Well with Arielle Lorre - 253: All About Acne: Common Causes, Treatments, Scarring & Ingredients to Know with Alex Hernandez

Episode Date: June 26, 2023

Alex Hernandez is a Licensed Esthetician and Lead Educator at Face Reality Skincare. She has worked with hundreds of professionals and acne clients in her career and is a daily witness to the results achieved using Face Reality Skincare treatments and products. She joins the show to discuss what acne is, the most common contributors to acne, mistakes people make when it comes to treatment and how to successfully heal acneic skin. We cover ingredients to be aware of that can cause acne, a realistic timeline to expect when healing, how to prevent and treat scarring and pigmentation issues, holy grail ingredients and products and so much more. Visit facerealityskincare.com to take their skin quiz and choose a Certified Acne Expert near you to jumpstart your way to clear skin.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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auto-hure, zondergare. Go to your rise-adviseur or sunnycars. The following podcast is a dear media production. Welcome to the Blond Files

I'm your host, Ariel Lori, and I'm here to talk all things wellness. From how to achieve optimal health and well-being to the best beauty tips and everything in between, no topic is off limits. I know there's so much information out there, so I'm bringing on expert guests and sharing my own experiences to help you sift through all the wellness stuff without the BS. Enjoy the show. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show. I have a great episode today for anybody who has ever struggled with acne or struggled with their skin in general. Having gone through it myself last year, I know just how difficult it is to navigate on your own. And I think it's so amazing that there are places like face reality that are popping up that really deliver tailored protocols to people

with experts in acne and skincare so that they don't have to navigate it themselves. And so today I'm talking to Alex Hernandez, who is the lead educator for face reality skincare. She's a licensed esthetician of over seven years. And in her role, she oversees professional educational training materials, protocols, and classes at a national level. She also supports other key departments at face reality's skincare acne clinic. And she learned how to educate clients and professionals on the treatment of acne using the brand's super effective signature adaptive protocol. So through her diligent practical training, she became a face reality certified acne expert in 2018. Since then, she's worked with hundreds of professionals and acne clients in her aesthetics career. And she's a daily

witness to the amazing results that are achieved using face reality skin care treatments and protocols. So she joins the show today to talk about all of this and more. We start by talking about what is acne. I think a lot of people understand what it looks like, but not necessarily what it entails and how acne comes to be in our skin. And even I didn't know that things like blackheads and white heads were considered acne. So we talk about that. We talk about the most common causes and common contributors to acne. We talk comedogenic ingredients in not only skincare and beauty products, but lifestyle products and how to be aware of these. And I appreciate that in this conversation, Alex emphasizes that, you know, we're not looking for perfection when it comes to

these things, but there is a scale. And so there are some that are higher up on the scale that we should really be mindful of if we're struggling with our skin. We don't have to completely eliminate every single thing, which isn't always realistic. So we talk about that. We talk about oils and acne, which oils specifically to avoid. We talk about how she develops a tailored protocol with a client and how they do that at face reality acne clinics. We talk about a realistic timeline for healing acne ingredients to use to treat acne. We talk mistakes people commonly make when trying to treat their acne. We talk a lot about scarring and pigmentation issues as well, which I think is less talked about.

People really focus on how to treat the acne itself, but oftentimes it leaves either post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation or red spots or scarring. So we talk about that. And I just really think it's great that there are options now because I remember when I went through it myself last year, it was hard to get an appointment with somebody here in L.A. who specialized in acne. It was expensive. The products are expensive. so you don't want to be guessing when it comes to this. And face reality is such a great option for people who either want to do a consult over Zoom if they can't get into a clinic in their area. And be connected to an acne expert, whether it's in person or virtually.

