Chrissy Teigen might be a model, but that doesn’t mean she’s immune to breakouts.
The 31-year-old is well known for her brutally honest and relatable social media posts about life (and occasionally Donald Trump, who recently blocked her on Twitter). But her latest update about period skin might just be our favourite yet.
Teigen shared a video of herself not wearing any makeup, with red, angry-looking spots on her nose and cheeks.
“This is my skin on my period. Look at it, it’s so angry,” she said, while prodding at her face.
Her honest post, which she shared on Snapchat and later uploaded to Twitter, went down a storm with her followers, accruing more than 14,000 favourites.
Why does ‘period skin’ happen?
According to consultant dermatologist and British Skin Foundation spokesperson Dr Anjali Mahto, period blemishes occur due to changes in the composition of a woman’s hormones.
“Many acne-prone women will have found that acne can break out or worsen on a monthly basis,” she told HuffPost UK.
“This occurs in close synchrony with their menstrual cycle, with the flare-up typically occurring a week to 10 days before the start of their period. This is known as menstrual, or hormonal, acne. It is quite common, with about two thirds of acne-prone women suffering from it regularly.”
Dr Mahto explained that women have female hormones circulating through their bodies throughout their menstrual cycle and the androgen (male hormone) testosterone is also present - albeit in smaller quantities - at all times.
“Shortly before the onset of menstrual bleeding, the female hormones reach their lowest levels,” she said. “The level of testosterone, however, remains fairly constant at all times and so its proportion is relatively higher at these points.
“Such higher proportions of testosterone are known to cause the changes in the skin’s complexion that bring about acne.”