Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions
Clear skin and aging beautifully conversations, trainings and challenges by Dr. Stacey Shillington ND.
Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions
Week 7: The 8-Week Clear Skin Challenge
Your skincare routine might be sabotaging your clear skin goals. Dr. Stacey Shillington reveals a counterintuitive truth in skincare: over-cleansing and over-exfoliating can actually worsen acne by damaging your skin's crucial moisture barrier.
Picture your skin cells as bricks in a wall, with ceramides, fatty acids, and lipids serving as the mortar that holds everything together. This protective barrier keeps moisture in and harmful bacteria out. When we assault this barrier with harsh cleansers and excessive exfoliation, we compromise our skin's natural defense system, leading to increased inflammation, hyperpigmentation, scarring, and—ironically—more breakouts.
The science is clear: healthy skin maintains a slightly acidic pH that naturally inhibits harmful bacteria and fungi. Many acne products disrupt this balance, creating the perfect environment for acne-causing microorganisms to thrive. For those with fungal acne (characterized by flesh-colored bumps), understanding that these yeasts feed on oils is essential for effective treatment.
Dr. Shillington offers a practical, three-step approach to rebuilding your moisture barrier: first, simplify your cleansing routine (consider skipping morning cleansers altogether); second, wean off harsh topicals like benzoyl peroxide; and third, learn how to exfoliate at a frequency that works for your unique skin type. She recommends mandelic acid as the gentlest exfoliant, especially for sensitive skin, with salicylic acid and retinoids as alternatives for specific skin concerns.
Whether you've been fighting acne for years or just beginning your clear skin journey, giving your moisture barrier the care it deserves could be the missing piece in your skincare puzzle. Ready to transform your approach to acne treatment? Listen now to discover how less aggressive skincare might be the key to the clear, healthy skin you've been searching for.
Check out my new FREE Training: Clear Skin Mastery, where I share the different types of acne and how to treat each one. Click here to watch it now.
To get immediate access to the first module of my Clear Skin Group Program, leave a podcast review! Take a screen shot of your review and email it to customersupport@naturopathicbeauty.com and you will be sent your login information!
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Welcome to Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions, where we heal your acne from the inside out. Hello, beauties, and welcome to the Naturopathic Beauty Clear Skin Sessions. I'm Dr Stacey Shillington, naturopathic doctor. For the last 20 years I've been helping women heal their acne from the inside out. The entire purpose of this podcast is to help you on your clear skin journey. Acne is solvable. You do not have to live with acne, but what you do have to do is you have to heal your body from the inside out. That's the only way that you are going to clear your acne for good. So this podcast is actually week seven of the eight week clear skin challenge. I can't believe it's almost over. I hope that you've been following along. If not, go back and listen to the previous episodes, because you want to implement things sequentially.
Speaker 1:This challenge has been designed in a very specific manner and the goal of this challenge is twofold Number one, I want to teach you about the root causes of acne. And number two, I also want to give you simple, implementable strategies that are able to help you solve these root causes of acne, heal your body and heal your skin. Now, I know some of you have probably already seen significant clearing by implementing this challenge and I am so happy for you and I really hope that your clear skin journey continues. Now, others may not have noticed as much clearing on this challenge, and this is usually because there's a deeper root cause of your acne and we have to address it in a different manner. We have to dive deeper, do a little bit of testing perhaps and, you know, implement some supplements and really heal deeply. So not everybody's going to have success on this challenge, but it's going to give you an idea of whether or not you need to do a deeper dive into your health. So I'm going to talk a little bit more about that at the end of the podcast, but let's get into what we're discussing today, and that is skincare.
Speaker 1:So there are two things that I see my patients do routinely and they think they're doing the right things. And of course, I mean my patients come in and by the time they see me, they've been doing so much to heal their skin everything they can think of because we know we're desperate to get rid of acne and one of the things they always do is they buy a lot of skincare, because there's a lot of skincare that's marketed towards us and often we see it as a really simple solution Maybe this is going to work. Or we've heard of other people and this skincare has magically cleared up our skin. So we're like, yes, me too, please. It's totally understandable, but a lot of skincare that geared towards acne can cause us to over cleanse and over exfoliate our skin and that actually leaves our skin more vulnerable to hyperpigmentation, to scarring and actually to getting more acne. So we really need to take a step back and understand how we treat our skin so that we're not causing more acne, but we're actually healing our skin and preventing acne, preventing scarring and preventing hyperpigmentation, preventing acne, preventing scarring and preventing hyperpigmentation. And you know, one thing that people always ask me is how do I? Number one, prevent scarring and hyperpigmentation and number two, heal the scarring and pigmentation that I currently have. And my number one answer is always heal the moisture barrier. When the skin is in good shape, when it is balanced, it's not going to scar. As balanced, it's not going to scar as much, there's not going to be as much pigmentation and it's going to heal much faster and much better than if it's aggravated and inflamed. So the number one thing that I see that people are doing wrong is they're over exfoliating their faces and they're also over cleansing their faces, and this damages the moisture barrier. So let's talk a little bit about the moisture barrier first what exactly it is how the skin works, and then I'm going to give you three steps to implement that's going to help you rebuild your moisture barrier.
