One of the few blessings we have as adults is the fact that acne is a problem of the past. We may get a pimple here or there every once in a while, but full-blown acne is a plight for the teenagers. So when you begin to breakout as if you’re a 15 year old going through puberty, you may want to evaluate your living situation. We do so many things on a daily basis that can cause acne. Fortunately, they’re easy to avoid if you know what to look out for. We’ve compiled a list of the most common habits that cause acne in our lives.
Touching your face
Think about what your hands touch – practically everything. They encounter germs on doorknobs, keyboards, and even other people. And then we place these hands carelessly on our face. This transfers bacteria and oil onto our face. The best thing you can do is keep hand sanitizer with you at all times (and lotion, because hand sanitizers can be extremely drying). And make a conscious effort not to touch your face.
Wearing makeup with artificial ingredients
You may not know this, but there are harmful ingredients in the makeup you apply to your face on a daily basis. These ingredients cause – you guessed it – acne. This doesn’t mean you have to stop wearing makeup. Just avoid brands that have the following ingredients:
- Artificial fragrance
- Artificial color
- Lanolin
- Mineral oil
- Petroleum
- Isopropyl Myristate
There’s a simple way to avoid such ingredients. Look for all brands that use natural ingredients in their products, such as RMS Beauty. Sorry to say, the popular brands on the market, the go-to brands (Covergirl, Loreal, Revlon, etc.) are flooded with harmful ingredients.
You cellphone
Cellphone are dirty. Very dirty. “I once saw a study showing that our phones have more bacteria on them than a public restroom,” Joshua Zeichner, director of cosmetic and clinical research in dermatology at the Mount Sinai Hospital, said in an Allure interview. The bacteria that cellphones accumulate throughout the day, mixed with the heat from our face is a breeding ground for more bacteria. Essentially, we are breeding bacteria with bacteria. We can avoid this buy cleaning our screens daily. Wearing earphones, a headset or blue tooth earbuds will also keep your face from touching your cellphone screen.
Dirty makeup brushes
Makeup brushes can cause acne, and the reason is bacteria. Most of us apply makeup everyday and each day oil, dust, dead skin cells and makeup residue stick to our makeup brushes. We continue this cycle until we clean our brushes which, for some of us, doesn’t happen very often. As a result, pores get clogged, the skin becomes irritated and breakouts occur. The solution is simple: buy a makeup brush cleaner and clean your brushes once a week.
Your pillowcase
How often do you change your pillowcase? According to the dermatological community, you should change it once a week. For those who are more susceptible to acne breakouts, you may want to change your pillowcase every night or every other night. Believe us, this isn’t excessive. Consider the amount of oil, swear, hair gunk, makeup, drool and skin cells build up on our pillow cases. Maybe we should change it once an hour?
