Mastering the Balance of Sebum and pH for a Glowing Complexion with Dr. Stacy Shillington ND

Unlock the secrets to a radiant complexion as I, Dr. Stacey Shillington, conclude our transformative 8-week Clear Skin Challenge with insights that may just be the missing piece in your skincare puzzle. Say goodbye to the frustration of products that promise the world yet leave your skin irritated and inflamed. In this episode, we explore why a soothing touch and the right routine can be your skin's best friend. We're going back to basics, focusing on nurturing your skin's moisture barrier—your personal armor against the daily onslaught of environmental stressors.

Ever wondered why some skincare routines leave you with more breakouts than before? I'll shed light on the delicate dance of sebum production and pH levels, and why disrupting this balance can spell disaster for acne-prone skin. Your journey to glowing skin doesn't have to be a trial by fire with harsh chemicals. Instead, I'll introduce you to the gentle power of hydrosols and oil cleansing—a revolution for those battling persistent acne, with a note of caution for my fungal acne warriors.

As we wrap up, you might find yourself thinking, "What if my acne persists after all this?" Fear not, because I share my excitement in steering you towards a solution that extends beyond skincare. The Advanced Clear Skin Program is the culmination of 18 years of hard-won expertise, ready to guide you towards not just clear skin, but a vibrant, energized life. Join me, and together let's embark on the ultimate journey to health, well-being, and, of course, that clear, luminous skin you've been dreaming of.

Interested in my new Clear Skin Group Program? Click here to learn more!

Click here to watch my FREE Clear Skin Masterclass and learn more about the 4 pillars of clear skin and my top tips to heal acne for good.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions, where we heal your acne from the inside out. Welcome, naturopathic Beauty. This is episode 8 of the Clear Skin Sessions. This is also week 8 of my Clear Skin Challenge. I am so excited that you have made it this far. I hope that by now your skin is noticing some drastic improvements. From the feedback that I've heard from people, things are starting to shift for so many of you, so I am so pleased that you are seeing results and that you are really starting to heal your acne from the inside out. So, if you are new here, this is the Clear Skin Sessions.

Speaker 1: 0:42

I am Dr Stacy Shillington. I'm a naturopathic doctor. For the last 18 years, I've been helping my patients heal their acne from the inside out, and this podcast is all about sharing my experience and my knowledge with you to help you on your clear skin journey. I also really want you to understand acne. I want you to understand why you are experiencing acne, what the root causes of acne are and, of course, how you can overcome acne and how I can help you on your clear skin journey. So, to launch this podcast, I have hosted an 8-week Clear Skin Challenge and this is week 8. If you have missed the previous episodes, please go back and listen to them, because this challenge is sequential. I want you to follow the steps one at a time, until you finally get to the last week and we're able to really put everything together and notice some big differences. So Clear Skin Challenge week 8,. This is a little bit different than the previous weeks because I'm not going to be focusing so much on healing acne from within, but I'm going to talk a little bit about skin care because, even though the root causes of acne are always addressed from within, if we're overdoing skin care and doing incorrect skin care, it's going to make healing acne that much more difficult. So that is why I'm going to talk a little bit about skin care in this episode and guide you on how you can really use skin care to amplify your healing. So just a little background on what the purpose is of the 8-week Clear Skin Challenge is to reduce inflammation in the body.

Speaker 1: 2:31

Acne is inflammation. Acne is a sign, it is a symptom, it is not a diagnosis, and so what acne is telling you is that there is inflammation in your body and there's something causing that inflammation. So this challenge is all about reducing that inflammation. And, who knows, once you reduce inflammation, your acne may completely disappear. You may not need to go any deeper. But for many of us, once we clear the inflammation, then we're able to really understand the root cause and do a deeper dive to fully resolve any imbalances and heal your acne for good. Because that is really what I'm about. I'm all about drilling down as deep as we can, finding those root causes, balancing them so that not only do you skip clear skin for the rest of your life, but all your other health symptoms resolve as well.

