#165: Italy time! My skincare tips & tricks to prevent post-flight breakouts!
Breakout after flying?
It’s definitely a thing! Especially if you’re acne or breakout prone like me.
In this episode, I share what I did in the 48 hour lead-up to my long-haul flight to Italy (tonight!!) and what I’ll be doing on the plane to prevent some big angry pimples landing on my face in Italy!
I also talk about:
Why breakouts form when flying
What I’m taking on the plane and in my suitcase
The importance of hydration when you are acne prone
My own acne journey and a few reasons why it occurred 4 years ago and how I manage it now to (touch wood) have the best skin I've had, breakout wise, in my whole life for the past 2 years!
00:00 Intro
02:16 Thank You To Podcast Listeners
03:30 Personal Update + Podcast Break Announcement
06:06 Backstory of Acne Prone Skin
09:18 Why Flying Causes Congested Skin?
09:38 Bec’s Skin Specialist
10:14 Skin Hydration
11:58 Exfoliation
12:38 Current Skincare Routine
13:30 Skincare Routine Whilst Flying
15:08 Bonus Skincare Tips
17:30 Diet & Skincare
Links:
Podcasts about my acne healing journey, periods, hormones and more:
Episode 90: How to minimise pms weight gain & other side effects, the power of tracking, my own unusual experience)
Episode 89: The skincare changes that were the answer to healing my acne
Episode 18: My skin transformation and excess oestrogen journey
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Read This Episode:
In this episode today, I want to share with you what I'm doing in the lead up to my flight, which is tonight, and what I'm doing on the plane to prevent breakouts because I'm someone that's acne prone or breakout prone.
Now I used to suffer from acne in the past and now I would call it breakouts but if you are someone that breaks out anytime really or more so on flights, or if you are acne prone as well. I really hope that this episode helps you because I just want to share what I've learnt over the last couple of years. I've learnt a lot about skin, but more so after the last couple of years, because like anything, it takes time to learn different things about your health and your skin and your weight and all of that.
As I've been getting prepared for my flight and packing for my flight, I'm doing all these things and I'm like, you need to hear it too, because it's knowledge that I've got in my head and I'm doing and I really want to relay the knowledge onto you.
Before I actually get into this podcast though, just quickly in case you missed it last week, I reached 1 million downloads on Body Bites with Bec, which is huge. It's a huge milestone and I really stopped to take a moment and pause and reflect on the journey, the three and a half year journey, and how many of you are listening and enjoying it and supporting me. So thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. Thank you so much for your listens and your support and your subscribes.
It's so beautiful to see and hear how much these episodes impact your lives, especially to the women that are on my programs as well. I'm always hearing from you how much the podcast really helps you stay accountable and motivated and continue to learn things every single day. So I also quickly checked the stats and I'm number two in the Nutrition category in Australia and number two in New Zealand in the Nutrition category. So, really proud of myself and really, really grateful for all of your listens and support to keep me in the top charts. Here's to the next million downloads, it's so many of you listening to my voice, so thank you so much.
So, I'm flying to Italy tonight at 10:20pm which I'm really excited about. I'm so ready for a trip. So, so, so ready and my boyfriend is coming with me, so it's going to be such a fun trip. We're doing four days in Rome, a week in Amalfi Coast and then London for a friends wedding and I can’t wait to switch off a little bit. I've still got some work that I have to do to keep the business going - I'll be showing up on Instagram, if you're not following me yet, I'm @health_with_bec, with the journey of my travels, because I know that a lot of you love seeing that and I love showing up and doing that when I feel like it when I'm traveling. So I'll be doing that but I will be having a break from the podcast because I do want to try to switch off and get a bit of a reset as well.
So apart from showing up on Instagram and just doing the things that I have to do to keep the business going, I'm forfeiting quite a lot of things and one of the things that I'm going to forfeit is the podcast for three to four weeks, I'm away for two and a half, but you won't hear from me probably for three or four weeks unless I feel really inspired to do a little bonus, quick one while I'm away, but most likely I'll be having a break, but that's the most perfect opportunity for you to go back and listen to past episodes and then I'll be back after that.
Before I get into my tips for how to prevent breakouts and acne on the plane or any time in your life, and all my tips in this podcast will actually help anyone with any kind of skin concern when they're flying, I do have a backstory about how I'm acne prone. It's always been not that bad, just some very big cystic ones that pop up in that week before my period. That's been happening ever since I was a teenager and I would manage that in ways that I would never do now.
