routine is complete without a pore minimizing toner. And ours is 100% plant-based, eliminates excess oil, and is non-comedogenic.
Formulated with 10% lactic acid, dead sea mud, and kaolin clay, this multitasking milk clay mask unclogs pores, gently exfoliates, and polishes away oil and impurities. You can use it as a mask on your whole face for 15 minutes or apply it as a spot treatment overnight.
A healthy skin microbiome is the first step in creating clear, radiant skin which is why each of our blemish treatments for sensitive skin always include goat milk for its soothing, pH-balancing effects. You’ll also find gentle-yet-effective AHAs like lactic acid or BHAs like salicylic acid for exfoliation and niacinamide and vitamin C for dark spot reduction.
The Ultimate Acne Skincare Routine
Now that you know what to look for in your acne skincare products, it’s time to build a routine for clearer skin. First up, the morning.
Step One—Morning Cleanse
As soon as you wake up, we recommend cleansing your face with a face wash that controls oil, gently exfoliates, removes dirt, deeply cleanses, and doesn’t strip your skin of essential moisture. That’s our oil eliminating foaming gel cleanser.
Step Two—Treat
Next, assess your skin. If you have any active breakouts, we suggest using our soothing AHA and BHA Smooth Booster serum to help reduce the appearance of blemishes and impurities. Otherwise, stick to our Vitamin C serum, Golden Booster, to boost brightness, fade dark spots, and reduce inflammation.
Step Three—Moisturize & SPF
As counterintuitive as it may seem, oily, acne prone skin needs moisture. When your oil glands are overproducing, it's a sign of an imbalanced microbiome. Our Bloom Cream is designed for all skin types and features goat milk, niacinamide, and colostrum to help restore healthy radiance and boost skin health. There’s also our shine-free vegan moisturizer that’s more suited for oily and combo skin. After moisturizer comes SPF—always, and year-round (not just in the summer!).
To make it even easier, you can use our 3 Step Oil Skin Starter Kit for a shine-free routine that’s designed for blemish-prone skin.
In the evening, you’ll want to make a few minor changes, however the process is the same.
Step One—Evening Cleanse
Like the morning, you’ll want to start off with a clean slate. With blemish prone skin specifically, you need a face wash that can totally remove any oil, debris, makeup, and sunscreen that gets on your skin throughout the day.
Step Two—Resurface
Now’s your chance to do some heavy-duty exfoliating. Why we recommend doing this at night is because the higher concentration of acids can make the skin more sensitive to the sun, so be sure to do your peels, masks, and exfoliants at night. Two to three nights a week, we suggest our Rapid Resurfacing Milk Facial, Potato Peel, with 15% glycolic acid and 10% lactobionic + lactic acid. In just 5-20 minutes, you can resurface your skin for smoother, more youthful looking skin, fade the appearance of dark spots, and smooth uneven texture.
Step Three—Moisturize & Oils
Finally, it’s time to moisturize yet again. Because you lose a lot of moisture when you sleep, we recommend topping off your nighttime moisturizer with our fermented facial oil. This face oil transforms dull skin into mega-healthy, hydrated, and radiant skin with its niacinamide, vitamin C, and fermented plant oils.
Preventing Redness & Inflammation from Acne
If you’ve ever had acne, you know it comes with more than just blemishes. There’s redness, irritation, inflammation—even pain. Luckily, there are a few tips and products to help reduce redness and inflammation from acne.
- Apply ice to inflamed areas
- Try a resurfacing treatment
- Stay away from agitating ingredients like retinol
- Use niacinamide to even out skin tone and texture
- Try over-the-counter pimple patches
- Talk to your dermatologist for personalized recommendations
Skincare Habits to Avoid for Acne-Prone Skin—And What to Do Instead
If you’re looking to reveal healthier, more radiant looking skin, try to avoid these acne-causing habits:
- Touching your face
- Popping your blemishes
- Over exfoliating
- Skipping sunscreen
- Not cleaning your phone screen
- Sharing makeup and brushes
- Not removing your makeup
- Unhealthy diet
- Not moisturizing
- Not enough sleep
- Too much stress
Instead, try to focus on the following:
- Choosing the right products
- Feeding your skin
- Using a restorative moisturizer
- Always applying sunscreen
- Sticking to a morning and nighttime skincare routine
- Prioritizing whole foods
- Being mindful of skincare ingredients