How to heal acne by supporting your skin, and the missing ingredient your skin needs

Linoleic acid, barrier health and why a gentler approach can help clear persistent breakouts

Photo by Mathilde Langevin on Unsplash

Ever since launching Purity Gentle Cleansing Oil in 2018, there has been a consistent theme in customer reviews and feedback: it gently calms and often eliminates acne and hormonal breakouts without stress or irritation.

When I began formulating Purity, my intention was to create a cleanser that was gentle yet effective; a soothing formula that could deeply cleanse and remove even waterproof makeup while also nourishing and calming the skin. I wanted something that would work for every skin type rather than trying to create a product tailored to solve specific concerns.

But as the reviews came in, it became clear that this delicate little powerhouse had a quiet superpower. Curious to understand why Purity was having such a consistently positive effect on acne-prone skin, I turned to dermatological research and what I found changed how I think about acne, skin health and cleansing altogether.

What do we really know about acne?

Before we dive into the research, it's important that we acknowledge how little consensus there is on the causes and triggers of acne, something that can make acne one of the most challenging and demoralising skin conditions to navigate. Diet, hormones, stress, lifestyle, allergies and sensitivity are all often cited as possible triggers, and there are many more inaccurate, unkind and emotionally damaging suggestions as to the causes of acne which I won't mention here. This complex cocktail leaves people trying many things at once without ever quite knowing what is helping, what is harming and what is simply coincidental, all whilst bearing the heavy emotional weight that accompanies acne.

It can affect confidence, how we show up in the world and how we feel in our own skin, which in turn increases stress and often reinforces the cycle of stress and flare-ups. For many people, this cycle leads them to seek medical intervention in the form of prescriptions, strong topical actives and intensive treatment plans. While these approaches can be helpful for some, they can also be harsh, sensitising and emotionally exhausting, particularly when results are slow or inconsistent.

All of this would leave us to believe that the causes and treatments of acne are unpredictable and a process of trial and error, but the research reveals something entirely different: that the reason acne starts and how to resolve it are far more clear than we've ever been led to believe.

What the research reveals about acne-prone skin

What surprised me most in the research was that acne-prone skin is not only different in how much oil it produces but also what that oil is made of. Several studies have shown that people with acne have lower levels of a particular essential fatty acid in their skin’s natural oils: linoleic acid.

Linoleic acid is not a trendy active or a treatment ingredient. It is a structural component of healthy skin and plays an important role in supporting the skin barrier, by helping skin cells shed properly inside the pore, keeping sebum fluid balanced, and modulating inflammation in the skin.

When linoleic acid is low, pores are more likely to clog, the barrier becomes more fragile and inflammation is more easily triggered. In this sense, acne-prone skin is often not excessive in oil but deficient in the right kind of oil.

The unexpected connection to Purity

One of the core ingredients in Purity is abyssinian oil which was chosen originally because it is stable, lightweight, gentle and supportive of sensitive skin. When I read the studies indicating the importance of linoleic acid, a light bulb went on in my mind! I rushed to check my supplier's website and there it was: abyssinian oil has one of the highest natural concentrations of linoleic acid of any plant oil. There it was - the reason why so many people had such positive results in clearing their skin after consistent cleansing with Purity. The miracle is that I didn't choose it for acne: I chose it to support skin health. Over time, it became clear that restoring skin health is exactly what acne-prone skin needs.

A different way of thinking about how we heal acne

Instead of asking how we fight acne, we can shift the narrative to ask what acne-prone skin needs in order to function more normally again. We often think of an acne solution as something that removes, suppresses or corrects but in many cases, the most effective acne solution is restoring what the skin is missing so that it can regulate itself again. This shifts the entire approach away from stripping and correcting and towards supporting and restoring. Not because acne is gentle or easy to live with but because skin is intelligent and responsive and when it is properly resourced, it often resolves far more than we expect.

Why gentle cleansing matters for acne-prone skin

Cleansing is the most repeated act of care we perform on our skin. It happens every day (often twice a day) for years at a time. If cleansing is harsh or disruptive, it quietly undermines everything else we try to do for our skin.

Purity was created to be a cleanser that does more than remove makeup and impurities. It was created to leave skin calmer, more balanced and more resilient than it was before cleansing. For anyone looking for a gentle acne treatment for acne, hormonal acne or sensitive acne-prone skin, this shift from stripping to supporting can be quietly transformative. It's a constant reminder to me that skin rarely needs to be forced into health and more often needs to be supported into it.

In closing

Purity was never meant to be an acne product: it was meant to be a kind , gentle and supportive one. And in many cases, that is exactly what skin needs most.

If you are trying to get rid of acne and feel caught in a loop of harsher products, stronger actives and more irritation, it may be worth exploring whether your skin is asking for repair rather than control.

You can explore Purity Gentle Cleansing Oil if you are curious or simply take this as an invitation to soften how you care for your skin and notice what happens when you support it rather than try to control it.

As ever, if you have any questions or comments, please post them below.

Wishing you happy, healthy skin,

Rachel x