I would go to clinics and get microdermabrasions and really strong chemical peels and overuse skincare products that would strip my skin and that would only make it worse. Then it got to a point where it wasn't that bad, it was just a few big angry pimples that would come up once a month. I mean it was pretty bad to me at the time compared to what happened four years ago, it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't great!
Then four years ago I got chronic acne and this really upset me as a 27 year old woman who eats so healthy and has such a healthy lifestyle, to get all this acne on my face, it was shit but do you know what? It made me make heaps of changes and go through this acne healing journey and then now that I'm over that hump and I'm really not breaking out that much anymore, the last couple of years is the best my skin has ever been in my whole life.
I've obviously learnt things and when I learn things, that means that I can teach you, so everything happens for a reason in that way but I share so much about my acne healing journey, why it got so bad four years ago for about a year, how I healed it and so many tips in other podcasts (Episode #18: My Skin Transformation and Excess Oestrogen Journey, Despite Thinking I Was “Doing it All”, Episode #89: The Skincare Changes That Were the Answer to Healing my Acne with Rachel Diaz from Love Beauty, Episode #90: How to minimise PMS weight gain & other side effects, my own unusual experience, the power of tracking).
What I want to share in this podcast is just what I've been doing in the two days before my flight and then today, which is the day of my flight and what I'm doing on my flight to prevent getting breakouts because I don't know about you, but I'm the most prone to getting a big, angry, whopper on my face after a flight or a lot of congestion after a flight and the other times that I'm more prone to getting one or two sort of big pimples is the week before my period, which is very common and normal and this week is that week for me. So I've got a big flight and it's the end of my cycle, so I'm due for my period in about two to four days, so I'm just doing my best to prevent breakouts and the things that I'm doing I have learnt and I want to share with you …
So, why does flying make you more prone to breakouts or make your acne worse and make your skin congested? Basically, it all comes down to hydration. Hydration is one of the biggest key things to stay on top of when you're traveling in and in the days before travel as well.
I have learnt this through the woman that I go to see that I've been going to ever since I healed my acne, she helped me heal my acne and I've been visiting every month for a very gentle facial and that is Love Beauty Skin Clinic in South Perth. I've been going there regularly and she teaches me stuff all the time. She's so knowledgeable and she really taught me that when your skin is dehydrated, there's a few reasons why it can lead to breakouts and when you fly that really strips a lot of water from your body. It makes you really dehydrated being on the plane.
So basically when your skin is really dry, your skin overcompensates and produces more oil and I’ve felt that before when I've been on the plane. I don't know if you have, but sometimes your skin can feel quite dry. You might wash your face and then your skin can actually feel quite oily and so the reason it does that is because it's overcompensating, and then when you've got oil sitting on your face, that is one of the causes of breakouts. The more hydrated you are, then the less oil your skin is going to produce. It's going to produce the normal amount that your body should be producing, instead of an excess amount to overcompensate.
Another thing that Rachel has taught me and I just want to say as a disclaimer, I'm not a Skin Expert, this is just what I've learnt from my own research, so I just want to say that as well. I just want to share my learnings but basically she taught me that there's an enzyme on your skin that is working all the time naturally, that helps you slough away dead skin cells and. When your skin is lacking the right amount of water in it, that enzyme stops working or it works a lot slower and so your skin turnover where it helps to slough off the dead skin cells is stopped or reduced and those dead skin cells, if they then go into your pores, that can clog your pores and that is what can cause breakouts as well. So I've learnt all this and now I’m obsessed with staying as hydrated as I possibly can so that I can prevent those things from happening.
If we want to prevent dead skin on the face, which can then cause breakouts - another tip is to exfoliate before you get on the plane. Do a very gentle exfoliation, the day before or the day that you get on the plane or you can do what I did - I actually visited Rachel at Love Beauty Skin Clinic for a facial on Monday night, so two days ago. She did a really gentle peel exfoliation on me, followed by a really hydrating mask, so that’s the prep that I've done.
Since then, I've been drinking heaps of water and I've been doing my usual skincare and my usual skincare is so different to what it used to be in the past when I was over-doing things and that actually made my acne worse. I just cleanse, use Hyaluronic Acid, which is really good for moisturising and a moisturiser and that's what I do. That's all I've been doing in the last couple of days.
I've personally found, the more simple my skincare is when it's just really focused on hydration, the less breakouts I get. I've got quite inflammatory skin and if I get a little breakout, that'll turn into like a big, angry pimple, and that's just what works for me. It can work for a lot of other people too.
