Adult Acne in the age of COVID

When we talk about acne, the focus is typically put on adolescents and teens trying to navigate changing hormones and embarrassing breakouts. But what happens when we’re through the mess of our teen years and well into our 20s and beyond, maybe even raising children of our own, and suddenly start having issues with breakouts?

Refinery 29 recently reported that adult women are reporting breakouts in record numbers. Things like hormones, stress, our environment, and even our diets have always impacted skin health. So for most of us, when we start experiencing trouble with adult acne, we do the adult thing and look to solve it. We typically take a look at our routines and see what the cause could be.  But in doing so, Dermatologist Ainah U. Tan, MD has found that women tend to internalize this.

“When you're 13 and your forehead is covered in pimples, it seems "normal. But when you're 35 and your chin is a minefield, things are understandably a little different.” Says Dr. Tan. We do the logical thing. We look at our skincare routine, our diet, our environment… we try a new face wash, eat less sugar, and swap out that cotton pillowcase for silk. In short, we blame ourselves.  

These certainly seem like logical steps, but we do need to be mindful about our thoughts around those steps. I think we can all agree that 2020 has been one big ball of stress. Stress effects everyone differently, but one statement that is true across the board is that stress has a negative impact on our health in general, and our skin health. With that, if we internalize skin issues, we’re then stressed about our response to stress, and it just becomes one viscous cycle. It’s okay to take steps to try to improve our health and our skin, but we need to remain mindful around doing so.

We know it may be hard to do, but we’re here to encourage you to allow yourself to release some of the stress and pressure around having perfect skin. Not only could that mean less stress for you, but as it turns out, it could be good for your skin to do so!

This whole pandemic situation offers us a unique opportunity, as well as its own hurdles. We’re staying home more, seeing less people, and seeing people less closely thanks to social distancing. We’d like to encourage you to use this time as permission to ease up on the makeup routine. Our skin needs to breathe, and not all makeup is created equally! If you’re staying home, stay makeup free! If you’ve got Zoom meetings, maybe try a light beauty filter instead of real makeup if you’re not yet comfortable with your natural skin. When you do venture out, allow yourself to go lighter in coverage options since no one will be truly up close with you.

If you’re struggling with adult acne in the age of COVID, we do have a few other suggestions for you. First of course, we’d encourage you to give our grass-fed collagen a try! Our clean collagen nourishes skin (and hair and nails) from the inside out and doesn’t contain any harmful ingredients or chemicals. We also want to remind you to wash that facemask! “Mascne” is real and although there isn’t a fail-proof way to prevent it, wearing a clean facemask is definitely the place to start! Lastly, we know you’ve heard it before, but drink more water! Skin hydration is key to the appearance of healthy skin, and if we’re living off of iced coffee, we’re not providing our body with the tools it needs to get back that healthy, youthful glow.

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