And they have really great products that we talk about in the episode as well. I am obsessed with the Sulfur spot treatment. I brought it with me to Mexico. And I was breaking out a little bit because I was eating all the cheese and things that I don't normally eat. eat at home and they really took care of my breakouts like instantaneously. So that is definitely a holy grill product. I also love their sunscreen and we discussed that in the episode too. So you guys can visit face reality skincare.com and you can take their skin quiz and you can choose a certified acne expert near you to jumpstart your way to clear skin if you are struggling. And with that,

please enjoy the episode. This show is brought to you by Face Reality Skincare. Welcome, Alex. Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited to talk to you. We are going to be talking all things acne today. And I believe June is Acne Awareness Month, right? So it's a very timely right now and just such an important topic. I think I saw that over 50 million people in America alone struggle with acne. And, you know, I've always had pretty good skin, but I developed acne, acne kind of out of nowhere last summer. And so I know firsthand just how debilitating it can feel, how frustrating it can feel, how difficult it is to navigate. So I want to get into all of those things today. But to start out, why don't you just introduce yourself to the audience and tell them

about what it is that you do. Yeah. So my name is Alex Hernandez. I am a licensed ascetician and a certified acne specialist. And I'm coming up on year five with face reality. And I started off in our very own clinic in the Bay Area. So I have been that treatment provider seeing firsthand the effects that acne has really mentally and emotionally and physically on our clients. And then these last few years, I have been our lead educator. So now I'm working more so with professionals, really just educating them and making sure they're as equipped as possible to help their own clients now.

Yeah. And I think that there is a misconception around acne and skin conditions where people think, you know, it's kind of vain. And I don't think people really understand. just how much it can affect somebody. And I'm sure you've seen all kinds of severity from, you know, kind of less severe acne to really severe acne. And it really does affect your self-esteem. It can affect your social life. It can affect so many different areas aside from just, you know, vanity. Like, it's not a vanity issue at the core. Yeah, absolutely. Acne is,

you know, so, so much more than skin deep. It really takes that mental and emotional toll on our clients. We actually conducted a survey a little over a year ago now where we actually interviewed a thousand people that had experienced acne at some point. And it was just, you know, things that we already knew, just having had our own clinic and in speaking with our acne experts. But, you know, something about, you know, just filling out kind of like an anonymous survey makes people more honest. So I feel like we got really honest and raw and honestly really sad, you know, responses. We found that 91% of people said that they have anxiety now because of their stuff. And I feel skin. Their skin makes them feel anxious. You know, 43% said that it affected their performance at

worker school, really leading back to that anxiety. And almost 70%, 69% of people had, you know, avoided social situations altogether just because they were embarrassed by their skin or made them anxious. They felt bad about themselves. I think one of the saddest things we got from that survey is we had people, you know, in one word, tell us how your skin makes you feel. And we got where it's like ugly, dirty, unworthy. And it was just such a, you know, it was incredibly impactful, but such a terrible response to. But it really just drives home the fact that, you know, acne is not a vanity issue for a lot of people. It's so much deeper than that. Yeah, that is really heartbreaking, especially when you consider that probably so many people who deal with acne are in their teens,

in these kind of formative ages, not to say that those are the only people. And I know that's another huge misconception, you know, adults deal with acne as well, any age. But just being. And it's, that age and having to deal with already the pressures that you're dealing with, you know, when you're a teenager and navigating your social life and so many changes and then to have that added layer. And yeah, like we've been saying, it really does affect your self-esteem. I'm hearing you say that it really affects anxiety, performance, all of that. It's just, it's really sad. Yeah. And that's one of the first things that I try to educate clients on, too, just what acne is. I always let them know that acne is not their fault.

fault. It's not their fault that they have acne. Acne is not a hygiene issue. It's not just because someone has maybe like a greasy diet. Acne at its core is a hereditary disorder of the core. So people are literally genetically, they have this genetic predisposition to experience acne. So that's always one of the first things I tell clients that it's not their fault. It's nothing that they have done wrong. They were just more prone than some of their friends or family members to experience acne. Can you tell us exactly what is happening in those pores because I think the term acne is thrown around and everybody is familiar with, you know, what it looks like at least or to some degree what it is. But I don't know that many people really know how acne is formed. And I think that's so important when we're going to

be talking about the treatment of it. Yeah. And we get that a question a lot too. Like, you know, how do you tell what the acne is from or what kind of acne is it? But acne really all starts the same. What happens in, you know, a typical pore, it'll shed about one layer of dead skin cells per day. And the body can keep up with that level of exfoliation, that desquamation. It can keep up no problem. For someone who is acne-prone, they're experiencing something called retention hypercaratosis. And what that means is they are experiencing an overabundance of shedding, the overabundance of dead skin cells.

