Your skin's surface is constantly replenishing itself shedding dead skin cells and replacing them with new ones. Essential oil (known as sebum) needed to lubricate your skin and prevent it losing moisture is produced by the sebaceous glands and is secreted via the hair follicle ducts (tubes) to the skin's surface. If dead skin cells build up then they can form a plug and block the opening to the duct. Why does this happen?

During your teenage years and early twenties your hormonal balance tends to fluctuate as it does at other times later in life. One particular hormone related to testosterone and known as DHT is always present in the body including in the skin but your skin normally ‘ignores’ it. During hormonal fluctuations as we develop into adults, the skin, in most people, can become aware of DHT and become sensitive to it. This causes the skin and the oil made in the sebaceous glands to loose natural chemicals called fatty acids, particularly one called linoleic acid, one of the ‘famous’ omega essential fatty acids we keep hearing about. I.e. our skin becomes lipid deficient.  This loss of linoleic acid causes the skins barrier properties and ability to retain moisture to be compromised, so the skin compensates by producing more oil and also the rate at which we make new skin cells accelerates producing more skin cells and the skin surface thickens. At the same time the level of the substance that hardens our nails called keratin increases in the skin causing more thickening of the skin. Also the hair follicle tube which the oil comes out of can become narrower.

So you have more oil trying to get out of a narrowing tube being blocked from the surface by thickening skin and lots of dead skin cells. It’s not surprising you get a blockage. This can lead to a pimple but on its own is not an ‘angry’ spot

Increased oil without increased dead skin cells tends to cause very oily skin. Increased oil and increased dead skin tends to lead to blockages in the hair follicle tube that the oil comes out of causing a pimple. However when this blockage occurs and oil builds up under the plug it creates a great breeding ground for a type of bacteria which likes to live in areas of the skin where little oxygen can get in. They grow in this oxygen deficient environment under the plug and as they feed on the debris, they release chemicals which cause inflammation. This combination of clogged pores, bacteria growth, trapped oil and inflammation causes a spot to form and appear on the skin's surface.

To properly sort acne you need to work this process backwards

• Reduce the Inflammation to reduce reddening and scarring risk
• Reduce the Acne Bacteria without attacking your skins healthy bacteria
• Reduce the Oil Production by the glands not just oil already on the surface
• Reduce the Skin Thickening without making the skin angry
• Restore Linoleic acid levels in the skin to restore barrier functions
• Reduce the amount of DHT in the skin, but only in problem areas of the skin and not in the rest of the body.

Do these six things and you will have a great chance of having and keeping great skin! When hormone levels normalise again then our skin usually loses its sensitivity to DHT and skin returns to normal in most cases.

85% of the population at some point in their lives suffer from acne, most between the ages of 12 to 24 with the average time span of 6 to 8 years of suffering. 15% of acne sufferers suffer from late onset acne, which can appear from the late 30s. Others just have troublesome oily skin.

The ideal acne treatment should according to Dr Tony Chu*:

• Reduce oil production: Aknicare® changes the conditions in the skin to reduce oil production by up to 68% in Dr Chu’s study* (More in other European studies)
• Reduce inflammation: Aknicare® reduces inflammation through three mechanisms.
• Reduce skin thickening and excess surface debris: Aknicare® alters the skins environment so that it does this in three ways.
• Reduce p.acnes: the bacteria which become involved and increase damage and inflammation. Aknicare® has four antibacterials, none of which lead to antibiotic resistant bacteria and hence reduce risk of MRSA super bugs developing

Naturally based key ingredients are released gradually into the skin using Synchrosome technology, changing the conditions to reduce oil production, reduce the risk of 'pore' blockage by re-normalising the skin shedding process and normalising the diameter of the hair follicle duct where the blockage forms.

Aknicare® works on the surface and in the skin to create the right environment for healthy, spot-free skin.

Each product has its own management role, but for best results the products should be used together as a twice-a-day three-product set and then one can reduce to a two product regime for maintenance, retaining the lotion for acute situations.

Click here to see an overview of the Aknicare® System

Check out our range of products to see which are
best-suited to dealing with your breakouts

Actual quotes from people with acne

"I don't look in mirrors. I comb my hair using my shadow on the wall to show the outline of my head. I have not looked myself in the eyes in years"

"I think that if I had more self-esteem about the way I looked, I think I would have been more outgoing. I would have gone to more parties. I probably would have been more outspoken in class and would not have felt so insecure about going up and speaking in front of a group of classmates."

"It is really humiliating to feel like I have no control over my acne. I hold my head down and I am ashamed to look at: people, embarrassed. I am 25 years old and to be acting this way is very frustrating."

"It's associated with being dirty, and I hate that, because it's not at all like that. I inherited it from my mother, and she's always telling me that she had the exact same thing and that it will go away. I am mad that I inherited it from her. My dad makes me feel bad because he never had bad skin when he was younger, so he doesn't understand.... I hate that the first thing people see when they look at me is bad skin. I really. really hate that."

"I feel like I don't look right no matter how hard I try to dress up and look nice--there is always that area of pimples there, and it is very unsettling. There really hasn't been a day gone by that I don't think about it, or look at my face.... Should I spend that much energy on it? I could be doing other things...instead of wasting 5 to 10 minutes every day looking at my face in the mirror, or playing with it, picking at my acne."

Click here to find out how Aknicare® has changed these peoples' lives

Click here to see an overview of the Aknicare® System

A completely new way to beat spots - clinically proven in hospital trials*

*new medical study from London confirms superb results. Chu et al 2005 Data on File - Pending Publication in BJD