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Adult acne occurs when bacteria from one spot spreads to another so keep your face and hands clean and stop touching your face. Acne is also stress-related. When you’re stressed out, your adrenal glands secrete androgen which enlarges the oil glands and stimulates excess sebum production. Your pores get clogged and you end up with pimples. The stress you suffered as a teenager while studying for your exams hasn’t gone away. It’s just been replaced by the stress you go through when your boss breathes down your neck and sets unreasonable deadlines. To keep adult acne in check, try to manage your stress level.

While stress is a major cause of acne, an unhealthy lifestyle, diet, cosmetics and hormonal changes are just as likely to cause breakouts.

Hormones

As an adolescent, raging hormones that stimulate the sebaceous glands can send your face into an acne frenzy. But adult women are just as prone to hormonal imbalances before and during menstruation. During this time, the sebaceous glands go crazy and the skin becomes oilier so gorging on oily, fried food then is really not a good idea.

Birth control pills

Some women break out when they first go on the pill. Contraceptive pills can either soothe or activate acne depending on its two main components: oestrogen and progesterone. While a healthy supply of oestrogen makes the skin soft and supple, too much progesterone can over-stimulate the oil glands.

Diet & lifestyle

A combination of stress, unhealthy food and no exercise is a recipe for acne disaster. If you’re prone to breakouts, you might want to rethink your diet and include more vegetables, fresh fruits and whole grains in your meals. At the same time, take up some form of exercise to sweat out the toxins and cut down on smoking, caffeine and alcohol; and avoid eating too much meat, sugar and processed food.

Face care

Washing the face with cleansing gels isn’t enough. A weekly exfoliator is needed to get rid of the dead cells that clog the surface pores. Also, avoid make-up and skincare products which contain pore-clogging ingredients such as lanolin, mineral oil, petrolatum, paraffin and D&C red dyes. While powder puffs help to blot away oil, layers of powder can clog your pores and trigger breakouts. Use mattifying moisturisers instead to suppress oil production and banish shine.

VICHY NormaDerm

The VICHY NormaDerm range is aimed at women past the adolescent age who still suffer from skin imperfections attributed to acne-prone skin. "VICHY is the first to introduce the concept of "dermo-cosmetics" in Malaysia. Dermo-cosmetic brands offer products that are based on pharmaceutical advice and dermatological prescriptions and are thus sold in pharmacies and drugstores. All dermo-cosmetic products have to be clinically proven and dermatologist approved," says Wong Yat Chong, brand manager of VICHY Malaysia. He adds, "At VICHY we believe that skin quality can be improved by taking care of its health. The VICHY Laboratories are constructed around the founding principle that health is vital for skin’s beauty. Our products’ mission is to visibly transform skin quality and improve your quality of life."

Vichy products are available at AA Pharmacy, Alpro Pharmacy, Caring Pharmacy, Guardian, Jusco Wellness, Vitacare and Watsons. For more information on Vichy, contact the Vichy Consumer Infoline at 03-7725 3504.