Speaker 1: 3:27

And that's the thing that I love about healing with naturopathic medicine is that we are healing the entire body. The body is so connected. All systems of the body are connected, so it's really impossible to just focus on the skin, because if we're going to heal the skin properly, we have to address the other organ systems as well. And acne really is a complex medical condition because we need to take a look at many different organ systems in the body in order to really understand and heal acne completely. And I know some people are fine with just getting rid of acne even though imbalances are still simmering under the surface. But really that's not how I work. I'm not a surface person at all. I always go really deep, and that's something that makes me so passionate and so obsessive about what I do is I just want to understand completely what is going on.

Speaker 1: 4:25

So let's just review what we've been doing up to this point in the eight week clear skin challenge. So we started by removing dairy, then I helped you find your perfect breakfast, we talked a little bit about reducing stress and I gave you a really great tool to help you transition into your parasympathetic nervous system, which is where your body is able to actually relax and heal. Then we talked about drainage. We talked about removing sugar from your diet, reducing constipation, increasing protein and, finally, that brings us to today, where we're going to talk a little bit about skincare.

Speaker 1: 5:02

And when skincare is used incorrectly, it's going to add to the burden of inflammation in the body. We can inflame the skin just by over cleansing it, by over exfoliating. That is going to create more inflammation in the skin. And when your skin is inflamed, it's vulnerable to redness, irritation, more breakouts. It's also more vulnerable to scarring and hyperpigmentation, and a lot of people don't realize that. A lot of people come to me and they ask how to reduce scarring, how to reduce hyperpigmentation, and it really comes down to inflammation levels in the body, but also on the skin.

Speaker 1: 5:45

So that's what we're going to talk about today, and one of the number one things that I see people doing incorrectly with their skincare when they have acne is they use too many harsh ingredients, and I can see why, because a lot of the skincare that's marketed towards people that have acne is focused on drying out the skin. It's focused on completely wiping out oil production and also really exfoliating the surface of the skin right down, basically as far as it can go. Many patients over cleanse, we over exfoliate, we overdry out our skin and ultimately what this does is it damages the moisture barrier, and when we have a damaged moisture barrier, basically we can't hold moisture within the skin. And the other thing is that our skin is more vulnerable to outside influence, such as microbes, the effects of weather, such as pollution. So many things can make the skin more inflamed far more quickly, and this is really what happens when we have sensitive skin.

Speaker 1: 6:53

So if you have really sensitive skin and you have acne, you really need to pay attention here, because I'm going to guide you on how to use skincare to really set yourself up for success when it comes to acne, and you know, the way that we've been treating acne for decades topically is not the way we're treating the skin anymore, and I remember when I had acne, when I was a teenager even you know we just dried the crap out of our skin all the time. I remember one of the most popular products and I'm probably aging myself by sharing this that was sea breeze. I don't know if any of you remember sea breeze, but it was this toner and this cleanser that you put on your skin and your skin would tingle and I don't know what was in it, but we were drying our skin out so much. Once you would use sea breeze for a while, your skin would get very, very oily and, honestly, with the skincare that we used in the 80s and the 90s and even most of the 2000s, there was no hope of clearing our acne. It was just making it worse. We were just continuing to buy different products and putting our money in the hands of these big skincare companies that really weren't interested in clearing our skin. No, these companies are interested in making money, so they're interested in selling us products that claim to make acne worse. Instead, they claim to make acne better, but instead they make acne worse by really damaging our skin. And you know, the more I treat acne, the more I understand. Less is actually more. You know. The less you do to your skin, the more you allow your skin to function normally, with a little bit of help but not too much help the better results you're going to get.

Speaker 1: 8:40

So let's talk about how the skin works, just to give you a little bit of background, so you understand why we want to focus on gentle skincare. So there are three layers in the skin there's the hypodermis, the epidermis and the dermis. So the epidermis is the very top layer of skin and it consists of about 50 to 100 layers of skin cells, and these skin cells are called keratinocytes. So the epidermis renews itself approximately every 28 days. So think of that Every month you have a new, completely new layer of skin on your face and you want to think of this layer of skin on the very top layer of skin as a brick wall. So the keratinocytes, which are the skin cells, these form the bricks and then in between the bricks there's a mortar, and this mortar consists of ceramides, fatty acids and lipids.

