Lighten Up The Appearance of Acne Scars With These Tips

Acne and pimple breakouts are common, most especially during puberty. But these skin condition is never permanent. While they eventually go away with the proper treatment, some leave ugly scars and marks that fade away in time. However, there are some that are more stubborn and difficult to get rid of. Luckily, there are numerous ways and products you could apply on your skin to minimize its appearance. Of course in reality, one could never fully remove these marks overnight and it might take months or even years to lighten them up but with proper care and patience, such results could be achieved.

1. Stop Acne From The Beginning
The best way to prevent acne scars on your skin is to prevent acne from forming. Of course, if there are no pimples, no traces would be left. One could achieve this with proper skin care and cleaning. Remove makeup every day before washing your face with a cleanser that has salicylic acid. Leaving your face makeup free keeps the pores clean and able to breath and unclogged with dirt that could cause breakouts. On the other hand, salicylic acid is a good pimple-fighting agent. If you see pimples starting to grow after you wash your face, apply spot treatment cream with tea tree oil or salicylic acid on the bump before it becomes a full grown pimple.

2. Exfoliate Your Skin
Cleaning your face is not enough. You must also scrub and slough away the dead skin cells that have piled up to prevent it from clogging pores that could cause whiteheads that lead to breakouts. You can gently scrub your face with a mild exfoliating facial scrub every night so your face is rid of impurities and dirt that has accumulated during the day. For sensitive skin, do this step twice to thrice a week so that your skin does not get irritated. For a gentler DIY scrub, mix a teaspoon of baking soda with your favorite facial cleanser. The fine granules of the baking soda would not be too rough on the skin, making it clean and glowing in no time.

When you exfoliate, make sure that you do this in circular motions all over your face as the movement maintains proper blood circulation in the skin, leaving it supple and feeling bouncy.

3. Minimize Redness With The Use Of Facial Masks
Because active acne and marks cause the face to look red and splotchy, you could apply soothing creams and masks to tone down the redness and make it look inconspicuous. Choose creams that contain aloe vera, licorice, green tea and oats as these ingredients contain antioxidants that help relieve inflammation of the skin, lessening the redness and making the appearance of pimple marks less noticeable.

4. Apply OTC skin lightening facial creams
There are numerous products out in the market to help lighten skin and marks on it. Be sure to check for active ingredients such as licorice extract, tea tree oil, vitamin C, mulberry extract, arbutin and kojic acid, which aids in helping skin achieve a lighter and brighter complexion. Avoid products that have hydroquinone, which is a known carcinogenic but has often been added in lightening creams because of its effectiveness. For dark skin (e.g. African skin), avoid using lightening creams as these could cause your skin’s melanin more damage that could be irreversible.

5. Apply retinol and cortisone creams
Both cortisone and retinol aid in boosting the body’s development of collagen, which is essential in making the skin look healthy and supple. While there are products that contain these ingredients that could be bought over the counter, it is highly recommended that you go to a dermatologist first to get a prescription that would suit your skin and its needs best.

6. Get professional treatment
There are numerous treatments and procedures now out in the market to treat and minimize the appearance of acne scars. Chemical peels and laser treatments are just among the few offered by licensed dermatologists. Book an appointment with your doctor and consult with him on what’s best for your skin. Because no scars are the same, different methods of lightening up marks and scars could be recommended by the doctor.

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