Speaker 1:So there are three layers of the skin. There's the hypodermis, that's the very lowest layer of the skin. There's the hypodermis, that's the very lowest layer of the skin. There's the dermis, which is the middle layer, and then there's the epidermis, and the epidermis is the very top layer of the skin, and it's really interesting because it has between 50 to 100 layers of cells called keratinocytes, and these cells renew themselves every 28 days. And these cells renew themselves every 28 days. Now, as you get older, this renewal phase becomes longer, and often acne patients have a longer skin renewal phase as well, and this is often because of androgenic hormones. Androgenic hormones can cause the renewal cycle of cells to become longer. So this means that exfoliation is going to be very helpful when it comes to healing acne, but we're going to talk about how to exfoliate properly so you're not damaging your skin.
Speaker 1:So the top layer of the skin is a protective layer. This is where the keratinocytes are, and they replace themselves every 28 days. Now, in between, the keratinocytes are, and they replace themselves every 28 days. Now, in between the keratinocytes there's ceramides, fatty acids and lipids. So if you visualize the keratinocytes as bricks in a brick wall, these fatty acids and ceramides are going to be the mortar in between the bricks. Acids and ceramides are going to be the mortar in between the bricks. Now, this brick wall, it's like a barrier and it keeps moisture in the skin and it also protects against microorganisms, chemical irritants and allergens from coming in the body. If this moisture barrier is compromised, it's not going to work as well. We are going to lose water from our skin, our skin's going to be dry and we're also going to allow certain microorganisms in that can cause infection. The skin's going to become red, itchy, dry and if we're constantly suppressing oil production, that's also going to damage the moisture barrier, because sebum from the oil glands nourishes the moisture barrier.
Speaker 1:And another thing that's interesting and important to understand is that the skin has a very specific pH. It's slightly acidic, and this acid mantle that's what it calls it inhibits the growth of harmful bacteria and fungi and keeps the moisture barrier intact. Now, when that pH of the skin is disrupted especially if it becomes too alkaline and a lot of soaps can make it alkaline the skin becomes prone to infection, dehydration, roughness, irritation and fungal acne. So for many of my patients that come to me with fungal acne, one of the main causes is a disrupted moisture barrier and a disrupted pH. So how are we disrupting the pH and the moisture barrier?
Speaker 1:Number one harsh soaps and cleansers, especially skin cleansers, containing SLS, sodium lauryl sulfate or sodium lauryl sulfate. These are surfactants that make your products foam and often these soaps and cleansers are going to disrupt the pH of your skin and make the skin more alkaline and, as we saw, an alkaline pH is going to prevent the inhibition of microbial overgrowth. So basically, what that means is fungi and bacteria are going to be able to grow more readily on the skin. The other thing that disrupts the skin's pH and moisture barrier is the overuse of exfoliants, so these lower the skin's pH and this can cause dryness and irritation for the skin. So when you're cleansing a lot, when you're using a lot of acidic products, the skin's moisture barrier is going to be assaulted and we need to stop this insult from happening in order to really get clear skin and to get that moist, glowy skin that I know everybody is after. So how do you know if your moisture barrier is intact? Many of my patients are like is my moisture barrier okay, how do I know? So if your skin is moist and intact and there's no irritation, redness, flaking, itching or discomfort your skin, your moisture barrier is probably fine. Another really interesting experiment to do is cleanse your skin and then just sit back and wait for five to 10 minutes. If your skin gets tight or dry after cleansing, the moisture barrier is probably compromised. Okay, so how are you going to protect the pH and moisture barrier of your skin? So step one If you suspect your moisture barrier is disrupted, use a gentle cleanser or hydrosol in the morning.
