#1 – Cooler Than The Other Side of the Pillow

It’s bedtime.

You just spent twenty-five minutes in the bathroom scrubbing your face and applying an expensive anti-acne cream.

You stretch, put one hand over your mouth to yawn, and are ready to lay your head down on your…

… Dirty infested nightmare of a pillow.

Yikes!

A used pillowcase is basically crawling with acne-causing bacteria, oils, and dead skin cells that are just waiting to cause your next round of breakouts. When you lay down on a dirty pillowcase, your whole pre-bed routine of face-scrubbing and cream-applying ritual is reduced, more-or-less, to taking a shower… and then rolling around in the dirt outside.

Solution:

Change Your Pillowcase Right Now.
How often are you changing your pillowcase today? Do you even pay attention to little details like this? We recommend washing your pillowcase and changing it at least once a week.

You aren’t going to be able to solve the problem entirely unless you change your pillowcase each and every night… but increasing the frequency of your pillowcase rotation will get you moving in the right skin-clearing direction.

#2 – The Fashion Behind Clear Skin

Can proper clothing prevent acne?

Surprisingly, the answer is – Yes!

Remember, acne is not limited to just your face. Acne is an inflammatory disease that can strike almost anywhere you have skin including your shoulders, back, neck, chest and so on.

Acne generally occurs when sebaceous glands under your skin overproduce oil; the oil then mixes with dead skin cells to create a breeding ground for acne-causing bacteria.

When you wear tight clothing — especially clothing that does not “breathe” much (or well) — you create the perfect environment for bacteria to grow on your body — YUCK!

Solution:

Wear soft and loose clothing.
Cotton clothes are ideal because they facilitate airflow and at the same time soak up extra sweat. Airflow — especially oxygen – helps clear clogged pores and existing acne on your body.

If you have acne prone skin, you should avoid synthetic fabrics like polyester. These fabrics don’t allow the flow of air and cause excessive perspiration.

If you are an athlete or otherwise physically active person, try wearing specialized fabrics that draw sweat away from your body. Then, check out the next Simple Secret.

#3 – Shower Off the Sweat

Acne is not caused — technically — by a lack of hygiene. In fact, washing too much can inflame and irritate your skin.

Instead, acne is usually caused when dead skin cells, excess oil, and bacteria mix… and especially get trapped in your hair follicles. This recipe causes an impaction, which, when it ruptures, leads to the development of acne.

Frequent washing will not cure your acne problem or prevent skin cells, oils and bacteria from forming that pre-acne combination can help prevent future breakouts.

Solution:

Especially if you work out or exercise daily, you must take a shower after you finish.

Not only is it a big favor to the people around you, but sitting in the same clothes hours after you’ve finished hectic physical activities can contribute to acne outbreaks. Sweat carries bacteria that can block the skin pores and contributes to acne breakouts. Now imagine not just sweat, but sweat binding your skin to damp exercise clothes.

As we mentioned in the last tip, wearing clothes that are too tight can lead to acne breakouts on your body, and will sabotage your existing anti-acne regimens by creating the perfect breeding ground for acne breakouts.

So cleanse your body quickly after that next workout!

#4 – The Shockingly Obvious Solution to Dry Skin

We typically imagine acne hand-in-hand with oily and greasy skin. However, especially in wintertime, dry skin can actually worsen your skin problems.

Dry, flaky, skin can become uncomfortable (or even cracked) creating a truly terrible combination, especially for acne-prone skin.

Now one solution would be to recommend a moisturizer (and we know many of you already use a moisturizer), but one of the cool things about 7 Simple Secrets for Stunning Skin is that we promise to deliver helpful tips without having to buy one single new product The solution is really shockingly obvious and simple.

Solution:

Drink plenty of water.

When we say to drink plenty of water, we don’t mean coffee or soda. We mean good, clean, pure, water… nourishing, natural, and absolutely necessary for good skin or just good overall health.

The old rule of thumb says to drink eight glasses of water per day. Our research says that eight glasses is actually on the low end of what you should be giving yourself (and yet many people don’t even drink that much).

