8 Weird Things That Cause Acne Breakouts

Sometimes it can feel like acne occurs with no rhyme or reason. While the main cause of acne is genetic/hormonal reasons, there can be physical and environmental aspects at play as well. Noticing the patterns of when your acne occurs will help you keep breakouts from happening as frequently and intensely.

Here’s a list of things you may not have thought of before that definitely cause breakouts and what to look out for:

1. Tanning
Of course it’s common knowledge that sitting in the sun too long, particularly without sunscreen causes some pretty severe reactions, not just sunburn, but also skin cancer. But what’s really going on when it comes to acne? While you’re lying there getting your tan on, the sun is drying out your skin and triggering excess oil production which leads to your skin breaking out.

2. Your boyfriend’s beard
The smoothness of your face brushing up against the roughness of his face irritates the skin and increases oil production. Increased oil production means breakouts for your skin.

3. Touching your face
You may have heard this before, but here’s a gentle reminder that touching your face is bad for acne-prone skin. Your hands transfer oil and dirt onto your face which clogs your pores and causes breakouts.

4. Your perfume
As if you needed one more thing to worry about making you break out! But sadly, this one can be easily missed. Your perfume has oils and ingredients that don’t necessarily play nice with acne prone skin.

5. Travel
From changes in humidity to airplane air filters, this one can be hard to pinpoint exactly. Was it the food, the water, or the weather of your new location? Of course travel shouldn’t be avoided just because of a breakout so it’s very handy to have a good routine in place and products to take on the go with you to manage any impending circumstances outside of your control and help keep your skin happy.

6. Your cell phone
Sanitizing your phone with a Clorox wet wipe or something similar at least once a week will help bacteria from gathering and multiplying on your devices and being transferred on to your delicate skin.

7. Using too many aggravating skincare products
Raise your hand if you’ve ever used St. Ives Apricot Scrub. Of course you have, we all have! It’s one of those you probably picked up thinking, “My skin needs to thoroughly cleaned. This will do the trick!” But this product in particular is simply too much. Put the harsh scrubs away and take a look at these instead.

8. Your makeup remover (or lack thereof)
Every night you should be washing your face: 1) for the sake of removing your makeup and excess oil and dirt and 2) to prep your skin for your nighttime routine. This helps tremendously in reducing breakouts.

We know you have lots of questions when it comes to getting your skin clear so give us a call at 801-800-6602 or book your appointment today to meet with us in person.