Speaker 1:So for me, you know, to keep my moisture barrier really in good shape, I don't cleanse my skin in the morning and this is something that I suggest you consider as well unless you're waking up with tons of oil. If you wake up in the morning and your skin is at a place where it's dripping with oil and many of my patients do start here you're going to have to cleanse in the morning. Choose a very gentle cleanser, but if your skin is not really oily in the morning, skip that cleanser. Instead, use a hydrosol. So what I do every morning is I spritz on a rose hydrosol and then I just wipe it off with a cotton pad. This works great for me. It keeps my skin really moist and supple.
Speaker 1:When I start to cleanse my skin in the morning, it tends to get a little drier, and when your skin gets drier, it actually produces more oil to compensate, so my skin actually gets oilier. Does that make sense? I know it sounds a little backwards, but the drier your skin is often, the more oil it produces. To little backwards, but the drier your skin is often, the more oil it produces to compensate. The other thing that you can do is, in the evening, cleanse twice to fully remove makeup and dirt, and first you're going to oil cleanse, then you're going to use a gentle cleanser. So I really love this system of cleansing.
Speaker 1:Now, the only people that it doesn't really work for is if you have a lot of fungal acne. So fungal acne is texture, so it's a lot of flesh colored bumps on your face. It usually indicates a fungal overgrowth. The yeast that's implicated is usually a yeast called melassezia, and melassezia feeds off of oil. That's its main source of nourishment. So if you're applying oil to your skin and you notice texture getting worse, that's a sign.
Speaker 1:Definitely cut out all oil and all your products. You want to use oil-free products and don't oil cleanse. But if you don't have a problem with fungal acne, I find oil cleansing incredibly gentle and soothing and it's great at removing makeup. So I use an oil cleanser by Mad Hippie. It's called Mad Hippie Cleansing Oil. The reason I really love it is because it contains pumpkin seed oil, and pumpkin seed oil is very high in linoleic acid and research has shown that acne patients tend to have a deficiency of linoleic acid in the sebum. So by adding linoleic acid topically, we're normalizing the sebum production within the skin and it's also really soothing and it's really great to remove all your makeup. So that is what I love to use.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of great cleansing oils out there I'm going to say that, but I really like this one out there. I'm going to say that, but I really like this one. And then I use a very gentle cleanser and I use one by La Roche-Posay. It's called Tolerian Cream Cleanser and the reason I like it. It is very simple, it has about five ingredients and it's specifically designed for very sensitive skin, and I love using products for sensitive skin because I truly believe that that is what our skin needs.
Speaker 1:We do not want to use cleansers that have a lot of exfoliants in them. That's not the place to exfoliate. We exfoliate separately from cleansing. That gives us more control over how we're exfoliating our skin and we need to have control over exfoliation because itiating our skin and we need to have a control over exfoliation because it can be so damaging to people that have sensitive skin. So when you're cleansing very simple products, very gentle products, and do two different steps, so you're getting rid of oil and then you're doing a second cleanse just to make sure we've really got everything Okay.
Speaker 1:So step two if you're using harsh topicals, you want to consider weaning off them. So harsh topicals include benzoyl peroxide, antibiotics and, for many people, retinoids. So you know when my patients come to me if they're really nervous about coming off these products because these products are keeping their skin under control. I get that and you know, often I suggest we do some inner healing. First, we reduce inflammation from within and we start to slowly wean off of these products. It's totally fine to take it slow you don't have to rush but it is beneficial to your skin to eventually get off of these products.
Speaker 1:And you also want to consider reducing or stopping exfoliation completely for a period of time to allow the moisture barrier to heal. So if people come in they come in to see me their moisture barrier is disrupted a lot of redness, a lot of dryness, a lot of sensitivity. Number one stop all exfoliation, and this is going to feel kind of weird. It's going to be kind of a regeneration period for about a month. It takes about four weeks for the moisture barrier to really regenerate itself and the skin isn't going to be great during this time because it's used to that exfoliation. So you're going to feel like you want to exfoliate.
Speaker 1:But we need to heal the moisture barrier first in order to start exfoliating at a cadence that's right for your skin. So if your skin is not sensitive, you can use a gentle exfoliant and slowly introduce it into your routine. But the cadence is going to be different for everybody. And this is step three. This is learning how to use an exfoliant for your skin. So for my sensitive patients, we've gone off exfoliants for a period of time, for sure, and then we start to add one in. And we start by just adding in once a week and if they're good with once a week, then we'll try twice a week. See, if they're good twice a week, we'll do this for a couple of weeks, then maybe we'll increase a little bit more or maybe they're really good at that place. So everybody is going to be a little different in terms of the cadence of exfoliants.