When you wake up, first thing in the morning, we suggest you drink two big glasses of water before you do anything else. Especially if you’ve just gotten “a good night’s sleep” of eight hours or so, first thing in the morning is when you are going to be the most dehydrated. Your body needs water, and you will be shocked at what kind of an effect proper hydration — from the inside — can help to have on your outward appearance.

We said earlier not to count drinks like coffee, tea, or soda; in fact caffeinated drinks tend to be dehydrating, so when you drink them, make sure to replenish your water by making up for a drink with yet another glass of water. Really! So if you have one glass of water, then a cup of coffee, you really should have another glass of water to get back to
where you were before the coffee. Water is one good thing that is hard to have too much of.

For hydrated, healthy, skin drink up!

#5 – Cut the Stress

While we can’t say that stress causes acne, there is definitely a relationship between the two. Look at reducing or diffusing the stress in your life as part of your holistic approach to treating acne.

When your body is under stress it releases a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol causes an increase in blood pressure and the dilation of blood vessels, which, in turn, results in the breaking of pore walls, the over-release of adrenaline, increased androgens, and disrupted patterns of sleeping and eating.

So while we can’t say “stress causes acne” as a simple statement, stress-induced hormones speed up the occurrence of acne, and the environment created by stress in your life can create a breeding ground and speed up the process the same way that too-tight clothes or not showering after you sweat can.

Solution:

Stress is not a direct cause of acne, however, the things that can help reduce stress will often contribute to a healthier mindset and environment that will, in turn, aid in your battle against acne.

Some of our readers absolutely swear by exercise (especially yoga) as a stress-fighting path to better health and better skin. Yoga is famous for controlling and reducing stress, while at the same time helping to contribute to greater physical well-being. Just as bad habits can cause acne, turning it around and creating an overall healthier environment
in your mind, body, practices, and routine can improve your skin.

So when you exercise to help reduce your stress, make sure to wear fabrics that breathe, and then shower thoroughly after your sweat.

#6 – Take Rapid Action and Form Good Habits

Most people have at least a couple of nasty habits that they wish they could kick… but live with every day, anyway. These include overeating, smoking, chewing fingernails, and dozens of others, some familiar and others not.

Most bad habits are things that sufferers have not just lived with for years, but reinforce every day, by doing the same harmful things over and over again. By this point in 7 Simple Secrets for Stunning Skin you have encountered a half-dozen simple — and free — tips for helping to turn around your acne problems. But all the knowledge in the world will not benefit you one bit if you don’t put that knowledge into action.

Solution:

Take Rapid Action… Now.
First thing’s first. Tromp up to your bedroom and change your pillowcase. It will take about 30 seconds and — given how much time and effort you could be spending scrubbing your face and applying creams and cleansers at night — that 30 seconds might be the most important acne fighting you do today. Go on. We’ll wait.

Back?

Before you read the rest of this section, go to the kitchen and pour yourself two big cups of water (and drink them).

In addition to choosing clothes that breathe, cleaning your body when you sweat, cutting stress and keeping yourself at the best level of physical fitness you can, here are some more simple things you can do to contribute to your own ongoing clear skin victories. And while they have a lot to do with washing, you might be surprised that they have nothing to do with washing your face:

1) Wash your hands a number of times a day using mild soap and water (including every time you use the restroom). You know that the biggest cause of acne is bacteria; you touch your face and body countless times during the day. If you can eliminate bacteria from your hands, you will automatically cut down the amount of bacteria that will potentially contaminate your face and body.

2) Trim your fingernails and keep your fingers from touching acne-prone parts of your skin. Your fingernails are among the most bacteria-laden parts of your body. Even when you wash your hands a number of times per day, it is a good idea to keep these breeding grounds from contributing to your acne. Short nails simply have less room for bacteria to inhabit. But don’t bite your nails use a nail clipper.

3) Never squeeze the acne on your skin! Not only does that automatically violate the last two points, you will just be spreading acne-causing bacteria to other parts of your face and body. This will prevent your acne from healing properly, in a fast, timely manner. Once you get in the habit of keeping your hands and nails clean – and away from your pimples — you might be shocked at how your skin will improve!

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