This One Simple Ingredient Could Save Your Skin From Acne Flare Ups
There are some things from our teenage years we want to leave far behind, and acne is usually top of the list. Although we stereotypically see breakouts as just one of those fun/traumatizing parts of puberty, adult acne is actually very common, especially amongst women. Whether you’re prone to pimples or just get a round of extra monthly visitors (hormone perks!), hunting down the right blemish busting solution is tough.
Many acne treatments on the market are overly aggressive on the skin by stripping it and drying it out. You might be able to handle that as a teen (although you shouldn’t) but when you’re also trying to keep skin plump and youthful, it’s a challenge.
Throughout my own years of adult acne, there have been highs and lows. I have some natural heroes which calm breakouts, and sometimes prevent them all together, but there’s always a catch. Even with natural and organic ingredients, many turn out to just not be hydrating enough or can deal with only one type of pimple. But I think I’ve finally (FINALLY!) found the perfect weapon that does it all!
Meet LUMION Life: A New Approach to Acne With An Old-School Twist
Amy Briant was also part of the adult acne gang. Despite leading a healthy, active lifestyle – owning many fitness studios – she couldn’t shift her post-puberty pimples. It wasn’t until her father came up with a bright idea that things started to turn around. He had come up with a formula which had stabilized HOCL (hypochlorous acid) to give it a shelf-life perfect for topical application. Although traditionally used as wound healer in World War I, when it would only stay briefly active, he thought there was no reason why the same healing application wouldn’t work on Amy’s acne with daily treatment, and he was spot on (no pun intended).
You may have never heard of HOCL, and that would be no surprise as this is the first time it’s been used cosmetically, despite its fantastic properties. The key ingredient in LUMION’s skincare, HOCL is a compound found naturally in the body, which fights infection as part of the body’s immune response. an infection-fighting compound found naturally in the human body’s immune system. It works by destroying the membrane and DNA of infectious cells, so when used on the skin it helps to eradicate harmful bacteria, a primary causes of acne.
Amy’s skin radically transformed, and so she paired up with Lisa Bonoff, who had been on the search for a simple, effective natural skincare solution herself, to found LUMION Life. Setting about to make it the ideal all-rounder to tackle both acne and skin aging, the skincare line also touts oxygen and dead sea salts as hero ingredients.
The electrolysis process used to stabilize the HOCL creates oxygen. We often think of oxygen as just plain old air, but it plays a hugely vital role in the health of our body on all levels. In the skin, it can help cell metabolism, smooth out those fine lines and up hydration levels. It doesn’t take much explaining as to why Dead Sea salts are in the mix, too. The Dead Sea itself has long been a place where people go to heal skin conditions thanks to the unique combination and potent concentration of minerals in the salt, including calcium, potassium, and magnesium.
The Proof Is In The Skin
Although it’s tough to say looking at my skin now that I suffer from adult acne myself, it’s something I’ve been fighting with frustration for years. While I’m a self-professed product junkie, when I find something that diminishes my breakouts, I tend to stick to it and not try anything new, especially a whole new concept which has never been tried before. The battle is real!
I’m so glad I made the exception for LUMION Life. The LUMION Oxygen Mist + HOCL and Oxygen Serum + HOCL have been part of my skincare routine for almost three months, which, let’s face it, for a skincare addict like me, is practically marriage. I still use my old favorite retinol serum (which is amazing, but just sometimes too strong), but now rotate it on an every-other day basis with this combo and it makes for a much more balanced regime.
These products are not typical of the usual natural skincare offerings. They’re still free of all nasties such as alcohol denat, parabens, fragrances, phthalates, and sulfates, but feel much more advanced. Despite this, the formulas are beautifully simple. The serum is made up of five ingredients while the mist is a mere three, and none of them are botanicals.
That means no oils, butters, essential oils, essences, nada. But plants are surely the best thing about natural skincare, right? The thing is, while I love the plant life as much as anyone else, it can be difficult to navigate and really understand what compounds within the plants are doing the good work, and which could be irritating. Everyone’s skin reacts differently, but acne sufferers can be particularly sensitive and reactive to even a small amount of the wrong ingredient. Even then, the avocado oil in one serum can be completely structurally different to the avocado oil in another, so it can be incredibly difficult to pinpoint the cause of a positive or negative effect.
Instead, LUMION stick to naturally occurring compounds, and this scientific, no frills approach to natural skincare really seems to work. My skin has been completely clear of anything red and angry, and even the small, barely visible whiteheads are becoming less frequent. The proof is in the amount of makeup free days I’ve been having. When I have been dolling up recently, it’s for fun and not because I feel like I need to hide my skin.
The texture of them is so incredibly lightweight, and it’s nice to have a break from highly fragranced product (even if I am partial to a rose mist or two). The best thing about this is that it takes likes and dislikes out of the equation, making it suitable for anyone who wants to reap the skin rewards. I’ve even used the serum on my back acne when it’s particularly bad (I’d use it all the time if I had a bigger bottle), and the next day everything feels on the way to healing much faster than usual.
Last but not least, what I really love is that Amy and Lisa have made this an affordable product. Being such a fantastic and exciting new concept, they could have gone in at a luxury price point, but they really believe in making making beautiful, clear, and confident skin accessible to everyone, without the need for harmful synthetics or rare, exotic plants! Will it stay in my beauty cabinet? You betcha.
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