Speaker 1:I happen to have very robust skin, especially when I was younger, so I was able to use exfoliants four to five times a week. Now I know more about exfoliants four to five times a week Now. Now I know more about exfoliants. I'm 51. I only exfoliate once a week. I do a really good exfoliation, but I find if I exfoliate too often my skin gets dry. So it's funny that as I've aged I actually exfoliate less, that I find my skin looks a lot better.
Speaker 1:So you have to find what works for you. It's not going to be the same for everybody Now the type of exfoliant that you should use. So there's three main types that I recommend to my patients. There's mandelic acid, salicylic acid and retinoids. Now you have to be very careful with all of them. Mandelic is a very gentle exfoliant. Most people have success with this. I especially really like this. For fungal acne. It's excellent. Salicylic acid this is a type of exfoliant that actually penetrates into the pores and can break up oil deposits within the pore, and this is not as gentle as Mendelic acid. So I do not want to use this on very sensitive skin. But if the skin is more robust, if there tends to be a lot of congestion in the skin, then salicylic acid can work really well.
Speaker 1:And then retinoids. There's a ton of research around retinoids, and I mean often. If you go to see the dermatologist, they will definitely recommend retinoids, and they're doing it for a good reason, because there's a bunch of research behind it. But in my experience retinoids are not for everybody. They work for some people really well. For other people, like myself, they just don't work, and I find my patients with sensitive skin need to stay far away from retinoids at least until we heal their gut, their skin is in really good shape, then maybe they can try it. But at that point they usually don't want to, nor do they need to. But if you are going to do retinoids, start very slowly. I mean, sometimes you do it once every two weeks to begin with, but you definitely want to follow your doctor's recommendations when it comes to starting retinoids, because they're really harsh medication.
Speaker 1:It's very active. So when we get a retinoic acid from the dermatologist, this is an activated form of vitamin A, so it is going to go into your skin and it is going to be very active. When you have retinol, that's not an activated form of vitamin A, so when you apply it, the skin is going to convert the inactive vitamin A to active vitamin A as much as it needs. So there's a little bit of a break that's put on. That prevents too much activated vitamin A from attaching to the receptors and drying out the skin and irritating the skin. So if you are going to use a retinoid, I do recommend a retinol as opposed to a retinoic acid, just because your skin and your body is going to control the conversion, whereas a pharmaceutical drug is already converted, so we don't have control over that and that's when the dryness and the redness really start to happen. I hope that made sense.
Speaker 1:Okay, so recommended exfoliants. So I love almond clear. It is just a really great brand. I use it a lot for people that have fungal acne, for people that cannot tolerate oils. So if you're not sure if you have fungal acne or if you have regular acne, I would suggest starting with almond clear because their formulations are oil-free. If you do not have fungal acne, clear stem does have a really great product with mandelic acid. It's very gentle. It's a little bit stronger than the almond clear one and can be a little bit more aggravating, but it's still a really great product. I always recommend start with mandelic acid because it is the most gentle product out there.
Speaker 1:So for in-depth skincare support, I offer this within my programs and we do a deep dive to figure out exactly what type of acne you have. Maybe you have fungal acne, maybe you have sensitive skin and rosacea, maybe you have regular acne. It's really helpful to understand the type of acne that you have, because there are specific products for each type of acne and that's what we go into in my program. We make sure that you're using the products that are right for you and there's great products at every price point, products that are natural, products that are not aggravating. You do not have to spend a million dollars on your skincare protocol. That is not necessary at all, and we recommend products at every price point in my program.
Speaker 1:So hopefully this podcast has been helpful for you. Hopefully there's been an aha moment. Hopefully you are inspired to make sure that your moisture barrier is in the best possible health that it can be, because it is just so critical to have a healthy moisture barrier to prevent acne, to prevent scarring and to prevent hyperpigmentation. So if you have enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review. This is how we reach other women that are suffering with acne and help them on their clear skin journey. There's a link in the show notes that tells you how to leave a review. We very much appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thank you, and if you want to learn more about next steps on your clear skin journey, be sure to watch my masterclass. It's called Clear Skin Mastery. It's completely free and I teach you the steps that I go through when I heal acne, and most of the patients that come to me to work with me they've had chronic acne for a period of time. It's complex. There's different organ systems that need to be balanced and healed, and that's what we do and that's what I teach you about in Clear Skin Mastery. So be sure to give it a watch. So thank you so much for listening and get ready for the final podcast in the eight week Clear Skin Challenge. It's happening next week. Have a wonderful week. Have fun organizing your skincare protocol. I always love doing this and I'll see you next week.