Do you dread summer because you feel like your skin becomes its own oil manufacturing plant? Is it much worse than other times of the year? You scrub your face and apply drying agents, but it doesn’t help or gets worse? If you have oily skin or acne prone skin, summer can be tough.
Summer Fun Affects Skin
The heat, the humidity, the sunscreen, the sun, and exercising with all those elements in play can wreck havoc on your challenged skin issues. It’s true; the fun of summer can make skin more oily and breakouts worse. On top of that, summer is also a time when you may also relax your healthy diet regimen, eating and drinking foods that acerbate your skin condition.
Over-Cleansed Skin Effect
When skin is oily, the oil worsens, or pimple breakouts increase, there is a tendency for many people to try to fix it by washing the face more or using drying products and soaps. However, the opposite happens. Over cleansing your face and using drying products, such as toners, pimple treatments (especially those heavy with chemicals), and harsh soaps/face washes makes the skin worse. Your body responds when your skin is over dried by making more oil to compensate. But, it overcompensates and makes too much oil. A vicious cycle begins of washing, applying skin treatments/ointments and skin cells registering dryness and vamps up oil production. You need to break the cycle to get your skin in balance. 
Two Things To Firmly Hold in Mind
Before I get into the specifics of making oily and acne skin better during summer, you need to firmly put two things in your mind and hold to them. One is you need to keep to a regimen, not matter what. Secondly, you need to work on the problem from the inside out as well as topically. It’s the inside out that most people have trouble with and balk at. For one thing, it may require some diet changes (for the better). We’ve been mentally conditioned for years from the medical community that diet doesn’t affect the skin. This is bad information. Makes me crazy to even think that this was the propaganda from doctors for generations. Yes, let’s be clear, diet does affect the skin. Hello! Scurvy! This is just one disease doctors should have used to put two and two together: If you don’t get vitamin C, you get scurvy and one of the effects is hemorrhagic skin papules, not a pretty sight.
Enjoy Summer Fun and Keep Pimples and Oil under Control
Have A Regular Cleansing Regimen and Stick to It. Wash your face twice a day with mild cleanser, especially in the evening. DO NOT GO TO BED WITH MAKEUP ON! Never, ever. I prefer you use an organic cleanser. Use warm/lukewarm water. Do not use hot water on your face. Only time you would wash your face more than twice a day is after exercising. If you swim, rinse the chlorination off with lukewarm water, but don’t wash, and apply a proper moisturizer. If you use a sunscreen, remove it as soon as you come indoors by gently cleansing. Regularly use a very mild exfoliator. You can use a mild one daily. Don’t use a toner; they are of no benefit to the skin. And for oily skin and acne prone skin, they are too drying. They can cause the vicious cycle mentioned earlier.
Take Ice and Rub Over Your Face. You want to calm and cool your skin. I take an ice cube to my face twice a day. Once in the morning and once in the evening before going to bed. I do it for other reasons that oily skin, mature skin…. It’s great for sending to fresh oxygenated blood to the skin. Fresh blood contains nutrients. I hold the ice in a washcloth or hand towel, and travel it over my face and neck. You can also put ice water in a basin and dunk your face it. I think that’s more work. Just don’t hold the ice too long on one spot. If you have a pimple though, you can leave the ice on it for a few seconds to help calm it, and help reduce its size.
Use a Moisturizer. I know this can make some of you cringe at the idea. Moisturizer/oil on oily, acne skin?? But, a really good moisturizer balances the oils on oily and acne prone skin. We, of course, love argan oil for this. Our Argan Serum is our top seller, five years out (it also has effective essential oil). Whatever, moisturizer you use, make sure it doesn’t block pores or have unnecessary ingredients, such as preservatives or bactericidals. Lotions often have these. Again, that’s one of the reasons we created our acne line, so as not to have unnecessary ingredients that can make acne worse.
Eat as Many Fresh Fruits and Vegetables as Possible. Everyday single day eat your veggies and fruits, especially include dark green leafy vegetables. Some of them are kale, spinach, dandelion greens, and lettuces other than iceberg. But, anything fresh is good. Eat them raw, steamed, or roasted to change it up, and keep your palate interested. If you eat something bad, i.e, not good for skin, cleanse your body by eating fresh fruits and vegetables as soon as you can. For example, you go to baseball game and eat hot dogs, nachos, etc. and drink beer or soda. For next few days, stick with a fresh fruit and vegetable diet. Buy or make green health drinks.
Drink Water. Everyday day drink water. Researchers say you need to drink half your body weight in ounces everyday. So, if you weight 150 pounds you need 75 ounces of water every day. This is if you are not doing anything. So, if you exercise you will need more. And I think it’s good for acne prone skin to drink more, to make it healthy again. If you are dehydrated, your skin will suffer. The body will want to protect vital organs first when dehydrated, so will pull hydration from those parts of the body that it deems as not as important, such as the skin. Don’t include other beverages in this, especially alcohol.
Change Your Pillowcase Daily. If you don’t have that many pillowcases, cover your case with a soft towel. Oil that is produced overnight get transferred to your pillow either from your face or hair. Bacteria begins to grow. At night the bacteria can make it’s way to your face.
Exercise. Exercise helps in many ways. Nutrients get distributed throughout the body more efficiently. It helps to control stress; stress makes acne worse and overstimulates oil glands. Exercise removes toxins and stimulates the lymphatic system, which helps the body fight “invaders.” Exercise also keeps your weight in control; studies have shown link between being overweight and acne. Just remember to gently cleanse face afterwards and rinse face in cold water or use ice cube treatment.
Limit Sun Exposure. The thought used to be that the sun helped acne and oily skin. But, that’s not so. The sun is not good for these to conditions. The other thing is if you also use a sunscreen you compound the problem. Sunscreen can create oils or attract dirt. And then, there’s the detrimental effects of direct sun on problem skin. Sun blocking hats are the best; those with UVB ratings. However, you may want to enjoy some sun activities. So, be reasonable and create a balance. 
Take every effort to limit sun exposure on your face. But, also enjoy those sun activities you enjoy. Maybe you have an activity, such as playing kickball that you can switch to doing in the evening. Just remember to gently cleanse your face afterwards and follow with cold water splashes or ice cube treatment.
There you have it, a cleansing regimen, a super healthy diet, water, exercise, and keeping a balance between enjoying the things of summer you love with the realistically maintaining healthy skin. Yes, sometimes it does come down to what is more important your skin or forgoing something that will make it worse. Oh, one other thing: Don’t squeeze those pimples.
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