Sudden Breakouts and Dryness

by Shyma
(India)

Though I have a slightly sensitive skin, my skin looks pretty fine most of the time- with small pores, no breakouts. All of a sudden, I have developed a few tiny breakouts on the forehead and cheeks, and dryness around the nose and under the eyes. I am going through PMS. I am facing considerable stress in my personal life, as a result of which I do not get adequate sleep. I know that I need to get good sleep and not take on too much stress, but the breakouts get me all the more anxious and I tend to touch them a lot. I feel like getting a herbal facial done to fix my skin but am not sure. Please advice on what immediate steps I should take to improve my skin in a few days. (note: I had used Retin-A 0.025% for a day or two in very little amounts).

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Our reply

Hi Shyma, thanks for your message! I understand, it can be so difficult to have your skin breaking out! I it also understandable that you would want to do something to fix the breakouts, however in some cases this can actually make the problem worse.

Sensitive skin can react to almost anything, and in today's stressful world, it is not possible to completely avoid stress or change. There are several things that could be contributing to your breakouts, such as stress, lack of sleep, reaction to foods or chemicals, or hormonal imbalances.

Our bodies are unique and they change daily, so sometimes the foods, daily habits and skincare products that worked well a month ago may not work well today. For this reason it is helpful to develop an ongoing relationship with your body so that you can sense when you may need to make changes to your diet or skincare or daily habits.

It is understandable to feel more anxiety when your skin breaks out, however the anxiety can become self fulfilling, where you feel anxious that your skin is breaking out, which actually increases the stress hormones in your body and contributes to more breakouts.

When you feel anxious about your skin breaking out, it can be helpful to find a way to send your body loving thoughts of appreciation. This will help focus your attention away from the anxiety. Our bodies are quite amazing and if you can find a way to appreciate all the things that are working well in your body, this will help create a more relaxing and peaceful atmosphere for your body that will help to calm the anxiety, and therefore reduce the stress.

When my skin breaks out, I give my skin a break by stopping all skincare products for a day or two. If that is not possible, I use very, very gentle products that I know will not cause breakouts. (Cleure products are good for this, they have never caused my skin to break out.)

With sensitive skin, often it gets overwhelmed by environmental or hormonal stresses which can cause a breakout, and sometimes adding more treatments to your skin can actually make the problem worse.

If you can think about taking stress away from your skin when it breaks out, rather than adding more creams, lotions and herbs to your skin, this may help your breakouts to resolve more quickly.

Another approach you may want to consider is using a gentle homeopathic remedy when you have breakouts. Homeopathic remedies usually do not have the same kind of side effects that herbs or medicines have on your skin, so they are a good choice if your body tends to become overwhelmed with other types of treatments.

When you use a homeopathic remedy for skincare, it either works or it doesn't work for you; it generally does not cause a breakout. For example ***z-native-hive-away.shtml*** works really well to calm down hives, skin eruptions and breakouts, and ***z-native-mediac.shtml*** helps to clear up acne breakouts and blackheads.

I hope this information can be helpful for you during this stressful time! Please let us know what you learn that works for you!