Breakouts are one of the most annoying things ever. It’s always the day you have a special event or a long list of things to do that a breakout wants to happen. You’ve been eating right, taking your vitamins, drinking tons of water and even working out every day this week. What gives?

More often than not, it’s the little things that you do and don’t even notice. 

Scrubbing

While a good scrub can produce an amazing glow, too much can really do some damage. Our skin needs time to heal and when we constantly scrub our skin, we compromise our barrier. Once you compromise the barrier, your skin has a greater risk of experiencing bacteria and fungal infections.

Examine your exfoliating routine and see where you can make some changes for the better.

Cell Phone

This is easily the tip that majority forget. Think about all the places we visit with our phones in hand. The coffee shop, the gas station, countertops, desk top, your purse or pocket and the bathroom just to name a few. You washed your hands but did you give your phone (or even your eyeglasses/shades) a good wipe down?

During the day, our phones can collect up to 25,000 germs and end up on our faces. Carry sanitizer or alcohol wipes with you and try cleaning your phone every time you clean your hands.

Pillow Cases

Remember waking up to the sounds of The Isley Brothers and Jodeci on Saturday mornings? You get up, toss your bed sheets in the wash and start cleaning the whole house. Our mothers and grandmothers were on to something here.

Cleaning our sheets and pillowcases, removes all the dead skin cells, oils and sweat that have gathered from the week. Cleaning our sheets 1-2 times a week will help to prevent those things from going back onto our skin while we sleep.

breakouts

Stress Level

Adulting is hard and its easy to have a large amount of stress on our shoulders at any given time. Stress does not directly cause breakouts but it does make your adrenal glands (these regulate stress levels) go into overdrive. In the stressful moments, your adrenal glands will stimulate your oil glands to produce more oil which could equal the infamous breakout.

Incorporate calming activities such as morning meditation, yoga, massages and getting at least 7-8 hours of sleep per night.

Touching your Face

Washing your hands with antibacterial soap prevents diseases and kills bacteria. Touching laptops, phones and door handles right after introduces the bacteria back onto our hands. Then we touch our chin, our cheeks, our foreheads, or scratch our nose and introduce the bacteria onto our skin. A day later, a breakout is developing and we are waiting patiently to pick at it. Don’t! Challenge yourself to observe how many times you touch your face in a day. Instead of touching the pimple, cleanse the area and apply a spot treatment.

Did any of these tips resonate with you? Which one? Let’s discuss in the comments

READ: HOW OFTEND DO YOU EXFOLIATE? HERE’S 3 SIGNS YOU’RE OVER DOING IT

Christina Hayes
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