So where a normal pore will shed one layers, those retention hyperclerosis, maybe shedding five layers of dead skin cells per day. And then also coupling that with the retention of those dead skin cells, the oil and the pore is really sticky. So that oil really basically creates that plug, that oil and those dead skin cells come together, create that plug, which is called a microcomodone. And that's where all acne starts. It all starts the same. That can turn into like white heads and blackheads on the skin. Or when bacteria is introduced, that's how you get those larger inflame lesions. That's interesting. I would have thought that the more dead skin you shed, the less achnaic your skin would be.

But you're saying that it's kind of the opposite, right? Yeah, because all that comes to together. and basically clogs the poor, essentially. Interesting. And you mentioned before that it's hereditary, so people are predisposed to it. But there are different kinds of acne. And I wanted to get into some of the common contributors that you see aside from that genetic, you know, hereditary predisposition.

So we know, like, lifestyle often can result in breakouts and different degrees of acne. And I'm sure certain products, certain foods. What did you see at least commonly that was contributing to people's skin breaking out? The hard thing with acne is that there are so many different, you know, contributors and exacerbating factors. So hormones are going to be a big one. You know, we have the pillow sebaceous unit on our skin. That's the hair follicle, the hair shaft, and the sebaceous glands. So those oil glands.

And those are all regulated by sex hormones. So whenever you have a fluctuation in those sex hormones, it can increase the sebum production. So it can actually make use to create more oil. It can create more inflammation in the body. So hormones is a big one. Stress is another one. Cortisol when we're experiencing stress. Cortisol also increases our oil production. It increases the inflammation in our bodies. So those are the ones that are a little bit harder to manage because there's only so much you can do with hormones and so much you can do with stress. But there are a lot of factors that are, you know, a lot easier to control. Diet and lifestyle being huge, huge factors. This is why it's so important to

work with an acne expert because they will literally walk you through a list of these. So anything in diet. Really with diet, the key is moderation. So I tell someone if they're having milk in their coffee seven days a week, really focus on the moderation. Try to cut that back maybe three to four days a week. Or if you can find an acceptable substitute, like an oat milk, almond milk, something like that, that's even better. Actually just replace that trigger. And then with lifestyle, it could be as simple as what are you doing like after you work out? Are you able to do your skincare routine after you work out? Can you at least wipe your face with toner after you work out? Are you using, you know, comedogenic makeup? Are you using something in your laundry with, you know, sodium laurel or sulfates? Then you're

resting your face on your pillowcases every night. It's just, it's difficult because there are so many different factors. But at least with the lifestyle and diet, there is a lot that we can control. Have you seen cases where somebody has come in and they eliminate the dairy from their diet or they switch out their detergent and suddenly their acne goes away? I've seen a few cases like that. It's usually someone who, because acne can really, you know, come on at any time. But it's usually someone who is maybe in their 20s or 30s and they're breaking out kind of all of a sudden with mild to moderate inflamed acne. They don't know why. Usually when we go through lifestyle and diet, there's several different things that are going on.

