“If acne could be cured with slices of banana, there wouldn’t be so many people who suffer from it”

Why did you choose to articulate this book around acne?

Acne is such a common skin problem. It affects 80% of people! This is the first reason for consultation in dermatology, and the psychological impact is enormous. It was important to me to provide answers for all the people who suffer from their pimples.

You called it “The Anti-Pimple Book”. Is it that bad to have imperfections in 2022?

Exactly, the term ‘imperfection’ is never used in my book, because pimples don’t make us ‘less perfect’. People are constantly torn between the demands of so-called perfection imposed by society and the reality of the human body, which lives and evolves every day, with its reliefs, its hairs, its pimples…

Don’t social networks, and more particularly filters, fuel the cult of flawless skin?

Completely, it is precisely the subject of the last chapter of the book. How did we get to a point where filters are ubiquitous, making comparison with others particularly harmful?

Paradoxically, there is (also) everything and anything on social networks to get rid of pimples, blackheads, and other imperfections, right down to toothpaste and lemon to apply to these so-called ‘unsightly’ marks. What do you think of these 3.0 tips seen by millions of people?

This is one of the reasons why I started the videos on Tiktok! There was so much nonsense…dangerous recipes or just scams to sell anything. Sometimes it comes from a good feeling, wanting to be useful by distributing a so-called miracle recipe, but honestly if acne was cured by applying slices of banana or potato to the face, it wouldn’t there wouldn’t be as many people suffering from it.

Your book is very educational with illustrated explanations, the different skin problems that everyone can face, and advice and tips. Why this choice ?

I wanted the book to meet the general public’s need for information on this subject, and for it to be accessible to young people, parents and professionals involved in acne care. Nobody wants to read a boring cobblestone. We remember better when the book is illustrated and pleasant to read. It also proves that we can talk about acne in a friendly atmosphere, to help patients better accept themselves.

We often associate acne with adolescence, but is this really the only period during which men and women are affected?

There are more and more adults affected by acne, especially women. It is considered that about 30 to 40% of adult women are affected. The psychological impact is often important for them, even with mild acne, because the legend persists that acne is only a ‘adolescent’ problem.

What are the factors that promote acne?

It’s essentially genetics: we are not equal before the risk of acne. Our hormonal balance also matters. It is for this reason that acne is more common during adolescence or just before menstruation each cycle. There is also a whole chapter of the book on environmental factors, those on which we can act. This ranges from food to tobacco through exposure to the sun.

Exactly, diet plays an important role in acne. What foods promote and/or prevent these imperfections?

It is increasingly clear that fast sugars have a negative impact on acne. These are all sugary foods like sodas, juices, candies, cookies, and desserts. We often talk about chocolate in the urban legend, but milk chocolate contains 50% fast sugars. Regarding dairy products, the relationships are less clear, because the family of dairy products is very vast: from butter to skimmed milk, including cheeses, cooked or not… Staying in the logic of avoiding fast sugars and dairy products. ultra-processed, it seems interesting to avoid skimmed milk powder which is found in many products.

Is there a daily beauty routine that could help prevent acne?

The formation of acne depends little on the cosmetics used on the face unless they are comedogenic. It is therefore difficult to ‘prevent’ acne with cosmetics. On the other hand, we can prevent mild acne from getting worse by using the right care, namely morning and evening cleansing and a treatment cream with hydroxy acids, such as salicylic acid or glycolic acid, for example.

What are the gestures to avoid when you have acne?

There is a lot of ‘bad advice not to follow’ explained in the book. If I had to pick up just a few, I would recommend not popping her pimples and blackheads to avoid falling into dermatillomania (a behavior characterized by repeatedly scratching the skin, editor’s note), and not to expose yourself to the sun to ‘dry’ your pimples, at the risk of generating spots and aggravating your acne in the long term.

What advice would you give to those affected by these skin problems?

You must first learn with quality information, whether by reading the book or by asking questions of health and aesthetic professionals around you. In consultation, we see many patients arrive ‘desperate’ who tell us that they have ‘tried everything’, but they only applied cosmetics, while we have more effective drugs. Cosmetics are insufficient on moderate to severe acne. It is important to understand that acne is a chronic condition that will last for months, years, or decades, and most treatments are only suspensive. They must therefore be followed for a long time.