what is face mapping?

Facial mapping explains the reasons why we break out in certain regions on our face. This is something that has helped me with monitoring my breakouts through understanding why they happen!!!???

Below there is a picture of the the different regions on our face and why we break out there.

Starting from the forehead, this is a common region of the face that people break out. Generally, these breakouts on the forehead happen in the hot summer months when we're sweating non-stop.

Tip: An easy fix to this would just to be consistent in cleansing the skin - and this should be done morning and night.

However as an adult, you will notice these forehead breakouts happening typically from stress. I always notice them happening on my forehead from too much stress, lack of sleep, and an imbalance in my diet (which this all comes from being a college student).

Moving down to the middle of the forehead, between the brows, dehydration is a huge cause of why we break out in the middle of the forehead. As we know, any consumption of water is essential to almost every function of our bodies. Our skin is an organ meaning it is made up of cells - which are practically all water. If the skin doesn't have the water it needs its going to underperform - just like any other organ in the body would.

Something else that's intriguing about hydration is that it will travel to all your internal organs first before it reaches your skin - that's why it's so important to drink 8 cups a day! Other ways hydration can be added to the skin is through hydrating products that contain hyaluronic acid - as it holds 1,000 times its own weight in water.

Tip: Apply hydrating products after getting out of a hot shower, the hot water opens up the pores and makes the skin more vulnerable to the hydrating products being absorbed.

Breakouts on the nose are also connected to the stress and diet problems. As it shows in the picture, breakouts on the nose are caused from high blood pressure - which is caused by high stress levels. Something else about the nose region of the face is that it's the one place that many blackheads are. This is simply because the nose has more oil glands than the rest of the body. Because the nose region has so many oil glands, it has more open pores - making it easier to trap dirt.

Picture taken from https://www.viabuff.com/exfoliating-eczema-super-helpful/

Tip: This is why exfoliating is so important! It deep cleans the skin and doing it consistently allows the skin to absorb all the other good nutrients that are put back in through a skincare routine!

Moving down the face to the cheek region. Acne spots appear here because of allergies, a dirty pillow, cell phone, and most evidently (for me) consuming dairy products. Touching your face with anything that's not clean (such as a pillow that hasn't been washed, a cell phone that has all kinds of germs on it, or even just your hands), causes the germs from that surface to be transferred onto your skin. One of the biggest things I noticed with this was when I came out of the habit of touching my face so much. Even if its just resting your chin on your hand - the oils from your hand transfer and can cause breakouts!

Other things like a dirty pillowcase can do this as well. A silk pillowcase is what I recommend, as it's hypoallergenic and therefore prevents bacterias like dirt getting into the skin when we least expect it.

Lastly, recently I tested out the theory of avoiding dairy products. The truth about dairy products is that it's actually something we aren't supposed to consume, because it has hormones and preservatives in it that are not good for humans. These hormones and preservatives cause acne on the skin. From my personal experience avoiding dairy products, it caused almost all my acne to go away. As important as a skincare routine is, our diet intake is more important as our diet always reflects from the inside out.

Moreover, you may notice your chin and lip area break out right around your time of the month. Acne marks around this region of the face are due to a hormonal imbalance in your system. It's something that can be difficult to prevent, as it again is something you have to work at from the inside out.

Tip: Try taking more time with your skincare routine by using acne-preventing treatments around your time of the month. My favorite serum for this is the Caudalie Vinopure Salicylic Acid Pore Minimizing Serum. I have noticed my pores become much smaller, and as I use it for a week consistently, my acne marks disappear and prevent future breakouts.

Lastly jawline breakouts are connected to the stomach, meaning that too much of the wrong kind of food will cause a breakouts along this area. A good way to prevent this is through using a jade roller! A jade roller reduces inflammation because it stimulates the blood flow. Also another plus of this is that it is so relaxing to do this after a long day, and prevents stress!

Try some of these things out and let me know what you think!

xo, Bailey