And once they really cut those out, it makes a huge, huge difference. So you mentioned inflamed acne. What are the different types of acne? So really how we explain acne, it's really just simplified. So when we talk about non-inflamed acne, it's open and closed comidone. So that's your black heads and white heads on the skin. Okay. And we talk inflamed acne, that's, you know, papules, postules, cis, notchial is basically

anything that's that larger red pimple. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's so interesting because I never really thought of black. blackheads or whiteheads as quote unquote acne, you know, I never really like classified it. I guess I always thought of the more inflamed version. What are some, let's go with ingredients. What are some ingredients that are commonly found in, you know, either personal wellness products, detergents, things that we might be using every day that could be contributing to acne. You mentioned one in the laundry detergent. Yeah. So there's a few ways to look at this. So we are really looking at that on things that

fall on that commutogenic scale. When you look at the comedogenic scale, this testing was done a long time ago on rabbit ears and very high quantities of products. So it's not like the rule. It's not, it doesn't, you know, it's not the perfect rule. But what we do is we give people, so the communicogenic scale is rated anything zero to five. But we do is we provide a list of ingredients that fall on that three to five rating on the communicative scale.

And that's what we tell clients to avoid in like cosmetic. and hair care. So this is a lot of a lot of different, like dyes, like a lot of red dyes are on here, a lot of isopropyl and like myrosterol variations are on here. But there's also some really common stuff that you'll find in like healthy or natural skin care that are also problems. So like shay butter, seaweed, red algae, help, all of these things you'll find very commonly coconut oil. These things can be fine for, you know, someone who's not experiencing acne, but for those that are experiencing acne, it's even more important to just avoid anything with this comedogenic rating. And in regards to oils, I mean, are people who are struggling with acneic skin, should they

avoid oils at all costs, oil-free makeup, oil-free products, or can some oils be okay? No, oils are totally fine. There's a few oils that you'll want to avoid, like, coconut oil, things like that. But you don't have to be scared and only look for like, oil. free moisturizers or sunscreens, anything like that. Because really, even more importantly than healing the acne, we need to make sure we're healing the skin too. So we always focus on healing the skin first. In order to keep our skin's barrier healthy, it needs a healthy balance of water and oil. If we're, you know, severely lacking in oil, it basically kind of just backfires on us. If we're not having enough oil in our skin, the body will naturally produce more to protect itself, essentially.

make sure that barrier is, you know, having that balance. But then you get people who are just like excessively oily to the point where I'd say really bothersome. But as long as you are using non-comutogenic oils in your skin, that's really the baseline that we recommend, making sure you have that healthy balance. What are some of those non-commutogenic oils? So some non-comitogenic oils, there's a few that you can look at. It depends really on the formulation. So something like an avocado oil is very, very low on the commutogenic oils. So something like an avocado oil is very, metogenic scale. And then you have things like Hohobo oil, which are supposed to be really good, like primrose oil. There's a few out there that you'll find even in like acne formulations.

And where can it's another good one. You say macademia oil? Mm-hmm. My favorite. I'm a macademia fiend. Everybody listening to the podcast knows. That's that's good to know. Where can people find the comedogenic scale so that they can check? Yeah. So this is on it. Honestly, you can find it on Google. Everyone is. going to have something a little different, though. If you're working with someone who's face reality, we're going to give you a little bit shorter list, but you can also find almost like fear mongering lists out there too. Yeah, for sure. I cannot use anything. There's one, I think it's probably the first thing that pops up when you're looking at the comedogenic scale. It'll give you all of the

different ingredients and then it'll just tell you right there where it falls on that zero to five scale. And that's like the very like bare minimum way to do it. It's like just easier to, just look out for those certain ingredients. Okay. So you mentioned face reality. Before you were an educator with them, walk us through how you would develop a protocol with a client. So somebody comes in and they have, say, like, moderate to severe acne. What's the first thing that you do? Yeah. So we start everyone off with a consultation. So during that consultation, we're assessing their skin. So as in finding, someone has that moderate to severe acne, I'm letting them know exactly what I see on their skin. I'm letting them know what acne types I'm seeing.

I'm letting them know the severity of that acne. And I'm letting them know what's their skin type. Is there any other skin conditions going on? Making sure that client is just fully aware of exactly what's going on and exactly, you know, what I'm trying to combat for them. And then from there, the first thing we'll do is test a serum. So serums are going to be a huge, huge part of the home care. This is going to really be the best delivery method for any of these exfoliating acids that we're using.

