Fungal Acne: Clean Beauty Tips for 40+

Am I 40 yet? No. I’m 11 months away. But I figured I’m close enough and it would help someone else find this post! I’ve had sensitive, reactive, acne prone skin since I was 13/14 years old. Been through it all: all the prescription topicals, spiro, even Accutane. But never in my wildest nightmares did I think I’d be dealing with resistant, difficult fungal acne at 39 years old. This fungal acne journey has been so hard but I have finally seen a small light at the end of the tunnel and I wanted to share my fungal acne: clean beauty tips for 40+ if you are also struggling managing the breakouts while also maintaining a glow and plump skin look!

This journey kicked off in March of 2024. Which, hindsight always 20/20, I think it was the perfect storm of external and internal issues going on: I had went to have a mild form of microneedling done at my longtime esthetician on a Friday. Skin was feeling totally fine and by Tuesday, as a beauty blogger, I went back to testing out a new foundation. It did NOT agree with my skin and it almost looked like I was having an allergic reaction. After a few days of trying to calm it down, it only was getting worse. Three days of trying using Cortisone 10 on my face as a moisturizer really backfired and my entire face was clogged up, red, angry and I had to go straight to the dermatologist. She gave me a prescription for Erythromycin which totally dried my skin out even more and did NOTHING for the acne – except make it worse, so I stopped after 2-3 weeks. My skin barrier was destroyed and so dry. I tried to keep things basic and acne safe, and decided to go for a hydra facial just for hydration purposes. I left with a mostly ZO Skincare Acne-fighting routine which did ABSOLUTELY nothing. Only got worse (again lol). At this point, I had to get bloodwork done because I have thyroid disease and am also a breastfeeding mama with an infant. My bloodwork came back fine except I had VERY ELEVATED DHEA… which can totally cause breakouts from the increase of androgens in the body. BINGO. ENTER: THE PERFECT STORM…

So… that’s how I learned I was dealing with fungal acne (and likely hormonal acne) at the exact same time. 🙂

Now, if I’ve learned NOTHING ELSE about acne over my lifetime, it’s that what works for one person definitely will not always work for another.

I’ve spent HOURS reading stranger’s routines on message boards, blogs, reddit and social media and then more hours researching the ingredients and then more hours debating in my head if the risk was worth the reward.

So I understand it’s scary to try new things.

I tried working with a well respected derm. Multiple amazing esthies.

And at the end… it truly was a COMBINATION of everything they’ve suggested to me, and my OWN knowledge that seems to have helped the most.

Lastly, I’m a cleaner beauty gal. You may roll your eyes about that, but if you spent over $100K to have two children through 8.5 years of IVF treatments and being educated on how much environmental toxins  and chemicals we are exposed to daily can affect hormones (especially for those like me with autoimmune issues), you’d be reading ingredient labels, too.

So if that’s you, also… and you’d prefer to stick to cleaner products to help manage your acne (especially the stubborn fungal acne that feeds on oils and fatty alcohols), then this blog post may help you.

Fungal Acne: Clean Beauty Tips for 40+

The biggest overall tip I can tell you is fungal acne feeds off of oils and fatty alcohols (many of these look like “-earates, -earyls on your product’s ingredients and they’re VERY prevalent because they’re normally good for the skin).

The only ‘safe’ oil I have been able to identify if your fungal acne is as stubborn as mine, is Squalane Oil (derived from sugarcane, NOT olive fruit), and MCT oil.

Since I prefer to use ‘low tox’ or ‘clean beauty’ products free of excessive chemicals or synthetic fragrances, this is my current routine. I also want to note that I’m in a bit of a maximalist era right now. Sometimes my routine is three steps, sometimes it’s eight. YOLO.

To be helpful, I’m going to put an * next to the ‘excessive’ steps that likely aren’t necessary for the fungal acne, but maybe I use for more anti aging or discoloration related reasons and why.

Lastly, ALL of these items have been ran through multiple ‘fungal acne’ scanners… defaulting the most to what Folliculitis Scout and SkinSort have cleared.

MORNING ROUTINE

• F38 Purifying Cleansing Gel (the base of Oliveda’s skincare is Olive Leaf Extract, which contains a polyphenol Hydroxytyrosol… proven to be super anti-fungal especially against yeast).
• Prequel Hypochlorous Acid Spray (to help kill regular acne causing bacteria)
• Ice Roll for 2-5 min
• F11 Activating Toner on a cotton pad (hydrates and anti fungal)
• F64 Corrective Eye Elixir* (for dark circles, lifting/sculpting)
• Discoloration Defense Serum* (to help fade acne scarring)
• F59 Corrective Anti Aging Serum (for lifting, sculpting anti-aging and anti fungal)
• Purito Oat In Calming Gel Cream (super fungal acne and regular acne safe)
• Malezia Benzoyl Peroxide Cream, as needed (*a must have, thin layer specifically in the areas of fungal acne)
• Colorescience Flex SPF50* (for SPF; if you don’t want/need coverage, the Colorescience Classic is also lovely)

EVENING ROUTINE

• F72 Corrective Cleansing Oil (oils can be tricky, but since this is getting cleansed off immediately after, and the base is Hydroxytyrosol (see above in morning routine), it seems to work great at unclogging pores and removing makeup)
• F38 Purifying Cleansing Gel
• Prequel Hypochlorous Acid Spray
• Ice Roll for 2-5 min again
• F11 Activating Toner
• F64 Corrective Eye Elixir
• Then I do have a skin cycle sort of schedule because I am using prescription tretinoin (Retin-A, .05%) from my dermatologist:

Night 1 – Retin A

Night 2 – chemical exfoliation, I prefer this Mandelic Acid toner and this F81 AHA serum and will layer together. Leave on for 10 minutes before moisturizing for max benefits. If you moisturize right away, you may be neutralizing the acids too soon. Acids have been REALLY effective against my fungal acne.

Night 3 – rest night/no actives… or I’ll do a physical scrub or face mask (see below for details):

• F59 Corrective Anti Aging Serum on the Night 3 night
• Purito Oat-In Calming Gel Cream
• Biossance Squalane Oil (I use a few drops of this on the Retin A nights or whenever I feel a little dry from the actives)

EXTRAS (masks, scrubs, etc)

If you struggle with acne or fungal acne, here’s a tip with exfoliating scrubs… do it in the morning before you cleanse.

I have learned sometimes, if I do not cleanse with my gel cleanser after a scrub, I break out.

So now I just always use whatever scrub first in the morning, then go in with my cleanser of choice to remove leftover residue from the scrub.

The F10 Olive Core Peeling Scrub is a very gentle scrub I like to use when my skin is just looking a little dull or on the dryer side. Very luxe. If I need a deep and more abrasive ‘scrub’ feel, I use the Alastin Resurface Skin Polish.

I like to mask once a week and I use this Blemish Control Mask because it’s in a honey base with azelaic acid. Very hydrating, balancing, but targets the acne, is anti fungal and redness reducing. On the nights I use the chemical acids when I’m in the shower before bed, I will *sometimes* (depending on how the fungal acne is feeling on my cheeks/forehead), apply Nizoral Dandruff Anti Fungal Shampoo as a mask on clean skin for a few minutes just on the areas of the fungal acne.

This routine is way more than I was using before this fungal acne entered my life.

But I found that when I ONLY targeted the fungal acne, my skin was looking dull and a bit dry and the discoloration was not budging. With some of these extra additions, I am killing off the fungal acne, supporting my skin barrier and still feel glowy while helping to heal the scarring from the breakouts.

Hope this helps!

-Steffanie