New Bumps on My Face

[zayla1015]

 

 I’ve never struggled with acne before. I do wear makeup but not too often. All my products are water based. I just exactly started using hyaluronic acid, niacinamide acid, and a face exfoliant. i also used salicylic acid once. They are all from The Ordinary. I use CeraVe cleansers and Clinique moisturizer. Sometimes these bumps can be really itchy, and I just want to know what the issue is, so I can get rid of it 😞 thank you 

[WinglessOne]

@zayla1015  My first bit of advice is to see a board certified dermatologist to get your skin diagnosed. Neither I nor anyone else on BIC can properly diagnose your skin since we’re not medical doctors who treat skin. 😉 All we can do is guess. It's better to find out from a doc what the root cause of the issue is, so you don’t end up spending time and money on products that won’t treat the root cause. 

Having said that, here’s my guess: malassezia (or pityrosporum) folliculitis, aka “fungal acne.” It’s not true acne at all. It’s caused by a yeast overgrowth in your hair follicles. A common symptom is itchy little bumps. Again, this is just a guess, not a diagnosis. Your skin could instead be over-exfoliated... what type of exfoliant (besides salicylic acid) do you use, and how frequently do you use it? 

To see if the issue is pityrosporum folliculitis, you can try treating it at home with anti-fungal products that contain one of these ingredients:

• Ketoconazole - found in Nizoral shampoo. 
• Selenium sulfide - Selsun Blue shampoo. 
• Pyrithione zinc - Vanicream Dandruff Shampoo. I’d normally recommend Vanicream Z-Bar because it’s a fragrance-free gentle cleanser, but Vanicream has temporarily ceased production of the bar. I hear it might come back this fall. Meanwhile, the closest dupe I’ve found so far is Dermaharmony Pyrithione Zinc Therapy Soap. 

Wash your face with one of those products a few times a week. 

Also, hypochlorus acid is antifungal (and antibacterial) and can help with this kind of folliculitis. Tower 28 Beauty SOS Daily Rescue Facial Spray with Hypochlorous Acid 4 oz/ 120 mL  contains it, but you can find less expensive options that contain the same ingredients; I use SkinSmart Antimicrobial Wound Therapy spray (I usually buy it from Amazon). SkinSmart sells that exact same spray labeled/marketed a few different ways; I also have a bottle of SkinSmart Antimicrobial Daily Foot Cleanser which is the exact same product as Wound Therapy, just marketed differently and housed in a bottle with a trigger spray pump. Eh, the trigger pump is handy sometimes. I'm sure Tower 28's pump produces a finer mist than SkinSmart's, but I'd still rather pay less for the same product. 

Whatever your skin issue turns out to be, I hope you find a solution soon! I know firsthand how obnoxiously annoying it is to have itchy bumps/patches. I'm constantly in maintenance/prevention mode to keep yeast under control; pyrithione zinc and hypochlorus acid are my go-tos.