So then we'll test a serum. For someone with moderate to severe combination acne, which is really common. You'll see a lot of people have both blackheads and inflame acne at the same time. So someone like that, I'm going to test our 8% almondelic serum. Almondelic acid as an ingredient is good for inflamed acne, not inflamed acne, fungal acne, which is malicea folliculitis. It's going to be good for helping to lighten and brighten the appearance of pigmentation. So really just testing that serum, making sure it's suitable to send home with them,

but also telling the client all of those benefits so that they're really invested in using that product. And then really just curating the rest of the routine around what else I'm seeing. So things like cleansers and toners and moisturizers, I'm really looking at their skin type. What does their skin need in order to really remain healthy? That acne type helped me decide my serum already. And then I'm really looking at the severity, their skin type, and their Fitzpatrick type. The Fitzpatrick braiding is how much melanin is in your skin. So all of those things, that's how I'm going to pick.

my percentage of a benzol peroxide. So there's many, many different factors you'll look at during that consultation, but each one of those is going to help you curate a different step of that routine. How long should people expect treatment to be when it comes to treating their acne? Obviously, everybody is going to be so different, but is there like a general time frame where somebody should try products? And then if they're not seeing results at a certain point, maybe they should switch to a different formulation or a different percentage or, you know, add or remove certain products. Yeah, that's a nice thing with face reality because every single one of our products is for acne clients. So there's a lot of different options. And sometimes a routine will work for, you know,

the acne type you present with at first. But as your skin changes, your product should change with you. And that's another benefit of working with an acne expert. You always have an eye on your protocol and on your skin. But really, you'll see visible results within 90 days. Even if your acne is not totally clear within that time frame, it's going to be a lot more glowing. Your skin health is going to improve. The texture has already started to improve. So you'll see a lot of smaller things start getting better first. And then really to get acne under control, it'll typically take around three to four months. But sometimes it can take, you know, between three and six months, if it's a lot more severe a case or if there's more like extenuating like life cycle factors

or lifestyle factors that haven't quite been worked out yet. But really those visible, healthy results in 90 days and then acne under control in that three to four months, But really the cornerstone of what we do is our adaptive method. So we just start off a little slow with our products because we don't want people to experience any excess dryness or irritation. You know, the same things that make people give up on a routine. So we implement our active products really slowly to help avoid all that. So exfoliating serums are implemented really slowly. Benzol peroxide is implemented really slowly just so people's skin can really remain healthy throughout that clearing process.

But as the weather changes, as your skin gets clear, maybe you're now more focused on anti-aging or now you're more focused on pigmentation. That routine should adjust with you. Okay, so you mentioned benz oil peroxide and mandelic acid. What are some of the other key ingredients when it comes to treating acne? Yeah, so really we want to focus on hydrators. We want to make sure there's a lot of hydrators in any product that we're using, lots of antioxidants in the products that we're using.

And mandelic acid isn't like a hugely widely known inguery. It's something I've really just come across since working with face reality, but you still have some of your more like OG acids out there that are still really good for acne. They have different use cases. So we also utilize salicylic acid. We utilize glycolic acid. We also utilize retinaldehyde and retinoles too. So each one will have its place. And that's really the joy of being able to customize is that each one will kind of come in at different times based on whatever the skin is presenting. So you have a lot of room to grow and customize that routine. Mm-hmm. And you mentioned before, like sometimes you can improve on the skin, but there are other factors, maybe lifestyle factors that still need to be kind of worked out to get, you know, that real healing from the inside out. So how do you marry the two? So if somebody comes in and they're having, you know, really bad hormonal cystic acne, how do you treat that topically and then combine that with the internal work that has to be done to obviously balance those hormones so that they're not getting. And then combine that with the internal work that has to be done to obviously balance those hormones so that they're not getting. that reaction. Yeah. So there's a few different things we'll do. Topically, we'll really just keep looking at what the acne and skin are presenting. So we'll still treat topically normally, but we'll really go into like lifestyle and diet coaching. So again, an acne expert will take you down a list of things that could be, you know, causing your skin to break out. So we'll actually do a lot of lifestyle coaching with our clients, kind of just digging deep, becoming those acne detectives,

