What Causes Milia?
Most commonly for women they are formed when dead skin doesn’t slough off normally but instead remain trapped in a tiny, round pocket on the surface of the skin, pores get blocked and Milia turn up.
An individual Milium (the singular of Milia) is formed at the base of a hair follicle or sweat gland.
Milia can be categorized as either primary or secondary. Primary Milia are formed when sloughed-off skin cells get trapped and this causes the fluid-filled cysts to appear, Secondary Milia are also tiny fluid-filled cysts and look similar, but are caused by something more damaging to the skin like a burn or blister that blocks the skin’s ducts.
Milia don’t appear to be related to different lifestyles or diets and can happen at any time to anyone – the luck of the draw. They are certainly not infectious and are not caused by poor hygiene.
It is funny that they seem to gather around where you would put eye cream – this can be due to an eye cream not being rubbed in properly and so clogging up the area. Dead skin can’t slough off cleanly and so blocking the
pore.
Blackheads and other pore related conditions like chronic sun damage can cause the skin to thicken exacerbating enlarged pores and can then cause Milia.
Ultimately anything that clogs skin ducts and stops things escaping to the surface and interferes with natural exfoliation of the skin can cause Milia.