Acne is a problem which affects a large amount of people. Anyone can get acne, but it’s most common in teens and young adults. An estimated 80 percent of people between ages 11 and 30 have acne outbreaks at some point making it one of the most common skin complaints. Often, people grow out of having acne but for many it can be a lingering issue which can leave you with permanent scarring. There are, however, things you can do to minimise scarring, or avoid it altogether – here are our tips:
Don’t Pick Your Face
We know you’ve probably heard this a million times before, but one of the quickest ways to exacerbate acne scarring is picking your face and squeezing spots. As well as damaging the skin with your nails, you’re driving bacteria back into your skin and opening up the potential for infection, which can greatly increase scarring. Use Dermalogica Breakout Control to minimise spots instead.
Reduce Inflammation Quickly
Taking the inflammation out of acne not only makes it appear less red and swollen in the short term but it also reduces the potential for scarring (and makes it less tempting to pick at!). Using Dermalogica UltraCalming Serum Concentrate will reduce inflammation and redness and help interrupt inflammatory triggers to prevent flare-ups.
Don’t Panic
Even if you do everything right, there’s still a chance that acne breakouts will leave some scarring, but this doesn’t mean it’s permanent. If you’ve areas of darker skin after your breakout has cleared up, use Jan Marini Bioglycolic Facial Cleanser and Jan Marini Bioglycolic Bioclear Cream to even out your skintone and reduce the appearance of hyperpigmentation.
Use Sunscreen
If there’s one thing that can make acne scarring worse, it’s getting sunburn and this causes further damage to the skin and makes the scarring even harder to tackle. Dermalogica Super Sensitive Shield SPF30 is perfect for use on sensitive and acne prone skin and will keep your skin protected from the sun using a broad spectrum barrier.
Mask Up
A true acne scar is when your body takes that healing process one step further and is not able to actually form the collagen the normal way. All the enzymes that are in the area of the acne lesion eat away at things like collagen and elastin to using a collagen-rich mask like Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Mask will give your body the boost it needs to start producing collagen in damaged areas again.