seeing if there's anything there that we can change. Same thing. with nutrition, unless they are, you know, a certified nutritionist, dietitian, things like that, we can't do, you know, too terribly much, but we can still give you guidance on, you know, things that may be an acne trigger, and we can still recommend acceptable substitutes and we can still teach about moderation. And we're also still able to teach about supplements as well. We recommend two really big ones, sometimes three, but fish oil is an excellent addition to help monitor and help control hormonal breakouts. A really quality omega-3 fish oil supplement is going to help with, you know, just overall health and wellness, including health and wellness,

including health and wellness of the skin. But it's really going to help balance those hormones. Something like a zinc supplement is really good for anyone with internal inflammatory disorders. So maybe someone with like a PCOS would also benefit from taking a zinc and a fish oil. And then depending, because a lot of times clients come to us and they've gone through like rounds of antibiotics and things like that. So even including a really good probiotic into the routine as well can all help to balance internally. But there is the point where sometimes we do have to recommend our plants to go see like a natural path, like a natural doctor who can do like the hormone panel testing. They can look for parasites and things like that because some things you do have

to get some medical intervention just depending on the severity of it. What are some mistakes that people make when they try to treat their acne on their own? Honestly, doing it alone. itself is kind of a mistake. You really need some because there's there's so much even at the licensed professional going to aesthetic school. I didn't learn enough about acne. So as a consumer who's trying to clear acne, there is not much education like for you out there. So just making sure you find someone who can help you through it. But a lot of the times we see people just go find all the strongest products they can get their hands on. So they go by the highest percentage of benzoporoxy, the highest percentage of salicylic. Every single step in the routine is actually.

active cleanser, active toner, active serum, ordering chemical peels on the internet. So there's a few different mistakes that we commonly see because it is still, even to this day, amid the misconception, that you should be drying out your skin to clear your ass. It's really the opposite. Yeah. So I did some of those when I was initially trying to treat mine. And I mean, I was in the depths of the internet on forums, you know, about acne. And then I thought maybe I had, fungal acne because it really was, I did have like those clusters of just small bumps that were kind of itchy in some parts. So then I was like buying head and shoulders and doing like head and shoulders masks on my face and my neck. And then that was like burning. And then I would do actives on top and

no moisturizer because I don't want any hydration. Like all of the things that, you know, you're not supposed to do. But it's hard. Like it's hard when you're trying to navigate it on your own. Because everything we've grown up with, all the advice we get from, you know, our aunts and uncles and parents, it's really the opposite of what we should be doing when it comes to our skin. We even with acne, we should be nourishing that skin. We shouldn't be intentionally drying it out, really slow and steady wins the race when you're using actives. So hopefully we keep taking over the internet and TikTok and Instagram with these tips to really kind of flush out all those, you know, uneducated tips that you see on the internet. Yes. Like I remember one of

I was younger putting toothpaste on our acne. You're right. There is an aspirin mask. Yes, baking soda. Yeah, I forgot about the aspirin. There was so many. Apple cider vinegar was a big. So bad. So bad for your barrier. And then of course, when I was a teenager, if we had a breakout, we would just go in the tanning bed too because the tanning bed would dry it out. I mean, just crazy. I'm so envious of like teenagers, like Gen Z people today that the tanning. beds and like that whole thing is not a trend anymore. I know. I know. That's a whole separate. At least we're getting rid of tanning beds nowadays. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Another thing that I really wanted to ask you about is or are kind of the after effects of acne. So we're talking a lot about treating the

acne itself. But as anybody who's ever struggled with acne or just breakouts in general knows, you know, you can have scarring. You can have like you said, some pigmentation. And that can be really difficult on its own to get rid of. So do you guys have any like tips and tricks to prevent that while you're treating the acne or to heal that quickly after the acne itself has subsided? Yeah, almost always we're dealing with more than just the acne. And that's a hard one too because you'll see people with scarring who, you know, picked at and popped at their skin. But sometimes you'll still see scarring even for people who left it alone just because that lesion was just so damaging to the skin. So to prevent it, of course, be as hands off as possible, be gentle with

