- by Teresa Pessina
WHAT YOUR BREAKOUTS ARE TRYING TO TELL YOU
- by Teresa Pessina
For years, I thought my breakouts were purely a skin problem.
So I did what most of us do.
I bought stronger skincare.
More acids.
More treatments.
More products.
Leaving me more hopeless and everytime with no change.
Yet my skin kept trying to tell me something.
The truth?
Your skin is one of your body's biggest communication tools.
While not every breakout can be traced back to a specific cause, where and how you break out can often provide clues about what may be happening beneath the surface.
At 24, I developed severe hormonal acne seemingly overnight. I was eventually diagnosed with PCOS and spent years understanding the connection between hormones, stress, blood sugar, gut health and skin.
What I learned is that breakouts are often messages, a blessing in disguise.
The goal isn't to silence them. The goal is to understand them.
Before We Start: Face Mapping Isn't An Exact Science
You've probably seen charts online claiming:
Forehead = liver
Cheeks = lungs
Chin = hormones
While these ideas come from traditional healing systems, modern science doesn't support a direct link between a specific organ and a specific pimple.
But I like to take all things into consideration inclding healing systems and modern medicines to create a diagnosis.
Breakout patterns can absolutely provide clues about underlying imbalances.
So instead of asking:
"What organ is causing this?"
I prefer asking:
"What is my body trying to communicate?"
Forehead/Hairlines Breakouts: Stress, Sleep, Pore Cloggers & Overload
If you're constantly breaking out across your forehead, I often look at lifestyle factors first.
Ask yourself:
- Are you sleeping enough?
- Are you constantly stressed?
- Are you touching your face throughout the day?
- Have you changed your hair products recently?
- Are you spending long periods in hats or sweaty workout gear?
I often see forehead congestion increase during periods of high stress, poor sleep, puberty/hormones, pore clogging ingredients in hair products and nervous system overload.
What to focus on:
✓ Earlier bedtimes
✓ Nervous system regulation - my favourite 10 minute breath-work and meditation to immediately get you into a state of parasympathetic is my guided audio. I love doing it with my legs up against the wall or walking in the park.
✓ Stress management - Habit stacking affirmations with No Stress Drops is a great way to create a ritual of calm in a busy schedule while also reducing stress load on the body.
✓ Scalp and hair product audit
✓ Magnesium spray for the day to support stress and recovery and sleepy butter for the night to support deep sleep. Magnesium supports over 300 chemical reactions in the body, including the your hormones!
✓ Avoiding hair products with shea butter or coconut oil which can cause conjestion around the hair line
Your skin repairs itself while you sleep. When sleep suffers, your skin often does too.
Cheeks: Histamine, Barrier Health & Environment
Cheek breakouts are incredibly common, and was where most of mine were present.
Some of the biggest contributors include:
- Dirty pillowcases
- Makeup brushes
- Mobile phones
- Skin barrier dysfunction
- Histamine overload
- Gut disruption
- Environmental irritation
For many women, cheek acne isn't necessarily hormonal.
It's often inflammatory.
What to focus on:
✓ Skin barrier support with Inflammaging Skin Solution. The ingredients like Almond, Resveretox, and Calmandarin immediately lock in hydration, repair the skin while also reducing irrirated cysitic bumps on the skin.
✓ Histamine awareness: Quercetin + Bromelain is my favourite way to support with supplementation. And following a low histamine diet for a weeks just to reduce the load can be beneficial.
✓ Clean beauty tools
✓ Changing your pillow cases every 3 days
✓ Less over-exfoliation, more skin cycling. Aka: exfoliating every 4-5 days with locking in hydration the rest of the days.
✓ Calming inflammation with both internally and externally with actives like Neem, Turmeric and Rosemary in our Hormone Check Drops
Calmandarin that reduces redness and irritation in 5 minutes found both in our Crystal Clear Spot + Pigmentation and Inflammaging Skin Solution.
Nose: Congestion & Excess Oil
The nose naturally contains more oil glands than most areas of the face.
This means blackheads, congestion and enlarged pores are more common.
This isn't necessarily a sign of a deeper health issue.
Often it's simply:
- Oil production
- Congested pores
- Dead skin build-up
What to focus on:
✓ Gentle exfoliation
✓ Consistent cleansing
✓ Non-comedogenic skincare like ours :) and make up. I love brands like sweed and hourglass for natural and non-pore clogging ingredients.
Around The Mouth + Chin: Blood Sugar & Gut Health
This area often gets overlooked.
Yet fluctuations in blood sugar and digestive health can sometimes show up around the mouth and chin.
Ask yourself:
- Are you skipping meals?
- Do you experience energy crashes?
- Do you rely heavily on caffeine?
- Are you constantly craving sugar?
Stable blood sugar supports both hormones and skin.
What to focus on:
✓ Protein-rich meals, focusing on 30g per sitting.
✓ Good fibre intake, 25g per day is my aim everyday.
✓ Consistent meal timing
✓ Gut health stability - Bone broth is my favourite thing for gut lining repair.
✓ Blood sugar support with regular meals, balanced plates and Berberine for added support, that helps with appetite regulation and sugar cravings - found in our Hormone Check Drops
Chin & Jawline: Hormones
This is the pattern I know best.
Jawline acne was one of the biggest signs that my hormones were out of balance.
If your breakouts consistently appear around:
- Chin
- Jawline
- Neck
particularly before your period, hormones may be worth exploring.
Common contributors include:
- PCOS or now PMOS
- Insulin resistance
- High androgens
- Chronic stress
- Poor sleep
- Blood sugar imbalance
One thing I always remind women:
You do not need ovarian cysts to experience hormonal acne.
I never had ovarian cysts, yet I experienced many of the symptoms associated with hormonal imbalance. And I am so grateful for this new name because it explains EVERYTHING.
What to focus on:
This is my blueprint here on treating hormonal acne and what to focus on.
Pairing it with the Clear Skin Solution will make those cysts tremble.
If You're Breaking Out Everywhere
This is where I start asking different questions.
Could it be:
- Pore-clogging skincare?
- A damaged skin barrier?
- Food sensitivities?
- Histamine overload?
- Chronic stress?
- Hormonal imbalance?
- Inflammation?
Sometimes the answer isn't one thing.
It's the accumulation of many small things.
The Hidden Cause Most People Miss
One of the most overlooked contributors to breakouts is actually skincare itself.
Many people spend years trying to heal acne while using products that are too heavy, too occlusive or simply not suitable for acne-prone skin.
This is especially common with SPF.
I can't tell you how many women tell me:
"I stopped wearing SPF because every SPF breaks me out."
The problem?
Acne-prone skin still needs protection.
That's one of the reasons we created SPF NOTOX.
A lightweight, acne-safe, non-comedogenic formula designed to support skin longevity without clogged pores, greasy skin or compromise.
Because protection shouldn't come at the expense of clear skin.
Just remember...
Your skin isn't your enemy.
It's information.
Instead of asking:
"How do I get rid of this breakout?"
Try asking:
"What is this breakout trying to tell me?"
Sometimes the answer is stress.
Sometimes it's hormones.
Sometimes it's blood sugar.
Sometimes it's the products sitting on your bathroom shelf.
The more we learn to listen to our bodies, the easier it becomes to support them.
And often, healthier skin follows.
What takes years to do, doesn't take days to undo. Give yourself grace 💚
