‘Life with acne’: So, it turns out the sun isn’t so great for our skin

Many of us are led to believe that the sun can do wonders for our skin.

But, it turns out that it's quite the opposite. While our mothers urge us to 'get out in the sun' so our faces can be clear and bright, La Roche-Posay has found something different. The beauty brand conducted a new study under the name Life with Acne and it found some startling facts about women's skincare regimes. The survey revealed that 21 per cent of us intentionally expose our skin to the sun during hot weather in the attempt to clear a breakout. To further that, 16 percent opt to go without sun cream when it's hot out in case it causes a break out and 10 percent won't put any SPF on if they already have acne. Dr. Niki Ralph, Consultant Dermatologist with La Roche-Posay said: "Many people believe that sun exposure is an effective treatment for acne, however, any potential benefit is very temporary. "Ultimately, sun exposure leads to drying of the skin and this causes excessive sebum (oil) production and dead skin cells being shed. "This leads to blocking of the pores which may not result in an acne breakout until weeks after the sun exposure, hence people do not make a direct association with sun and acne flares." The Life with Acne survey also revealed the route women take in order to get rid of any blemishes... and we have to say, we're a creative bunch. 46 percent of adults admit to squeezing their spots and 24 percent of females choose to go without make-up during a break-out. 24 percent of those surveyed have resorted to washing their face or body more than twice a day during a break-out and 22 percent has admitted to applying toothpaste to pimples in an attempt to make them disappear.