Hi there,

It's both Pride Month and Acne Awareness Month—two things we're proud to celebrate at Soft Services. Acne is the most common skin condition in the U.S., affecting up to 50 million people each year, so it makes sense that it gets a month too. As the body skin experts™, we think the best way to normalize these often intimate and sometimes embarrassing concerns is to talk about them! So, I'm here to share about my own body acne journey.

I've dealt with acne in some form for most of my life—hormonal acne on my face from high school through my late twenties, and body acne that started even earlier. I was a dancer growing up so I basically lived in sweaty leotards, which didn't help.

For most of my 20s, I accepted bacne as a permanent fixture in my life. It made me self-conscious, but I assumed it was something I had to live with after trying what seemed like every solution under the sun: obscure Amazon soaps from Into The Gloss comments, niche K- and J-beauty from Reddit, DIY concoctions that smelled horrible and didn't work. It was bad ROI all around.

Body acne even followed me to my wedding. Pre-wedding, I got serious about my body skincare in an effort to clear my breakouts: back facials, fancy products, lots and lots of trial and error (which equates to two limited things: time and $$$). I got married in hot, humid Miami and struggled to find a non-backless dress that would hide the acne scars on my back, but I was lucky to find a beautiful cross-back dress which covered the areas of my back with lingering hyperpigmentation.

While my efforts paid off this time around and my body breakouts were under control before the big day, the whole process added a layer of stress to my wedding planning that I could've done without. After the wedding, I reflected on this journey and realized there had to be a better solution than scraping the internet for hacks and the endless trial + error I went through to find a treatment. You may see where this story is heading—just two years later, Soft Services was born.

I knew that body acne wasn't life-threatening, but it made me feel restricted and overly conscious in my own skin. In successfully treating my body acne, I finally was able to feel completely free. This why Soft Services exists: to help people who are still searching for a solution to their body skin concerns. We've worked with derms, estheticians, and skin experts to create products and educational tools that help people (like myself) understand what's happening with the skin below their neck and how to care for it.

These days, I'm happy to say my body acne is under control. What's helped:

• Clearing Mist, of course.
• Speed Soak, when my back needs moisture. Before this existed, I was using a face moisturizer back there (shoutout Dr. Jart Cica line—we go way back).
• Comfort Cleanse, which has become a staple in my shower. It's not tested for the face, but I use it head to toe because it doesn't strip or irritate my skin.
• Applying hair masks before the shower and rinsing carefully, off to the side and away from my body (see this past newsletter about the hair care <> body acne relationship).
• Daily Omega-3 supplements, which made a big difference. Absolutely not medical advice—this tip came from my friend and NYC-based aesthetician Sofie Pavitt, who I trust deeply.

This turned out longer than I planned (which feels fitting—acne is a long-winded issue). If you're still struggling or not sure where to start, we're here to help. You can reply to this email now or reach out at anytime and we'll help you build a routine.

Rebecca
Co-Founder and CEO