A frequent question that I get form our DermTV viewers is: if I have acne and I’m treating my acne with topical skincare products, when in the routine of putting on my products, do I put my moisturizer on? That may be a trick question, and the reason it may be a trick question is that almost everybody with acne has oily skin, particularly in the T-zone. Oily skin means you have just too much oil, and when you have too much oil, it lays on the skin and tends to hold in your own moisture, so it’s very unlikely that you’re going to be dry in the T-zone. Now, moisturizers are used to treat dry skin, which is an absence of moisture and that’s just very unlikely to happen in the T-zone because of that extra oil. However, there are some people with acne who have dry cheeks, and the reason that they have dry skin on their cheeks is because we have many fewer oil glands on your cheeks. That’s one of the reasons you tend to get less breakouts there. But with those fewer oil glands you can’t hold in your own natural moisture as well. So in that case, those people have oily T-zones, dry cheeks and they thus have combination skin. So, they do need moisturizers. There are however just three rules. Number one: put your acne medicines on first. Number two: then put your moisturizer on. And number three: if make-up is appropriate, put it on then. A last point: make sure your moisturizer is water based or oil free and you really want to avoid putting that moisturizer on in the T-zone. It’s unnecessary, it’s just another layer, you’ll get done quicker if you don’t and who knows…maybe that extra layer will then predispose you to clogging more pores.
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