your skin. But know that you still may have some scarring, even if you did all of the right things. So there's a few different types of scarring that we'll look at. You'll see like atrophic scarring, which is like actual like, you'll see it like ice pick scars, like scarring that you can feel. That will typically come from someone who is, you know, picking at their skin or trying to pop their lesions on their own. That's something that can be improved a bit with, you know, corrective peels and then really from corrective peels depending on where you're at, you can graduate into you know, microneedling lasers, things like that. And then you have those red marks that are left behind after acne hills. That's post-inflammatory erythema. This is a wound. So it does take some time to

heal. There's a few things that you can do topically to speed up the process. Really just make sure you are having, you know, proper hydration, moisturizer, spf, using tyrosinase inhibitors, really just nourishing the skin so it's in a healthy state to heal. And then with your brown marks that are left behind after the acne lesions have healed, that's post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. This one, you can just get more aggressive with topically. So you can start using more in higher percentages, you know, mandelic, lactic, you know, cogic and azaleic acids. So you can get really intense with corrective peels. You can add in physical scrubs that also contain like mendelic acid in them. So you'll have with that P.I.8.

those brown marks up behind after, those you can be a little bit more aggressive with and they'll heal quicker, they'll go away quicker. But for those real red marks, sometimes you really have to give them time. Really, just try to be as hands off as possible. For infling lesions, you can ice them to help reduce that inflammation. The inflammation is really what's causing damage in the skin. So reducing that inflammation with icing, you can literally just use an ice cube if you don't want to do anything fancy. And then you can also use something like a sulfur spot treatment. Sulfur spot treatment is going to help to reduce that inflammation, but it also has a really nice peptide in there called Nutrazen that is just really going to promote

really just healing everything. Yes, I was going to bring up the sulfur spot treatment because I've been using it when I've had little breakouts and I love it. And I was going to ask you, what is the magic in that product? Sulfur and Nutrazen. Honestly, that's a product that everybody should have because even for like us acne prone folks who have like a full acne routine, 100% clear skin forever is not realistic. We all, you know, have a breakout, you know, after the holidays, when we go a little crazy with what we're eating. After, like, our menstrual cycles, we may break out. There's some things that you can avoid. So having sulfur spot treatment, that's a product I keep in my makeup bag at all times, especially when

I'm traveling. Traveling's another big one that can break you out sometimes. But that's silver spot treatment. It's just an excellent addition. It's not that like cakey, thick, like flaky spot. treatment you're used to has a really nice smooth texture and is relatively clear too. So once you apply it, give it a couple minutes to soak in, but then you can move forward with like your moisturizer and sunscreen. But that sulfur in there is an anti-inflammatory. It's a carotelitic. So it's really going to help really break down the size of these lesions and then that nutrizant. It's really going to step up and really have to calm everything down even further. Yeah. And you face reality also has a really nice sunscreen. And I think that a lot of people

get themselves in trouble here because they may have a really good skincare routine, makeup routine, but it can be hard to find something like a nice non-communogenic sunscreen that doesn't pill up under makeup. That doesn't break you out. I know for myself, like that was a real struggle. So what are some of the other hero products in your opinion from face reality? Honestly, just speaking sunscreen, the daily SPF 30, it is my favorite SPF that I've ever use like regular SPF.

I think the technical names is daily SPF 30 lotion because it really feels like a lotion. It feels like a moisturizer. It's not that super white cakey feel that you'll get a lot of the times with sunscreen. There's no white cast with it. So it's really good for everybody, especially those that have, you know, dry or dehydrated skin types. So that hands down is one of my favorite products that, again, anyone can really use. But as far as Hero product goes, we always say the Mendelic acid, Mendelic serum.