Speaker 1: 9:41

This brick wall is very important because it forms a waterproof barrier. It keeps moisture in. So if this barrier is compromised, you're not going to be able to keep moisture in your skin and your skin is going to feel very dehydrated. But this brick wall also protects us from microorganisms, chemical irritants and allergens. So if this moisture barrier is disrupted in any way, the skin can become red, itchy, irritated, dry, flaking, you know, and it's not going to feel good.

Speaker 1: 10:17

And the one thing that's very important to keep this moisture barrier intact is sebum from the oil glands. This is essential Now, when acne is present, typically it's an overproduction of sebum, so we're producing too much oil and this is the result of many of them balances within the body that we've already talked about. But when we completely eliminate oil production and we've just like strip oil consistently from our skin, the moisture barrier is going to start to it's not going to work as well, because we are not going to have the sebum that's so important to form that brick wall, that that watertight brick wall. So the other thing that's important about the moisture barrier is that it it has a very specific pH. It's slightly acidic, it's between 4.5 and 6.5 and it's acidic because of these secretions from the oil glands and also from the sweat glands. So if we disrupt the pH of our skin, we are going to be more susceptible to the growth of harmful bacteria and fungi. That keeps the moisture barrier intact.

Speaker 1: 11:30

Now, often, when we use incorrect products to, such as soap, for instance, the pH can become too alkaline and this can definitely, you know, disrupt the skin's moisture barrier and we can get overgrowth of fungus, we can get overgrowth of bacteria. However, we can also disrupt the pH of the moisture barrier in the opposite direction and we can make it too acidic and when this happens, the moisture barrier is just damaged. It's really just, you know, think of acid. Acid is just going to, you know, melt that moisture barrier away and leave our skin very, very vulnerable, red, raw and irritated.

Speaker 1: 12:10

So what disrupts the skin's pH and moisture barrier? In acne patients? There are two things. Number one harsh soaps and cleansers. So harsh soaps and cleansers are going to really make the skin more alkaline and we really want to watch out for skin cleansers that contain sodium laureth sulfate and sodium laurel sulfate. These are surfactants. They make the skin care foam, and overuse of products that contain these ingredients is going to make your pH way too alkaline and it's going to make you way too prone to microbial overgrowth.

Speaker 1: 12:52

The second thing that really disrupts the skin pH skin's pH and moisture barrier is the overuse of acidic products. This includes alpha hydroxy acids, retinoic acids, beta hydroxy acids and ametofruit acids, and so you know, when acne is present, patients tend to use a lot of acidic products. We are always exfoliating our skin because a little bit of exfoliation will work well, because we want to continually encourage the renewal of these keratinocyte so that oil does not get trapped in the pores. But when we overdo it, that's when our skin becomes really vulnerable. And one thing I want to mention that's really important is that when the moisture barrier is disrupted, we are more prone to scarring and more prone to hyperpigmentation, and this is a huge deal for acne patients. This is a question I get all the time how can I stop and prevent hyperpigmentation and scarring?

Speaker 1: 13:56

And the number one answer is you have to repair your moisture barrier. You have to make sure you're not using harsh cleansers. You also have to ensure that you're not over-exfoliating your skin. So how do you know if your moisture barrier is intact? So if it's intact, your skin is going to be moist and plump, even if you're still breaking out, your skin will be moist, there's not going to be any irritation, no redness, no flaking, no itching, no discomfort, and your skin should not feel tight or dry after cleansing. So if your skin feels comfortable, chances are your moisture barrier is intact. If your skin does not feel comfortable, then we definitely have to do some work on the moisture barrier. So how do you protect the pH and the moisture barrier?

Speaker 1: 14:47

Step one if you suspect your moisture barrier is disrupted, you have to use a gentle cleanser or even just a hydrosol in the morning. Overusing cleansers is a really big deal when it comes to acne, because often we feel like our skin is dirty, that it's greasy, that we need to clean the oil off. So we tend to use a lot of cleansers in the morning, in the evening and I even meet with patients who are using cleansers midday as well just because their oil production is so prolific. So what I suggest my patients do? Absolutely you have to have a really good, solid cleansing routine in the evening, but in the morning, unless your skin is really oily, you can get away with just spritzing a hydrosol on your face and wiping it with a cotton pad or something like that. If you really feel like you need to cleanse your skin, you need to use a very gentle cleanser in the morning. In the morning you don't need to remove makeup, you don't need to remove pollution. Your skin is going to be fairly clean. Now if you are a really heavy oil producer, you do want to remove a lot of that oil, but you want to do it very, very gently. And in the evening you want to cleanse twice to fully remove the makeup and the dirt. I suggest oil cleansing first and then using a gentle cleanser. Now you do want to be careful with the oil cleansing.

