Essentials Skin and Wellness Center

Top 4 Reasons You Breakout During the Holiday Season

Isn’t that just how it is? We get busy and start planning fun activities with family and friends, only to wake up with a big red breakout or worse, clusters of breakouts, on our chin, cheek or forehead. It’s not like you don’t take care of your skin. Why does it seem that skin is more prone to breakouts during the holidays? Is it just your imagination? The answer is no. You aren’t just imagining things. As fun as this season can be, it also can create the perfect storm for skin challenges like, inflammation, oil and dry imbalances and the dreaded breakouts.Here are the top 4 reasons that may shed some light on this phenomenon.

Reason #1:

The old Grinch Stress! That’s right. This time of year has a tendency to bring on a lot of stress. If you’ve ever followed any of my blog posts or Facebook Live Videos in the past, we know that stress wreaks havoc on our Cortisol levels. That leads to hormone fluctuations and inflammation. Which can lead to nasty breakouts. How do you know if your breakout may be coming from stress? These breakouts often will be hard, red, inflamed and sore bumps under the skin that rarely come to the surface. They also may be located on the chin, jaw or forehead.

Reason #2:

Sugar! Oh, the way we love the sweets and carbs the second the “Holiday Season” is upon us. Usually starting as soon as Halloween. I know, we all try to be good but let's just cut to the chase here. Who doesn’t love home baked goodies?? It’s usually tied to tradition and good feelings so it’s a hard thing to avoid. Why should we avoid it in the first place? Sugar isn’t all about weight gain. In the skin care world, it actually has a lot to do with our friend inflammation and a little thing called glycation. Glycation is when a sugar molecule bonds with a protein molecule and actually breaks down the skin barrier and accelerates aging, cases inflammation and attacks microcirculation. How does this cause Acne? Well simply when you have inflammation increased while at the same time a breakdown in your skin barrier, imbalance takes place and you are open to a bacterial attack. If your microcirculation is affected, it can affect the blood flow to the area and toxin removal of the follicles. So basically, sugar in large quantities are kind of a negative thing.

Reason #3:

Eggnog! Eggnog, really? Yes Eggnog! Well actually, dairy. Believe it or not, dairy has long been known to be a trigger to acne breakout. These breakouts often look like pustules and can be filled with clear liquid. They also can show up around the mouth and come in clusters. Because of the presence of hormones, as well as its effect through the insulin like growth factor (IGF-1), dairy intake may aggravate acne on a number of levels, including an increase in oil production, inflammation and abnormal hormonal activity. So very sad! But maybe it’s time to switch to apple cider.

Reason 4:

Busier schedule. How does a busier schedule impact your skin? Besides the stress we already talked about above, business can also lead to small changes in daily habits that all have a larger result than originally thought. Canceling that monthly facial because there just isn’t enough time. Getting to bed later causes lack of sleep which slows to bodies repair time. Drinking more alcohol or coffee and such, causes more dehydration which can throw skin out of balance. Being too tired to remove makeup at night can result in compacted pores. Catch the drift? The busier we are the more apt we are to put ourselves last. And although this is a life lesson, the Holiday season is no exception. So take a moment to slow down, take stalk and decide to treat yourself well this year and your skin will thank you for it!