And Mendelic is where we start everybody because it can just handle so many different things. So it really gets that clearing process started because it's inflamed acne, non-inflamed acne, fungal acne, pigmentation, gets the ball rolling on all of that. But we also need to consider those supportive products as well. So moisture balance toner is another one of my favorite, super nutrient rich, super hydrating. This is something where, you know, if you start to get, you know, tight, if you feel that tight feeling after you cleanse, moisture balance comes in and really just corrects. All of that.

It feels amazing. Ultronso cleanser. It's our best selling cleanser. Maybe our best selling product, honestly. But this is going to be a really great cleanse, even for makeup. And it's not going to strip the skin. You don't feel really dry and stripped after you're using it. And then hydro balance is another hero for sure.

This is going to come in with lilac stem cells, which really help to balance out oil production. And you have the spin trap in there, which is a really sophisticated antioxidant. So lots of hero products. but especially those like supportive products as well that are really keeping the skin healthy. And I heard you talk about this on another podcast, but I know that you guys also have at your clinics things like LED and high frequency and these other supportive techniques that can help the skin throughout the healing process as well. Is there one of those that you love? That's your favorite? I can't pick between the two. So I'm going to say both. I love. Both are my favorite. And you can use

both of those at home as well as in the treatment room. So high frequency is something. thing. If you've ever seen it like on YouTube or Instagram, it's that glass wand that usually has a purple or orange gas in it and it's zappy. It sounds zappy. A lot of people will call it the zappy treatment. But really what it does is oxygen is the pores. So it kills any bacteria that could be leading to more inflammation, but it also promotes healing, which is very important for acneic skin. Same thing with the LED. Same idea, just different kind of delivery method, different effectiveness somewhat too. So for us, we, in our treatment room, we use our saluma LED panels. On the acne setting, you're going to get a mix of red and blue lights. Blue light is going to help kill any bacteria present.

Well, red light is really there to rejuvenate the skin. It's helping to heal. It's bringing in that nutrient oxygenation into the skin. So both of those are very excellent use cases in the treatment room. But it's also things that you can do at home as well. Okay. So tell everybody kind of the face reality process and how they can find a face reality expert if they want to work with one. Yeah. Honestly, getting clear is not easy. It's not something you should try or have to do on your own. So you can visit face reality skincare.com. You'll go to, it's going to give you like 10 different options there. But when you land on the homepage, you can click on find an expert. And then you're going to land on a page where you can enter in your address. From there,

it's going to list out, you know, people nearest you by distance. You'll have their Instagram handles, their websites, their contact information, you can find someone from there. But if you are not ready, again, this has a really big mental and emotional impact too. If you're not ready to sit down with somebody, look someone in the face and have them touch and look at your skin, you don't have to. Or if you can't afford both treatments and products, or if there's not someone in your area, you can also click a button to find those that offer virtual services. But you'll go through the consultation, either in person or virtual, your estician or your certified acne experts, they are going to take you through, you know, all things acne. We're going to make sure you are up to date

and you feel comfortable with the next steps are to clear your skin. You'll have very clear understanding of the responsibilities that you will have to clear your skin. And then from there, they'll, you know, do that skin analysis and really curate that custom routine. Really, what an acne expert is, it's that cheerleader, it's that coach, it's that person holding your hand through the process. So it's not like you get your products and then you're on your own. That's someone that you're going to check in with every two weeks. week so that they can see how you're doing and then make adjustments to your home care routine from there. Amazing. Well, I think it's amazing what you guys are doing for all of the reasons that we've

talked about. You know, it is really just such a daunting, challenging thing to navigate on your own. So we will link all of that below so that everybody can access it really easily. And thank you so much for coming on and sharing your knowledge. Yeah, thank you so much for having me and hoping to raise this acne awareness. Of course. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed that episode. And And if you liked it, and if you like the show in general, please take a second to rate, review, and subscribe. It goes a long way, and it's actually the best way to support the show. Also, if you want to see more about each episode, you can head over to The Blonde Files podcast on Instagram. You can go to Arialore.com.

And I'm always posting about each episode over on my personal page at Arial Lori. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.