10 Skincare Mistakes that can worsen your acne & large pores
Many a times large skin pores on your skin arise not because of your doing, despite you following good diet and skin care habits, you might get acne and large pore because you might be more prone to acne and large pores. But there are some mistakes that you should definitely avoid that can worsen your acne and large pores. Here are list of top 10 skin care mistakes you should know to make sure you are not making these skin care issues worse than they already are
Mistake 1: Over cleansing your face
This might sound like a really basic mistake, but if you over cleanse your face , it can make your skin highly irritated and cause your pores to inflamed and expand. While it is very important to properly cleanse your face, twice a day, once in the morning and at the end of the day, to make sure the dirt , oil and other impurities are washed off from your skin, it is also equally important that you don’t over cleanse to the point that you are stripping off your skin from its natural oils and make it overly dry.
When your skin is dry, it will try to protect itself by producing excess oil and sebum, thereby blocking the skin pores and also clogging them.
If you have a dry skin, apart from not overly washing your face, also avoid face washes and cleansers which have alcohol in it, instead you might use products such as beauty water or micellar water.
Mistake 2: Rinsing off too quickly
When you start having breakouts, you should be steering towards face washes and cleansers that have salicylic acid in them, and if these actives don’t get enough time on your skin, they can’t do their work and your money is just drained to waste.
Cleansers need sufficient contact time on the skin to be effective and to clean out all the dirt, excess oil and toxins from your skin, so make sure you are working on your skin and have some lather and clean your face properly. Some cleansers don’t give out lot of lather and that means they are gentler on your skin and that’s just fine.
If you want to make sure you are rinsing your face properly, you may also use face cleansing brushes.
Mistake 3: Not moisturising
Regardless of your skin type, be it oily skin, dry skin or combination skin, you should always moisturise your skin. If your skin is not properly moisturised and is dehydrated, it will produce more oil and sebum , which will ultimately result in blocking your pores and clogging them.
By moisturising your skin, you prevent lot of skin issues, including blemishes and wrinkles apart from clogged pores resulting in acne and large pores. You can choose moisturiser that suits your skin type
Mistake 4: Skipping sunscreen
This is one terrible mistake, that I have seen people especially with oily skin do, is to avoid applying sunscreen. If you don’t apply a sunscreen when you go out in the skin, it will not only worsen your hyperpigmentation on your face, it will also result in your skin producing more oil and sebum and ultimately resulting in breakouts and enlarged pores.
Mistake 5: Wearing makeup
When we have breakouts or when we have enlarged pores on our face, we tend to apply makeup a lot, but that is the exactly opposite of what we should be doing. When we apply foundation on our face, it tends to block our skin pores and again resulting in breakouts, acne and enlarged pores.
So when you have breakouts, instead of applying proper makeup, you can spot conceal using a concealer and then brush all over your face with a setting or mineral powder. Even if you wear non-comedogenic makeup, they ultimately tend to close your pores. Alternatively, you can use makeup that has salicylic acid, so that it is working on your skin care, even while you are wearing a makeup. You may also use BB creams/CC creams as they balance and even out the skin and also conceal and help fade redness and dark acne marks.
Mistake 6: Not thoroughly rinsing in the shower
If you tend get lot of pimples on your back, neck or hairline, that indicates that you are not thoroughly rinsing in the shower and not washing off your shampoo , conditioners and hair masks properly. When you don’t wash these off properly, the sulphates, silicones that the hair products contain, can clog your skin pores and can cause breakouts.
Mistake 7: Forcibly extracting blackheads, whiteheads, or pimples
It is very common, especially among teens and youngsters that as soon as you see a pimple or blackheads or whiteheads, you tend you extract them, forcibly, especially the acne which is not ready to be extracted yet, you tend to expose the innter layers of the skin, to the bacteria and dirt, in turn causing clogged pores and breakouts.
Mistake 8: Switching products too often
Skin care products take time to show its effects on your skin and as a general rule you need to use a product at least for a week to check its efficacy on your skin. Some people switch products too often, as is the case with our instagram generation, we tend to judge products fast and expect products to show its results in hours or a day and if we don’t see the results we switch the product.
If you are using a single product long enough and see breakouts, may be it is time to stop using the product, but when you are switching the products often and observing breakouts, it will be difficult to judge which of these products is the reason.
Mistake 9: Stress
Though stress cannot directly cause breakouts and acne, studies have shown that if your skin is already acne prone or if you have breakouts on your skin, stress is only going to make things worse. Stress makes any healing process in the body much slower, and skin, as any other body part, under stress, under performs and thus causing the acne to heal slowly, which may ultimately result in increasing the severity of the acne.
Mistake 10: Miracle cures
Anything marketed as miracle cures, are generally harsher in its nature, when you apply harsh products on your skin it increases the skin irritation and making it susceptible to more acne and breakouts.
The article is reviewed by one of our expert dermatologists, Dr Nagakeerthana Sunder .