Through high school I was blessed with beautiful skin. On the rare occasion that I would get a zit, (usually something huge, red and horrible right in the middle of my face,) I would run crying to one of my best girl pals who would fix me with a murderous glare and say, "Poor baby!," then ignore me for the rest of the day. However, as I got older, I noticed that I have a very specific kind of acne problem and it's a pain in the butt to treat. What to do? Here's how I started and continue to rid myself of subdermal acne.

Exfoliation of the face can lead to more acne, of course, but subdermal acne needs to be treated with light exfoliation, otherwise it will not clear up. I'm not big on going to the doctor, seeing as that I have no money and no health insurance, so I had to figure out something I could do on my own. I've fiddled around with some of the different over the counter products and the truth is, most of them won't work on subdermal acne. While trying to find a definite definition of subdermal acne online I was stymied. Apparently this condition doesn't exist, or I'm not calling it the right thing. The closest thing I can think of is having an infected hair follicle, an ingrown hair, that has turned black. Some doctors online have suggested that frequent tweezing is what causes subdermal acne and suggest not tweezing your face for 45 days or so. Hello?!? This would be very detrimental to any woman's self-esteem.

I know, I know, here comes the part where I plug some cheesy product and you think to yourself, "Yeah... right!," but here's the kicker... It actually, really works. I was never able to find any kind of facial cleanser that worked for me, nothing over-the-counter at least. Everything I used to try to treat my subdermal acne on my chin would end up making the rest of my face break out. And in the course of checking the internet for tips, I found a lot of people talking about using these super-expensive products, stuff that sounded really harsh and full of chemicals. I didn't want to go that route. Personally, after buying up half the isle of skin products that were over the counter and just seeing things get worse and worse, I was really starting to get discouraged. It was with a heavy heart and skeptical mind that I started to look into the LUSH line of facial cleansers. The first one I tried, Aqua Marina made my entire face break out. (I have *super* sensitive skin.) The second, Baby Face, gave my face an incredible softness. It completely repaired all the damage the other over the counter cleansers had done to my face. I usually wait at least a couple of days between trying new products, but I'd found out from more than one dermatologist that you should actually wait over a week between products. It didn't help with the concave black acne that I call subdermal acne.  (It's like a black head that is flat against the skin, or even sometimes concave.) The next product I tried a couple of months later was something called Sweet Japanese Girl.  The first couple of times I used it I thought that there was no way that it'd work.  For one, it kept scratching my cheeks.  I'd looked like I'd been on the losing end of a cat fight.  But after a couple of weeks of using it, and learning how to use it more gently, I noticed an amazing difference in my skin. 

Here are some tips on having fantastic skin, right off the bat:

1. Drink 8-10 glasses of water a day. Hydration is key to good skin.

2. Avoid touching your face after eating greasy foods. Wash your hands frequently. We all touch our face on occasion, it can't be helped, but if your hands are dirty you're putting tons of bacteria onto your face which can cause problems later.

3. Stop fussing with your face. Picking, popping or prodding acne will lead to more acne.

4. Apply make-up lightly and make sure that it is hypo-allergenic. Almay is one of the less expensive brands on the market that is face friendly. Always remember that no matter how lightly you apply your make-up and regardless of how good it is for your skin at the end of the day, you must remove your make-up. Make-up traps bacteria up against your skin.

5. Unless you *absolutely* must use them, avoid toners. Even though it seems counter-intuitive, drying out your face will cause more acne.

6. Try dabbing some tea tree oil on your existing zits. A cotton ball with a few drops of the tea tree oil should do the trick. After applying moisturize your skin.

7. Avoid giving yourself facials more than once every couple of weeks. Facials are great, but if you aren't using the right product they can aggravate your acne further.

8. Do not switch acne products in and out as you're trying to find something that works. Give your face a chance to react to what you're using. If your reaction is so adverse it seems like an allergy, throw the product out, it isn't any good for you. Wait at least a few days before trying something else.

9. Bar soap is not for cleaning your face, unless it is specially formulated to do so.

10. Buy an Aloe Vera plant for the home. It is a great moisturizer, it heals cuts, burns, detoxifies and cleanses your face.

11. Wash and moisturize your face twice a day, once when you get up and once in the evening.

12. Once any product you are using on your face is over a year old it is time to throw it out.

So, now, religiously, every morning I wake up, brush my hair & teeth and start checking out my face. I run some cool water and soak a couple of cotton pads then *lightly* run the backside of Sweet Japanese Girl over my cheeks and forehead. On my nose and chin I use the front side, which has more exfoliating aduki beads. Any ingrown hair follicles I might have cannot take more than a couple of days of this treatment and become easier to pluck with the tweezers. When you're using tweezers on any kind of facial hair, there are a few guidelines you should follow:

1. Always clean your tweezers before use. Bacteria collects on them even if they're encased when not in use. Just get into the habit.

2. Prepare your face for tweezing by using LUSH's Sweet Japanese Girl. Gently wipe the product off with a cold, (cold water opens your pores and helps the hair come out by the root more easily,) wet cotton pad.

3. Make sure you have plenty of light and if possible a magnifying mirror.

4. Pull the skin as taunt as possible. It may not be necessary to do this while plucking your eyebrows, depending on the firmness of your skin, but anywhere else it is an absolute must!

5. After pulling the skin taunt, slowly remove the hair by getting a firm grip on it with the tweezers. Be sure to pull out only one hair at a time and always try to remove the hair at it's follicle to avoid ingrown hairs and quick regrowth.

6. Clean your tweezers after use.