Salt Aesthetics

5 mistakes you could be making when trying to heal your acne from a naturopathic skin practitioner🫧

1. Only focusing on skincare.
Skincare is important, but if your breakouts are being influenced by hormones, insulin resistance or inflammation topical products can only address part of the picture and sometimes you need to look beyond the skin.

2. Cutting foods out instead of looking at what’s missing.
Before eliminating dairy, gluten or sugar let’s have a look at what you’re actually eating. Are you getting enough protein, zinc, omega-3s and fibre? These nutrients support skin repair, inflammation regulation and healthy hormone function. Restriction isn’t always the answer.

3. Ignoring your blood sugar.
Regular spikes in blood sugar can increase insulin, which can stimulate androgen activity and excess oil production. This is particularly relevant for hormonal acne and PCOS. Start by pairing carbohydrates with protein, healthy fats and fibre rather than eating them on their own or perhaps changing what you’re having for breakky (cough cough overnight oats)

4. Taking supplements without knowing what you need.
Zinc, DIM, probiotics and liver supplements aren’t automatically the answer to acne. Supplementing without understanding the cause can waste money, create imbalances and sometimes make things worse. More supplements don’t always equal healthier skin.

5. Assuming all acne has the same cause.
Not every breakout is hormonal just like every breakout is gut-related. Acne can be influenced by genetics, hormones, skincare, medications and lifestyle factors. Two people with similar breakouts can need completely different approaches.

The biggest mistake I see people making is treating the skin without asking why it’s happening. Healthy skin is more than what you put on it, your skin is often trying to tell you something else is going on and is your bodies way of signally it wants a little help! Healthy skin is about what’s happening on the inside too🫧🔬

I had a client with PCOS who was having overnight Weet-Bix every morning. It wasn’t that the Weet-Bix was necessarily but with PCOS I’m always thinking about insulin and blood-sugar regulation because higher insulin can drive higher androgen activity, which can then influence oil production, inflammation and breakouts.

So rather than having a carbohydrate-based breakfast and adding protein to it, I suggested we flip it and make whole-food protein the main part of breakfast. Think eggs, meat and healthy fats and then see how her skin responds. It’s not about saying Weet-Bix causes acne but it’s looking at those little things we can change to potentially reduce some of the internal drivers behind her breakouts.

Sometimes we can be making great choices, however those choices may not be suited to our body and what it needs right now. Tiny shifts and tweaks can be all you need to see your skin change!

And this is where I think seeing a skin therapist with a naturopathic background can be such a game changer. I’m obviously looking at what’s happening on the skin with things like congestion, inflammation, barrier function, what products we’re using and what treatments will help but I’m also asking why is this skin behaving like this in the first place?

That’s the secret sauce for me. We can treat the skin topically, but if there are things internally that could be contributing like blood-sugar regulation, hormones, stress, digestion, nutrient intake and lifestyle I want to look at those too. When we get the full picture we can address the internal drivers and two things happen, we stop the cycle or repeat breakouts but we also educate you on your body, and help you become a practitioner on your own skin!

If you’re fed up trialling with trialling new things in an attempt to get ontop of your skin concerns, come see us and let’s get to the bottom of it together!