Speaker 1: 16:16

If you're prone to fungal acne, this might not be a great idea. You may want to do a micellar water instead For many of my patients that are not prone to fungal acne. The two products that I really love I love the Mad Hippie Oil Cleanser. It's great. It contains a lot of pumpkin seed oil, which is really good for acne-exkined but not great for fungal acne, and then a gentle cleanser like Clear Stem Gentle Cleanser. That's one that I really like and I'm going to do a separate podcast on fungal acne just so you can understand what it is. But that's a completely different discussion, but I will tell you if you feel like you have a lot of texture on your face, if you have a lot of bumps, like flesh-colored small bumps, stay away from using oils in your skincare routine. Okay, so the second step to really protecting the pH and the moisture barrier is weaning off really harsh topical acne medication. So I'm talking about benzoyl peroxide, antibiotics and retinoids.

Speaker 1: 17:19

If your skin is red, if it's raw, if it's irritated, if it's itchy, if it's really dry, chances are you are using acne medications that are just continually damaging your moisture barrier. You are not going to be able to heal your acne and heal your skin until you repair this moisture barrier. So this can be a little difficult to do because often when you stop some of these acne medications, you can get rebound acne, and this is real. This happens, and when patients are in my program, we work with them to wean off these topicals while we're healing the body at the same time, so that we don't get that rebound acne. But this may be something you have to do and if your skin is really bad, you may need to stop exfoliation for a period of time altogether to allow the moisture barrier to heal, and then you can start very, very gentle exfoliation once again, because, let's be real, exfoliation can be very, very helpful for people with acne. But when you've over exfoliated and you've damaged that moisture barrier, you need to stop the exfoliation, heal the moisture barrier and then find a cadence of exfoliation that works for you. And everybody's cadence is going to be a little bit different. Some people have very tough skin and they can handle exfoliation every day. Other people have very sensitive skin and they can only handle exfoliation maybe once or twice a week, maybe even not that. So everybody is a little bit different.

Speaker 1: 18:56

I usually suggest well, I understand my patients, I understand what their skin is like, so when I understand that, I'm able to give them very direct advice on how to use exfoliators. But start by just using once a week, see how your skin reacts. If there's any redness, discomfort, then you may want to stop for a period of time and just, you want your skin to be comfortable. I can't emphasize that enough. The only time you should be experiencing burning or stinging or anything like that is if you're seeing an esthetician and they're doing a chemical peel on you. Then, yes, you're going to feel the results of that, but with your at home skincare. It should not sting. I don't want that to happen to you.

Speaker 1: 19:43

So some of the acids that I really love to use with my patients I use medallic acid, salicylic acid. I also like to use retinoids, but, as I said, we do this very carefully because I'm always focused on ensuring the moisture barrier is protected, because without that your skin is just too vulnerable, like I said, to scarring, to pigmentation and to developing more acne because of the imbalance in the skin's microbiome. So some of my favorite exfoliants I love Almond Clear. This is really great, especially if there's fungal acne. It uses Mandelic Acid. Mandelic Acid is one of the most gentle yet effective exfoliators for acne. Clear Stem has a really nice formulation. It's a little bit stronger, so if you have sensitive skin you may want to hold off on that. And then, of course, retinol. So Retinol gets a bad rap, you know, because many formulations can be clogging because they are designed for aging skin. But using the right formulation of Retinol can actually be very helpful for the skin and there's a lot of research behind Retinols, you know. They have been shown to really plump up the skin, increase collagen production, and who doesn't love that? I definitely like that as a 50-year-old woman. But, yeah, retinols can be very helpful, but you don't want to use all three of these exfoliants. You want to choose one and really, you know, learn how it works with your skin and use it in a way so that you don't compromise your skin barrier at all. Alright, so hopefully that has really helped you.

