If pimples are an issue, you’re not alone: more than eight in 10 of us will have an outbreak at some stage, and at any one time nearly 10 per cent of people are tackling some form of acne. In fact, acne is the most common skin disorder in the world.
Zits, spots, blemishes, breakouts – whatever you call them – pimples (along with blackheads, whiteheads and other congestion issues such as cysts) are right up there in terms of skin gripes for women and men. So don’t ever feel like you’re the only one out there tackling the issue. The triggers for acne are many: from genetics to diet, stress and hormones. It is a visual sign of a system out of whack.
The key then to tackling acne is more than just good skincare (which is key). A holistic, 360-degree approach is needed to fix things from within. It’s a concept that Vida Glow, a leading ingestible beauty brand, knows well.
“Although acne appears very much on the surface, it starts deep within the skin and body, which is why we wanted to bring an ingestible and cellular lens to targeting this concern,” says Vida Glow founder Anna Lahey.
The brand has just brought out Clear, a supplement that tackles acne at the cellular level where breakouts begin. “Clear is a comprehensive, ingestible solution that targets acne at its cause, for calm, clarified and confident skin,” explains Lahey.
Vida Glow scientist Lauren Dewsbury identifies four key mechanisms in the body that can lead to acne and acne breakouts. Increased levels of certain hormones can “cause oil-producing glands to become dysfunctional, leading to excess oil production,” Dewsbury explains. That oil clogs pores and tilts the microbiome out of balance, allowing bad bacteria to proliferate on the surface. “This leads to inflammation and the production of pro-inflammatory molecules, which lead to breakouts,” she says. “Skin inflammation is fundamental to acne. Inflammatory pathways in the body are activated even before a breakout is visible on the skin.”
This brings us to the gut. There is a bidirectional connection between our gut and our skin, termed the gut-skin axis, says Dewsbury. You may know broadly that poor gut health is associated with inflammatory skin conditions like acne. What’s less well known is why. Dewsbury explains that the problem stems from what’s able to get inside the gut to disrupt it. “When the gut lining is damaged and becomes ‘leaky’, molecules that shouldn’t be able to pass through can [enter] the bloodstream,” she says. “When the immune system detects this, it launches a big inflammatory attack to ‘protect’ the body. This is how leaky gut can cause skin inflammation and breakouts.”
Vida Glow’s Clear capsules aim to solve these issues by resolving the symptoms of acne at their root cause. Understandably, it’s no small goal to change our internal workings, which is why the supplement has been two years on the drawing board.
“We are passionate about creating products that deliver visible results,” says Lahey. “When formulating Clear, we used proven active ingredients that have each been clinically studied for their positive impact on skin.” Scientific trials have shown that Clear’s ingredients were able to reduce symptoms of acne by 50 per cent after three months of daily use, adds Lahey.
Three months of daily use, adds Lahey. Examine Clear capsules closely and you’ll also notice they look different from other supplements. Inside the yellow capsule is a second, smaller capsule. It’s Vida Glow’s unique cap-in-cap technology. “It allows us to deliver previously incompatible ingredients in a convenient, one capsule-per-day format that is vegan friendly,” says Dewsbury.
So no matter your skin gripe, the key is not so much what you see in the mirror but what is going on inside. Stop the symptoms of breakouts at their root cause by firing up things from within, and the future could look a lot clearer.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
