What Are These Bumps on My Skin?

Especially for those over 40, little bumps can start to appear on the skin, leaving people wondering what they are. People think they are developing clogged pores and so they attempt to extract them with no luck. Then they start treating their skin with harsh products thinking that it’s a form of acne and they are left with dry, irritated skin with the bumps still present.

So what are these bumps?

One of the pleasures (sarcasm) of aging is that benign (non-cancerous) growths occur on the face, neck and body. They begin as small, rough bumps and over time, they thicken and get larger. There are many names for these; seborrheic keratoses, actinic keratoses, skin tags, sebaceous hyperplasia, and they all can appear a bit different (some brown, some flesh color) but generally speaking, they are bumps, excess skin, enlarged oil glands and growths that protrude from the skin and become impossible to hide with makeup.

If the bumps are red and painful, then it’s probably cystic acne. Read: Tips for Treating Cystic Acne

There is no cream or ointment that will make these go away. Treatment options include cryosurgery (a freezing technique using liquid nitrogen) electrosurgery (burning off with an electric current) and curretage (a scraping technique). All of of these procedures are offered at a dermatologist’s office and electrosurgery is offered at Renée Rouleau Skin Care Spas… Read more

Renée’s Must-Have Products for Spring!

With Spring here, it’s a great time to re-evaluate your skin care products and possibly make changes to your skin care regimen. While I don’t believe that your skin “gets used” to skin care products, I do believe that introducing a new product or two every change of season will give your skin a boost of new ingredients.

Read: Does Your Skin Get Used to Products and Stop Working?

Here’s a few of my favorite products to use this time of year.

Skin Correcting Serum – This is one of my favorite products to help prevent breakouts–in a non-drying, non-irritating way. This serum works from the inside out to strengthen your skin’s defense system to help normalize the skin and decrease sensitivity. Unlike many products for treating acne, this product doesn’t just work on the surface to dry up blemishes but rather within the skin to lessen breakouts.

Read: How Do You Handle Both Wrinkles AND Breakouts?

Azulene Gel Mask – I’m a huge fan of doing mini facials at home with masks, in between regular monthly facials. A mask gives your skin an added boost of nourishment, above and beyond your every day routine. Especially during the Spring when my skin feels less dry, I love treating it to a cooling, hydrating mask to infuse water deep into the skin cells. I often use this after working out to calm down my skin’s circulation and make it less red… Read more

How Can I Prevent My Monthly Breakouts?

As any woman knows, blemishes and acne cysts can increase exponentially around the beginning of their monthly cycle. This natural increase can lead to frustration. There are a few options available that may help prevent this.

1) Taking Vitamin B6 daily one week prior to your cycle may help regulate hormonal imbalances and therefore lessen breakouts. Calcium-Magnesium supplements may also help when taken during this time.

2) A week prior to your cycle, tweak your skin care routine by adding in a few products more focused on treating breakouts. These include antibacterial cleansers such as our AHA/BHA Cleansing Gel and Tea-Tree Anti-Blemish Lotion (note: the Tea Tree Anti-Blemish Lotion has a gel consistency so you can use a thin coat under your regular moisturizer to keep the skin free of acne-causing bacteria.)… Read more

Got a Blemish? Tips to Make It Go Away–Fast!

You wake up in the morning. You look in the mirror, and to your unpleasant eyes, you see a blemish. What do you do?

When you get a blemish, one of two things will generally occur.

1. If you never touch it, and you let Mother Nature run her course, the infection will stay under the skin and the body will eventually reabsorb it (particularly with acne cysts).

2. Within one to three days the infection will work its way to the surface resulting in a whitehead filled with puss, which is your body’s natural way of ridding itself of bacteria.

So knowing these two things, it is really important that before you jump and immediately start treating it that you determine what type of blemish it is.

If it is a hard bump under the skin: the blemish is what is known as an acne cyst. Mostly occurring in the chin and jaw areas, it is important to remember that cysts are like submarines; they are meant to stay under the skin. No matter what method you employ, it will never rise to the surface (this means no picking! Read: Are You Guilty of Picking at Your Skin?). Your best bet is to treat the cyst with Renée Rouleau Anti-Cyst Treatment, which will help dissolve the infection, while also preventing future ones… Read more

Professional Extractions that Won’t Scar Your Skin

According to our recent survey, when asked why people get facials, the number one response was to get the pores cleaned out. Clogged pores and blackheads are certainly a big concern for many, and I happen to be an esthetician that believes extractions are necessary for the clarity of the skin, as long as they are performed properly and gently.

What are extractions? The extraction method is fairly simple: an esthetician properly softens the skin and then wraps his or her fingers in tissue (some use a metal extractor) and manipulate the skin at different angles to remove debris and impurities out of the pores. The goal of extraction is to be able to remove the congested oil without leaving significant redness and certainly scarring. (Note: Some post-extraction redness is normal, but generally should subside after 12-24 hours.)

But believe it or not when it comes to extractions, there is a right and wrong way – and unfortunately most professionals are taught the wrong way. What may surprise you is it’s not necessarily about the method – it’s that the skin is not properly softened beforehand to make blackhead removal easy. Here’s why:… Read more

« Previous Page — Next Page »