On the plane tonight, I've got a few tips as well that I want to share, which is what I'm going to be doing - So, I'm packing my usual skincare in my bag. I like to get one of those little mini travel bottles and I've put my cleanser in there. I've also put my moisturiser into a little travel tub, and I've got my Hyaluronic Acid because obviously, we need to keep everything under 100mls in our hand luggage, so I've got all of my skincare in my bag and in my bag, I've also bought a really hydrating Hyaluronic Acid mask. So I'll be using that on the plane as well.
One thing that's really good to do when you get on the plane is to wash your face off with makeup. So I'll be using my cleanser to take my makeup off straight away, and then I'll be sleeping. I'll be putting the mask on and keeping that on my face for the whole flight. I don't really care if I'm going to look weird because that's going to really be helping to add moisture into my skin whilst I'm on the plane, because planes can really dry your skin out and at the same time, obviously I will be drinking a lot of water. So water, water, water on the plane drink as much as you possibly can.
When I’m in Dubai at the stopover, I'll wash my face again and do my skincare and there's some tips there - Make sure you exfoliate before the plane, moisturise a lot, wash your makeup off when you get on the plane and then also a sheet mask can be really good to take on the plane as well.
Now I want to say some bonus tips, as well as some other bonus things that I'm doing with some bonus education thrown in here for you. So another thing that I've learnt from Rachel is the importance of Omega 3’s. When you are low in Omega 3, it can actually make your oil a lot more thick and so when your oil is thicker, that's something that can clog your pores as well in your skin and lead to those big breakouts.
So what Omega 3 supplementation does is it really helps to thin out your oil production on your face and that can minimise your breakouts as well. So I'm taking my omegas, as well as all of my other supplements in my suitcase because I do take a few and some of those other ones helped me with my skin as well, but I just want to talk about Omega 3’s here as it relates to breakouts and blockages and acne. So I'll be taking them in my hand luggage. I took one this morning and I'll be keeping up with my regular supplements while I'm away as well. I use the Nordic Naturals Omega 3.
The other thing that I put in my suitcase is an Omnilux Led Light Mask. It's called ‘Clear Up’. So it's specifically for acne. So even though I don't have acne anymore, I've just got it just in case, I do get a breakout here and there. It helps to kill the bacteria, prevent future breakouts, calm inflammation and do a few other things. I'm not advertising it at all, so I just wanted to share that as a little tip. There's also another version of the mask that's different, it's a general one which stimulates collagen production, reduces inflammation, improves fine lines and all those beautiful things. Omnilux Masks are awesome and you just use them for 10 to 20 minutes, a couple of times a week and it can really help your skin. So I did a little session of that before I started recording this podcast and I'll be popping that in my suitcase as well, just in case and it's good to do a couple of times over there.
I haven't even talked about diet, but diet is obviously very important as well when we want to prevent breakouts and have the healthiest skin possible. I've been eating the same way now for 8 to 10 years and I guess that's why it really upset me four years ago when I had this chronic acne. It wasn't to do with diet because my diet was exactly the same. It was to do with the skincare that I was using and I also had a very slight excess of estrogen in my body, which I talk all about in Episode #18: My Skin Transformation and Excess Oestrogen Journey, Despite Thinking I Was “Doing it All”
I just want to quickly say that diet is very important. Minimising sugar and reducing dairy can be very helpful for women that are acne or breakout prone. So I always have just a small amount of dairy in my diet. I try to have very minimal, the week before my period and that seems to help me as well. I'm also gluten-free because personally that's inflammatory for me. So, it's really important to focus on your diet as well but I mainly wanted to focus on the actual skin care things that I'm doing pre and on the flight in this episode.
Hydration is so important and of course this isn't just for when you're traveling, especially because it's Winter for so many of you listening. It's so much easier to drink less water and having the heater on my skin has definitely made it more dry than normal. I have been focusing on trying my best to up my water intake and not have the heater on when I don't really need it on. So I hope that these tips also help you for just any other day as well, because the more hydrated your skin is, the less likely you'll get breakouts.
I just want to say thank you again for listening and if you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to leave me a quick rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It would really mean the world to me because I read each and every one and I kind of feel like I'm just sitting here talking to myself, so I don't know if you enjoy it or not. So if you did enjoy it, please leave me a rating and review. Don't forget to hit subscribe to this podcast as well so that you don't miss any future episodes.
You can follow along with me at @health_with_bec on Instagram too - see my travels and I'm always sharing about how I'm eating and what I'm doing and tips to keep my balance while I'm traveling, which you might enjoy over on Instagram as well. My website is www.healthwithbec.com - my programs are great for skin health too, because they're exactly how I ate. So sugar-free, gluten-free, low in dairy, very high in anti-inflammatory foods and really good for your gut health because the better your gut health is, the better everything else is in your body.