How About an Acne Spot Treatment?

Filed Under Acne Treatment

Anyone who has ever suffered from acne knows that breakouts can hit in a variety of ways. Sometimes a number of blemishes pop up seemingly overnight and at other times the lone whitehead makes an appearance. Acne breakouts keep to their own schedule.

Many times, that schedule conflicts with yours in a big way. For instance, is there anyone out there who hasn’t woken up the morning of a big date or an important school day, or even a job interview and found a brand new pimple laying claim to a prominent part of his or her face? Sometimes those days are just hard to bear.

Now there are no instant fixes for pimples, no super secret acne tips to follow, but there are medications that you can use as acne spot treatments in cases like these. These are generally some of the stronger over-the-counter acne treatments that you can find – they’ll have higher concentrations of Salicylic Acid or Benzoyl Peroxide than other products. Remember, these are the key “active ingredients” in most acne medications. Think of them as acne spot and area treatments. Something you’d use for special cases and not for everyday use.

That’s because these acne treatments have a faster drying effect than their drug store cousins. They’ll attack your pimples faster but they’ll also dry out the surrounding skin faster too. Dry skin is not healthy skin and if your skin isn’t healthy, it’s actually more susceptible to further acne breakouts. It can also become slightly discolored and blotchy which isn’t what you want either.

Another thing to keep in mind is that even the best acne spot treatment can have a fairly strong medicinal smell. All manufacturers try to mask the odors their chemical formulas have by injecting some sort of fragrance into the mix. But when the acne spot treatment gel begins to do its job on your blackheads or whiteheads there will probably be a chemical reaction and a chemical smell. Most people who’ve struggled with acne have grown used to this sort of thing but if you’re new to the fight, be prepared.

The usual method for using this kind of acne treatment isn’t much different from any other medicinal application. A small dab of gel on the pimple itself will do, perhaps rubbing it in a bit so that it can penetrate into the skin and get into the pore. That’s where it will do its most good. Then, throughout the course of the day, the gel is reapplied after a light wash or rinse.

Most gels or lotions are designed to work on contact and immediately begin to dissolve the skin’s surface oils. Some acne skin products are transparent so it doesn’t look like you have anything on while others act as a cover-up. Which one is the best on the spot acne treatment for you is up to your personal preference.

This kind of spot treatment will work best on pimples that are just beginning to emerge. If you can treat them early enough in their life cycle, you can actually stop them cold. But they’ll also work on the full-blown whiteheads too quickly reducing their size and causing the pimple to shrink away. They can work in as little as two days. Prolonged usage will probably irritate your skin.

Again, it’s important to remember that any spot treatment for an acne eruption doesn’t replace a consistent, disciplined regimen of skin cleansing and care. That’s the only real way to remove acne once and for all. Waiting until acne breaks out before you treat it is a never-ending cycle that’s sure to leave your skin dried out and your confidence and self esteem in the dumpster. But for those times when you need to target a specific breakout with a fast-acting formula, an acne spot treatment can be a life-saver.

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