Speaker 1: 21:26

Now in my Clear Skin program, of course, we do a lot of in-depth skincare support. That's a big part of what we do. We have to understand what your skin is like. Do you have fungal acne? Do you have sensitive skin? Do you have rosacea? Do you have regular acne? Once we understand what type of acne you're dealing with, what type of skin you have, then of course, we really do a deep dive and we prescribe a protocol, a topical skincare protocol that is right for you. And then, of course, we also have our recommended products, and these are products that our patients have been using for years and remember, I've helped thousands of patients heal their acne. So I really understand what skincare products work and what skincare products don't work. And so once you join my program, we give you a list of all the different products that we love and they're at different price points, so depending on how much you want to spend, we have the product for you, and, of course, we also include makeup and body care products in there as well.

Speaker 1: 22:31

But really, you want to be very careful with your skincare protocol. You don't want to use too many products. You want to use the products that are right for you. Most importantly, you never want your skin to feel uncomfortable when you're using products, and I'm talking about, of course, over-exfoliation, over-cleansing. Definitely pay attention to those two things, because those are the caveats that most acne patients experience. But there's also there's certain skincare products that are going to make your skin feel too heavy, that are really going to trigger more oil production and just sit there and clog your pores, and you definitely want to avoid those products as well and steer clear of some of those poor clogging ingredients, because they are out there and I know some products I put on my face and my skin clogs up within hours. I have the type of skin where I constantly need to keep my pores clear, and I've put together a protocol that does that for me and is anti-aging at the same time, because, of course, that's important for me as well, and I know that's important for everybody else out there too. Okay, so I hope that this podcast episode has really helped shed some light on skincare protocols.

Speaker 1: 23:52

I know we haven't covered everything, but we've covered the two most important things when it comes to Acne and when it comes to establishing a gentle skincare routine, and that's cleansing and exfoliating. Find a gentle cleanser that really works for you. Don't over cleanse and if your skin is raw, red, irritated, take a look at the exfoliation that you're using and cut back on that. I find often many cases of sensitive skin are resolved just by stepping back, using fewer products and using gentler products, and when we do that, you know the skin just starts to come back quite quickly. So, and the one question that a lot of people do ask me that I forgot to mention is how long does it take the skin, the moisture barrier, to heal? And it can take approximately four weeks. That's usually what I find, but you know it also depends on how damaged your skin is and, you know, how healthy your body is, how quickly it's able to repair itself. So there's a lot of different factors that are involved when it comes to that.

Speaker 1: 24:59

Okay, everybody, thank you so much for joining me and thank you so much for joining me on the 8-Week Clear Skin Challenge. I hope that this challenge has really, you know, been helpful for you. I hope your skin is starting to clear. I hope that you are seeing a big difference. Pop into my Instagram if you have a moment. Let me know where you're at. I know I've already received a lot of messages from people that are noticing huge results by following this 8-Week Clear Skin Challenge, so I'm really hoping to hear the same from you.

Speaker 1: 25:33

And, of course, stay tuned for more podcast episodes. They are going to come out and if you have any suggestions on what you would like me to talk about in my upcoming podcast, please drop into my Instagram, send me a DM, let me know what you want to hear about and really what's troubling you on your Clear Skin journey, and you know I'm so happy to share any information that I can. If you would like to work with me, then check out my show notes. You can watch my Free Clear Skin Masterclass. It gives you insight into how I work with my acne patients my four pillars of clear skin that you know are important for clearing anybody's acne, and there's also a link there to book a call with my team.

Speaker 1: 26:17

So if you've gone through these 8 weeks and your skin is just not clearing.

Speaker 1: 26:23

This is the time where you want to work with an expert. This is the time where you want to get some testing done, understand the imbalances that are going on within your body, get some expert advice to heal your body fully. Believe me, there is no better investment than healing your body. You need to experience the feeling of optimal energies, clear skin, clear brain. You know no aches, no pains. You know a really smooth cycle every month great digestion. You know, when you live this way, when you understand how great your body can feel and how good your skin can look, you know this is just a gift and it's so exciting for me to be able to help women achieve this. So definitely check out my Advanced Clear Skin Program If you're interested in working with me and my team. We are here to help God do. I've been doing this for 18 years. I deeply understand acne and I know how to help you. So send it to you lots of love, have a wonderful day and I will see you in the next podcast episode.