Whilst I’m all about healing your acne from within, what you put on your skin is still important. The best acne treatment plans take a holistic view of the body and combine skincare, diet and lifestyle factors and, where appropriate, prescription treatments.

The right skincare is an important element in that treatment plan and will help improve your acne.

Unfortunately, most skincare designed for acne-prone skin can be really harsh on the skin and ends up exacerbating the problem. And switching to natural beauty products isn’t necessarily a solution.

The world of natural beauty can be difficult to navigate. There are more products than ever before, which is great, but there are also a lot of products that just don’t work or are pretending to be ‘clean’ and ‘green’ but are really not.

The easiest way for me to choose skincare that nourishes my skin without causing acne has been to avoid two particular groups of ingredients.

Here’s my approach to ingredients in skincare.

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Skincare ingredients

Ingredients in skincare were not something I gave much thought to until I had my daughter. She developed eczema when she was nine months old. The only help offered at the time by traditional medicine was a steroid cream. I didn’t want to use steroids on her delicate skin and researched everything else I could try.

I already knew that diet had played a massive part in healing my skin, so I made sure I prepared her weaning food with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. I also changed the products I used on her skin. I used bath products and baby wipes with a high percentage of natural ingredients, and used coconut oil to moisturise her skin. Within just two weeks her skin was clear and once again baby soft.

We know now that her skin is reactive to skincare products, or more likely, certain ingredients in those products. In the eight years since her eczema healed, we’ve used many skincare brands. Avoiding some key ingredients has kept her skin smooth.

This experience led me to look at the ingredients used in skincare. Experimenting on my own skin saw some interesting results.

Ingredients to avoid

There are two groups of ingredients common in skincare products that I recommend staying away from:

1. Sulfates

Usually listed on the label as Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) and Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES). They are common ingredients in skincare, particularly in cleansers. They’re surfactants, meaning they help the product foam and remove oil. In my experience, they also interfere with the skin’s natural oils, stripping them away, leading to dry and irritated skin.

2. Petrochemicals

Petrochemicals are listed on labels as petroleum, petrolatum, mineral oil, and paraffin. These ingredients are also common in many skincare products. I think of them as cheap filler ingredients. They help the product go on smoothly, but they sit on top of the skin so have a tendency to block pores. Paraffin is often used in emollients for eczema or psoriasis because it’s a good barrier cream. It literally covers the skin in a protective film that keeps moisture inside. This is helpful for managing eczema, but it’s not great for acne. My experience is that petrochemicals used on the face lead to congested skin and aggravate acne.

These are the two ingredients I look for in skincare. If I see them in a product, I don’t buy it.

There is another aspect of ingredients that’s worth looking into, depending on where you live.

Did you know that in the past thirty-five years, Europe has banned 1,100 chemicals that it considers unsafe in personal care products, while the Food and Drug Administration in the USA has banned eleven? I found this out while reading The Honest Life (2013) by Jessica Alba. If I were in the US, I would look more closely at the ingredients in my skincare products.

But if analysing ingredients is not your thing – and let’s face it ingredient lists are pretty hard to understand – look at brand philosophies instead.

This is where brand loyalty can be helpful. Find two or three brands with an approach to ingredients you feel comfortable with. Try their products, and if they work for your skin, stick with them.

What about parabens?

One question I get asked a lot is my view on parabens. Parabens are a preservative used to prevent the growth of unwanted bacteria and mould in your skincare products giving them a longer shelf life.

The controversy surrounding parabens isn’t about whether they are good for your skin, but whether they increase your risk of cancer. This question comes from a study published in 2004 that showed parabens were found in the tumours of breast cancer patients. This was a small study, and it didn’t say that parabens caused cancer.

Since then some have argued parabens are safe, are found naturally in some foods, and the concentration used in products is too small to cause issues.

Those for and those against paraben use argue their cases vociferously. And I don’t know if they cause or contribute to wider health issues. What I do know is that the term “paraben-free” is slapped on the front of many skincare products to make the consumer think they’re buying a product that’s good for their skin, but if you check their list of ingredients, you’ll see many of them contain sulfates and petrochemicals.

None of the products I use contain parabens. When I look at labels, I check for sulfates and petrochemicals. If it contains either of these two ingredients, I put the product back. I find that manufacturers that have bothered to formulate without sulfates and petrochemicals have also formulated without parabens.

I largely ignore branding that says clean, non-toxic, and natural. I like to know that the products I’m using have a high percentage of natural ingredients, and I enjoy breathing in the scents as I’m applying the product, knowing I’m not inhaling artificial fragrances. But I’m also realistic about the fact that all the skincare products I use were formulated in a lab and made on a production line, rather than in someone’s kitchen.

The way I approach skincare products is to:

• Avoid products with sulfates and mineral oils.
• Stick to brands I trust that have an ingredients ethos I’m comfortable with.

This post is from my book Skincare for Acne-Prone Skin. You can get your copy by clicking below.