One of the places I like to start when talking about skin, is that our skin is an organ of elimination, like our lungs, bowels, kidneys, and liver. So I never understood why so much of what we do is set on plugging the pores up in the skin or creating a barrier to not let products penetrate into the tissue. Our skin like so many things is this world is dynamic, complex in some ways, and then simple in others.
One of the primary ingredients in acne products is benzoyl peroxide, while in the beginning it seems like it is a miracle product. In the long run, it works on a limited range of bacteria in the skin and the moment you stop using the product it, your acne comes back and is usually worse than it was before you started using the product. I also usually find that people that use this product also have a shiny look to their skin.
By drying the skin out, we are doing a few things to the skin.
1. You are clogging the skin because it ends up keeping it in the tissue versus letting your skin let it go. I liken this to sticking your finger in a hole to plug a leak, what happens at some point is all that stuff has to come out or you keep holding it in the skin in a way that you are just managing the problem.
2. While some dehydration may be necessary, consistent dehydration is not. This is where the shiny skin comes into the picture. When your skin is constantly dehydrated it then signals to the tissue to help it make more moisture and usually that is more oil secretion or if you have been using it a long time it also could be a detox secretion in the skin.
3. We are also striping the skin of its natural barrier, which is then throwing the skin off its own natural balance.
When I would treat someone’s skin my goal was always to get the skin to do its own job and to try and use things that were supportive to that process. One of the big things for this is Hydration, which is why most of the products I carry, have this as the focus. Hydration is also something that helps keeps things moving in the skin and supporting the process of elimination.
