Acne Spot Treatments That Work For Me

At this point in my life, I’ve been battling acne for decades. Yes – DECADES! At times, I feel like I’ve tried every acne product, treatment, and system out there. Okay, not all of them, but A LOT of them. Thankfully, in my later years, I’ve won the battle of the acne that plagued me most of my teens and twenties. Don’t get it twisted, I still get acne – just not as much. Aside from learning that certain foods cause flare up and having an acne skincare regimen on deck, I’ve also learned about the blessing of acne spot treatments.

Favorite Acne Spot Treatments | STAINED COUTURE

Acne spot treatments are great to use when you only have one or two little bumps to get rid of ASAP. However, like most acne products, all spot treatments aren’t the same. Depending on the pimple determines which treatment to use. This wasn’t something I realized and learned until a couple of years ago. Keep reading to see my holy grail acne spot treatments and when I use them.

The OG of spot treatments for me are the salicylic ones, because this is the first acne fighting ingredient I learned. Salicylic acid is a beta hydroxy acid, which is an exfoliant for your skin. How does it treat acne? Well, in lament terms, it buffs the skin and helps clear up congestion. Salicylic acid not only helps clear up acne, but also whiteheads and blackheads. Therefore, I mainly reach for the SA when I notice small breakouts mostly caused my congested skin. Currently, I’ve been using Origins Super Spot Remover, which is a gel formula that feels gentle when applied. This treatment has 1.5% salycylic acid and works pretty fast on minor pimples.

Another acne-fighting spot treatment that I’ve tried over the years is benzoyl peroxide. It took me years to finally try this, because I heard it was stronger than salicylic acid. WRONG. Benzoyl peroxide is similar to salicylic acid, but it doesn’t have the same exfoliating factors as the latter. Benzoyl peroxide helps clear up the skin and works great with more inflamed and cystic type acne. BP is clutch for me when I have hormonal breakouts. Also, I keep a couple of BP products, such as benzoyl peroxide face wash, in my arsenal. Most BP spot treatments are the same – so I don’t have a preference of brands, at the moment. The Target version serves me just fine and gets my hormonal acne out of here every month.

Speaking of cystic acne. My skin and I were first introduced to cystic acne in my late 20s. It happened out of nowhere and they were so painful! This was before I got the balls to try BP and all the SA in my skincare stash wouldn’t help. While watching a vlogger on YouTube, I learned about Mario Badescu’s drying lotion. She claimed it was the only thing that helped her with her cystic acne. Although I didn’t believe it, I still took the bait. She was right. Using a clean cotton swab, I applied a small swipe over a big cystic pimple. The next morning, the pimple was pretty much flatten and gone. It was magical.

I’ve kept a bottle of this in my life every since. I recommend this stuff to anyone who mentions that they have “painful” pimple. Recently, I’ve heard some people say that the drying lotion can be bad for your skin. I agree- to an extent. You can’t use this stuff on every little bump that pops on your face, because it may be too strong and drying to some skin types.

Like I mentioned, I don’t get breakouts as much as I used to when I was younger. Still, I may the occasional little friend here and there. When that happens, I reach for a pimple patch. Pimple patches started popping up (no pun intended) a couple of years ago. Pimple patches are small little dots formulated to draw out fluid. They are small as a pimple and somewhat translucent, which helps you discreetly wear them out in public.

Pimple patches were initially designed to help you treat a pimple without anyone noticing while out in public. Now, we live in the world of #SkinPositivity and there are now pimple patches that come in cute little designs, such as StarFace and cute heart shape pimple patches. I like this new movement of being comfortable in the skin you’re in and not being ashamed of having a pimple. Instead of being ashamed about it – embrace it! It’s part of life and it’s not going to be on your face forever. So, make it look cute while you cure it.