...
Dr Clare Morrison

Article by Dr Clare Morrison

Suffering from acne? 5 ways to survive a bad skin day


Let’s face it: some days you wake up and your skin just looks bad. Hormonal changes, stress, bad eating habits are all causes of bad skin days. Sometimes these factors even seem to vary from day to day!

Here are five tips on how to avoid bad skin days…

Remove your make-up – especially at night

Sleeping with make-up on is never a good idea. If make-up is left on overnight, bacteria is more likely to develop as we are naturally hotter and sweat more. Skin becomes more clogged, and our skin less able to breathe. Skin actually goes through a regeneration process during the night, creating healthy cells and regenerating collagen levels. Your skin is also a moisture-sucking machine at night. By removing it, you give your skin a chance to breathe and recalibrate its moisture levels. This is why it’s so important to remove your make-up before sleeping.

Hydrate your skin

Skin is our biggest organ and like the rest of our body, we depend on water to keep it functioning. Dry skin has less resilience and wrinkles more easily, which is why it’s important to drink plenty of water. However, it’s not the only thing you should be doing to treat a dehydrated complexion. The skin can be reached through topical products, as well as water-rich foods like fruits and vegetables, which apparently contain structured water that releases slowly into the body, meaning longer-lasting hydration than flushing your system out by drinking water.

Clean make-up brushes regularly

Cleaning your make-up brushes may take a bit of time (especially to dry); but is well worth it when it comes to stopping the build up of bacteria, which can cause spots. After all, brushes tend to loiter at the bottom of make-up bags, where there’s lots of grime and dust. Make-up brushes and sponges also have contact with tabletops, where there’s yet more bacteria lurking. Cleaning your brushes at least once a week should keep build-up to a minimum and ensure as little as possible is transferred to your skin.

Research products that are suitable for your skin

If you’re suffering from acne, it’s important that you research what products won’t inflame your skin even further. Keep an eye out for products that are labelled ‘noncomedogenic’, meaning that they won’t clog pores. Choose gentle products and resist the temptation to use harsh cleaners and toners that can trigger the skin to produce more oil.

Take zinc for hormonal imbalance

Hormonal imbalances can lead to acne, so be sure to tackle this if you are suffering from regular bad skin days. Every hormone your body makes needs to be processed by the liver. If your liver is struggling, this could reflect on your skin as acne. Zinc can help to make enzymes to make hormones less toxic and potent.

Hopefully this article has been helpful in terms of showing you how you can avoid bad skin days! Other, more obvious, commonsense factors include: watch your diet and get lots of sleep!

For help with skin problems have a look at our treatment for acne and/or contact one of our team if you have any questions.

Dr Clare Morrison
Dr Clare Morrison
Experienced General Practitioner in Hampshire since 1995, with particular interest in Nutrition, Obesity and Smoking Cessation.
Originally published February 13 2018, updated May 01 2019