I am extremely suspicious of Botox. I suffer from migraines. While I always say that I may be able to get insurance to cover injections for migraine control while smoothing out my worry lines, I probably will never do it. We all age, and I want to age gracefully. My peels and potions will help me do that. I don’t feel the need to inject toxins into my face.
Apparently, a Chicago plastic surgeon is treating acne with Botox injections. This report has been out for a bit, but I just caught on via this post from the really great blog over at Beauty Schools Directory (seriously, the blog is fab and not only for students looking for a cosmo school). He did a study, published in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology, that showed patients experienced a decrease in sebum production and a reduction in pore size. I do want to point out that this study was conducted on 20 patients, 17 of which said they saw improvement. I don’t know too much about the study, or how controlled it was, because I am too cheap to buy the article on line and can only read the abstract.
Anyway… Personal biases about Botox aside, my initial reaction is why try to inhibit sebum production? I really do think oil really draws the short straw when it comes to the acne conversation.
Acne is not caused by oil alone. In fact, the oil on properly functioning skin actually helps keep skin protected from environmental pollutants and also serves as a natural moisturizer. Further, the bacteria that cause acne is found not only on inflamed areas of the face, but also areas of unaffected skin. So what gives?
When the bacteria and oil get trapped under the surface of the skin (i.e. clogged pore), the bacteria is now deprived of oxygen. Without oxygen, the bacteria thrives, inflaming the surrounding tissue and essentially causing that zit (ok, there’s more too it than this, like rupturing under the dermis, etc, but let’s leave it here for the time being). So, while the bacteria is thriving in this particularly oily, anaerobic environment, it is NOT functioning in another area that is oily and exposed to air. Which is why we always talk about exfoliation.
I am seeing a teen acne client now, who has tried every acne product on the market. She came to me with the tightest, driest skin, riddled with inflamed red bumps. Extractions were so difficult to perform without out potentially damaging her skin, that I kept them to a minimum. I put her on a new cleansing routine that eliminated all acne topical treatments for the time being.
When she came to see me after several weeks, she still had the acne, but her skin was not dry and tight and the acne had migrated towards the surface. She was not pimple free (nor did I expect her to be) but this time I was actually able to extract more of the existing acne and as well as some blackhead formations.
I know it’s killing her that it didn’t completely disappear, and I believe she will need to add in a BP or SA spot treatment eventually, but what I need to do first is get her skin back into balance before I add back in more aggressive acne treatments. The complete removal of the natural oil from the surface of her skin was causing the dead skin to trap the oil coming up through the pore, which was exacerbating the acne.
Essentially, healthy skin is balanced skin and when you start inhibiting your oil production you are throwing this balance completely out of whack, and quite likely exacerbating the problem.
As for the Botox… Without knowing the subjects involved in the study, I can’t really say. Perhaps they do have super oily skin that’s throwing their balance off, and the removal of the oil is necessary. But at 500 bucks a pop, there are certainly cheaper ways to treat acne. So I am not sold on this method.
Curious, would you Botox your acne away?
Hey girl hey.
Great article. Thanks for the props to Beauty Schools Directory, too.
I’ve had terrible, terrible skin when it comes to acne most of my life. I, like your client, have used every product on the market, have been to three dermatologists, etc. Right now I am on round 3 of Accutane – the most serious round yet. What are your thoughts on Accutane? What kind of drug-free routine would you prescribe to get away from the tight/dry/acne-proned skin thing?
Tough to say w.out seeing your skin and knowing much about you! Are you on a generic form of Accutane or the real deal? I thought LaRoche was no longer making it in the US… But my thoughts on it–I am suspicious because of all the medical side effects of the drug (like don’t get pregnant b/c of severe birth defects). I do think there are serious flaws in our drug approval system and wonder about the safety. That said, it can work wonders, and if you can get live through the severe dryness that comes with it, many people swear by it.
I had a serious change in my skin when I hit my 30s. Never had problems with acne in my teens/20s and then by my 30th bday I not only had acne, I had painful, horrible cystic acne that would not go away for months. It wasn’t until I stopped with the acne medicated products, and actually realized that I was having a weird reaction to cleansers of all things, that it began to go away and now I can pretty much control it. I formulated my own cleanser, and that really did the trick. If I run out, and use a regular backup cleanser, I immediately start seeing bumps.
So in my particular case, I gave myself skin sensitivity by over-drying my skin with products. Like being around really strong sanitizing solutions, for example, will turn me beet red. I was a lobster all through school just from the fumes our sanitizers gave off.
What I found is that most cleaners have a very alkaline pH, and my skin reacts better when it’s slightly acidic. I was surprised that given my sensitivity, my skin handles and reacts to peels extremely well.
It took a few months of trial and error to get to this point but kicking the acne stuff was ultimately what cleared me up. It’s so counter-intuitive and it’s a hard sell to clients. It’s amazing how much mis-information is out there in the beauty magazine world and the mass market product marketing machine, which is huge part of the reason why it can be such an uphill battle.
I think it’s a wonder-drug while I’m on it. The dryness is pretty intense, but so worth it to have clear skin for the first time in 10 years. There are tons and tons and tons of regulations to it, which sort of makes the process to get it more traumatic, but it’s worth it emotionally if you’ve been coping with acne for more than a decade and your dermatologist gives you the ok.
You said, “What I found is that most cleaners have a very alkaline pH, and my skin reacts better when it’s slightly acidic.” What kinds of cleansers, or NON-cleansers do you recommend to avoid that alkaline pH problem? Anything folks like us with problem skin should avoid at all costs?
Just want to point out that my testing was not exactly “scientific” on this but I was curious and it was the best I could do! For example, the brand name escapes me at the moment, but there’s a tea-tree acne wash out there that’s from an organic/natural company that I thought would be great for my skin, and it wasn’t. Turns out it is pretty darn alkaline. Same with body washes, which is why I now use “no more tears” formulated children shampoos for body wash (Love California Baby’s shampoo for the body, but not so much for the hair). The “no more tears” basically means that it is pH neutral (hence no stinging of the eyes), which keeps my skin away from the alkalinity.
In Europe, companies by law have to label the pH on the bottles, but here in the US it’s not required so it’s not done. I wish it was, cause it would take the guess work out for me.
If you want, DM me your snail mail address on Twitter and I will send you a sample of what I formulated.